The promise of things to come

Lovely not seen one of these before.

3d - this is a South African shrub but usually behaves like an herbaceous perennial as our winters kill off the top growth. If we have a mild enough winter (it's only happened twice in the 20 years I have been growing it), the top growth survives and will carry flowers

That's good to know Andrew thank you.

I would love to be able to grow exotic and African plants but I have not got a green house nor can I put plants in my garden I have to rely on my eldest grandson who works full time to dig out any thing that dies or any new to plant I want putting in so I try not to ask to often him being in full time work and has to help his mum and dad also.

Another one I'm tempted to grow :-)

Daylily - for the first few years, I packed straw over the roots to protect them from frost during the winter. Now I don't bother as the top growth seems to do the job, and the roots have got deep enough to survive. It came through the winter of 2010/11 without extra protection when we hit -8C for several nights in a row

Oh that's good to know I wouldn't expect it to survive here in the midlands but worth a try in a sunny sheltered spot

Andrew I'm as excited as you about this ,I've just put a photo on of mine I wasn't sure if it was a flower but after seeing yours I'm sure ... it's my first year of having the plant I kept it protected with fleece this last winter its about 4ft tall

Amy - I've looked at your photo and yes, you have a flower forming. Congratulations