Plant Names

Seen while out walking, a sweet pittosporum (Pittosporum undulatum) humming with bees. I love the smell of these flowers, and used to call it the "perfume tree" before I knew its name. I know it is considered a weed!

Today I sowed the strobilanthes seeds (Strobilanthes gossypinus) I collected in January, and some other seeds gathered from various gardens I walked past last summer. They are from a plant my mother called "kiss-me-quick", but which is apparently more widely known as red valerian (Centranthus ruber).

It will be interesting to see what comes up!

Strobilanthes Seeds

Last Friday I thought that maybe I hadn't managed to collect any seeds from my Strobilanthes gossypinus, but I was wrong.

A few remaining un-popped seed pods and the seeds.

For the record, almost all of these seeds came from the flower heads I removed early last week, when the stems still had some flexibility. Only four seeds came from the whole rest of the plant, which was already crisping up when I cut off the remaining spent flowers last Friday. I presume I had left that too late, and the seed pods had nearly all popped by the time I removed them from the plant. So if you want to collect seed, I'd recommend doing it before the stems have dried out.

Now the challenge will be working out what to do with these seeds; when to plant them, what conditions to give them. And it will be interesting to see if any of the seeds which must be scattered around in the garden actually germinate.

Strobilanthes Mystery

Earlier this week I cut off some of the spent flowers of my Strobilanthes gossypinus and brought them inside to get a closer look at them. This morning I found a couple of these outside the bag containing the pieces:

One was over 30cm from the bag they were in. I am assuming they flew out as a result of a seed pod popping open. But is this the seed?

My search for information about the seed was not successful, but Joseph from Greensparrow Gardens sent me a link to this page which shows the seeds (scroll to the bottom) of a related plant, the Persian Shield (Strobilanthes dyerianus). So it looks like what I have here may just be part of the pod, which launches the seed away from the parent. And I haven't found anything that looks like those Persian Shield seeds.

However, I still have a few un-popped pods, such as the one on the left here:

I've also collected up all the remaining flower-heads from the plant, in the hope of capturing at least some seeds. Stay tuned...

Hope

Last May, I posted a picture of the flower I didn't want to see, on my Strobilanthes gossypinus. Didn't want, because this plant is said to die after flowering. Now the flowers are finished, and there is no green left on the plant, its leaves have all gone brown.  It doesn't look like something that will grow again:

However, if you look closely at some of the spent flower heads, there are hard, chestnut-coloured things which look like they might be seeds:

The next challenge will be working out how to get them growing.

A Flower I Didn't Want To See

At least not just yet. I planted this Strobilanthes gossypinus in October 2009. In researching it on the internet I found that the plant dies after flowering, so I was hoping it would be a few years before it flowered.

It is an attractive hairy-leaved plant which has grown quite well over this summer; it is gradually filling out the space I put it in. But now, I fear it will be gone by next summer.

I've seen one other of these in the local area - I will have to walk past it tomorrow and see if it is flowering too.

Edited to add:
Here's that other example - in bud and about to flower.