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greenclaws

These may not be tropicals for you but they are for me!! Pix.

Here goes...hope they don't take to long to load.

Hoya Carnosa/ Krimson Queen



Kent Mango



Adenium Obesum/Desert Rose Seedlings & Sabal Minor 'palmlings'



Plumerias



Washingtonia Robusta Seedling



Plumeria/Celadine



Achimines/Hot Water plants

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Dracaena Dracos, BoP etc.

Comments (16)

  • tina_2
    15 years ago

    Hi - Very nice pictures and a lovely estate as well.
    Thank you! tina_2

  • Linda's Garden z6 Utah
    15 years ago

    Hi, Love your Pictues. The countryside looks beautiful as well! I just got a small plumeria like the ones in your picture and was wondering how big do they have to get before they will start blooming?

    Nice palms too! Do you take them outside for the summer?

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Tina/TropicL, thanks for the nice comments!
    TL, the plumie with the flowers (called 'Celadine')was a 6inch cutting when I got it, it was from a mature plant that had flowerd many times before. When it eventually rooted and leafed out some 12 months after planting, it also surprised me by flowering that very same year...the experts on the plumie forum tell me that was because the flower head was already 'programmed in and ready to go' so to speak. If a cutting had been taken from an immature plant it would have taken longer to flower. Plants from seeds (like the 4 left hand ones on the windowcill I've grown from seeds last year,'Celadine' is their right)these can take 2/3 or the more usual 4 years to establish well enough to flower. I did put the palms outside briefly when our temps got into the 70-80's last week, but we are back to cooler and windy days again as we are in a very exposed area, so I bought them inside again. So,like a lot of my so called 'tropicals', they are protected most of the time.
    Gill.

  • rhizophora
    15 years ago

    Hi,
    Here in the Southwest of England we can grow strelitzia, washingtonia, phoenix, sabal and much more outside all year round! You could try experimenting with some plants, maybe you could get good results!
    James

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    James, hi there. Seen yours posts many times, forgotten you were a fellow UK resident. Where abouts are you if you don't mind me asking? I'm in Staffs Moorlands, high up. It's so windy here, that's our main problem. The back garden faces SE and gets little protection, the front doesn't either for that matter. What we need is more SUN/HEAT. Our youngest has just moved from Portsmouth to the IoW and they are always frozen when they visit us! Down to single figures C here last night.
    How big was you Washingtonia when planted outside, is it a Robusta or a Filifera? Have several WR's from seeds, just making their 6th leaf (not frond as no divisions to speak of yet). My Strelitzia R is producing its first flower stalk now, can't wait. Am also pleased with an Echium Wildpretii from seed, just coming into full flower after losing the tip to rot. Had it outside over winter, covered in a makeshift poly-tent. It threw out loads of smaller branches, each loaded with blooms. Hope to save seed and get more going.
    Gill.

  • ibartoo
    15 years ago

    Those are beautiful. I think they are all tropical. I have a hoya that I recently rooted from a cutting. Your pictures are the first I have seen. It is fabulous. I can't wait to see mine bloom now. Linda

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hello Linda, hope your Hoya blooms too! This was a cutting I bought back from Oz in 2005, it flowered for the first time last autumn. One tip for you, dont cut off the old flowering stalk (peduncle) once the blooms have faded as subsequent flowers form from this structure. Folks on the Gweb hoya forum describe it as looking like a 'microphone'!!!..so you will recognise one when it forms...hope this helps. Mine is forming 3 new lots of flowers as I write.
    Gill.

  • puglvr1
    15 years ago

    WOW!! Those pictures are wonderful, your view outside is so beautiful...I can't believe you are growing a Kent Mango. That's pretty impressive, I live in FL, I have a few young trees planted, that's a no brainer, but for you. That's an accomplishment!! Thanks for sharing!

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Puglvr, thanks for the compliments, and yes, our views are stunning I have to agree! The Mango was grown from a seed from a regular store bought mango I ate in Jan 07. It's just about to put on a new flush of leaves, it's first this year but this time they are growing on four tiny branches that have sprouted from the central growing point and several others have just started lower down. It gets attacked by scale insects which are a real problem to get rid of I find. Hoping to grow it on real good and strong in the next few years and then report to you all that I have a mango fruit, now wouldn't THAT be an achievement!!
    Here's the Echium I mentioned above....
    {{gwi:1309864}}

  • josh_palm_crazy
    15 years ago

    Everything looks beautiful Gill. Especially your plumeria.

    Jay

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hi there Jay, funny how we keep bumping into each other!! I keep skipping between Plumies, palms and tropicals these days and I've just done a reply to you back on the palm site. Just a pity the plumie in flower was from 2006, last year it did absolutely zilch, hardly any leaves and definately NO flowers. It's only just coming into leaf now so I'm hoping for a better year with it. It was from a cutting and the 4 I've grown from seeds are overtaking it not only in height but they are leafing out realy well.
    See you soon!
    Gill.

  • amberlin
    15 years ago

    aww I am so envious of your flowering plumeria plant. I had mine in a pot for more than a year and did zilch but it's now starting to split into 3 different tiny branches at the very top. Hopefully that's a sign that it will bear flowers soon? by the way gorgeous pictures thank you for sharing!

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    Hello Amberlin...ususlly Plumies flower first and then split into branches, however mine flowered but didn't split!! So I guess they dont always follow the rules do they? Since 2006 I've had no flowers, sigh. Hop over to the Plumeria forum on GW, great folks and expert info, all newbies made very welcome...I was!! You will get good advise on how to help your plumie bloom...see you there?
    Gill.

    Here is a link that might be useful: GW plumie forum

  • rhizophora
    15 years ago

    Hi,
    I live in Plymouth, Devon. I think you can grow a washingtonia, with protection. You could pour gravel into the planting hole to keep it free draining, and maybe use heating coils. Echium piniana is popular here, and there are at least 3 washingtonia robusta palms near me. Phoenix canariensis are everywhere. I think that everyone has ditched Cordyline now, in favour of true palms. Phoenix roebelenii are also growing here, there is at least one near me, and has been growing well for over 3 years. I always think of florida as a warm place, but people in North florida keep losing P.roebelenii from frosts! I am also growing Howea (Kentia palm) outside. It is growing steadily, and I hope to make a palm paradise. I will post pictures, when I can find my camera charger. Maybe people should come down to the SW on holiday instead of S.Europe, because it is definately becoming more and more tropical. By the way, your plants look amazing!
    Thanks
    James

  • greenclaws UK, Zone 8a
    Original Author
    15 years ago

    James, hi there. Just come back from Portsmouth/Isle of Wight for 5 days and saw loads of tropicalesque stuff down there, Southsea Common has the Phoenix C palms and also saw Washingtonias on the island where son lives. Cordylines as you say are in almost every area now, even up here in the Nth Midlands. Sons neighbour has towering Echium Pininanas all over the place and gave me 4 seedlings!! I'm going to take down a large spare Washy R seedling for her when we return in a few weeks time plus seeds from my red Echium Wildpretii. I'm anxiously awaiting my Strelitzia R's flower stalk to open...it will be ironic if it flowers in 2 weeks time when we go down south again, will have to ask the plant sitter to take a snap of it!! Would love to go to the Eden Project...have you been?

    Gill.

  • rhizophora
    15 years ago

    Hi,
    I have been- it is amazing! There is a long path going down to the greenhouses from the entrance. Loads of cycads, palms, ginkgoes, wollemi pines and many more rare plants have been planted, and it looks amazing. Last time I went, I took lots of seeds home from the tropical greenhouse. The plant shop there is amazing, you can buy really rare and exotic plants,they sell palm seeds, and they also have orchids in tissue culture flasks. Here in the South West, people are now starting to grow Monstera (swiss cheese plants)outside! I am thinking about planting a Bismarckia at the side of the house, but they are so expensive and hard to find. In torquay, they have lots of fruiting P.Canariensis and they have fruiting Butias. I have never been to the IOW before.
    Good luck with your Strelitzia!
    James
    James