Early January 2007

[Lesley Cox]

Mark, yes I did get your emails and the personal message as well. I replied also as a personal message but perhaps it missed the plane or something. Anyway, I'll send you a private email to your address but not until Monday. Trip away in the morning and in the meantime I'm baking a cake for Dave (not that he'll believe it!)

Paddy, nothing springs to mind for the Aciphylla. I'm sure I know it but as above, things aren't connecting at present. I need to go to bed. David Lyttle will know I'm sure.

[Jozef Lemmens]

Because of the mild winter, the first Daphnes are already in flower.

Daphne suriel





Daphne bholua 'Darjeeling Form'





Daphne laureola ssp. philippi





And this Tropaeolum pentaphyllum is in flower since a couple of months.



Jozef

Edit: The pictures seem no longer to be available- perhaps you can find them in Jozef's site :
http://www.alpines.be Maggi7/08/2013

[David Nicholson]

Lovely pictures Jozef, I enjoyed them, thank you.

[mark smyth]

wow that is some Tropaeolum. I havent seen it before. Hardy or non hardy?

[Paddy Tobin]

Oh Yes, Josef,

That tropaeolum is a beauty. As with Mark - is it growing outside? It looks too good to be outside but how I would love to hear that it is; something to be chased up and planted out as some stage in the future.

I love the clear white of Daphne suriel, a new plant to me; haven't seen it previously. D. laureola is one of the workhorses of the garden here, great in the most miserable of conditions, wet ground in winter, parched and in deep shade in summer, a real doer.

D. bholua 'Darjeeling form' is another excellent plant, growing very well for you it seems.

Many thanks for excellent photographs.

Paddy

[ian mcenery]

Hi Geebo

My approach to H Niger has been to plant a number of these in the garden a process known as the scattergun approach. They are in borders where the plants are usually covered by other herbacious plants in summer. Its probably just luck and next year they will all go to H Niger heaven a place I understand is already pretty full

[John Forrest]

Enjoying the pictures Paddy and Jozef. I too was covetting the Tropaeolum pentaphyllum and looked it up on the net. Avon bulbs are selling it but state that it is not reliably hardy and they grow it in pots cool but protected from frosts. Shame 

[Paddy Tobin]

John,

Yea, Pity it isn't hardy but I think I would go to the bother of pot culture and bringing it into the glasshouse with this one.

Paddy

[Ian Y]

Nice pictures Jozef I too would be interested to learn if you are growing Tropaeolum pentaphyllum unprotected outside.
We grow Tropaeolum pentaphyllum  in a pot that lives in a cold glasshouse.
I suspect it would be quite hardy to cold but not the winter wet that we get.
It increases quite well, those of you that want some remind me nearer summer when I am repotting and I will see what I have spare.

[Jozef Lemmens]

Hi All,

Thanks for your comments regarding my pictures.
I purchased my first Tropaeolum pentaphyllum from Elizabeth Strangman about 8 years ago and I kept it always outside in the open garden but on a sheltered place and in winter covered with a plastic sheet. In normal winters, the temperature drops down to about minus 10 -15°C here in Belgium. This year we are still waiting for winter.
In severe winters the leaves will be damaged, but in spring the plants will come out again.
Hardiness of a plant is not only dependant of the temperatures , but also of the moistness of the soil. Keep Tropaeolums in a sandy soil and not in clayish soil.
The plant on the picture is another plant I got from a friend and is a much better flowering clone. Of course I kept this one in my greenhouse.
Propagation is rather easy.  John, if you like I will save a plant for you, but I will not visit the Blackpool show this year. (probably only the Early Spring show)
BTW, don’t keep tuberous Tropaeolums in a greenhouse. Once temperatures are rising they will stop growing and flowering, because they think they have to go in summer rest.
T. pentaphyllum is not the most beautiful Tropaeolum in my opinion.

Jozef

[Brian Ellis]

I also grow Tropaeolum tuberosum var. lineamaculatum 'Ken Aslet'  outside in the lee of a Garrya Elliptica although of course it is probably not as cold down here.  I confess to overwintering one tuber in the glasshouse just in case, but normally end up planting this somewhere else in the garden once spring has sprung.

Brian

[johanneshoeller]

The last year we had more than 2m snow in January. This winter is very warm without snow, so the first plants have started to flower (Primula marginata, Primula albenensis, Crocus sieberi 2x,...).

Hans
from Austria


 

[John Forrest]

Jozef, That's a very kind offer. I won't be there but there is usually somebody I know at all the shows who could pass it on to me at Blackpool.

[Lesley Cox]

That's interesting Jozef, about tropaeolums going dormant as soon as the weather warms. Does it also apply to T. azureum? I've had mine in a pot and for the last two years it has flowered really well, but after perhaps a couple of really warm days, it dies away and vanishes, almost within hours. Would it like a cooler spot do you think?

[Darren]

Hello everybody.
My first visit to the new forum. I guess it will take me a while to find my way around, and work out how to post pictures for best efect. Meanwhile here are some pictures of Crocus cyprius taken yesterday, you can see that they vary a lot. One form stands out to me as the best. Plus Gymnospermium albertii emerging in the bulb frame, a group of cyclamen coum. And the lovely Gladiolus maculatus under glass.