Garden Favourites

Here are two of my favourite 'odd' plants from the gardens

This is an old Lantana that has been pruned into a tree (15 or more years).  I absolutely love it and can imagine three or four in a planter along a sidewalk or something similar.

Here's a closeup of the flowers.  These will eventually turn into green and then black berries.  I grabbed several dozens seeds which I have in a moist paper towel until they sprout.

This is one of my favourite banana species (it's probably because of my red foliage fetish).  This one is called Musa sumatrana.  There is a completely red variety that I have also seen.  I think it's called Siam Ruby.

Where would we be without bees?  This final image is of a bee hive.  It is conveniently located over a handicapped parking spot.  I've seen many people pull into this spot just to back out a few seconds later when they here and see all the bees (probably yellow jackets which aren't bees).

Civic Garden Complex Flowers

We've had some horrible weather over the last few days but a few days ago I took advantage of a sunny day and went to the Civic Gardens.  I'm getting a little camera happy and can't stop taking pictures of everything.  Here are some of the shots that survived deletion after I got home.

Astilbe (I really like these plants)

Black-Eyed Susan Hybrid

White Zinnias

Sage?

Canna

Seedling Update

Here's just a quick update of the seedlings:

Adenium arabicum

Coffea arabica

Ginger (front) & Clivia (back)

Purple & Red Foliage Pt. 2

This post is a continuation of the last one by the same name.  I hope you enjoy these next few plants!

 Strobilanthus dyerianus (Persian Shield)

Zone 9-10, full shade, part sun, annual in lower zones

Alocasia sanderiana (I LOVE this plant!)

Warm, humid, shade, lots of water, zone 10-11 or anywhere if rhizome stored inside

Rhoeo spathaceae (Moses in the Cradle)

Semi-shade, full sun, ground cover, zone 11, resistant to poor conditions

Scilla violacea

Zone 9-10, full sun, groundcover

Cordyline terminalis

Slower growing, prefer some shade, tropical, good houseplant

Barberry

Care and zones vary but minimum zone 5

Purple & Red Foliage Pt. 1

My dream is to one day have a section of garden with no predominantly green plants.  This includes all trees, shrubs, flowers, groundcovers, absolutely everything.  My fascination with these plants has led to this post covering some of the plants in the greenhouse with interesting foliage.  Some are common but others you may have never heard of.  Anyway, here we go...

Setcreasea purpurea (Purple Heart) now named Tradescantia pallida

Zones 7-10 but can be grown anywhere as an annual

Does well as a houseplant, easy to grow, full sun is best

Ruellia makoyana (Monkey Plant)

Zone 11, full sun

Oxalis (Purple)

Zone 6 or above, does well as a houseplant

Iresine herbstii

Zone 10, full sun, does well as houseplant

Zebrina

Zone 9, full sun, easy, annual in colder zones, good houseplant

Roses of the Civic Garden Complex

There is a section of the Civic Garden Complex devoted to roses.  Here are some images of the most beautiful flowers...

Adenium arabicum (Desert Rose, 12 Days) Seedlings 2

Just a quick update of the Adenium arabicum.  The first seeds sprouted about one week ago.  They seem to grow quite quickly.  About 20/30 have now sprouted and germination seems to be nearing a maximum.

Purple/Red/Brown Leaf Honey Locust!

I was on campus today and for the first time I noticed this strange purple/red tree.  I was honestly shocked because it looked like a locust but I had never seen one this colour before.  I got up closer and realized that it was a locust.  There was even a tag on the trunk that confirmed this, as the UWO campus is also an arboretum.  I couldn't find any images when I tried searching for it on google.  There is a plant called a Purple Robe Locust but the foliage is green and the flowers are purple.  This is truly an amazing tree!

Purple Bougainvillea

About two weeks ago we decided to transplant our sickly purple Bougainvillea. It looked like about half of each plant was dead and they barely had any flowers. The plants were cut back to about 1/3 of their size. We then removed about 1/3 to 1/2 of the rootball and placed them back into the same pots with new soil. It seems they can be pruned very aggressively. In only a few days they were covered with new growth and now they look like full bushes again. This variety has much more compact growth than any of our others. They are covered in flowers.

Civic Garden Complex

Yesterday we went for a walk that took us through the London Municipal Gardens. The plants have grown a lot and the Castor Beans have nearly doubled in size in the last three weeks. In the picture below you can see Castor Beans, Canna, Zinnias, Coleus, and some ornamental grass.

In the closer flower bead you can see large plantings of Lantana. The flowers are orange, red, purple, yellow, pink and any shade in between.

Now I have no idea what this white plants is but I absolutely love it! If anyone can identify it I would really appreciate it.

I think this flower bed is very well put together. I especially love those decorative thistles!

Herb Identification Pt. 4

Rue

St. John's Wart

Lemon Geranium

Turmeric

Adenium arabicum (Desert Rose, 8 Days) Seedlings

The Adenium arabicum began sprouting after four days and have grown rapidly since. It is possible that they could reach flowering stage within as little as seven months. It really depends on whether or not they decide to go dormant this winter (I don't know how they'll react to being started late in the Northen Hemisphere summer). I received about 30 seeds and so far 16 have sprouted. Below you can see the progression of the germination over the last five days.

Albizzia julibrissin (Mimosa or Silk Tree)

A few days ago one of our Albizzia julibrissin began flowering. Only a few weeks earlier the tree had nearly died back due to an insect infestation. This tree is young and only about 2m tall. I have however noticed a full grown one on campus sheltered on four sides by the Physics and Astronomy Building. I live in zone 5/6 but this tree experiences no dieback in the winter. I guess the building has created a microclimate bringing conditions up to around zone 7.

This tree generally grow to about 10m but may be as large as 13m. The spread is generally similar. It usually grows more than 1m per year and is a good choice to produce a mature looking landscape quickly. It should not be used in warmer zones as a yard can rapidly be invaded by hundreds of seedlings.

Herb Identification Pt. 3

Greek Oregano

Lemon Balm

Lemon Verbena

Sage

Rosemary