Excellent work Hazel, and promises of flowers showing so soon...lucky you! My Oz Celadine took 12 months to grow its first leaves so no...never give up!! How is the baby protea doing these days?
Gill.

Oh! Gill, wished you hadn't asked that! I'm afraid it has been thoroughly neglected ,has made no progress left in a cold greenhouse, and in fact looks a bit dead. Don't forget my Celadine plant is at least 10 years old and yours is still young. What do you think of the gales? I hope you are safe. It's very unusual weather isn't it? Let's hope spring will spring soon!.
Hazel.

Oops, sorry Hazel! Hope it pulls through. How are your other plants doing, read somewhere you have strelitzia buds?? How do you get it to flower each year, mine just keeps pushing leaves out.
The wind is blowing like fury here at the moment, the rooks are flying round the fields at all kinds of angles they look like black bin liners being blown off course! No damage here thanks, lucky to have escaped the first storm that hit the UK the other day as we were too far north. Hope this current one gets no worse than this. Roll on spring and the lighter evenings at the end of this month, can't wait.

Can I ask you something?....what brand of compost do you as a base when you re-pot your plumies please?
Stay safe and warm!...and dry, Gill.

Hello Gill, I do have four flower spikes on my strelitzia with one almost open. I have it in a south facing window from late October until spring and then outside all summer on south facing patio. I hardly ever fertilize it and the leaves get feathered and brown but get replaced very quickly. I think this neglect seems to suit it as it flowers well every year.
My bonsai wisteria is in flower and smells beautifully.There's a picture of it some time back on the bonsai forum. I am currently trying to bonsai two african tulip trees (one from seed one from a cutting)also a caesalpinia I grew from seed. My exhibition begonias are all sprouted and the orchids are all in flower. My paulownia is covered in buds which I hope don't abort as it has been kept outside.
For all my plumerias I use Arthur Bowers multipurpose with added horticultural grit.
It's supposed to be a warm sunny wind free day tomorrow and Jim is hoping to go fishing. He's in the greenhouse at the moment planting his vegetable seeds,he doesn't have much time for tropicals so thank goodness he never noticed the pink windowsill!!!!
Take care..Hazel.

Hazel, my strelitzia is banned from the house, as John says it's way to big at almost 5ft, and wide also, so it's banished to the g/h permanently, will try putting it outside though when it warms up. Maybe I'm feeding mine to often, it is pot bound as I believe they like that.
Found the wisteria pic...amazing work, it's stunning!!
My casalpinias look as though they could be dead from cold, well the top 3-4 inches on both are blackened but under the bark lower down its green, so they may sprout, if not have plenty of seeds left for another try!
I've been using Arthur Bowers m/p for past few years too, was just curious to see what your preference was as I know you have tons of plumies. Here's hoping for a nice weekend!
Regards, Gill...oh, just watch those windowsills this year, once and they don't always notice these things, but I fear twice is risking it somewhat!! hehe!!

Gill, Don't worry about the blackened tips of your caesalpinia as mine were like that last year and they still sprouted. My daughter bought me some new compost to try this year called Humex. I will let you know any results as I think it's good to trade good or adverse effects. I will never ever use any Gem products as a few years ago we lost nearly all seeds and cuttings after using both seed and multi compost. I forgot to tell you my adeniums are leafing up again with very fat elephantine caudexes. Lets hope they flower this year as I removed the leaders last year and rooted them to give away - big mistake as the cuttings flowered for my friend but mine didn't!
Regards Hazel.

Hazel, well I wrote a follow up to your post but goodness knows where it has gone...it isn't here!! So here we go again.....
Will keep a close eye on the casalpinas and will start some more...just in case!!
Didn't know you had adeniums also, yours sound interesting...any pics? Have you grown them from seed? My last seasons original is still with us, a bit defoliated, but alive. This seasons babies from seed are growing strongly and now have couple of sets of leaves each. Hope thet fatten up. Guess you adenium tops were already programmed to flower and did soon after rooting (like my celadine was that first year it rooted).....even though you gave them away!!
Fetched a load of compost yesterday..A Bowers again, seems to work fine for me, can't wait to get potting on this afternoon. Will re-pot the 4 plumie seedlings, they need some bigger pots this year... Celadine will just need fresh compost in same pot as it has no branches still just the single stem. The seedlings, well 3 of them grew branches soon after sprouting last spring so it will be interesting to see what they do this year..not expecting flowers obviously at this early stage, but wonder if branches will continue to grow? Celadine lost all leaves as did 1 seedling, the other 3 held onto the majority of theirs, they look a bit floppy though and not very green now.
Cheers, Gill.

Hello Gill, I will try to post a picture of the adeniums maybe tomorrow as it's a bit late tonight to bother with the camera. I grew them from seed and wasn't happy that they had begun to 'get away' so I cut the tops out and rooted them. The remaining plants have grown lots more branches and are very fat. I had trouble with the leaves going brown and shrivelling but the plants are very fat and the roots are thick and through the bottom of the pots.The leaves are coming back now. I hope they flower this year.
Jim came up with a good idea to keep the heat in the propogating bays with the undersoil cables. My begonias are now too tall have the plastic lid over to keep the heat in so he has bought a white plastic shower curtain and hung it over the front.-Brilliant!!! Cheap and cheerful!!!
I'm still hoping to be able to see if any of my other plumerias are going to flower especially as I have re-potted them all.
Didn't intend to write an epistle!!
Hazel.