late season interest?

[Tim Ingram]

Tricyrtis is a genus I don't know much about, but they can be really valuable late flowers in the garden - I have seen them late into October at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. This is one I couldn't resist from a local Garden Centre - extraordinary flowers, rivalling those of Michael's Loasa. I wonder about the name because the picture tag along with the plant showed something completely different! There are species and hybrids with purple spotted and blueish flowers, but I've never come across one like this. We will collect seed and take plenty of stem cuttings next year.

[Tim Ingram]

Pressed post too soon...

[Hoy]

Tricyrtis is a genus I don't know much about, but they can be really valuable late flowers in the garden - I have seen them late into October at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. This is one I couldn't resist from a local Garden Centre - extraordinary flowers, rivalling those of Michael's Loasa. I wonder about the name because the picture tag along with the plant showed something completely different! There are species and hybrids with purple spotted and blueish flowers, but I've never come across one like this. We will collect seed and take plenty of stem cuttings next year.

The colour seems extraordinary! Never seen anything like it before

I have tried several species and I can tell you one thing: They are among the slugs' favorite food! They never last more than one season  However, I hope to grow some one day when I have solved the slug poblem!

[RickR]

I've seen only a hint of blue in the white form flowers here.  And now that I think about it, I'm not sure if it is just bluish in the spots or a tint to the background white.  Now that I have gone back to see an old photo, I see it is the former.  This, at a friend's garden:

Ticyrtus formosana 'Miyazaki'
           

A lot of people try tricyrtis here, but I think many just give up because it seems to take so darn long to establish and flower well in our short season.  But old clumps can be quite amazing.

[cohan]

That's pretty fancy, Tim, let us know how it goes!

[McDonough]

Tricyrtis is a genus I don't know much about, but they can be really valuable late flowers in the garden - I have seen them late into October at Wakehurst Place in Sussex. This is one I couldn't resist from a local Garden Centre - extraordinary flowers, rivalling those of Michael's Loasa. I wonder about the name because the picture tag along with the plant showed something completely different! There are species and hybrids with purple spotted and blueish flowers, but I've never come across one like this. We will collect seed and take plenty of stem cuttings next year.

Another mystery!  First of all, that Tricyrtis is a beauty.  I have a dismal track record with the genus, they seem to always die out after a few years, although it is worth every effort to grow such magnificent species like the golden flowered T. macranthopsis.

So what is it really?  The name Tricyrtis "abdana" is not a published name, definitely not a valid name, I realize you thought so by adding a question mark at the end .   So then I look for name corruption and possible identities.  There is indeed a plant known as both Tricyrtis 'Adbane' and more commonly T. 'Taiwan Adbane'.  So what species is it really; well based on most google hits, it seems to be a cultivar of T. hirta, although some sites list it as a cultivar of T. formosana.

[IMYoung]

I'm one of those frustrated souls who has terrible trouble trying to establish Tricyrtis here. They never seem to last and I really love them.
I've never seen a blue one like Tim's and I think it is FAB! There was a bluey-purple one shown on the SRGC - http://www.srgc.net/forum/index.php?topic=9268.msg252434#msg252434   - but Tim's blue is something else!

[Tim Ingram]

At least in relatively mild gardens this shrub must be one of the top ten for the autumn - Ceratostigma willmottianum. Keeping on with the blue theme, I know of no other woody plant of such a true gentian-blue.

[Hoy]

At least in relatively mild gardens this shrub must be one of the top ten for the autumn - Ceratostigma willmottianum. Keeping on with the blue theme, I know of no other woody plant of such a true gentian-blue.

Agreed! But I grow it in a pot Due to the very wet and cool weather the last weeks it has just started flowering.

[cohan]

That's a real delicate beauty, Tim! but if you guys are talking about 'mild gardens' that means houseplant here..lol

[Hoy]

I had one flower of a yellow Tricyrtis but now it is gone too

However these are still going strong: a Phygelius hybrid, an Anemone and Fuchsia magellanica. They all flower for months and the Fuchsia is 6ft now.

[cohan]

The Anemone looks huge too! or is it on an embankment?