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Chad
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:03 pm Posts: 2343 Location: Inland Cornwall UK
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Holy Grail plants for 2018
I keep an informal list of plants that I'm after if ever I see them [or seed of them] available.
At the moment my list includes;
Erythrina acanthocarpa and zeyheri. Xerophyta retinervis Bomarea pardina [but I might try B.uncifolia for which seed is available].
What are you on a 'Quest' for this year?
Chad.
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Sat Oct 28, 2017 8:41 pm |
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Tim B
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:56 pm Posts: 417 Location: Seekonk, Massachusetts USA, USDA zone 6b
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Xerophyta is a great looking plant, it should do well with all your natural brush fires I’m always searching for Schefflera rhododendrifolia (or any other ‘hardy’ schefflera) as its not available here in the states.......someday.
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:15 am |
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Paul Spracklin
Joined: Tue May 05, 2009 3:55 pm Posts: 2564 Location: North Thames delta UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Pretty sure Graham at Plantbase had Xerophyta at the Hyde Hall summer plant fair, Chad. Not cheap, mind you.
_________________ visit my website - www.oasisdesigns.co.uk
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:38 am |
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AlexW
Joined: Wed Jun 16, 2010 7:39 pm Posts: 95 Location: Reading UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
I tried Xerophyta retinervis last year, from Silverhill seed - predictably with no success. I should check with a friend I gave some of the seed to to see if he had better luck. Come to think of it, I think South African plants must not like me - I got quite a few packets of Asteraceae including Edmondia and Hymenolepis which are supposed to be easy germinators, and from them all got one solitary seedling of Brachylaena neriifolia (which I suspect is about to be hardiness tested as I forget where it is - somewhere outdoors!).
I'd love to get my hands on Boquila trifoliolata - if only to experiment with its shape shifting abilities! Crûg listed it but now out of stock.
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 5:40 pm |
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Chad
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:03 pm Posts: 2343 Location: Inland Cornwall UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 8:04 pm |
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KeithG
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:07 am Posts: 171 Location: Oxford UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
White form of Swainsona formosa.
Musschia wollastonii (having lost my three large plants when a pane in the greenhouse shattered in a -6°c frost).
Salvia divornum and S.gesneriiflora 'Tequila'
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 8:44 pm |
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neobb
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 9:17 pm Posts: 582 Location: vancouver, canada
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Hi Tim, A nursery near Seattle called Windcliff Plants has S. rhododendrifolia as well as S. alpina. They don't do mail order though. Next year I will do US plant shopping (I live in Canada). I have a friend who owns a nursery in WA ---maybe I could ask if they could send a S. rhodo- to you (I could buy it since I will visit both nurseries). Or maybe you know someone in WA. My Holy Grail plant list includes: Quercus tarahumara Espeletia species-----Kev inspired me Carpinus fangiana----seems easy to get in UK Lots of others---probably won't get any in 2018----but the looking and hoping is half the fun.
_________________ Ted
green dream saturated
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:11 pm |
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John Jearrard
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 11:19 pm Posts: 487 Location: Cornwall, UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Loved the Xerophyta at Hyde Hall Plant Fair, but no use in my wet climate.
_________________ John.
www.johnjearrard.co.uk
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Tue Oct 31, 2017 10:57 pm |
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Chad
Joined: Tue Oct 30, 2007 10:03 pm Posts: 2343 Location: Inland Cornwall UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
John,
That rather resplendent specimen has dropped it down my list of wants a bit!
Keith,
S.gesneriiflora 'Tequila' seed is available .
Salvia divinorum is of dubious legality under the [itself very dubious] Psychoactive Substances Act 2016. We await test cases to find out what this act actually means!
Good luck sourcing the white form of Swainsona Formosa. The 'usual' Australian sources don't list it.
Chad.
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Wed Nov 01, 2017 12:03 am |
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Tim B
Joined: Wed Feb 13, 2013 11:56 pm Posts: 417 Location: Seekonk, Massachusetts USA, USDA zone 6b
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Chad,
I would be greatful for S. rhodo seed. I may get Schefflera delavayi seed if I can keep seed pods alive for another month (winter is coming fast). I can also trade you Yucca ‘filamentosa x rostrata’ X ‘filamentosa x elata’ and/or reverse cross if your interested. These are two amazing hybrids crossed onto each other.
Yes, I grow everything from seed. Currently some Rhododendron hybrids.
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Wed Nov 01, 2017 1:28 am |
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KeithG
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:07 am Posts: 171 Location: Oxford UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
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Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:11 pm |
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KeithG
Joined: Tue Sep 27, 2011 7:07 am Posts: 171 Location: Oxford UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
For anyone looking for totally silly 'Holy Grail' inspiration you could do worse than take a look at Andreas Kays Flickr pages; Photostream........... https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskay/Albums............ https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaskay/albumsAn album for Chad............. https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaska ... 4744510659One of my favourites............ https://www.flickr.com/photos/andreaska ... 4744798607Anyway, I digress! Enjoy!
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Wed Nov 01, 2017 9:20 pm |
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ArtV
Joined: Thu Feb 23, 2017 3:46 pm Posts: 151 Location: Middlesex, UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
Rare and unusual ferns Particularly the dry growing species - Cheilanthes, Pellaea etc
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Thu Nov 02, 2017 8:40 am |
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davidmdzn7
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2011 12:01 pm Posts: 412 Location: Maryland, USA
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
My colder winter climate than most of you limits my list of such plants, some of which I recognize. Quercus tarahumara is surely one of the most interesting oaks of them all, but there's no way it would be fully zone 7 hardy. (also probably the case with the tragically beautiful Pinus lumholtzii) But I'm beginning to see this limitation as a kind of blessing, because my plant collecting mania seems like a mild mental disorder to me at times, as it is. If I lived in Cornwall, I'd have probably been committed by now!
In the past 5 years or so, I've managed to snag a lot of stuff I've been looking for, for some time. Camforest rarely has Taiwanias, but they had them and I got one. After seeing the famous one at Lago Maggiore, I was hooked. Likewise, I now have 2 small Dalbergia hupeana seedlings. This is the hardiest rosewood, growing for many years at the NCSU Arboretum but never offered for sale after that initial batch which I think was grown out by Woodlanders. I had to of prodding Sheffield Seeds to get it from their Chinese suppliers. Hope it's true to name. Likewise after seeing a bunch of Toona 'Flamingo' in the Dandenongs, I worried I'd have to wait years to find it. It's not as common in the trade on this side of the pond. But luckily they showed up at Dancing Oaks. I'm actually reaching a point in the garden where I think I'll have most of the truly interesting trees and shrubs that can be grown in zn 7, continental with warm-wet summers climate. Well...what I consider interesting anyhow! It's always a HUGE relief to see a rare plant in an arboretum and realize it does nothing for me. Like the Keteleeria at NCSU.
Anyhow, my #1 obsession is going to be - for a long while I suspect - Bretschneidera sinensis. There's probably only a <= 50% chance it's actually zone 7 hardy...but there's that chance. If it is, it is surely the flowering tree for a zone 7 climate. I say a long while because the fact it is so rare in the trade makes me think seed is incredibly difficult to come by.
A secondary one I suppose, would be a fruiting pair of Ilex purpurea, preferably cutting grown from the known hardy ones at the National Arboretum. They are as close to the look of a Ficus as you're going to get in this climate. It's really a shame they aren't more commonly planted. Apparently it's the most difficult holly to root of all.
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Fri Nov 03, 2017 8:49 am |
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Kev Spence
Site Admin
Joined: Mon Oct 29, 2007 3:59 pm Posts: 10902 Location: Loughborough, Leics, central UK
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Re: Holy Grail plants for 2018
I do miss my flowering Espletia and my Meryta sinclarii and Cyathea dealbata
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Tue Nov 07, 2017 10:38 pm |
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