Cautleyas – a must for any tropical garden.

If you like jungle looking plants, luscious green foliage topped with contrasting colours like red and yellow, these plants should definitely be in your green space.

I bought a Cautleya from an NGS some years ago and it’s not until the last couple of years that’s I have realised how much I am in love with the ginger family (Zingiberaceae).

My very first, Cautleya spicata robusta is an easy to grow exotic looking plant that requires very little care.

Cautleya spicata robusta

Cautleya spicata robusta

They come up from no where and spear year on year. The black plastic pot was my first ever plant. I thought I’d lost it and then boom!

Like I say the last couple of years I have taken to time to find other ginger plants that I simply had to add to my collection and needless to say more Cautleya.

Cautleya cathcartii ‘Tenzing’s Gold’

This is a delicate yellow flower with no where near as much red in the bracts or on the foliage.

This is also much smaller than C. spicata robusta. This is Cautleya cathcartii ‘Tenzing’s Gold’.

Cautleya spicata ‘Crûg’s Compact’

I really love this miniature plant, it’s form is more upright, it still has red bracts and lovely bright yellow flowers.

This is Cautleya spicata ‘Crûg’s Compact’. You can see it’s shape below.

Cautleya spicata ‘Crûg’s Compact’

Another recent addition to my yarden and collection this year is a decent sized plant, a very upright form. Much more of an orange flower. T

This is Cautleya spicata ‘Bleddyn’s Beacon’.

Cautleya spicata ‘Bleddyn’s Beacon’

The following plant isn’t performing as well as the other species, sadly it has been knocked but I will persevere. It has a lovely purple tinge to the underside of the foliage.

I am happy to see that there are new shoots appearing next to the main stem. Watch this space. I don’t think I’ll have any flowers to share this year.

I also grew Cautleya lutea in my parents garden last year. It grew and flowered but didn’t make a reappearance. Needless to say it will be added back to this list.

I leave them in the pots all year and when frosts hit them the stalks just collapse. I chop them up and add them to my compost bin.

I give them a weed and too dress, then await their return the following year.

They are fairly easy to propagate too, I simply divide either in autumn or in spring and pot them up.

I believe you can also propagate from seed, I have never noticed any but will keep an eye out for these in the following month.

What are your thoughts on Cautleya? I find them really east to grow and give me that amazing jungle feel that I am trying to achieve.

Seed arrival!

You may have read my blog about all the seeds I am looking forward to growing this year and I am happy that I had some of this collection arrive in the post day.

You may be wandering why I have decided to write another post so soon, well truthfully I am so impressed with this website that I felt that they needed a post to themselves.

The site has a good variety of seeds and they are very reasonably priced, truthfully I had some reservations.

The seeds arrived in less than a week, which is good especially with the delays that the mail services are still having.

I was really impressed when I opened the envelope, to find that there were individual detailed growing instructions for all the packets of seeds.

I know that I will definitely be keeping an eye on this site and see what exciting seeds they will have in future. The site also lists bulbs and plants so I am hoping that they may have some on offer soon also.

I know you are thinking why haven’t you the name of the site, so here it is:

World Wonder Gardens

I hope you have enjoyed reading this post, please do let me know what you think of this site and the comments I have made. I’d be really interested to hear if you decide to place an order and even more so how your seeds grow and thrive.

Winter’s here!

I hope this finds you well and gardening!!

I have finally cut some leaves off the Ensete murelii and have brought her inside.

I am always so saddened when I cut these stunning leaves from the plant (Ensete murelii), however I’ve learnt that this is a necessary evil to allow the plant to survive for the winter months. Along with not watering it whatsoever. This is a mistake that I have ignored in the past and sadly lost this beauty.

Many of my plants have had to come to their winter home, loving the green jungle which is our stairs!

This is one of my seed sown plants, Aeonium tabuliform, look at the prefect form of the leaves!

As the weather cools, hidden and forgotten friends return. This is Arum italicum pictum, soon we will have an insignificant flower to be followed by bright red berries.

Another stunner at this time of year is the beautiful Cyclamen hederofolium, look at their leaves! They even have beautiful flower … watch this space.

Many of the exotics are now inside, I am lucky enough to have a micro climate due to the high walls and the heat from a neighbouring launderette.

This Colocasia esculenta is still growing and looking quite at home in our tiny tropical yarden.

In other news, a friend on twitter sent me these huge cuttings. They look like bamboo, however they are Dahlia imperialis aka The Tree Dahlia.

It’s been an interesting year in the garden, I’ve grown many plants which I have never grown before. This is an interesting plant, it is a climber with delicate leaves and can flower if looked after properly. It has the added use that it is edible, it is known as Mashua, Latin name is Tropaeolum tuberosum.

It’s also been an interesting year in my parents garden, the bananas have grown well, I’ve also grown Mirabilis species, jalapa and longiflora. Both have also set seed and hopefully will see more of them round the garden next year.

Another plant that has really shown how well it performs is Impatiens tinctoria, a tall growing perennial with large scented white flower. A must have in any jungle garden.

Also pleased to have some seeds mature from my Hedychium, I believe it to be densiflorum ‘Stephen’.

I hope you’re all keeping well, keep gardening!

Another boring post

Today I had planned to do so much.

Sadly my intended trip to Ikea halted my plans. It was so busy I decided to turn round.

I was wondering why my little ‘pond’ was leaking – perhaps the holes of drilled in the pot some time ago were the reason. Hahah.

I have mainly been trying to find plant pots for all my new plants. Why is it so difficult to find decent pots?!

I thought I’d leave you with this picture of my Japanese Ginger – Zingiber myoga.

I hope to have more of an update tomorrow.