That is a very interesting link for the Heterophyllus....such a valuable plant..who knew?
I used to grow fenugreek, cestrum....but I think that I ate them before they had a leaf...the leaf was a bit bitter....you are bringing it all back to me...
Good luck with your Champaca seeds.....
Here is my Michelia "bubbles"......lovely big fat buds and a sweet perfume...the new one in all the nurseries here is M."fairy"..
Very pretty too.
I've stopped buying Michelia figo cultivars as I reckon three--plus my seedlings--are enough! BTW, I won't be sowing the champaca seeds so if anyone wants to try growing them, let me know. ('Try' as in 'try them in your climate'; the seeds should germinate readily.)
Dianne, not sure how I could eat the fenugreek sprouts without leaves because they would all still have their seedcaps? I tried them for the first time (in a leafy salad) and they were OK--not as bitter as expected. This sprouter is excellent, btw: it makes the process so easy. One of the few gadgets that really is as good as it's claimed to be! I'm using only 3 of the 4 trays so far: fenugreek on top, alfafa (2nd batch) middle; brugs at bottom (more on these in the brug thread).
This message was edited Aug 30, 2011 10:21 AM
Here are those abutilon buds--they look like Vesuvius or a cross thereof. Yet to mature fully.
Here's another abutilon flower about to open: pure orange this time.
One of the good things about growing nasturtiums is that after just one growing season they've self-seeded and hybridised--this seedling has splotches.
This message was edited Aug 30, 2011 11:17 AM
And this one is a pretty apricot/peach colour.
The bud fell off Abbys Tangerine here but after all that poor little cutting was being optimistic, both little plants are budding up again already cestrum.
What interesting things you have got going on in your garden, I do like my nasturtiums too, they get very mixed up and interesting.
Loving the Bubbles too Dianne.
I just pulled out a bunch and snipped with a small pair of scissors,cestrum....But if they don't bother you then fine......
What about trying the Brugs on the top without the lid once they shoot?
I would imagine that there would be a fair bit of moisture coming down from the top 2 trays.
BTW I was reading yesterday that the perfume on Champacas is second to none...that's a big statement ...do you agree cestrum?
Yes, having the brugs on the top layer would reduce the humidity ... but it would also mean the water from them running down over the lower trays of edibles: not something I'm prepared to do! We'll see how the immature corkless seeds go but after that I'm leaving the sprouter for the edibles: they are so quick and easy to grow this way.
The champaca has a light, fresh, fruity fragrance that wafts. It doesn't smell anything like the M. figo. But--not the superb perfume that you keep reading about on vendors' websites. I wonder if someone somewhere (overseas) is growing a champaca with an exceptional perfume that is now being attributed to them all? (Just like the Buddleja madagascariensis, which is described even in my UK buddleja book as having a good perfume, but mine smells of cat pee.) The champaca scent is quite lovely but not 'second to none'. (Photo is from last season.)
It could be like the cananga--perhaps has great staying power (and concentrated fragrance) when distilled into a perfume?
This message was edited Aug 31, 2011 9:17 AM
Lol cestrum....I didn't want to poison you....keep your sprouter for your edibles....
The person who's opinion, I wrote about....also suggested that M.maudiae....was a fine plant with larger flowers and a similar perfume...I haven't seen this in the nurseries at all.
Our local nurseries including Bunnings seem to concentrate on more colourful Magnolias now..such as
Elizabeth and Vulcan.....I tried Elizabeth a few years ago, but when It grew I thought that the flower colour was insipid....so I never bought another, perhaps if I went back to that house it might be really beautiful now.
I prefer the old Soulangianas for perfume and reliability......and of course all of those that were the Michelias......
I've been burned so many times when buying plants described as fragrant in the nursery only to find, when they eventually flower for me, that they are barely fragrant and sometimes not at all. So now I tend to buy such plants only when they're actually in flower, esp. the michelias. (They'll always be michelias to me, despite the constant changes in nomenclature!)
I thought you did it with the cananga (ylang ylang)?
The abutilon? About a foot tall, all of them. They should start growing in spring--tomorrow!
Yes Ylang Ylang ...I have the Essential oil ...you would think I would get it right ...wouldn't you.
Why do I keep mixing those up? ...oh well. In the oil it smells like banana a bit until it warms on your skin ...perhaps that is why I get confused, Perhaps in very hot humid climates the perfume may be more pronounced.
Ylang ylang (Cananga odorata): yes, that's the one I thought you distilled (shown below).
It's pretty humid here in summer!
Strangest thing is that as I was walking down the street last week, I swear that I could smell its perfume: identical to what I smelled when my tree was flowering. But it was the wrong season and there wasn't a cananga in sight. (Not likely to be in that area, either.)
This message was edited Aug 31, 2011 4:21 PM
I've never smelt ylang ylang in my area before--other than from my own trees. So that's a first.
But that other elusive smell--that lemony perfume--that I've noticed in previous springs but been unable to track down hasn't started yet.
Get the Bloodhounds out...it's almost that time again....I wonder if you will locate it this year....
