Rose grape, Medinilla magnifica, Melastomataceae

Rose grape Medinilla magnifica is high on my lamentable list of 'plants that I wish I'd taken better care of'. I bought one in the spring, it flowered well through the summer, struggled through a winter in my cool  conservatory, had a final flourish of flowering in the following spring then keeled over and died. But while it lasted it lived up to its specific name and was truely magnificent. It's an excellent plant for growing in a pot on a high shelf, so that you can look up and appreciate its spectacular dangling inflorescences.

 

Medinilla magnifica is native to the island of Luzon in the Philippines, where it often grows as a large epiphytic shrub on trees. I visited Luzon a couple of times about 25 years ago, without being lucky enough to see it flowering in its native habitat - but if I could afford a fully heated conservatory with supplementary lighting in winter, it would be first on my list of plants to acquire again.

The Melastomataceae is a tropical family - you can find more on another member of the family that's much easier to cultivate as a house plant here.

Tibouchina urvilleana

Our garden is currently hidden under several inches of snow but the Tibouchina urvilleana plants in our small conservatory, which would be more at home in tropical Brazil than in freezing north-east England, are in full flower. Each bloom only lasts for a couple of days but they are produced in a long succession through the darkest months of winter. These plants have very unusual flowers, with two types of stamens. The lower, claw-shaped ones are the genuine article, producing pollen that is squeezed out of a pore in their tip when they are pushed downwards, but the upper ones with pale tips are sterile 'food' stamens that attract bees. They use the pollen- bearing stamens as a landing pad and unwittingly transport the pollen.

Tibouchina urvilleana grows into a greenhouse shrub but old, woody plants soon become shapeless and their brittle stems easily snap. I've found that the best way to grow them is to take semi-ripe cuttings in summer, when they root very easily, producing compact plants with plenty of 3 inch diameter flowers from November onwards.