Handed's Plant List

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Plant	Status	Notes
Clematis (Clematis tangutica Golden Tiara™)	Have	Slow to establish in zone 8a, yet to flower.
Clematis (Clematis viticella 'Polish Spirit')	Have	New. This is to go with my yellow climbing roses Golden Showers and Golden Gate.
Fire Lily (Clivia miniata)	Have	Orange flowered and yellow flowered forms. Both are the same in growth habit, and growing in the same pot. The yellow one always flowers slightly later but is also younger. The flowers are in early spring and are long lasting. Good dry shade plant, needs some protection from frost in zone 8a. Like to be crowded so suit pots. Mine are under a south facing verandah (Southern Hemisphere). Slowly build up to ever increasing clumps.
False Autumn Crocus (Colchicum autumnale)	Have	Uncertain of the ID for this as it was just sold as Colchicum. Resembles the photo by robertduval14 but not the one by CLUSIANA. I used this as an edging plant but the foliage is too long to suit this purpose, though the flowers are lovely as edging. Flowering in Autumn, bare flowers emerging straight from the ground, foliage emerging in early spring and growing through spring and summer to die off in the heat of mid to late summer. So these are hard to position in the garden, as they need an area of bare soil for parts of the year, and it would be hard to find something that screens the dieing foliage without obscuring the flowers that follow soon after. Perhaps pots that can be moved? Bulbs multiply to form clumps and tufts of flowers from these clumps are dramatic. They have faint tesselation similar to Frittilaria meleagris, but soft lilac pink in colour and crocus shaped.
Forest Cabbage Tree (Cordyline banksii Electric Pink™)	Have	Showy and grows well in a pot, but doesn't do well if it dries out and while it survives zone 8a winters, it looks ugly for a while afterwards.
Kousa Dogwood (Cornus kousa subsp. chinensis 'Satomi')	Have	This was sold to me as Satomi, but I'm not convinced as I've seen no pink on the bracts, they are just white. Nevertheless a stunning small tree, quite slow growing, elegant in every season, stunning in flower during late spring, in fruit in late summer and in Autumn leaf. Here in 8a it flowers reliably every year, though in its first five years afterw planting it skipped alternate years. Autumn colour can be ruined by a dry Autumn though, if you cant keep up with the watering. A bonus is that the fruit taste delicious and the seeds germinate easily, so seedling plants grow up around the tree which are easy to transplant.
Cornelian Cherry (Cornus mas 'Jolico')	Have	New.
Hazel (Corylus avellana)	Have	Three varieties: Cosford, Wanliss Pride and Red Avelline. New.
Smoketree (Cotinus coggygria Golden Spirit™)	Have	Took some years to establish, but very stunning spring foliage, bright gold with reddish edges. Colour dulls but remains golden throughout the year, then takes on various tones in Autumn, unfortunately by this time the foliage has become a bit ratty from the sun and wind, but it is still attractive. About to flower for the first time, perhaps in mid spring. Tree grows slowly and remains small.
Dutch Crocus (Crocus 'Yellow Mammoth')	Have	The most vigorous Dutch Crocus I have tried. Large flowers and the earliest to flower as well, in late winter/very early spring. This one may naturalise, seems to be increasing.
Saffron Crocus (Crocus sativus)	Have	Easy to grow, not fussy about soil or moisture, prefers it dry, likes full sun. The flowers are quite attractive, typical crocus form in pale lavender with the bright orange style and anthers. The stigmas are meant to be be collected when the flower is first opened, but if you miss them they are still good to collect after the flower has withered. Can save you big dollars if you like to use saffron in cooking. They naturalise well and multiply in the ground.
Snow Crocus (Crocus tommasinianus)	Prev	Died out without flowering, perhaps soil is too heavy or too crowded by other perennials.
Spring Crocus (Crocus vernus 'Grand Maitre')	Have	This one is large and dark violet-purple. It flowers in very early spring, just after Yellow Mammoth, just before Jean D'Arc. I'm not sure if it will naturalise here, seems to be decreasing rather than multiplying.
Dutch Crocus (Crocus vernus 'Jeanne d'Arc')	Have	Large stunningly pure white flowers, quite a lot of blooms, but they don't last very long. Flowers in very early spring just after Grand Maitre, nice with Hyacinths (I have it in amongst Woodstock). Has died out in the past but this planting has survived for several years and seems to be multiplying slowly.
Spring Crocus (Crocus vernus 'Pickwick')	Prev	Died out over a few years, not suited to naturalising.
Crocus (Crocus vernus 'Remembrance')	Prev	Died out over a few years.
Turmeric (Curcuma longa)	Have	Long dormant period means new shoots don't emerge until frost risk is over. Able to multiply successfully in a very large pot of loose, free draining potting mix, in a sheltered area against a west facing wall but with adjacent building sheltering from the east also. Not demanding, one of the most health beneficial plants that exist. Great in curries. Doesn't flower in zone 8a, although may in a greenhouse.
Sago Palm (Cycas revoluta)	Have	Very tough, growing in a pot, tolerating drying out and frosty winters as well as heat and sun. Slow growing, very prickly foliage, not for placing near pathways. Very dark green attractive palm-like leaves around a short thick trunk. Mine has not flowered yet.
Dahlia 'Bambino'	Have	Fairly new. Planted in large pots to find out flower colour before placing into garden. Single daisy-like flowers with yellow centres come in yellow, white, light pink, cerise pink and red. In the first year grew only to about 30 or 40 cm high, shoots and leaves had some problems, with parts blackening and dieing back. Dead-heading and light pruning over summer is important to keep this looking tidy.
Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'	Prev	Highly recommended, great burgundy/blackish foliage colour, manageable size around a metre, and vivid red flowers. Survived for a number of years but probably died in a wet winter due to heavy soil.