WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2017

Strongy - you must have amazing eyesight. I have yet to see a single flower on mine.


Heliconia psittacorum - native to tropical South America


Plumbago auriculata has just started. I would love to try the red one - P. indica. The only site I could see says a minimum winter temperature of 7C - which is not too hard to achieve. But I feel that might be too low.


Agapanthus. Its just a weed in Madeira.

 

Heliconia, and in flower @PeterS
Wow.

 

That's what I thought.

 

Thanks Pete and Strongy. I have recently taken an interest in Heliconia as they seem to be the epitome of tropical plants, and I hopefully now have the heat and humidity to care for them. I am also pleased that they seem to be happy in shade, as a tropical light level is the one thing that I can't provide in Yorkshire.

I only recently purchased the one shown above. I saw it in a garden centre, where the M1 meets the M25. It's a good sized plant with several flowers and at £13 I thought it was good value for money, especially as I had never seen a Heliconia for sale in a garden centre before. it's a psittacorum, which I now learn is a popular pot plant as it only grows to 5 feet of so. Some of the other species can get up to 20 or 30 feet.

 

I'm not exactly overjoyed to see Canarina canariensis emerging in early August...........
Canarina caneriensis by longk48, on Flickr

It has clearly decided that autumn has arrived.

 

Hi Longk, yeah we noticed today that the leaves on our Acers and dwarf Lilac are turning .

 

A couple of exotics simply because they're not that common. Both are South American natives;
Zephyranthes ................
Zephyranthes by longk48, on Flickr

Zephyranthes by longk48, on Flickr

Tithonia rotundifolia................
Tithonia rotundifolia by longk48, on Flickr

To say that I'm not a lover of daisylike flowers is a gross understatement but I likes the look of the plant as a whole in photos and I do like orange so when I was offered some seed I thought why not. I really like the shape of mine in the flesh, just a shame that it is only an annual...........
Tithonia rotundifolia by longk48, on Flickr

Hopefully it will produce seed so that next year I can start them off earlier and plant them in the ground as well.

 

That's amazing LongK. I lifted mine over the summer, so thank you for the reminder to plant it up again.

I haven't grown that for a while. I once got some seeds for Tithonia diversifolia after seeing a picture of a plant 26 feet high. I thought I will outdo all those superior sunflower growers. But sadly nothing came of it and I can't even find that picture again.


On the subject of height, here is Ray Hubbard of Hill House Nursery in front of his Dahlia imperialis. Mine, which is a clone of his, has several flowers currently but is hardly 6 feet tall.

I gather that in Mexico it can grow up to double that hight.
.

 

My D. imperialis, grown from seed gets big enough but flowers so late the buds get frosted, never seen mine in flower.

on the other hand, Hedychium densiflorum.

 

Another hedychium - forrestii. But I prefer densiflorum. The forrestii has just broken a glazed pot with its roots. This is its first year flowering for me, and it doesn't apear to have much scent.

 

Dont think you can beat H. gardnerianum for scent.

 

@pete - absolutely! I used have a HUGE clump of gardnerianum in greenhouse and could hardly stand the perfume when it was in full bloom - glorious but overwhelming. Unfortunately it was taking over and I dug it out. I seem to have killed it - or some of it, depending on what the unidentified gingers I have elsewhere turn out to be. It even survived outside with me for a couple of years.

 

I've had H. gardnerianum growing outside for years.
It even survives normal winters in a pot, cold ones will probably kill it though.

 

Oh good grief @pete - everything seems to grow for you! You could probably stick a chopstick in the ground and get a bamboo clump You do realise you are giving me severe inferiority complex?