Back in 2007 I purchased a small seedling of a type of Jacaranda that I had never heard of before; I purchased it from XOTX-Tropico. I was told it had the darkest purple flowers of any of the Jacarandas, so of course I couldn’t pass it up. Once I got it home I checked on Google to…
Fernandoa magnifica flowering in Southern California
In the summer of 2010 I went on a flowering tree buying spree. I wanted to add a few hard to find, but even harder to grow, flowering trees. One of the plants I acquired was a small Fernandoa magnifica that I purchased from Top Tropicals in Florida. Other than a few photos found on the Internet, not much…
‘Ohi’a lehua (Metrosideros polymorphs “Spring Fire”) flowering in the garden
‘Ohi’a lehua (Metrosideros polymorpha) is the most common and variable of all native trees found in Hawaii. Because it is such an extremely variable plant, this plant in its native habit ranges from a large shrub to a towering tree that blooms in shades of red, yellow, orange, salmon, or even pink. I grow Metrosideros…
My Radermachera ignea seed has germinated
Today I was presented with some good news on the seed germination front. When I popped the lid on one of my germination chambers I found that my Radermachera ignea seeds had started to sprout. This is my third attempt to germinate seed of this beautiful tree. I believe the first two failures were due…
Meryta balansae – a rare New Caledonia gem
One of the main reasons I started my blog was to introduce new plants to people and hopefully give them a few more brushes from which to paint their landscape. Back in the spring of 2007 I was lucky enough to purchase my first Meryta balansae. At the time no one was known to be…