I think this is called a pineapple lily but am not 100% sure. Can any one tell me if it is known by that name. I have mislaid or lost the plant tag.
Pineapple lily?
Yes, thats pineapple lily (Eucomis). E.bicolor seems to be the most common form I see, but yours looks a bit more showy.
Thanks Gemini for that confirmation and for the Latin name as well. Seems that my memory is not completely shot after all. LOL
Yours looks like E autumnalis, flowers all white.
http://aolsearch.aol.co.uk/image?query=%27eucomis+autumnalis%27
Thanks Wallaby, yes the flowers are all white. I didn't realise there were so many coloured sorts of pineapple lily.
don't you just love this plant? I have the white, the pink and just bought a new one, has burgundy leaves and I think flowers are pink, but again, this one is too new for me to talk about.
I have a few different ones. E bicolor in the garden, on of the three is unknown to an expert, they both self seed easily in my garden.
I have E pole-evansii which can grow to 5 or 6' tall, it has struggled but last year it was hot and has improved.
E. vandermerwei 'Octopus' which is a selected cultivar with more maroon colouring, it all but expired after last winter, I chopped it up and put the pieces in the propogator and I have a tiny bulblet formed. I got some seeds of E vandermerwei from silverhillseeds and have 5 growing.
E Joy's Purple, which has some purple on the leaves and pink flowers, it grows but has yet to do much.
I bought one called Peace Candles, which I think is E comosa 'Cornwood', it flowered last year, it's fairly tall and has a gorgeous scent, I found a site in the US which has the same one bought with the same name.
I have seeds sown of E montana, hoping they will grow, they should have come in October which is a good time to sow them but got them late. It has dark purple eyes.
There's two pages of them here,
http://www.pennardplants.com/photogallery.html?cat=5
wallaby, my new one is Sparking Burgundy. Isn't it a beaut? I hope I don't kill it.
That is a beaut, one you do see sold quite a lot here. That is fairly hardy but I don't have it yet!
So interesting to read your posts, it has opened a new world to me. So one can collect the seeds too. Shall I leave it on the plant until the flowers die away and then take it off the plant?
You can do that if you wish, my E bicolor has grown very well in gaps within a few feet of the plants, they have been through very hard frost (-9C) even as young bulbs close to the surface and it didn't bother them. They eventually place themselves lower in the ground, I had some flower in their 3rd year.
They do need to be cool to germinate, 16-18C is about right, and fresh is best.
This is a self set from the unknown one, it is like bicolor with flowers the same, the top knot was a little smaller, but the leaves are a bit bigger and more wavy and paler, no spots on them or the stems. I had a couple flower this year, and got a few seeds before they dropped, the seeds on bicolor are round, these are pointed at one end and larger.
The original bulb split up into around 25 growths, which shouldn't happen, I split some off and sent it to the expert as well as a self set. It still makes too many stems to flower properly, occasionally it makes some. The E bicolor split into 3 stems too, they are supposed to make only one., I just leave them and their offsets to do their own thing, the foliage is an attractive space filler. They are not supposed to be overly hardy here but manage in my garden well, they like some shade, and do best in the ground, if they get too hot they droop.
This is a bicolor self set, and I think the unknown one behind it, see the spots on bicolor.
E. bicolor on 12th Sept 05, they are late to grow and flower here. See the stem of another flower at the side, it's very spotted.
I found some pics of some first year flowering self sets in the next bed to the parents, I think these are only in their 3rd year and this was on 4th August, a hot year where 2005 was cold, it does seem to make a month's difference.
Now looking at them, I'm wondering if some traits are crossing to each of the types, other than the spots. The spotty ones have leaves a little more like the unspotted one, the unspotted one on the right also has a large topknot, one of the bicolor has a smaller topknot. You can see another self set at the rear with very long leaves, they look like bicolor, narrower and darker, but are longer.
The one I believe to be E comosa Cornwood made a few seeds, it was late to flower, the seeds are very small and round. I have it in the greenhouse still, it's possibly a little more tender and didn't seem to mind the heat, although I left the greenhouse door open and it got some shade. It has started to grow again just as the old foliage died back, the last few days has been extremely cold, to -7C in the GH, but the new growth tip looks OK. I had an E comosa given free when I bought the others, it expired after last winter's lengthy cold (I don't think it grew well for a start) but this one didn't, thankfully!
It has a very tall flower stem, the best one I have got, the scent is sweet and strong.
That is a very tall spike, looks so good. Your photo really shows off its little flowerets. I have heard that Britain has had a lot of snow in the last few days, I guess you have a few more weeks before it starts to warm up.
When you say 'grrenhouse', is that what is known here as a glasshouse. We have one of those but have not used it yet, well, not for plants, my husband is using it as a storage shed at the moment. He has just installed an automatic watering system in all the gardens and used it to sort out all the bits and pieces. It will be used in late winter to start off vegetable and flower seeds. It is so hot being in there that he put up some sahde cloth over the outside but still had to have a fan to try and bring the temp down so he could be in there to find the piece he wanted.
We have a potting shed next to it which has some cuttings growing on in there.
Yes it's the same thing, it can be hot if in full sun here, my neighbours gets full sun in the summer, I use it for tomatoes and peppers. Temps in his can rise to 50C, that is the thermometer with sun on it.
I think your husband needs a workshop!
That car is so hot! Hope he has air conditioning in it!
My dh has a double garage for his workshop which is chock full of mens toys and he has even taken over the patio table for the irrigation work.
The car sit outside all year round, while the pick up truck is in the carport! He is a handyman's handyman which is really helpful for me but the downside is one very rarely ever gets a new appliance.LOL
For comparison:
jmorth, those are gorgeous! Great to see a side by side comparison :)
Is that pole-evansii at the back?? And those are it's banana-like leaves? What do you feed them! They certainly look to be doing well.
ferrymead, it's the greenhouese temps at 50C but the thermometer possibly gets to more than the air temp (still hot), it has 4 automatic windows openers but only one worked last year, hottest year on record! There is also 2 slatted vents at the bottom of the panes on the rear end but only one of those was working too, with pots buried in the ground the tomatoes coped well with a shade net, peppers loved it, there is a double door and a window was jacked open.
It's great to have a handy man around, but they do tend to be territorial with their sheds, I doubt you will ever get to use the greenhouse for plants!
Wallaby.... had to go back and read your previous post.......ON, I see, temperatures in his CAN, not car as I read it. LOL, my eyesight is not too good these days and I do misread words.
We used to have commercial glasshouse in which we grew our flowers and keeping the temperature down was a real mission, we had to put up shade cloth inside the houses and had fans installed and even with that and all airvents and doors open we could never work in there past 11.30 in the morning..
Pic is from August I think. E. pole-evansii is the larger, the leaves are quite large. The flower scape is around 42" if I recall correctly. Both were fed with Miracle Grow. The lesser pineapple lily is Eucomis comosa (again, if my memory serves me right).
Pic herewith is evansii bloom.
The leaves stand up so well, I think mine has a way to go yet to flower, but I don't give it miracle grow and it lives in the greenhouse over winter. Do you keep yours in a basement?
The pineapples are kept in the basement over winter. They're left in their pots without water till spring. Usually every other spring they'll get repotted, otherwise potted on. The E. comosa seem to multiple fairly prolificly. I've had them for years. The pole-evansii will see it's third summer here this year.
Be aware - Last year I bought a Sparkling Burgandy, in a few weeks with the summer sun, it's pretty purple leaves turned green as could be. I called the lady I bought it from and she said for the first time, her's had also turned green. She thought it was the very hot dry season we had?? I also bought some babies from her that did the same thing. Anybody else have this problem?