Barleria oenotheroides - Giant Yellow Barleria or Shrimp Shrub

Your having nice low temps down there too.
Rain here. Well,no watering for the next 2 weeks. It was also a pineapple express..heavy rain. Funny that in the day it was 63f,then as the storm moved in the evening- it went up to 66f!.

I like the nice tidy compact habit.

Stan,

Yes, it's been very warm at night (which is somewhat unusual for this time of year), the daytime highs in the 80's is common, though.

Thanksgiving Day, it's forecasted to be upper 80's to low 90's. That's hot!

Bathgate:

This little tropical shrub tends to stay compact, it just gets chlorotic leaves, though. None of the fertilizers seem to help.

Maybe a saucer under it and some of the boxed organic ferts that really have lots of iron and other greening ingredients.
Any interest in putting it in ground? Or just gets too large?

Yes, it loves Ironite. I give it tons of Ironite and vinegar with water for acidity.

I need to find a good spot for it in the ground. In the ground it should grow only to 5 or 6 ft tall.

Have you ever tried growing Barleria cristata there in Hayward? It becomes a 7' tall bush and blooms in late summer through winter. I had a beautiful large one in Fremont.

Lovely looking plant, Delonix! I'd love to grow one on the balcony here in the UK but it may not like the frequent cold spells we get, even during the summer.

As I'd never heard of Ironite before I looked it up & it seems that it contains toxic, heavy metals that make it dangerous to use, especially if there are young children around. It has been banned in Canada & some places in the USA.

Like all things, if you take the proper & sensible precautions, it should cause no trouble.

Have you tried other chelated products that are used for chlorosis?

Del: Holly-Tone by Espoma would be really good for your Barleria. It's made for acid loving plants & I've been using it for years. It keeps them green & healthy.

http://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Esp_Holly.pdf

Happy Thanksgiving Andy and everybody!

You too Stan - Thanks gobble gobble!

Balcony,

That's the first time I've ever heard Ironite is a toxic fertilizer. From what I've read it's one of the safest fertilizers and for plants. I use the chelated form of Ironite.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! It was the hottest Thanksgiving in Southern California for most cities. The last couple of days it's been very close to 100º (38ºC) here. These are record high temperatures (even for Southern California cities).

Here's a link to the site where I read about the toxicity of Ironite:

http://www.gardenguides.com/132267-effectiveness-ironite-fertilizer.html

You should have your soil Ph tested as well.

Balcony,

I'll check out article. Thanks. :>))

Bathgate:

The soil here is very alkaline. It's naturally alkaline because we receive so very little rain annually and most years we're in a horrible drought here in San Diego. The water here is also horrible, very hard water. It's really bad for plants and people. This is why I catch rain water for certain plants which hate the water here.

I didn't realize that

whoo- We dropped from 73f yesterday to 65f today. And then sank to 60f by evening. Rained all day. Pretty soon Andy,the war starts. Cold Weather vs Me and my army of plants.
I have to keep my troops healthy-lol.

Bathgate:

Yes, it's s constant battle to keep plants watered here in San Diego. The climate is warm and sunny all year; however, I must contend with the severe drought conditions. I do hope we get some good rains this year! So far, no rainfall this season. Also, it's been extremely hot and dry here the last couple of weeks, which dries out the plants so much.

Stan,

The upper 90's are gone for a while, yesterday it was in the upper 80's low 90's and today upper 70's to mid-80's. Tomorrow is only forecasted to be around 70 degrees. We're suppose to have another Santa Ana which isn't suppose to be as hot. It starts on Tuesday. This coming weekend maybe some rain for the first time. Yay! :>))

Most people have to shield their plants from cold. Here I need to protect them from the hot, dry weather. So many of my plants are burning from these fall heat waves.