What's Looking Exotic In July 2014

Nicotiana glauca (Tree Nicotiana) has started blooming..................


Brugmansia sanguinea is still managing the odd bloom despite the heat.................


And Sues Mackaya bella is in bloom!


Finally, these will be exotic in a few days!!!

 

First time this has flowered for me.
Aloe striatula

 

It makes my knees go weak that flower!! hope it continues to put on a show for you xx

 

It's hated the recent weather Joolz.

 

My A.striatula has gone mad this year @NigelJ . Three flower spikes and babies coming up from the roots and up the stem too!

 

LongK - I am amazed at your B. sanguinea still flowering - its flower does beat all the other Brugs.

Ipomea tricolor 'Heavenly Blue'. I can't get over the fact that this is only 6 inches high. It doesn't have a single healthy leaf - but keeps flowering. By contrast I also have Ipomea indica, which is now over 10 feet tall - up the back wall and over the roof, it has hundreds of really healthy leaves - but not a single flower ...... yet.


Ipomea quamoclit. I do like this - its such a pity that it is a genuine annual rather than perennial. The flower is half the size of other Ipomeas - but it makes up for that by having three times as many.

 

Pedantic point of order:

To make up for it then it would have to have FOUR times as many flowers

Just grabbing my coat ...

 

Kristen - I did think about that when I wrote. I was implying that it was half the area in which case three times as many flowers would be good value. But I would have to get my ruler out to be more precise.

 

I always thought it was women that was size picky x
Great colours pete

 

Another aspect that I like about I. quamoclit is that the foliage is quite different from other Ipomeas. There is some variation, as this picture from the internet shows foliage, and even the flower, that is slightly different from mine.

 

That's 'coz men are always telling them that this: > < is 6"

 

Arisaemas:

Arisaema tortuosum:





Arisaema speciosum:





Sorry about the focus :(

Sauromatum venosum:





definitely my favourite

 

Sounds identical to mine this year.

 

Musa sikkimensis:



pseudostem survived the winter, so its starting at a great height and bodes well for the season ahead . The Persicaria Red Dragon isn't too shabby either and the Solanum laciniatum (right of Musa) which is normally killed in the winter, but this year wasn't even cut back. Not leaving much room for anything Annual, that I was planning to plant, to get any direct light!

Looking up at the Musa:



Fatsia Spider's Web:



looking properly spider webby this year

 

Bamboos:

I planted my first Bamboos in Spring 2012, so this is the start of their 3rd year. I still have some canes left on the plant which grew in 2012, so I have been able to make a comparison of the height of culms on a Phyllostachys vivax ‘Aureocaulis’ over the first 3 years since planting:




2012 Culm size


2013 culm size


2014 culm size

Very impressed but a bit of a way to go to match those that I saw earlier this year at Compton Garden Acres:





let alone Phyllostahcys moso growing in its native habitat - new culms just poking through the ground on 2nd April were measured on 20th April at 22 feet (6.7M) tall !!