PUSHING THE BORDERS

Pegeen loves the warm climate here and although she is now 15 she loves climbing the olive tree in front of the house.
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Iochroma australe

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Erythrina crista-galli

I don't know why its happening Phemie but you are uploading 100 x 150 thumbnail size pictures, send them to me again and I will put them up from here until I can figure out whats happening

Pegeen again. Hopefully these are bigger.

Erythrina crista-galli

Well done that worked this time, what a gorgeous cat, did you move out with him?

Yes, she travelled with us by van and ferry from Ireland down through France and into Spain in her cat basket staying at several hotels en route and was very well behaved and made no noise. She is a brilliant cat.

I had to smile at the Erythrina crista-galli, my one in the ground has only just broken dormancy, I have had to reluctantly conclude that I can't grow it to flowering here, I normally see them flowering on Madeira in October so see yours well in bud does that mean that it will now flower all summer?

charlie wrote:I had to smile at the Erythrina crista-galli, my one in the ground has only just broken dormancy, I have had to reluctantly conclude that I can't grow it to flowering here, I normally see them flowering on Madeira in October so see yours well in bud does that mean that it will now flower all summer?

Lost mine in the ground over the winter of 2011/2012. It had made it into bud when the frosts arrived.

Frustratingly, here's the one at OBG that blooms every year...........


It's in the ground facing south next to the glasshouses. Straw mulch is used over the winter.

On the plus side, both my I.australis that were in the ground have come through their first (admittedly mild) winter outdoors and are just about to bloom.

I don't know about everyone else's but my Erythrina crista-galli gets chewed to stumps when its trying to come through in the spring, but even at the base of a south wall in my fruit cage it was late through. My present tactic is to grow one in the conservatory to get a big woody base and see if that makes a difference

This is the latest photo taken yesterday of E. crista-galli. I managed to germinate it in West Cork but it never thrived.

We bought this in a local garden centre and the branches were badly damaged on the way home as it was in a trailer, so we did not expect it to do well! I have no idea how long the flowers will last as we have not had a summer here yet, which I believe is the testing time for plants due to drought. It rained for most of yesterday which has given the garden and the olive trees some much needed water, I never thought I would be so pleased to see rain!

Isoplexus canariensis which never did well in West Cork

Agaves grow everywhere and whereas I would love to have had one this size in West Cork, here they are ten a penny and these big ones will probably be taken out and something more interesting planted. It is the same old story we only want to grow the unusual and the difficult!