"Sacha" wrote in message
...
On 15/10/06 12:26, in article ,
"Jax"
wrote:

I have looked at different sites on the internet but could see anything
this
this plant

I saw a plant in a local shop that used to sell many plants but now the
concentrate on selling cut flowers making boquetes and green groceries
etc.
So no one serving in the shop could tell me what it was.

Its a short plant, just over a foot tall. It has dark brown bottle
brush
like " spikes/flowers". The more mature fronds also seem to have pale
brown
seeds on the outside of the "bottle brushes". The less mature emerging
baby
bottle brushes are soft and slilky and very dark brown. As they mature
they
fatten up and become slightly more spikey. The leaves are long and
quite
broad and are green with a slight purply tinge. From a distance the
plant
looks like a small short bullrush but the "bottle brushes" are much more
open textured and spikey compared to the dense head of a bullrush. I
have
never seen a plant like this ever before. The shop couldnt tell me any
more
about the planting or care. I paid £5 for the plant in case that helps.

Try looking at Google images of Penniseum setaceum rubrum and Pennisetum
glaucum. We have these outside in pots and they're tall but sound
somewhat
similar to what you're describing. It might be those when young or some
kind of relative in the millet family. The two we have are not hardy.
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/

If its not that, try looking up images of Restios (sort of South African
cross between grass and bamboo) there are lots of different sorts.

--
Charlie, gardening in Cornwall.
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National Plant Collections of Clematis viticella (cvs) and
Lapageria rosea