xyzzy

What you can grow in Wiltshire will probably depend how close to the sea you are. On the very coldest Devon nights there can be 10 degree C difference between the coastal temprature and the inland temperature!

I will let you know how badly my Ensette Maurelli gets knocked back by our UK winter. I would be astounded if it did not make it, as currently it is doing better than my basjoo which have got squishy pseudostem leaves, though or course the Ensette Maurelli pseudostem is very big and I suspect smaller ones the width of my Basjoo plants would be far less tolerant.

Yes, if your plant is 6ft, it will probably be 12-14ft by the end of next year. The bigger they are the faster they grow.

Outdoor Bilbergia Nutans in Devon is currently in bud, but not yet in flower. Flowering them outdoors can be difficult because although slugs don't eat the leaves, they consider the flowers a real feast! If you can control the slugs they would flower outside during feb without any problems.

Good luck

__________________
There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

edd82

I live near Bath so not as close to the sea as I would like. Looking at Google Earth it's around 35 miles from my village to weston-super-mare and maybe 25miles to Portishead so I guess i'm too far inland to get the warmer coastal temps.

It's funny you say that about the Basjoo as mine is looking rather squishy too. the leaves fell off early in the winter so I put garden felt over it to see if it will save the P-stem. It's not looking great but it's the first time i've tried so we'll see.

Wow, I can't wait to see Maurelli at 12 feet, that's monsterous compared to the other plants in my garden :-)

Unfortunately my garden suffers with slugs and woodlice very badly. I'm actually debating cutting up my strawberry patch as every year the woodlice get to them before I do, it seems like such waste. The slugs are just as bad but with a little persitance I could prob keep them under better control than the woodlice. I've got lots of new shoots/pups coming off the Bilbergia so I might try planting some out in the spring and leaving the some in the house for comparison. I'm suprised that they flower so early but i'm glad to hear that with some help it may very well flower in my garden. Do you know if they need a sunny spot or could it flower in a more shaded area? (sorry I should google it really).

Thanks for the info.

__________________
Packaging Shop - Bubble Wrap, Tape, Envelopes and general Packaging Supplies

xyzzy

Bilbergia Nutans flower just about anywhere they don't get eaten by slugs. You can grow a lawn out of them! They flower in shade or in full sun.

As for the M Basjoo, they can often get squishy outer leaves on the p-stem, which eventually dry out and die off, but that just means the stem gets a bit thinner and normally quickly thickens as the new leaves come up next spring. I have only ever known a full p-stem to go through frost once ever. End of feb they will no doubt start growing again.

I note M Sikkimenisis thinks winter has ended now and is growing it's first 2009 leaf now.

Surprisingly M Itinerans outside (under trees in the orchard - happy there but won't take wind chill) are not growing yet.

Have you tried growing Swiss Cheese plants outdoors in sheltered places, e.g next to walls or under trees? They survive here out all winter and flower in January. Even a very hard frost only gets the leaves and they come up again, but most years, even this one, they don't even lose leaves (Again, they lose their leaves if the slugs eat them!). Warning, Swiss Cheese plants will not tolerate full sun.

__________________
There is no such thing as can't grow it - but the determination required may lose you your partner, family and friends - but does that matter?.

griphuz

Yes,....meaning? What I was trying to point out was that one year, or for that matter even 10 years does not change a climate-zone.
So even if you have 5 or 10 very mild winters on a row, the climate zone will not be moved,...it's very well possible that the next 5 or 10 years will give very cold winters,....you never know,....but the averages are calculated over longer times.
The Netherlands for that matter is a zone 8b at the warmest part if I'm correct, zone 9 is pure wishfull thinking aka fooling oneself with warm thoughts