This is blazing away in one of the greenhouses. It's such a lovely
sight! No wonder it's called the New Zealand Christmas tree.
Metrosideros excelsa variegata
http://i59.tinypic.com/fpcdo7.jpg
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk

In article ,
says...

On Wed, 2 Jul 2014 15:52:27 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

This is blazing away in one of the greenhouses. It's such a lovely
sight! No wonder it's called the New Zealand Christmas tree.
Metrosideros excelsa variegata
http://i59.tinypic.com/fpcdo7.jpg

Lovely, Sacha. It is a spectacular shrub/tree when in full flower.

A few years ago my local Wyevale had quite a stock of one of the
Metrosideros varieties at Christmas time. Methinks someone in their
purchasing department didn't realise that Christmas 'down under' comes
in their mid-summer, and that it would only flower here in our
mid-summer!

One or two Metrosideros varieties are just about growable down here in
the SW. I have a M. umbellata (syn. M. lucida) in the garden, but it's
slow growing (about 5ft high after say 10 years), and even slower to
flower (one flower in that time, and that was probably an
aberration!).

Mine (M umbellata) was dug up from a friend's Arran garden and
transplanted here in about 2004 (at about 2ft tall). It grew away but
didn't start flowering until 2011. It's outside in a sheltered well
drained sunny spot and is now about 7 ft high

https://www.flickr.com/photos/670104...n/photostream/

flowers in thumbprint at the bottom

Janet


I

On 2014-07-02 15:57:45 +0000, Chris Hogg said:

On Wed, 2 Jul 2014 15:52:27 +0100, Sacha
wrote:

This is blazing away in one of the greenhouses. It's such a lovely
sight! No wonder it's called the New Zealand Christmas tree.
Metrosideros excelsa variegata
http://i59.tinypic.com/fpcdo7.jpg

Lovely, Sacha. It is a spectacular shrub/tree when in full flower.

A few years ago my local Wyevale had quite a stock of one of the
Metrosideros varieties at Christmas time. Methinks someone in their
purchasing department didn't realise that Christmas 'down under' comes
in their mid-summer, and that it would only flower here in our
mid-summer!

Lol! What a shock when they found that out!

One or two Metrosideros varieties are just about growable down here in
the SW. I have a M. umbellata (syn. M. lucida) in the garden, but it's
slow growing (about 5ft high after say 10 years), and even slower to
flower (one flower in that time, and that was probably an
aberration!).

They can grow them successfully on Tresco. Here's a picture of one
there taken a few years ago. http://tinypic.com/r/2ql8x01/8
Mine is a small fraction of that size; I just hope I live here long
enough to see it flower like that!

I did try to grow one of the Wyevale ones, but the whole stock were in
very poor condition, drooping and badly neglected (such a shame), and
although it survived for a few months with me, it died eventually.

Excellent photo Chris. We've seen it in Tresco and when that's in
flower you can see it blazing away from a considerable distance! I
think that's the one that's pretty much in the middle of the Gardens?
Ours come from cuttings taken (legally!) in Tresco. Ray has the plain
leaf one as well and one that he says has a brownish leaf but offhand,
he doesn't remember the name! We have friends living in Salcombe and
you've reminded me that we must get them to try one there. They so very
rarely get any snow or frost that it's well worth a go. When we were
in NZ 5 years ago, these were just starting to flower and looked
wonderful. I think the ones in the North Island are called Rata and are
slightly different, though I'm not sure how. We do have a Callistemon
flowering well in the side of the old pond border. It used to be shaded
by a Cordyline but since that's been felled, the Callistemon has flexed
its muscles and is looking pretty lovely.
--

Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.com
South Devon
www.helpforheroes.org.uk