These stately palms have long been seen in many fin de siècle drawing rooms, as backdrops on film sets and at all sorts of large events, indeed as often as simply decorating conservatories and greenhouses. Discovered on Lord Howe Island off the coast of New South Wales this Australian palm, Howeria, rapidly became incredibly popular […]

For a frost free greenhouse African Corn Lilies are one of the easier tender spring flowers to grow for cutting though left they make a grand display over many weeks. Ixias have been popular in the U.S.A. and other countries since these were first introduced from South Africa a couple of centuries ago yet have […]

Stevia rebaudiana is a tender greenhouse herbaceous perennial that hardly stands out. A foot or two high with neat green leaves and small white flowers in summer (if not trimmed off) this is just a ‘nice looking’ plant. However growing this is right on trend as it’s one of the new ‘super food’ sweeteners. The […]

A tub of Coral Drops can add one of the very brightest splashes of colour to your greenhouse or conservatory from late summer till early winter. Very easy to bring into flower and then continuing over weeks even months this was introduced from Mexico in 1850 and soon became popular in great gardens. Then as […]

The quintessential greenhouse flower is Gloxinia. This tropically splendid beauty produces wonderful displays of luxuriant blooms. Each large almost wineglass shaped flower has fleshy petals with a velvety sheen. As the petals fade the flower drops leaving an attractive star shaped calyx. These were discovered in Brazil and South America and introduced to our Greenhouses, […]

With gorgeous sky blue flowers all of summer the Blue Spider-wort is an ideal plant for a cool greenhouse. True it’s a tad lax and can flop if not supported and the waist high stems of lanceolate leaves are not exactly stunning. However continuous displays of gentian blue flowers redeems all. As these lovely blooms […]

As often found in an alpine house as a greenhouse many Bellflowers, Campanulas, are rock garden and border plants. However some low growing and prostrate species are delightful under cover for filling in around the base of taller plants with their verdant foliage and masses of cool blue flowers. Campanula is an interesting, floriferous and […]

Lobelia is a world-wide genus of uncommonly good glasshouse flowers, indeed almost every member of this large genus has attractive blooms, often coming in masses, usually in a shade of blue. Lobelia has shrubby, evergreen and herbaceous members, annuals, biennials and perennials, there are even a few hardy sorts for the outdoor garden. However the […]

Some plants, and oddly rather many glasshouse plants, have somewhat misleading common names. This gem has perversely come to be known as Cineraria though it is not a Cineraria but a Senecio. Cinerarias are so named for their soft white downy leaves like cineres the Latin for ashes. Some Senecios also have white or grey […]

The glasshouse flower if you need bloom almost any month of the year the Poppy Anemones should be more commonly grown as these are also so useful for cut flowers. Anemone coronaria is the original wild species native to the Mediterranean region and this makes it more tender than most other species many of which […]

I have written before of the tremendous value in our greenhouses from the Begonia tribe though I was mostly talking about their huge range of floral varieties. Now I am waxing even more enthusiastically about the foliage varieties of Begonia particularly B. Rex-cultorum. Rex is a term not often employed in botanical Latin and as […]