Re: Eccremocarpus scaber
Bill grant wrote:
>This Med vine from Chile - it is a marvelous humming bird draw at the
>moment. Blooms for a long period. Right now big lima-bean sized pods of
>seeds. I've never germinated them - can anyone help? Bill Grant central
>Calif.coast
It's an extremely easy plant Bill, just sow the seeds in a decent seed
compost, cover very lightly and keep moist. Germination is usually
within 14 - 20 days at normal room temperatures. They can also be
sown directly outside once all danger of frost has passed and will
rapidly seed themselves about in temperate and warm temperate areas.
They will grow well in light shade/partial sun or even full sun in
cooler areas. The only problem is their tendency to be rather weed,
forming untidy masses of stems and foliage. I have them growing
'disguised' amongst grape vines, Ipomoea indica, Pandorea and
Abutilon where the stems are discretely tucked in and the racemes of
flower allowed to poke out here and there. It is an effective and
highly attractive way of growing them. Technically it is a short
lived perennial, but you might get better results with raising fresh
from seed each year since old plants become very untidy.
There are several colour variations now widely available with the
scarlet red being replaced by pale pink, lavender mauve plus several
shades in between. All have a yellow 'mouth' to the flower. There is
also a rich, almost orange yellow form which really stands out and is
in my opinion, the best of all the colour variants.
BTW Another slender vine which might prove a 'draw' is Maurandia
(Asarina) barclaiana which grows well in similar conditions, but is
rather better behaved. The flowers are a rich purple blue with a pale
almost luminous throat. I have this rambling around and through a
large acid yellow flowered Euryops chrysanthemoides (Daisy bush) where
it makes a striking combination. Unfortunately, we do not get humming
birds on this side of the Atlantic and have to content ourselves with
a hawk moth that mimics them remarkably well. It's permanently
extended proboscis is markedly similar to the beak and the eyes
glisten in the sun, appearing to blink making it rather similar to one
of the smaller hummers.
Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK
