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Re: Solanum aviculare

On Sat, 20 Dec Tim Longville/Celia Eddy wrote:

>David: Don't knock the North! Remember Logan and Inverewe? I.e., it
>all (well, mostly) depends on how close you are to the sea. I'm
>perched right over the Solway so we rarely get much frost. As a
>result, I can grow stuff which friends in inland Devon and Dorset
>can't.

I wasn't knocking the north really :)  Inland Devon and Dorset can be
as bitingly cold as any other part of the UK   Only the narrow,
coastal strips are reliably semi-subtropic (for S.W. Devon & down into
Cornwall anyway).  A friend who lives up in Cumbria keeps the national
collection of Diascias and manages to overwinter many of them with
greater ease than I can.   I'm only a few yards from the sea, hardly
ever see a frost, but because of very high levels of humidity, coupled
with low light and temperatures that remain around 40/50F for the main
part of winter, a lot of plants preferring dryer winter conditions
tend to fade away.  That said, out and out tropicals are often quite
successful, despite their apparently, more tender characteristics. A
tub of Hibiscus 'Toreador'  (a rosa-sinensis hybrid) braved the very
brief, chilly snap earlier this week, to produce 3 flowers which were
open yesterday.

>I don't think I've ever grown actual S. aviculare. I certainly don't
[snip]
>laciniatum doesn't like'em either. Makes you wonder how these plants
>get on in the wild in places like Three Kings Island!

My plants originate from seed sent from Australia.  The flowers are
rich purple, saucer shaped, tending to hang slightly from slender
pedicels.  They are borne in few-flowered panicles and are up to 3cms.
or more across in their larger forms.  I'm currently doing a
half-hearted selection of larger flowered types in the hope that
eventually, I can get a stable form with the bigger flowers.  Typical
of S. aviculare proper, juvenile leaves are inequally, palmately
lobed, whereas adult foliage which develops with the onset of
flowering, is slender, willowy and profuse - each leaf being up to 12
cms. long and 1 cm. across.  It makes a most attractive, leafy  plant
with none of the coarseness usually associated with the genus and is
very easily propped from seed or cuttings.  With me, flowering is more
or less throughout the year although it peaks during spring, becoming
more sporadic during late summer and autumn.  The pale, amber coloured
fruits which are borne with ever increasing profusion, are an
interesting, if not wildly attractive addition.  

Seedlings raised in March/April usually commence flowering by mid-
summer when the plants have grown to about a metre or so.  They are
most productive between 3 & 5 years, after which, they start to
deteriorate and are best replaced with younger specimens.  This
species makes a rewarding 'standard' and can be grown up to form a 2
metre, single 'trunk' with a large, bushy head in less than 2 years.
I had half a dozen of them dotted around the place a few years ago and
they were a most attractive diversion from the more usual 'standard'
Fuchsias.  

>S.a.l. doesn't self-sow much here. Some years, not at all. Never in
>the swathes of S.laciniatum. Which is a virtue or a vice, depending on
>whether you've saved seed and on whether an exceptionally cold snap
>wipes out all your original plants.

I'll pop out to gather a couple of ripened fruits and dry some seeds
for you.  Let me have your snail-address and I'll get them off to you
after Christmas (with over 2 billion cards etc. in circulation at the
moment, it is probably safer to wait don't you think?).

David Poole
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