WHAT'S LOOKING EXOTIC IN 2018

Ipomea indica. I had a lovely surprise this morning to find this. I have kept my conservatory a bit warmer this winter and it probably thinks spring has come.


Bougainvillea is also happy.


I think Heliconia psitticorum is coming to the end of its flowering season, but can't be sure as it has just kept on and on flowering.


I have no idea what season Anthuriums follow - but they are cheerful.


Impatiens niamniamensis is almost always in flower.


This was a nice surprise. Pachystachys lutea has several such buds. I wasn't expecting anything for a couple of months.


Ensete maurelii. This is a curious one. I lifted it at the start of winter and cut the whole thing back to a bare trunk three feet high. I then left in the conservatory meaning to cut it back further and in spring propagate from it. But the next time I looked it had decided to do its own thing and regrow. You can see the centre leaf has been cut in two, where I cut it back. But the other two leaves are entire and have fully grown since. Its a plucky little thing. But it also gives me an idea on how to overwinter a very tall specimen.

 

The ensete is hardier than it's given credit for, @PeterS. My late, lamented, murdered beauty survived 5 cold, wet winters outside with a bit of an overcoat. On disgusting clay, too!

 

Yep you can chop nanas back as much as you like.
I've left my maurelli's in the ground this year, they look dead to me now, but we will see.
No protection.

 

Ohhh you're a hard man, @pete! Give the poor thing some fleece and a waterproof jacket!

 

@PeterS loved your one plant so much below... I went and brought one artificial a few weeks back for my Leopard Gecko tank, first one I've ever saw from your pictures

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Artifical one mate

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Noisette and Pete - I am amazed at them being outside - though I don't know your climate Noisette.

Gail, that's lovely to hear. At one time they were very rare and exotic, but you see them at reasonable prices in different colours now. I have never overwintered one before, so am not sure of its requirements. But I always think, when I see so many on sale, that they must nearly all die otherwise there would be no need to sell any more.

 

Not very different to the UK, @PeterS. The sun is a bit stronger here when it does make an appearance and the growing season is a bit longer, but on the whole the same challenges arise, with the added bonus of every pest and disease known to man

 

@PeterS Well i'd been looking for ages for a new one saw this one for £8-50 and it looks lovely in her tank, as you need false plants as Locusts/crickets are terrible for eating the things in the tank plus it's very sturdy to say it's false

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Gail - the natural plant itself looks totally plastic - so no one is ever going to know.

 

@PeterS mate for that ...as it's real from now on as far as i'm concerned or anyone else who asks

 

Should have said, I'm not really expecting them to survive, it was just too much to dig them out again this year.
Been there, done that, is my attitude to Maurelli I'm afraid, they take up lots of space and although I like them, they do get battered by winds most summers, so moving on, if they go to the compost heap in the sky.

 

You wouldn't treat them like that if you had to pay what I have to pay for one! I'm shocked! If there isn't a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Plants, there ought to be..

 

I left mine in the ground last year and survived a couple of -6cs and I have left it in again and it has seen a-5c so far but it does look worse than last year! If it still looks the same by mid march, it is going to be compost.

 

Think I'll wait a bit longer than mid March, if they still look dead by mid June I'm guessing there is no hope.
The base still looks ok on mine.