Kew-eries

I slipped in a quick visit to Kew on Sunday as part of a few days in
London and, as usual, came away with a notebook full of scribbles
about desirable plants. Most of them turned out to be New Zealanders
or Tasmanians so I wondered if our down-under members might be able to
provide some more info about them (or Calif members, if any of them
have found their way there).

First a general question. Why are plants from Lord Howe Island only
possible (and then only barely) in the most mild UK gardens? Is it
purely a matter of winter temperatures? Or is it also a question of
summer heat? And/or soil conditions?? 

Some examples from that island's flora which caught my eye:

To Dietes robinsoniana (which does, occasionally, get grown over here:
the writer Eden Phillpotts grew it in Torquay before World War I, for
instance; though I don't think anyone's offering it commercially at
the moment) on my list of 'Desirable But Probably Impossible' I can
now add: Metrosideros nervulosa (at Kew a 5'x5' bush with broad thick
leaves); Drypetes deplanchei, a tree although a member of the
Euphorbiaceae, with a particularly clean bold whitish trunk and
sizeable glossy evergreen leavaes; and (slight doubt about my own
scrawl here so excuse any errors of transmission) Randia stipularis, a
big 10ft shrub with broad bold fig-like leaves, though it's in fact a
member of the Rubiaceae.

Tasmanians are normally better bets for us in the UK, certainly for
gardeners on the west coast. Why, then, is the splendid Doryanthes
palmeri so marginal? (Dave Poole will almost inevitably be growing it
in Torquay of course! Ha!) Does it come from very low down and so from
a virtually frost-free environments? Or is there some other necessity
we're by and large failing to provide, apart from frost-free-ness?

And one for the New Zealanders proper. I'm very fond of pittosporums
and P. fairchildii looked a distinctly pretty one, a shapely big bush
with elegant little evergreen leaves. So why don't we grow it over
here? Is it a North Islander which won't stand a whisper of frost? Or?


TIA for any information  - including, of course, if any of these seem
even marginally possible (outside Torquay!), any leads towards
possible sources of seed...

Tim
back from balmy Kew (the ultimate Spring Sunday morning yesterday,
with folks sunning themselves in shirtsleeves) and re-installed on the
Solway where it is, well, you know what it's doing, don't you?


Tim Longville
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