Solanum seafortheanum
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Solanum seafortheanum
- From: t*@eddy.u-net.com (Tim Longville)
- Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2000 18:48:09 GMT
Jan - I can only help negatively, by saying I doubt if it's ever been
grown in the UK! - and though I have a dim memory of having read an
account of someone growing it SOMEwhere, a quick trawl through the
books of the obvious suspects (Arnold-Forster, Jane Taylor - even the
U of Indiana lightweight monograph on the Nightshades) hasn't turned
it up. The same dim memory suggests that it's the same sort of fairly
massive and vigorous climber as S. crispum, S. jasminoides, S.
wendlandii - or even S. rantonettii when it gets the wind in its
sails. Just about all the solanums, I think, grow more vigorously if
you give them heat AND moisture, so if you want to keep the brutes
under (semi-) control, keep'em hot and dry. Even S. laciniatum in this
wet garden can make 15ft in those rare years when we have a summer
lasting longer than a week... Although they ARE brutes, I still think
they're all (well, nearly all) worth growing. I'm particularly fond of
the 'foliage' species - eg, S. mauritianum, which has survived this
mild winter (so far) quite happily and hasn't been TOO battered by our
regular gales.
Not much help, I recognise, but for what it's worth...
Cheers
Tim
on the (for once) sunny-but-chilly Solway Firth, Cumbria, UK
Tim Longville
