Getting away with it

[GREVILLE]

Pics of plants doing ridiculous things outside this winter would no doubt qualify for this thread. I'm starting this up to list any plants seen outside in public places/front gardens that simply have no right to be there at the beginning of February.

I'll start off with a siting in Camden, North London today.

An eight feet tall (including the elegant glazed terracotta container complete with slate top dressing) Phoenix roebelinnii outside the cabin of a car sales yard.

I just had to speak with the owner about it. It had been left outside in a pot far too small for it and it was always blowing over in the autumn gales. Someone decided to throw it away but the sales manager leapt to its rescue. His rescue attempt would normally have spelled certain death for the plant. He potted it up in the large glazed urn that had no drainage hole just before Christmas and put the slate chippings on top after cutting away all the damaged fronds. The top of the compost is about four inches below the rim of the container so it has remained full of water since the new year and so the bottom four inches of trunk is sitting in stagnant water. The palm has been actively growing all this time and the small head of fronds on top is in perfect condition.

Must go back to get a picture.

Challenge you all to top that

[Yorkshire Kris]

I knew they liked water but thats ridiculous! May I suggest you ask him to add a drainage hole or two?

The best I've seen around here is summer bedding still in flower plus aeoniums looking ok in my garden.

So far so good, we are amazingly getting away with it!

[rburrena]

There is a Phoenix roebelinnii planted outside a posh restaurant near Hampton court, it was planted late last spring. When I saw that they were not protecting it or lifting it for winter I thought, shame that's going to die soon. It hasn't died yet, in fact it looks pristine, it looks fantastic.

We did used to have a few Phoenix roebelinnii around here before 2009 in fact, they used to get pretty badly damaged in winter but then recover during the summer. Obviously none left after 2009 then especially Dec 2010.

I think they would do well in central London most years, until a bad winter comes along that is.

[otorongo]

I'm not going to top Greville's P. roebelenii (sp.?), but I have brugs in the ground and they're trying to leaf out (the November light frost and gales we've had for most of the winter defoliated them).

My Phoenix canariensis_CIDP is actively growing, as are many other things (if not most).

Alocasias are in leaf and pristine condition.
Canna Pretoria is in leaf.

[GREVILLE]

Visited a friend in the wilds of Surrey today who had one of my Musa basjoo pups many years ago. He successfully protects the original planting every year thanks to regular -5 to -8c lows most winters. Having planted and protected further stock elsewhere he decided this winter as an experiment to leave it uncovered.

There has been no frost damage and each of the seven stems has carried one or two fresh leaves through the winter even though they are all now in ribbons. There are also three upwardly mobile rollers accelerating out of the p-stems.

[fern Rob]

I don't think you could be that lucky most winters.

[GREVILLE]

In Herne Hill, South London, sitting under the shelter of a west facing front door porch is a perfect specimen of a six foot high Schefflera arboricola variegata. It has been there a while as the overlarge container in which it's planted has a mossy surround on the concrete from escaping water as no drip tray has been placed underneath it.

[GREVILLE]

South Circular Road at Tulse Hill in South London. Driven past many times but failed to spot until today a big Strelitzia regina in a bulky garland terracotta urn placed in a large open porch. Couldn't stop so drove past it again to confirm. No sign of flowers.

I assume it's a permanent fixture as it would be too heavy to move.

[jcec1]

South Circular Road at Tulse Hill in South London. Driven past many times but failed to spot until today a big Strelitzia regina in a bulky garland terracotta urn placed in a large open porch. Couldn't stop so drove past it again to confirm. No sign of flowers.

I assume it's a permanent fixture as it would be too heavy to move.

Have a Strelizia reginae on the balcony for a few years now, it has a couple of buds on it, I expect it to be in bloom in April, you should check your local one about that time.

[GREVILLE]

I think if the pot is too big it becomes flower shy.

[fern Rob]

Frost forecast for tonight.

[rburrena]

Frost forecast for tonight.

That rings a bell. Hmmm. Remind me, what is "frost" again? I know rain, and rain and wind and rain and wind, not sure I remember frost .

[otorongo]

No frost here but bitter cold for a few days.

The weekend of 8-9 March and onward looking glorious though

[stephenprudence]

Came very close to an air frost last night but avoided it, fortunately, but tonight I will see the first air frost for two months, that is a bonified certainty.. hopefully it won't be too bad, to stall growth on things that have started growing. Of course this won't happen in London, or many 'true' coastal locations, only inland and in frost hollows etc.

[fern Rob]

Another frost may be due tonight for my area.