On 28/3/07 17:24, in article
, "Dave Poole"
wrote:

It's been glorious here too and I've spent a few hours tidying and
trimming over the past few days. With such a mild winter of no air
frosts here, I half expected a nasty parting gift by way of sharp
frosts. Luckily it has all passed without event and now there is a
mass of old growth that needs cutting out to make room for new. Last
week I was worried that one of the tree ferns might have become too
dry since although we've had rain, it has dried off very quickly here
and the soil gets dust dry even in mid winter. I've been out with the
hose several times and all is well. New croziers (emerging fronds)
are pushing up so quickly you can almost see them growing. Last
year's leaves came through totally undamaged so there'll be really big
masses of fronds this year.

Ours aren't actually emerging yet but you can feel them there, ready to
spring to life. Few leaves will need to be cut off some of our tree ferns
because, as you say, they're looking really good, still.

A perennial 'morning glory'; Ipomoea indica has retained most of its
top growth this year and there are stems rooting and shooting wherever
they hit soil. I've had to be quite brutal and cut about 20 or so
feet of growth away, but there's still masses, which means it will
probably be even bigger this year. There's a large hanging basket
nearby that was planted up with a species Pelargonium - P. acetosum, 2
years ago. In theory the prolonged cold of last winter should have
seen it off, but it survived and gave a brilliant show last summer.
This year is going to be even better and I predict it will turn into
an enormous sphere of spidery, coral salmon flowers by June.

Another major pruning job was butchering a lilac-mauve flowered
Lagerstroemia (Crepe Myrtle) that Sacha and Ray brought back from a
trip to France several years ago. I struggled to get this to flower
for ages, but hit on the secret last year. Seriously hard pruning!
All branches are cut back to within inches of their bases and the
resultant growth is explosive. They flower on current season's wood
anyway so the more of that, the more they flower. Very much a case of
off with the old!

Ours are hopeless here outside so I'm going to suggest we move them into the
small conservatory greenhouse and the small double. They are just so pretty
but only do best under cover here.

There's an 'orchid vine' - Bauhinia yunnanense that I grew from seed
about 7 years ago. It is one of the few semi-tender plants that I've
never quite had the courage to rip out even though it was a miserable
thing for a very long time. In 2005 it flowered for the first time
and they were such squinny, distorted efforts in an immediately
forgettable shade of off-pink that I hoped the cold of 2005-06 would
put it out of its misery. After a late start it took off like the
blazes last year and grew more in 3 months than it did in the previous
5 years. First flowers were again disappointing, but then it sorted
itself out and gave a very good late show. It has held on to its
leaves this winter and is already making strong growth. It might yet
turn out to be worth keeping.

Do you know this site, David: http://tinyurl.com/2m2x46

snip of envy making stuff

Finally, I must mention Hardenbergia violacea yet again. This
glorious purple-flowered Australian climber opened its first flowers
in late November last year. It is still looking good and dripping
with tight drooping spikes of neat little pea-like flowers. I can't
think why I ignored it for so many years, but thank goodness I've seen
sense. In summer the leaves are like slender, sage green tongues
lapping the breeze as they hang from the stems. Even though there are
no flowers then, the give the plant presence. In winter it is
smothered with flower and on a dull, dark miserable day they provide a
much needed splash of quite a rare colour for that time of year.

I can't tell you how I envy you growing that outside. It's a gem.
--
Sacha
http://www.hillhousenursery.co.uk
South Devon
http://www.discoverdartmoor.co.uk/
(remove weeds from address)