On 2014-09-30 09:57:21 +0000, Jeff Layman said:

On 29/09/2014 21:42, sacha wrote:
On 2014-09-22 21:48:53 +0000, Charlie Pridham said:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
On 22/09/2014 12:22, Charlie Pridham wrote:

"Jeff Layman" wrote in message
...
Put this in a few months ago and it is doing well. It is about 80 cm high
and flowering well - an attractive plant at this time of year. But the
books refer to it as being fragrant, and I can detect no scent whatsoever.

Has anyone else got this in flower at present, and, if so, does it have a
scent?

--

Jeff

All I have are buds! this despite the best summer in years, but this is the
first year its got as far as having buds so maybe one day. bought mine after
seeing the huge one at Wisley and hearing Sacha rave about theirs.

Thanks, Charlie. I hope yours flowers soon. I wonder if Sacha's has a
scent - maybe she's away as she hasn't posted in this NG for a few days.

On another matter, still no sign of flowers - or even buds - on the
Erythrina crista-galli. I was at an NGS garden a couple of weeks ago,
which had invited a few specialist nurseries selling interesting
plants. One, from West Somerset or Devon, had an E c-g for sale. It had
a single stem, was barely a metre high, and only a couple of
centimetres in diameter at the base. It was in flower! Grrr....

Jeff

I suspect Sacha is still recovering from marrying off one of her
offspring, must ask how its done!

All I can say Charlie, is pay them to elope! Yes, we have been away in
Guernsey to visit my mother and then 6 days in glorious Sark. As to the
Vitex a-c Ray has some babies coming on, so when they flower I'll check
for that on this new batch. They're not for sale btw!

I emailed the Sir Harold Hillier Gardens yesterday and they have Vitex
in flower. They said that the flower has a weak fragrance, although the
foliage is somewhat stronger. I replied that to me the foliage smell is
unpleasant, reminiscent of a mixture of mint, pennyroyal, and
woundwort! Anyway, as the Gardens are only a 20 minutes or so drive
away, I'll try to get there today or Thursday to have a sniff of the
flowers.

As to the
Erythrina, Ray says he grew a batch from seed, 20 or 30, and some
flowered and some didn't. All those we sold had buds on. One we have in
the car park border has thrown out lots of shoots this year but not one
flower. but we've noticed that e.g. Echiums have done lots of growth as
and when expected but not flowered. This isn't just here but also in
the CIs where we saw thickets of them!

Well, I can understand the Echiums, which are effectively monocarpic,
and won't flower until they've reached a certain size - whether it
takes 2 or 4 years. But E. c-g is an odd plant. I thought at first it
might be specific clones which flower early, and although that may be
true, its flowering seems very varied and unpredictable. My previous
plant lived in a 45 cm pot, and never flowered, even though it was 15
years old when it died.

My current plant, which is against a small south-facing wall, now has a
main trunk approaching 10 cm in diameter, and around a dozen branches.
About half of those are over 2 metres long and still growing, with no
signs of flower buds. They are a bit of a hazard when mowing the lawn,
as I always forget about the nasty backwards-facing thorns on the
underside of the leaves!

Monocarpic, yes but biennial, leaving lots of babies behind if you're
lucky. We have one which plonked itself behind the Tea Room and has
grown to over 6' tall this year but hasn't flowered. We're just hoping
it survives the winter and flowers next year. But while E.piniana is
naturally tall, we've seen them flower at anything between 4' and 12'
or more, so our experience isn't that they have to grow to a particular
size before flowering. The E fastuosum in the same spot flowered
superbly this year, btw.
If I remember, I'll ask Ray to try a Ec-g outdoors next year to see how
it does. Ours are under glass and flower superbly, so I've no idea how
they would do outdoors.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon