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What is this bush/tree/plant?

gentlegreen said:
The "trunk" made me think of dracaenas, but I couldn't find any with such broad leaves ...
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Looking at images on Google I'm pretty sure you're right, it's just had the crown lifted. It has the characteristic fiddle shaped leaves.

I've just bought one off Ebay and will do the same as with all the leaves it looks quite a messy plant, but with the crown lifted it's quite elegant and architectural. I've found one of those old bamboo plant stands to put it in too, but with legs and a more interesting bamboo frame and wicca (or similar) weave.
 
ficus.jpg
Ficus has arrived. Not that keen as it comes, it's not very interesting or attractive as a single stem with leaves, so I've just cut it right back. Bit late in the year but hopefully it'll branch where I've pruned it and then I can strip the lower leaves off.



57cd02bb0c903015de721c9ce4377e5f.jpg
 
Well at least it should cope with low light in a way yuccas or dracaenas won't.
I was always amazed at a colleague's ficus benjamina that thrived mostly on fluorescent light :)
 
Leafster said:
Any idea what this fungus is? It's growing around the base of a dead bush. Each one is probably no taller than 10cm.

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It's not considered edible mainly because it's tough and tricky to eat. I grate or finely slice dead mans fingers over food, like truffles, and I reckon you could do similar with coral fungus.

But more interestingly, it's a good medicinal fungus.

This paper looks at several species of coral fungus, including R. stricta.

Chemical and Bioactive Profiling, and Biological Activities of Coral Fungi from Northwestern Himalayas

If I had this growing near me I'd definitely be harvesting it and making a broad spectrum extract with it.

And studying it more thoroughly so as to use it properly.
 
It's my main reason for growing them - and it varies from plant to plant.
One bloom can scent a room 20 feet away when the conditions are right.
 
gentlegreen said:
It's my main reason for growing them - and it varies from plant to plant.
One bloom can scent a room 20 feet away when the conditions are right.
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I think she'll like that. I've bought a yellow and red one, do you know if it will survive outside all winter? Googling seems to suggest some are hardy enough and some are not. I'm in London so fairly warm.
 
In London they will probably be root hardy if you heap leaves or straw on them and aren't sitting in wet soil.
If you have small plants in pots, you should bring them indoors to somewhere cool.

I grow mine in massive tubs and haul them into the greenhouse before the frost gets to the trunks - they're glorified tomato plants after all ...

If you start from scratch every year they probably won't flower until early august. If you can start them off on old wood, they can flower in June.

Ideally if growing in containers you would root prune them every winter.
The key thing I learned is that they like having room for the roots - I used to start them in 15 litre buckets the first year. These days I go straight for the 70 (?) litre tubs.
My somewhat "tarty" pink one has turned into a monster planted straight in the ground.
 
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The red and yellow one sounds like sanguinea - pollinated by humming birds I think - so scentless -I bought my first one this year and I'll be getting it into the greenhouse soon - I want the flowers up high where I can see them.
 
I have actually had this identified elsewhere, but it had me flummoxed - I bet campanula will have encountered it - my gardening has mostly been relatively sterile - so few varieties of wild plant.

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campanula said:
Looks like weld - reseda luteola...although a combination of rubbish eyesight and even worse monitor means my ID attempts are...variable.
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How could I not have known about another smelly brassica relative with similar uses to woad and with a French popular name ?
It has erupted from disturbed ground near a fishing lake I pass every morning.
I will collect seed, but will definitely be checking out the smelly species - mignonette for its allegedly "ambrosial" scent :)

What I especially like is that blue from woad plus yellow from weld = Lincoln Green. :cool:
 
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I saw (or rather, smelled) reseda odorata growing in drystone walls in Cockermouth Castle and yep, it really does have a warm, musky scent - not unlike the clove-y aroma of stocks. It is easy-peasy to grow - Chilterns sell seeds so throw some in a pot along with night-scented stocks and maybe the white nicotiana affinis for a really fragrant summery blast of deliciousness. It doesn't have that 'heavy' tropical whiff that you get from Brugs, paperwhites, sambac jasmine or oriental lilies (which makes my head ache)...but has a sort of baking/cooking vanilla and spice thing.
gentlegreen said:
In my case I went through ... mercury ... amaranth ... even plantain ...
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Yep, I fleetingly considered lysimachia ephemerum and even clethra until I focused on the lanceolate toothed leaves (rocket!)...and getting on the right track.
 
I'd given up on night-scented stocks - they always end up so spindly and bedraggled - I probably should have done what they say and mix them with other stocks - but mixing them with mignonettes sounds like a good idea :)

I'm hoping to grow nicotiana affinis again this year - having given it a couple of years since all of mine were wiped out with downy mildew before they got to any size - darn, I've forgotten what I read the other day about a possible treatment.

You saying that about paperwhites means I'm going to have to buy some now. :D

I buy a bunch of oriental lilies every couple of weeks for the bathroom and only occaisionally does it get a bit too much for me.

EDIT :- I remember now - colloidal silver - it has to be good for something ...
 
gentlegreen said:
I'd given up on night-scented stocks - they always end up so spindly and bedraggled - I probably should have done what they say and mix them with other stocks - but mixing them with mignonettes sounds like a good idea :)

I'm hoping to grow nicotiana affinis again this year - having given it a couple of years since all of mine were wiped out with downy mildew before they got to any size - darn, I've forgotten what I read the other day about a possible treatment.

You saying that about paperwhites means I'm going to have to buy some now. :D

I buy a bunch of oriental lilies every couple of weeks for the bathroom and only occaisionally does it get a bit too much for me.

EDIT :- I remember now - colloidal silver - it has to be good for something ...
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Mmmm, colloidal silver - an expensive but relatively effective fungicide and anti-bacterial agent but not, I think, of much use in combating downy mildew (as opposed to powdery mildew which can just as easily be seen off with milk). If you have DM in the garden, nicotiana alata might actually be a lost cause - the only resistant varieties, afaik, are n.langsdorfii and the related n.'Tinkerbell'. You might try different tobaccos such as the taller night-scented sylvestris or the dainty n.suaveolens (I am on the lookout for seeds of n.noctiflora too).
I forget you are fond of fragrant plants, Gentlegreen so let me also recommend the lovely night-scented catchfly, zaluzianskya ovata (you can get seeds for z.capensis but they are never as good as the n.ovata which I have only come across already grown - easy to split though). It is a relative of our native catchfly - silene noctiflora...although the less hardier Cape version. You could, of course, sow a few silene also.
The nightscented stocks are feeble little things but are good to hide away on the edge of a pot with some more floriferous inhabitant.
Are you forcing hyacinth right now? (another plant I find too overbearing indoors).
 
This is growing in my friends garden. The fruits go an orangey colour and are, I think, edible. But I'd rather be sure first.
20180401_113555.jpg
 
I've not eaten the fruit, they look similar to apricots soso probab treat the same way.

Try some first as it seems not all cultivars produce sweet delicious fruits. They are supposedly best when orange in colour.
 
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