My Silly Obsession With Tender And Exotic Plants (part 2)

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Continuing on from part 1, we come to this years additions.
The first plant that I gained was this Aeschynanthus;

Called Mona Lisa, it has much bigger leaves than the more commonly seen variety. Dead easy to care for, just remember to mist regularly, and it’ll reward you well. This has more than doubled in size since June.

My next purchase was a Lidl cheapy – Gloxinia;

From what I’ve read it can be a bit tricky to get a rebloom from. At the moment I’m letting it dry out before putting it to rest for a few (three or four) months. I’ll repot it then and see what happens.

In the spring we ordered a few plants from Burncoose, and one of them was the white form of Sollya Heterophylla. They sent the blue one though! But, with the absolute minimum of hassle it was soon rectified by them, resulting in me having three Bluebell Creepers now!

Easy to care for, as long as you can keep it free of spider mite and greenfly. Not so hard when it’s not in bloom, but when it is blooming misting spoils the flowers!

Also in the Burncoose order was this species Fuchsia, F.perscandens, a scrambling native of New Zealand;

A little borderline as far as hardiness goes, and one of the reasons that I’m building the coldframe.

This is another of the tender perennials that needs my new coldframe to be finished. It’s called Diplarrhena latifolia, and is native to Tasmania;

As the summer progressed I resisted all temptation until this came along – Clerodendrum Thomsoniae;

This is loving conservatory life and has doubled in size in just a few weeks!The most important thing seems to be to give it enough water (which is true of my C.ugandense too).

After this moment of weakness, I was good. One of my Paphiopedilum orchids continued to put out new blooms in a shaded spot outdoors…………

……….which was a good sign that I’ve finally got things right with these! It’s important to make sure that rain cannot fall directly onto them, as it runs down the crowns and rots them. The plain leaved ones require less light than the mottled leaved varieties.

Then the sales came along. I couldn’t say no to this Abutilon (Victory) when it was reduced from a tenner to four pounds
I’d been after one of these for a while.

Whilst down in Cornwall, Sue and I visited a few nurseries. Thankfully we went down in a completely inappropriate car, and so all I was able to bring back was another plant that I’d been hankering after, Polygala Myrtifolia;


It’s variously described as being frost tender to being hardy down to minus 5deg c, so another one for the conservatory I think!

Another tender plant for the conservatory is this, Tibouchinia Urvilleanna;

It’s a fussy little thing too – it sulks if it’s too wet, doesn’t like tap water (even less than orchids do) and drops it’s buds if you let it get even a little too dry!

Now, one of the stars of the show! Habenaria Radiatta – the White Egret orchid;

Three small bulbs about the size of a peanut produced just one flower, but who cares! Another one that likes the shade, and needs to be kept moist too.

And finally, my latest purchase – Hibiscus Rosa-sinensis.

Needs warmth and light, so not the ideal plant for our climate, but I think with a little care it should do well by me next summer.

Once again, thanks for looking at my inappropriate choice in plants, and I hope that you can see a little of what I see in them!

• 15 Oct, 2010
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