[David Dickinson]

Just starting to come back into flower after a summer break (and a near fatal attack of red spider mite!)

[John J]

Our Odontonema strictum is beginning to flower again. With us it seems to appreciate some shade from the hottest sun and a decent drink twice a week in the dry season.

[Caroline]

In the wild Metrosideros carminea, or Akakura, is a tough coastal climber.  The photo however shows the shrub form, propagated from mature growth, flowering in my garden now.  And yes, it is that luminescent shade of pinky-red!

[David Dickinson]

Just starting to send out new growth and a few flowers after the summer heat. I don't get as many flowers on it in the autumn but the few I do are always welcome.

[John J]

Very good as a ground cover, surviving with little or no water, it really comes into its own covering slopes or cascading down walls such as this 2 metre retaining one in our daughter's garden.

[David Dickinson]

A new plant for me, Ruellia graecizans, sent out its first flower yesterday. I am hoping it is as easy to propagate from cuttings as is Ruellia brittoniana because I have read that R graecizans is quite tender and so I will need to grow it indoors for the winter. It has lots of buds so I should be able to enjoy the red flowers for a few weeks.

[David Dickinson]

Forgot to say that the second picture in my last posting is, of course, Ruellia brittoniana and that it too is currently in flower.

[Caroline]

In flower now - a chance seedling that travelled accidentally in a pot plant from my old garden. Geranium incanum seems to be indestructable

[David Dickinson]

Hi Caroline

The Geranium looks lovely. I much prefer the leaves to the more typical Geranium shape. I wish I had seen your photo a few days back. A batch of seeds have just arrived from Chiltern's Seeds and they supply this Geranium too. I am tempted to place a second order but will check Chantal's MGS
seed exchange first. Thanks

[Fermi]

Paeonia cambessedesii flowering in our rock garden; originally grown from seed in 1998,
cheers
fermi

[JTh]

Coming back to Greece this week, it was nice to see that there are still some flowers, Zephyranthes candida are not the biggest flowers around, but they cheer me up, kindly returning every autumn without any fuss.


PA010383 Zephyranthes candida.jpg by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr

On my neighbours' lawn, their small hotel  is closed  down for the winter and there is nobody there, I always enjoy looking at what's popping up in their lawn now that nobody is mowing it, and every year I see these beautiful dark pink Zephyranthes (not quite sure which species), the flowers are quite large on very short stems. The owners have no idea how they ended up there.


P9300343 Zephyranthes.jpg by Jorun Tharaldsen, on Flickr

[John J]

Commelina erecta, has been flowering for us for a few weeks now. It's actually a much more stunning blue than depicted on the photo but taking it in full sun has rather washed it out.

[David Dickinson]

Hi

Once of those coincidences that you should Commelina erecta as your "plant of the day". I took a cutting a few weeks back and was about to send in a request for help identifying my "Tradescantia". I now know that Commelina exists and that they have 2 large and one small petal whereas Tradescantia have 3 equal sized petals - or so the internet tells us. This is the problem with being a novice - you never know if there is a similar plant (even superficially similar) you should be trying out your instinctive hunch against. And this is where the forum comes into its own. Couldn't live without it:)

Thanks for the pics John and thanks too for bravely taking up Alasdair's challenge in follow up to Daisy's (I think it was Daisy's) original posting which got the thread going.

Here is my cutting which in the space of 3-4 weeks has not only rooted, grown a couple of inches and flowered but has also produced a little seed as well.

[John J]

Not exactly a coincidence, David, but your post gave me an idea for this next 'plant of the day', thanks for the kind words by the way.
Tradescantia sillamontana is described as 'almost xerophytic'. The white hairs that cover it protect it from excessive sunlight and reduce water loss through evaporation. Overwatering can be detrimental to the appearance of the plant.

[David Dickinson]

What garbled nonsense the first sentence of my last posting was! I shall try to be more attentive today. Sedum telephium "Matrona" is one of the few Sedums that does well for me in pots. Sedum spectabile, for example, struggles along but never really gives a good show.