Bert's Back Yard
Spring 2004
Aspidistra elatior in flower, flower at ground level.
So here we are and it's spring, well the Nightingales are back anyway, so I guess it must be. So what were the failures over the winter? Well the un-named Calathea's didn't make it, no surprise there, but I will be planting some more over the next few weeks. The foliage is worth having just for the summer and they are not very expensive. The Tillandsia species, along with the Strelitzia & the Asplenium nidus, all succumbed to the frost at the end of February, all though I still am hopeful that perhaps the later two may spring into life, when it really starts to get warmer. We shall see!
However, yes however all the palms survived as did the Musas as well as the Cordylines, and the Aspidistra elatior seemed to positively thrive outside, so if you have one indoors, take my advise and put it in your garden! They like it, mine even produced a flower this spring, and I have never ever seen one in flower before! (See Picture top of page).
This summer I intend planting some more Musas to include two of Musa sikimensis and a Musa Yunnan. Also another plant often coming under the title of 'Banana' is the Ensete however these have no track record of being able to stand an English winter outside. So I have never been tempted to grow these before. However interestingly enough, it is said that if lifted in the Autumn before the onset of any hard frosts, then after cutting back the foliage to the stem they can be kept in a dry frost free shed or greenhouse. When the danger of frosts has passed they can be re-planted in their former position whence forth the plant will pick up it's DNA in the soil and carry on as normal! Yes fact or fiction I don't know, so I'm planting two of Ensete Ventricosum and two of Ensete Ventricosum 'Maurelii'. So I'll find out, hopefully.
Other plants that are being planted to add to the 'tropical look, include couple of Canna 'Striata' and another couple of Cannas of dubious parentage I saw going cheap at a local superstore! Where I also noticed they were selling some young Trachycarpus fortunei labelled as some sort of Chamaerops! The store in question I must say do sell an excellent range of plants providing one knows what one is looking for, and at reasonable prices which is always a bonus. Some other plants I picked up there were some Brugmansia's, now I knew these as Datura's and on checking found that Brugmansia is now their correct name. But what I'd really like to say is that they were packed with the pot inside a plastic bag, and this was in a cardboard display type box and they looked, or I should say the one that I brought looked the best of a pathetic looking bunch, but at £2.99 seemed a reasonable buy. The next morning after having been released from it's 'please buy me packaging' the night before, the plant was transformed, so much so that I went back and brought three more in other colours. I have to say that they look very pleased to have escaped! One other thing I have to add here is that these plants are known as being poisonous, one of the same family I think it used to be known as the 'Thorn Apple' and with a Latin name like Datura 'Inoxia' it's not hard to imagine what its effects are! They should have been labelled 'Don't touch me I contain enough narcotics to make even a Millwall supporter happy'.
So lessons to be learnt so far? None really, none of the plants put up too many surprises over the winter, apart from the Aspidistra elatior, which due to it's flowering more than made up for the demise of other plants. I do think that the frost we had at the end of February following so close to the one at the start of the same month was too much for the Strelitzia's which until then looked O.K. and also bearing in mind that no protection was given to any plant, I think perhaps some protection will be given next winter. Yep will try some Strelitzia's again, but also because I'm thinking the protection might just give a better start to some that didn't need it, but may have been happier now if they had. As you've heard me say before, we shall see.