What's looking exotic in 2016

Discussion in 'Tropical Gardening' started by PeterS, Jan 24, 2016.

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  1. PeterS

    PeterS Total Gardener

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    My sun room is heated to about 12C and is very humid. It's keeping most things ticking over, and a few are still trying to flower.
    2016_01180002.JPG
    Brugmansia - pink

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    Brugmansia - white

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    Euphorbia milii (Crown of Thorns). This is inside the house as I don't think it likes high humidity. The colour is from bracts, which last a very long time.

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    Canarina canariensis

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    Jasminum polyanthum

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    Even Isoplexis is trying to flower - it must be the wrong time of the year for it.

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    Impatiens niamniamensis. This was planted out in the border last summer, where it grew better than it would have done in a pot. It has the strange habit of flowering direct from the stems.
     
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    • Fern4

      Fern4 Total Gardener

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      Lovely Peter and very nice to have some colour at this time of year. :dbgrtmb:
       
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      • PeterS

        PeterS Total Gardener

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        I have recently booked a gardens tour holiday, in April, with Hfholidays https://www.hfholidays.co.uk/holidays-and-tours/gardens-madeira/ . It has a horticulturist as a tour guide, and is something I had been looking for for some time. It would be perfect if there were others from GC there too. :biggrin:

        Madeira climate.jpg
        I was Googling tonight and came across this - which has changed my view of Madeira. I knew it was colder in the winter, but I had assumed that it was also drier. I have been keeping all my tropical plants on the dry side. But perhaps I should be watering my Madeira plants more as I see that winter is the wettest period. No wonder my Echium candicans always look so miserable and keep requiring water over winter, even though the temperature is quite low.
         
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          Last edited: Jan 24, 2016
        • longk

          longk Total Gardener

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          What I love about this is how long each flower lasts.

          Wrong colour too! Which Isoplexis is it Peter?

          Different plant isn't it!

          Madeira (like The Canary Islands) has many different micro-climates. On the whole it is what we tend to think of as a Mediterranean climate.
          My Musschia is proving to be rather hardier than I thought that it would be but remains a thirsty booger.
           
        • PeterS

          PeterS Total Gardener

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          You would :snork: ....I was hoping no one would ask - because I don't know. I used to have two - I. canariensis and I. sceptrum. One died - but I don't know which one survived. And yes you are right the colour is wrong, but I suspect that it was a bud formed very late last year which has never properly ripened.

          You always learn something on this forum as your comment made me Google Isoplexis and I found there are only 4 species - or sub species as Isoplexis has now been grouped within Digitalis.
           
        • longk

          longk Total Gardener

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          And there was me thinking that there was just the three species :redface:

          I've found the Illumination series (Digitalis/Isoplexis cross) to be quite hardy. Have you tried them yet?
           
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          • PeterS

            PeterS Total Gardener

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            No I have never heard of them. Illumination "Raspberry" looks stunning. It is said to be sterile, so flowers for a very long period of time - that's my type of plant. And is truly perennial - though Thompson and Morgan quote it as only half-hardy.

            [​IMG]

            Many thanks for the introduction.
             
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            • longk

              longk Total Gardener

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              I have found them to be fully hardy given the protection of pretty dry winter soil. They can handle the cold.
              Illumination Pink is my favourite................
              [​IMG]

              Isoplexis isabelliana was a good one but way too tender for the Cotswolds................
              [​IMG]
               
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              • longk

                longk Total Gardener

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                My first Pleione of the year...................
                [​IMG]

                They don't know if they're on foot or horseback with this weather. Some pseudobulbs have flowers now whilst others have more sense and have yet to break their dormancy.
                 
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                • stephenprudence

                  stephenprudence GC Weather Guru

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                  A few from here taken in the last few days, most are in Ness Botanic Gardens (Brugmansia is in my back garden), but the first one which I took this afternoon is a Phoenix roebelenii which is planted next to a building in our town.

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]

                  [​IMG]
                   
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                  • PeterS

                    PeterS Total Gardener

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                    Lovely LongK - surely that's not outside. I have given up on that one. It flowers at the wrong time of year for me.

                    Stephen - amazing photos. You have such a different climate. I am amazed and impressed by your Brugmansia sanguinea.

                    Do you know what the fourth picture is? The one above the Arbutilon megapodicum. And are those Echiums below? I would love to grow those outside- they simply hate being inside over the winter.

                    Is the last one a variety of Euphorbia?
                     
                  • stephenprudence

                    stephenprudence GC Weather Guru

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                    thanks Peter.. the Brug is quite leggy, it needs a good prune in the Autumn, but I don't want to deprive it of flowers this Summer, so I won't do it yet.

                    Our low this winter is 0.0C (recorded this morning actually), but no frost as the air was quite dry. It helps when frost doesn't materialise.

                    The plant in 4th pic is Acacia leprosa, and the 6th picture is Echium webbii or candicans (I forget which is the synonym).

                    Last one is a Euphorbia mellifera :blue thumb:
                     
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                    • longk

                      longk Total Gardener

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                      It's in an unheated porch now Peter. It was in the unheated greenhouse with the others but as I said some are more advanced than others.
                       
                    • PeterS

                      PeterS Total Gardener

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                      Stephen - I had not heard of that Acacia leprosa before - its stunning. I suspect that its not very hardy as there is virtually no mention of it in the UK on Google. If it were hardy - I am sure you would see it around much more. You are very lucky with your climate.

                      Those Echiums must be a sight in spring/summer. I am going to have to give up growing them. I can't overwinter them properly. Whilst I have a heated conservatory where I overwinter a lot of stuff, its very humid, and the one thing that Echiums hate is humidity. Inside the house they don't get the light, and very often don't get watered :th scifD36:.
                       
                    • stephenprudence

                      stephenprudence GC Weather Guru

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                      I'm not sure of its hardiness Peter, it can take frost for sure, but I would guess hardiness to be between -8 and -12C. The reason it is not widespread is almost certainly different though. Acacia leprosa in this form, doesn't have a license to be cultivated I don't think as it is a rare plant that was only discovered in 1995. The yellow flowered form of the plant is much more common apparently. I think it's a protected species which may only be found in botanic gardens. Birmingham Botanic Gardens grows is under glass in its alpine house however.

                      The Echiums are wonderful, very sharp blue florettes look fantastic in mid-summer. Echiums hating humidity I'm not sure, they grow alongside Euphorbia mellifera in some of their native habitat, and E. mellifera love humidity albeit warmer coniditions.

                      At Ness there is also a Calamondin Citrus planted in the gardens (in ground), which, when I first saw it, I rolled my eyes and thought.. that's ridiculous but it turns out it's doing well for the past three years..!
                       
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