Glorious weather - I would much prefer to "sweat my cobs off" than be
shivering in what was a long and chilly winter. The warm sunshine of
the past few days has brought out Tulip Magnolias in all their
glamour, great white, pink or purple tinged chalices crowding the
branches. Ornamental cherries, plums and peaches create clouds of
pink and white while at ground level mid-season and late Daffs form
vivid carpets of gold and cream.

At home in the garden, even the most tender of the exotics are
stirring from their winter's sleep. I'm relieved to see that even the
heat-loving dwarf, 'flowering' bananas are shooting well. these
promise large heads of waxy orange or pink bracts later in the year.
I don't do traditional 'spring stuff' here because it is so out of
keeping with the sub-tropical and near tropical plants that I grow.
By means of compensation, South African shrubs such as Euryops and
Polygala have put on a brilliant show of brassy gold and intense
magenta. Clumps of Bilbergia nutans - a tough bromeliad with arching,
flower spikes are stuffed with bright pink spears, ready to open and
reveal quaint green and violet pendant flowers.

Despite bruising and searing north easterlies, Jasminum polyanthum is
full of banana scented white stars and tucked away close to a fence, a
common Christmas Cactus' (Rhipsalidopsis truncatus) has been trained
up a few feet and now drips with deep pink flowers. Within a few
weeks succulents such as Lampranthus, Delosperma and Aptenia cascading
over a low dry wall, will turn into a blaze of scarlet, purple and
pink mesembryanthemum-like flowers

New shoots are burgeoning everywhere - 'Taro' (Colocasia esculenta) -
a tropical vegetable with the most gorgeous crystalline textured, soft
green, large, heart shaped leaves is earlier than ever. Pushing its
fat pale spears through the purplish brown, cocoa mulch. Passion
flowers - coeruleo-racemosa, ampullacea and manicata are bursting
into growth, signalling that it is time to get the secateurs out and
give them their annual, heavy pruning. 2 foot long 'croziers'
emerging from the increasingly spectacular New Zealand silver tree
fern - Cyathea dealbata bring the days when I can sit beneath and
marvel at its stunning, ghostly white leaf undersides ever closer. By
mid summer, these leaves will have expanded to 8 feet in every
direction.

There are over 30 different species of true palm which grow well here
- all relatively young with heights varying from 8" to 8 feet. Not
one has been damaged by more frequent than usual frosts and all are
pushing out new spears. My favourite for a couple of years has been a
'Pindo palm' - Butia capitata which arrived as a dishevilled 2 footer
in 1998 and is now the most fantastic fountain of strongly arching,
sage green fronds 6 feet high and across. It never stops growing here
and defied the coldest period in January by opening a new leaf. It is
now in 'summer mode' pushing through a crowd of new fronds from its
increasingly massive 14" diameter basal caudex.

A very spiny rattan palm from the Himalayas - Plectocomia himalayana
astonished me with its resistance to biting north easterlies and is on
the move again producing more elegant, 5 foot long fronds, each
heavily armoured with 2" long needles. These are guaranteed to sink
deep into unwary hands making it a truly beautiful beast, more lethal
than most cacti I can think of.

Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK