the ones you cant say no to

[greenbananas]

I can't resist any exotic fruit plant , citrus, kiwi, fig, grape vine, chilli, seems a shame when there looking sad and neglected on the sale display! also I am a horder of any palm and banana plant with a sale sticker on!

do you get a lot of bugs and blight etc growing lots of fruit plants?

Biggest problem i have is leaf curl on my nectarine tree, can't seem to prevent it. Having said that i do get a few dozen nectarines each year if I get them before the wasps. Chillis don't seem to have too many pests for me, generally blight isn't a massive issue for me in the midlands as its not usually as humid in summer as the south although I don't know anyone near by who didn't get it this year! The best result has been my Tahiti lime tree, although it does get a few pests I spray and wipe it every few months. Flowers like mad sets fruit and has coped with a fair bit of cold in the greenhouse it seems to be much hardier than any lemon tree I've ever bought. I can't seem to over winter a lemon tree they throw a wobbly in early spring and get lots of die back.

[DaveP]

Hmmm. Ochagavia? Got one or two from seed I raised a few years ago ... saw this and went and had a look. Broader leaves than mine ever were so I had to get one ... then I saw he was selling Dyckia seedlings (ex Cherry Cola) - potful for a tenner and that was too good to miss.

They arrived today and the potful of Dyckia (buy 5 and get a pot) turned out to be a ruddy great clump of 15 - 20 very nice young plants. The Ochagavia is a good 'un too

[redsquirrel]

they are wide arent they Dave
perhaps these are the rosea?

[DaveP]

they are wide arent they Dave
perhaps these are the rosea?

Difficult to say what they are at this stage Tony. From what I can see, 'rosea' is a mis-nomer and does not exist (well on the basis that it does not appear in the key) and may have been accidentally used for carnea. Currently there are 4 species: andina, carnea, elegans & littoralis. The identification of plants that any of us have will probably remain a mystery until they reach flowering size. In one discussion on GOTE a while back, PGP Nick indicated that those with succulent, white backed leaves are probably littoralis or andina and that his green backed Ochagavia had been confirmed as carnea. It does seem that the white-backed, narrow leaf form is andina so my original two are possible that species. If it is going to do it, this new one needs a bit of time to develop the indumentum. If it does it is probably littoralis and if it doesn't, then carnea enters the frame. I suspect that O. elegans is too rare to be in general cultivation, so we can more or less rule that species out.

[call]

for me its got to be cacti and succulent brought two more yesterday for 1 pound not very healthy but they will be ok. also bromeliads, begonias, any colo or alocaisia and plants that make you go ooooh and thats unusual.

[Kerinsian]

With me it's marked down bargains

I got three tillandsia cyaneas for 50p each last week, and a very gorgeous unknown houseplant for £2.20 (found it, it's calathea crocata). This week I picked up a nice sized fatsia variegata for £5 and a calathea roseopicta medallion marked down to £3 from £20. I think I'm about spent out for now.

Oops, forgot about the lovely big pots of cyclamen for £1 each

[tropicalwon]

With me it's marked down bargains

I got three tillandsia cyaneas for 50p each last week, and a very gorgeous unknown houseplant for £2.20 (found it, it's calathea crocata). This week I picked up a nice sized fatsia variegata for £5 and a calathea roseopicta medallion marked down to £3 from £20. I think I'm about spent out for now.

Oops, forgot about the lovely big pots of cyclamen for £1 each

Some ruddy good bargains there Kerinsian

With me I want all tropical/jungle plants-every time i look at pics on here I want them...Where and if I would ever plant them all would be a miracle and the cost wouldn't help either...................

[miketropic]

I would say anything , well almost anything variegated. It also helps alot if I have seen the plant many times and then find a variegated form of it not knowing they were out there. that and just about anything thats at least 2 zones higher than I am Im almost a zone 7 so if it says zone 9 hardy its goin in the yard