2025 in the round

[AndyC]

ILooking good Martin. I like your single coloured Laburnocytisus, classy.

My neighbours Embothrium coccineum, very underwhelming when not in flower but in your face this time of the year, quite a common sight in these parts.


My Beschorneria yuccoides starting to do its thing.

[Chad]

The cutting from the Aralia vietnamensis has stalled, but not died yet.

I've been a bit worried about the stool of the original plant.


But tucked away next to the several years old stump ...




I hope it grows strongly, since I may [stress may] have worked out how to grow it from cuttings.

Chad

[AndyC]

First rain of the month due tomorrow, just hope it isn't also the last rain of the month.
Persea thunbergii


My Agave attenuata came through the winter very well in its rain shelter, how old/big do they have to be to flower?

[Chad]

The Persea is looking good; very 'cutting edge' planting.

Don't hate me, but I fear it has gone back to being Machilus thunbergii as the Americans had kept it all along.

Chad

[MartinNicklin]

You must be in a very mild location Andy for the attenuata to get through even under rain shelter. I lost all of mine (and I had a few choice cultivars) even with the protection of the greenhouse over winter. It’s a good looking plant.

[Paul S]

Count me as astonished. My Agave attenuata died in a frost-free greenhouse.

[LostInJapan]

OK, you must be doing some kind of voodoo over there to keep that Persea, uh, Machilus looking so nice. They are all about to flower here in the local hills. (In Japan it has been called Machilus all along as well). I saw some nice A. attenuata in Okinawa this winter, but that is a truly subtropical place. Can't remember ever seeing one planted out locally - maybe down in the city's heat island.

[AndyC]

OK, you must be doing some kind of voodoo over there to keep that Persea, uh, Machilus looking so nice. They are all about to flower here in the local hills. (In Japan it has been called Machilus all along as well). I saw some nice A. attenuata in Okinawa this winter, but that is a truly subtropical place. Can't remember ever seeing one planted out locally - maybe down in the city's heat island.

I had no idea that the Machilus was a difficult plant to grow, it must thrive on ignorance. I grew one in my old garden where frosts were common but it still looked good there once the leaves scorched by radiation frosts were covered by new growth.

I should explain that my rain shelter for the Agave attenuata is a bit more sophisticated than just a roof. It had three sides as well, all made from twin wall polycarbonate. Only the west side (from which direction I took the picture) was left open, so that I could stuff some fleece inside on the few particularly cold nights we had here. It was home to the Agave from late November until early April for the last two winters.
I don't think my plants provenance can explain its survival, I bought it as a baby in the indoor market in Funchal, Madeira in 2011.

[MartinNicklin]

I also got my plain form from there and mine too was in a twin wall polycarbonate greenhouse enclosed on all sides and with the heater on … very occasionally. I think with many of my succulents the fact that my greenhouse was also stuffed to the rafters with non-succulents created too much moisture and that combined with low temps was just too much.

I personally couldn’t be bothered nowadays with the faff of building structures in the garden. I remember some of the extravagant and complex constructions members on GOTE used to erect to protect their palms and tree ferns. God alone knows what the neighbours must have thought viewing out over what in some instances looked like watchtowers! For me now my plants have to do or die! That said, your agave is lovely and has clearly been worth the effort. You’ve done an amazing job with it. What is its diameter?

[AndyC]

I also got my plain form from there and mine too was in a twin wall polycarbonate greenhouse enclosed on all sides and with the heater on … very occasionally. I think with many of my succulents the fact that my greenhouse was also stuffed to the rafters with non-succulents created too much moisture and that combined with low temps was just too much.

I personally couldn’t be bothered nowadays with the faff of building structures in the garden. I remember some of the extravagant and complex constructions members on GOTE used to erect to protect their palms and tree ferns. God alone knows what the neighbours must have thought viewing out over what in some instances looked like watchtowers! For me now my plants have to do or die! That said, your agave is lovely and has clearly been worth the effort. You’ve done an amazing job with it. What is its diameter?

It doesn't bother me what the neighbours think, some of my 'watchtowers' have even got search lights and machine guns :)

The attenuata is about 1M across from tip to tip at the widest point, a tiddler compared to the ones I saw in the Funchal public gardens.
It has a clutch of offspring behind it