CB Musings - Whats happening in market ??
The Wise know ....
No truer words spoken , or in this case cooed!
We all know the weather has been hot and dry, so planting has been pretty marginal for those with water issues. Mornings are becoming alot cooler, so hopefully the heavens will play ball in the not to distant future. At CB we are ready for when that finally happens, with the market literally bursting at the seams with beautiful lush new stock coming in on a daily basis. If you haven't been in of late, it is time you did! The place is looking amazing and we are getting wonderful feedback from the foot traffic coming through - lots of colour, foliage and form , so something to cater for all design tastes.
Our Feature plant - Tecomanthe speciosa - these stunners have just arrived in a huge 17lt grade, looking amazing!!
For those who aren't familiar with this beauty, The Three Kings vine (Tecomanthe speciosa), or
native bignonia, was first discovered in 1945 on
the Three Kings Islands (located off the northern
tip of New Zealand) during a scientific survey. The
discovery of the single plant was incredible, simply
for the fact that this plant had never before been
see, due to its entire population having been decimated by wild goat predation. As its common name suggests, the vine
belongs to the bignonia family (Bignoniaceae),
which is largely a tropical family. The genus
Tecomanthe is not otherwise represented in New
Zealand, but additional members of it are to be
found in Queensland ,Australia and New Guinea.
The Tecomanthe vine is a vigorous twining climber that grows to 10m in height. It has thick, glossy
compound leaves consisting of up to five leaflets. In autumn it bears lush, cream-coloured tubular
flowers that resemble foxgloves in shape. Its flowers emerge directly from the stem in large clusters,
spaced at irregular intervals. Tecomanthe speciosa has never been known to reproduce sexually (via
cross-pollination) in the wild, although it can pollinate itself. Its flowers have several features that
appear to be adaptations to facilitate pollination by bats. However, bats have never been found on the
Three Kings Islands
A few pics of what awaits you at Concept Botanica - come and have a look, if its not here we can get it !
Hope you have enjoyed the visual feast - hope to see you in store soon .
Till next time .....
