'Grand Marnier' Progress Report :D

Hey all,

You may remember that back in late February I purchased a Brugmansia 'Grand Marnier' from Hill House Nurseries, along with a Begonia Luxurians;
Well, on June 12th, the first flower popped outta the bud after a good few months of agonisingly slow growth!!!
After another 4 days...*waves magic wand* the first had grown and was bursting to finally show it's beautiful self to me;
Well, after having grown to flowering stage after a few months, he deserved a reward, and was put in a larger, roomier and nicer pot for his debut flowering;
And...after another 6 weeks, of which not a single day has the plant been without a flower, he looks like this;
I'm very pleased with this buy!!! The order was primarily for the Begonia...but I think the Brugmansia turned out to be the best! The flowers are prolific, large, start out pale yellow and darken to orange (particularly during that hot spell we had a few weeks ago), and have the most gorgeous smell ever. During the mild weather we sat outside many evenings and the scent wafting over was wonderful. Am so happy to have my Bruggie flowers back :D

Am kinda dreading how he'll look when we come back...he's getting quite large for the pot again already, but I don't want to pot him on until next Spring at least, because they like to be kept a little pot bound. But this means that the water gets sapped out of the pot very quickly. We've got a watering system up and running on the Bruggie, plus a few other things, so fingers crossed that'll be enough to keep him going!!!

I'm Here!!! With Garden Update Pix!

Hey all,

First of all, sorry for not having blogged for so long!!! It's just been a mad few months. The computer decided to pack up on us and we feared that all 13000 photos from the hard drive were lost!!! However, HUGE thanks to a cousin who is very knowledgable in computers, we managed to get them all retrieved after a few weeks of anxious waiting. In the mean time, we finally got a laptop and wireless internet, half out of need and half as my birthday pressie!!! So during that hot weather we had for a couple of weeks it was lovely to sit outside with the laptop instead of having to sit in a tiny room all day long watching the clouds go by out the window...

Add to all that kafuffle a mountain of exams at school, as well as the intensive watering the plants needed until a couple of weeks when we finally got rain, and you've got an instant recipe for being over half way through the year without even knowing it's started!!! Because of having exams, I've had basically an extra 6 weeks of Summer holiday as well, which have already passed!!! I should've really got myself motivated to get posting with all that spare time, but they've just flown by, and now we're into the main Summer hols. I have no doubt the back to school madness will seem to commence within minutes of me typing this...

Anyway, with all that warm weather, tropical plants have been growing like mad (when given sufficient water!?!), so I've got a few pix to share with you of stuff that's been going on in the garden since my last blog...so here goes!!!

I'll start with the Dahlias, which I'm am, put simply, becoming addicted to. There are still loads to come out, but I'll probably have to wait a bit to see them because we're not going to be around for two weeks soon, and most of them look set to bloom while we're away. Typical! But hey...there's some grown from seed, some from new tubers this year, and some from last years tubers...

Here's some of the Dahlia's I've grown from seed this year, I think they were from a mix called 'Dandy';

A couple from tubers, one from last year, the other from this year...not sure of name though, sorry...if anyone really wants to know leave me a comment and I'll have a mooch around to see if I can find the packet;

Here's one we bought from a local GC the other week, same applies to the name as the last ^^^;

And finally, here's one we bought from a local nursery. There was no name in this one so I've no idea what it is, but it's a very 'photogenic' flower (if there's such a thing!), so I could only wittle it down to my favourite three (so far this year!);

Here's a picture of the Dicksonia Antarctica, bought last year, with it's fronds fully unfurled. I'm really pleased with this, it had 9 fronds in this Spring's flush, each at least 5ft long. Keeping it well watered with a mister this year (hence the hose thingy around the trunk) so hoping for even more next year. Have also noticed there's a few extra fronds being up thrown up in the last week, although they don't look as big or vigorous as the original ones...and there's also a pic of the Arisaema Consanguineum that has been in the ground for a year now. The leaf on it is pretty spectacular as well (well, was, they're so flimsy they get easily battered by wind and rain...);

We usually only bother getting some orange lilies to fill in gaps and to add some bright colour when there's not much going on;

But this year I bought a variety of bulbs from garden centres to try out...and I'm very pleased so far!!! Like the Dahlia, most look to flowe while we're away which I'm a bit dissapointed about because the two I've had so far have been lovely!!! Here's one of the asiatic ones;

And here's one called 'African Queen'...she's absolutely gorgeous, and has a scent to rival my Brugmansia (which, as many people will know, I can't stop talking about!)...so I had to cut one stem off and bring them inside!!! Hope they come back next year, and I'll deffo be getting more of this type as well for next Summer;

A quick snap of a couple of mystery snapdragon's that we've no idea where they came from;

A fern I bought....ummmm.....Dryopteris Erythrosora I think......it had loads of lovely pink new fronds when I bought it, and they've now gone a loevly lime green, but it's just sent out a few more fronds which are also starting off that lovely pink colour;

A purchase of which I am very proud, Cyperus Papyrus (more on that in a few weeks :D), along with some Crocosmia 'Lucifer';

Bee on a Buddleja that took my fancy;

An Aloe Aristata in flower, this has absolutely masses of offsets and is bursting out of it's pot. Deffo needs separating in a few weeks. Echeveria Glauca (I think) and Aeonium Decorum 'Variegatum' in the background;

And finally, a pic of my Brugmansia 'Grand Marnier' along with that giant Colocasia bulbs I bought a few months back (remember that?) which is doing REALLY well, I'll try and do some proper update pix on that shortly...and then a pic of the Bruggie on it's own, because she deserves it for her fabulous performance so far this year!!!

Hope you enjoyed!!! Check back in for more in the next few days!

Hill House Nursery Purchase Updates

You may remember some time ago I posted about some plants I'd purchased via mail order, from a company in Devon (Hill House Nurseries).Well these plants have been growing so well for me that I thought it was about time I did a quick update :D

The Begonia is really taking off now, especially now that we're getting some warmer, sunnier weather (which makes a change). Upon arrival it already had several nice leaves, which are now starting to die off, but the new ones are starting to be produced pretty fast to replace them! It also had a baby shoot at the base waiting to come up, which is now putting out a couple of leaves, AND I discovered another one emerging the other day, so am hoping for a nice lush plant this Summer. Here's a pic of the overall plant;
And the new leaf as well, can't wait for more of these to appear over Summer! Will looks so nice in amongst the other jungle plants.

That pic was taken a couple of weeks ago still, and it's been coming along nicely since then. Well worth the money paid for it!

The other plant I bought, a Brugmansia 'Grand Marnier' is coming along even better! The white/yellow leaves have almost all gone now and been replaced by healthy, bigger green ones. I think they might have just been down to getting kick started into growth, as all my other Brugmansias that are just starting into growth have also got white/slightly deformed leaves, but the subsequent leaves revert back to normal. BUT, most important of all, we have forking!!!
Before a Brugmansia starts to flower, it needs to have 'forked' naturally at some point, although a cutting taken above a 'fork' can flower without forking. Basically, any part of a plant taken from above a fork can flower. Anywho, I found a teensy fork on the 'Grand Marnier' the other week, which is when I took this picture - the two leaves at the same stage indicate that two shoots are forming, plus I could see a microscopic bud on the other side. It's been progressing agonisingly slowly, but hopefully in a few weeks time I'll have my first Bruggie flower of the season, and I can't wait for it! Here's a picture of the whole plant, taken a week or two ago (just as I'd watered it, hence why it's a little wilted), looking nice and healthy now that green leaves are regrowing :D Will keep you posted on these great plants!

Plants From Hill House Nursery

About a month ago I was browsing the web site of Hill House Nursery, a nursery in Devon dabbling quite a bit in the more unusual types of plants. I was overjoyed to find that they had Begonia Luxurians available - a plant which is particularly difficult to find in England. There was one nursery that was selling it last year but I think they only had a limited amount and now they're all gone, so Hill House Nursery is the only place selling it at the moment in the UK as far as I know, although I'm sure they'll sell out pretty soon as this plant is quite popular. The reason the plant is much sought after is not to much for its flowers, which compared to the tuberous and bedding begonias are rather dull, just small white clusters, but for its foliage, which is palmate and very unusual. Here's a picture I took of one growing at Cotswold Wildlife Park (a kind of zoo set within gardens, which have a general tropical/exotic theme) last Summer, which was growing very well;Anyway, having decided to definitely order a Begonia Luxurians, as I absolutely love the foliage, I noticed the P & P increase for a second plant wasn't that great, and they had many other nice plants so of course it would've been rude not to buy another! In the end I chose Brugmansia 'Grand Marnier'. It is supposed to be quite an old variety, although there are loads of different 'variations' flying around, although the true one, which I'm hoping this is, is supposed to be very vigorous and free flowering once it gets going, with highly scented pale peach to yellow pendulous flowers. I haven't got a picture of this one but hopefully I will have latter in the Summer!!!!Having ordered my plants I completely forgot about them for a few weeks - the Brugmansia was available to deliver straight away but the Begonia would only be ready in late February so I decided to go for having them shipped together to save on the costs. And, right on time, they arrived on Wednesday, and they were duly unwrapped and tidied up! Am very pleased with the quality and size of the plants. The Begonia has three decent sized leaves with another just emergin, plus another shoot just starting to come from the base, and it has a few flowers on it at the moment, not that they're anything to shout about!!!I'm hoping the leaves will straighten up a little but I won't be too bothered if they don't as by the time it comes to either planting it out or potting it up for the patio (I'm not sure where it's going to go yet), it will probably have grown quite a bit more so should look a little more tidy. And the Brugmansia, although a little yellow, most likely from lack of light during shipping, is a good sized plant, with plenty of shoots coming on it. Can't wait to see this one bloom!!!Am very pleased with the quality of the plants, well worth the money and when I contacted them at Hill House to ask for some advice regarding shipping etc. they were very helpful and nothing was too much trouble. Would definitely reccomend them!