Autumn flowering plants- COMING SOON.
Already the heat is slipping away and the rain returns to us here in the North West of the UK. It has been hot and dry but thankfully not as hot and dry as it has been for many I have spoken to in recent months.
Leaves on the plants are starting to change and it is evident that Autumn is rapidly heading our way, which for me means one this - a greenhouse filled with the heady sweet scent of the autumn flowering Pleione. As we know there are very few strongly scented Pleione but the autumn flowering plants more than make up for this.
Pleione praecox, and many of its variants produce a wonderful scent on those occasional warm days in the greenhouse from now until the end of November, I can smell it and so can any late bumblebees in the area so beware of leaving the door open! I once found a drunk looking bumblebee absolutely covered in the pollen from many, many of my autumn flowering plants - what a headache for many reasons.
It looks like the first up to flower for me this year will be Chi Lian Xian, followed by one of my favourites, Liz Shan 'Pretty Girl'. Once those two have got the ball rolling it become a rush of the Pln. praecox plants and its variants, I have found that the 'Thai form' is particularly fragrant and puts on a real display in a pan full.
The age old questions gets asked - what is your favourite? The answer to this is difficult as each plant has different merits, I love Pln praecox 'Reichenbachiana' for many reasons - It is a beautiful flower well held on the plant, but this will always be a special one for me as I first saw this whilst visiting Ian Butterfield and it took me a year or two to pursued him to let me have one.
Pln. x. lagenaria is another one that stands out for me and the history of this is fascinating, being able to trace it back to the original collection. Lets not forget Pln. Confirmation which is the remake of this natural hybrid.
Pln. Gelada 'Gold' has a special place as it is one of the few autumn/winter flowering plants that has a bit of something different in it - a Pln. grandiflora parent which brings new colours to the party. Pln. gelada can be tricky to get to flower but for me it flowers every year now, what works for me is that I treat gelada like most of my Spring flowering plants and do not keep it too warm as I have done this before and it caused the flower buds to abort, I grow it like a Pln. grandiflora, not like its other parent, Pln. maculata.
There are always the rarities out there and the one that attracts much attention is the notoriously fickle and some what reluctant Pln. praecox 'Reichenbachiana' semi-alba which has achieved almost mythical status. I was lucky enough to acquire this several years ago and have managed to pander to its needs well enough for it to grow and multiply, but by no means is it yet 'common'
I will be going through my autumn flowering plants in the next week to look what quantities I have to sell on, I have already populated the 'SHOP' page with picture, just not quantities or prices yet, I expect to have this done by the end of the month.
Its always tricky with the Autumn flowering plants as they start to bud when the leaves are still on and growing and by the time the leaves are dead on of the plants are either well developed buds or in flower. Chi Lian Xian looks like it is about to flower in the green for me. I have decided to ship after flowering but before root growth begins in earnest.
Happy growing.
Stu
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