Expensive architectural plants = money saving?

Joly_Roger

Money_maker wrote: »

I have lost a Dicksonia, Washingtonia and musja in the last couple of years left outside (i'm in the south east). Currently nurturing an ailing olive (left out by mistake).

Your plants seem to have been quite pricey.

Sorry to hear about your losses. Was it the last winter that you lost them?

Money_maker wrote: »

Your plants seem to have been quite pricey.

Well, I have to confess... Being a money saver those were the listed prices, but I bought some of them out of season and at half price from Homebase when they had their architectural plants sale. I've also acquired mature Cordylines, a massive and heavy Agave Americana, 2 large Yucca Elephantipes (which are now root hardy) and a large phormium for free off Freecycle. :rotfl:

point3

Joly_Roger wrote: »

Point3, thanks for your post, but with the exception of the phormium, I wouldn't consider any of the plants you listed as architectural, especially not the flowering annuals.

I disagree. 8ft high laurel specimens are very architectural. Did you just mean spikey plants?

stumpycat

Joly_Roger wrote: »

Well, I have to confess... Being a money saver those were the listed prices, but I bought some of them out of season and at half price from Homebase when they had their architectural plants sale.

:rotfl:
New gardeners are often advised to go to garden centres every month and buy what's in bloom, to ensure year round colour. I do similar, but buy what's just past its best - has the same long-term effect for a fraction of the price.
I'm keeping a beady eye on the zantedeschias in Homebase at the moment...

covgirl

stumpycat wrote: »

New gardeners are often advised to go to garden centres every month and buy what's in bloom, to ensure year round colour. I do similar, but buy what's just past its best - has the same long-term effect for a fraction of the price.
I'm keeping a beady eye on the zantedeschias in Homebase at the moment...

I love this kind of lillies, and the best thing is, that for such an exotic-looking plant they are pretty much indestructable. At least, I've never managed to kill mine :rotfl: even though they look like a lost cause when the flowers die off.
To my best knowledge I've never paid full price for any plant. Most of the people working in places like Homebase have no idea how to care for plants properly and seem to treat every flowering plant as disposable. I think it doesn't help them that most of the plants there have 'generic' labels, and especially in the case of houseplants, pretty much imply that once they've finished flowering they should be chucked. I boght a guzmania at the end of it's flowering life a few weeks back - for 50p I got a nice little ceramic holder and three offsets that will in time (okay, a long time) become three gorgeous guzmanias in their own right. So the parent plant will be chucked, but I still think I got a bargain. But I think a lot of people lack the knowledge, patience or inclination to look at plants this way.

DKLS

There is a big plant nursery in north Leeds, and I drool every time I go, they have plants trees and shrubs in every possible size.
On my last visit, within 30 mins of walking round I had mentally spent over 6K on plants!

Davesnave

stumpycat wrote: »

:rotfl:

I'm keeping a beady eye on the zantedeschias in Homebase at the moment...

As long as they're the ordinary white one, fine. If they are the new, fancy, lurid, black or sky-blue-pink ones, exercise caution.
They are not the same thing.

stumpycat

Davesnave wrote: »

As long as they're the ordinary white one, fine. If they are the new, fancy, lurid, black or sky-blue-pink ones, exercise caution.
They are not the same thing.

What's wrong with the different coloured ones? Do they bite? :rotfl:

covgirl

stumpycat wrote: »

What's wrong with the different coloured ones? Do they bite? :rotfl:

Only if you're not nice to them I've heard that they're more likely to die, even if you lavish them with love and affection.

Davesnave

stumpycat wrote: »

What's wrong with the different coloured ones? Do they bite? :rotfl:

No they flop. I've grown both kinds from seed.

My first zantedeschia seed came in true MSE style from a plant growing wild in a roadside ditch in Cornwall.:D I grew that plant on, then stuck it in the pond and grew lots of 'babies' from it.

Liking these plain white plants, I went on to get seed for a pinkish one 'Kiwi Blush,' a speckled leaved one and another with Green flowers called 'Green Goddess.' These have been available at one time or another from Chiltern Seeds:
http://www.chilternseeds.co.uk/chilternseeds/211/default/d/z/mt/c/rid/18431

All of the Zantedeschia aethiopica I've tried have been easy and almost winter hardy (I took them into a cold greenhouse last winter, except the ones in the pond of course!) Now, they seem to be hybridising too, because I have a pinkish one with shiny, speckled leaves among my newer 'babies.'

Finding the other arum lillies easy, I obtained seed of Zantedeschia rhemannii, which is the one all those fancy coloured hybrids have come from. A packet of seed resulted in about 3 plants, which did flower in a sort of dusky colour before the leaves got too long and began to flop. I dare say the hybrids are a lot better, but anyway, although I kept them in the cool greenhouse all winter, they went mushy and that was that!

So they are two completely different things; one an accommodating feature or pond plant and the other a conservatory plant that needs more care than many. However, if you have the time & patience, then z. rehmannii might work for you in the way that orchids work for some people.

Let's face it, I'd probably kill DW's orchids within a month, if she'd let me near them!:rotfl:

Davesnave

Thinking about this, one of the cheapest architectural plants I've grown is Paulownia tomentosa, the Foxglove Tree. The seed is not expensive, but I get mine from the pods that fall from a tree in our local Botanical Garden. These germinate like cress, so any number can be produced.

After about 3 years a Paulownia will look like this:




You then have a choice: cut the plant back every year and it will throw up a single stem with huge leaves, or let it develop into a tree, which will have large lilac flowers in spring.

After the first winter, when it needs a bit of protection, Paulownia is hardy, here in the south.