Seeds, Bulbs, and Things

Sweet Mimosa. One of the most useful tropical plants that is very cold tolerant, blooms all winter through spring with honey-fragrant flowers - canary yellow powder puffs, attracting bees and butterflies. This is a large size, multi-stem thorny shrub 15x15 ft that requires some space. It is very fast growing, can be used as a good screen plant. It will bring you joy with pretty flowers and sweet fragrance even during freeze snaps when other trees lose leaves and suffer. This one will continue blooming and stays evergreen - a real survivor! Tolerates poor soils and drought too. Provide regular water to establish quicker.

Pink Cedar, Balangi, Kurungatti. Large deciduous emergent tree native to Banglades with showy red flowers.

Red Sandalwood, Saga. Popular Indian tree with many uses. The tiny flowers are said to smell vaguely like orange blossoms. The seeds are used in necklaces and ornaments, as beads in jewellery, leis and rosaries. In Malaysia and Indonesia, the trees provide shade and planted as "nurse trees" in coffee, clove and rubber plantations. Seeds are roasted and then eaten with rice in Java, Indonesia. In Melanesia and Polynesia people call it the "food tree". The seeds are said to taste like soy bean. A red powder made from the wood is used as an antiseptic paste.
Plant seeds 1" deep in otting mix, keep warm, damp and in bright light. Scarify to expedite germination.

Very rare! Anthurium vittarifolium is a South American rain forest native with beautiful, narrow leaves, that can grow up to 6 ft in length! These make an excellent hanging basket with their pendant growth and long strap leaves.

Lipstick tree, Annato. This erect shrub with large, glossy green, prominently veined leaves that can become a small tree several feet tall. It is grown as a garden ornamental less for its pale pink flowers, which last only one day, than for its highly decorative two-valved seed pods, covered with soft, deep red hairs.

Pink Angel's trumpet. It's a showy landscape evergreen plant with fragrant showy flowers. Can be pruned into a nice small accent tree. Blooms on and off all year. Easy to grow.

Yellow Bird of Paradise (dwarf poinciana)- a showy shrub with fragrant flowers for a small yard or container. Drought tolerant, cold hardy to light freeze.
Plant seeds in 1/2" depth of well drained soil mix. Keep warm, damp and in bright light.

Peacock flower, Dwarf Poinciana. Peacock flower lives up to its name with incredibly showy blossoms of orange and red. The striking flowers are an attention grabber! Soak seeds in warm water for 24 hours. Plant 1" deep. Bright light.

Pigeon Pea, Dhal, Gandul, Gungo Pea, No Eye Pea. Pigeon peas are popular food in tropical countries. Nutritious and wholesome, the green seeds (and pods) serve as vegetable. Pigeon Pea is hardy, widely adaptable, and more tolerant of drought and high temperatures than most other crops.

Tree Calliandra, Powderpuff. Calliandra houstoniana is a fast growing small tree or large shrub with fine feathery foliage and bright red fine structured powderpuff flowers. This species is very close to calliandra calothyrsis, but the flowers open fully, unlike c. calothyrsis, where the flower opens gradually from the bottom to the top.

Canna Lily. Perennial growing up to 6-7 ft, with long narrow leaves and showy red flowers. Tolerates flooding, grows well along waterline. Used in seed jewelry. This species is also used for necklaces and rosaries in India.

Popcorn Cassia, Peanut Butter Senna - A shrub or small tree producing golden-yellow flowers with a distinct scent of peanut butter that open from brown buds in late summer and autumn. Also called Popcorn Cassia, because it smells like fresh cooked, buttered popcorn when you run your fingers through the leaves and then smell. It blooms beautiful large clusters of sunny yellow flowers.
Soak seeds before planting. Plant 3/4" deep in well-drained mix. Keep lightly moist, warm and in bright light. The seeds can rot if soil is too wet.

Coffee Senna, Fedegoso, Privet Cassia. Medium size shrub or small tree with orange-yellow flowers from spring to fall. From distance, flowers look like little yellow hummingbirds and attract butterflies and bees. The plant is very ornamental not only due to its bloom but also to large, red-veined leaves. Propagation by seeds.

Kassod Tree, Siamese Senna. Leaves are yellowish green, pinnate and made up of elliptic leaflets. Panicles of yellow flowers bloom from spring to summer. Edible/Medicinal if used properly.
Soak seeds overnight, plant 1/2" deep. Keep warm, in full sun, and damp.

Beautiful free branching shrub with clusters of white fragrant flowers, resembling fountain. Fast growing. Rare plant.

Perfect vine! Blooms year-round, fast growing, easy, not invasive, controllable, not messy, curious bright blue flower - Clitoris-like flower shape, hence name of the plant.
Besides being a great ornamental, this plant has some practical and medicinal value. The seed pods are edible, as well as the flowers. The flowers are used for blue food dye for rice and teas. It is also a nitrogen fixer and helps prevent E-coli.

Perfect vine! Blooms year-round, fast growing, easy, not invasive, controllable, not messy, curious bright blue, violet or white flowers - Clitoris-like flower shape, hence name of the plant.
Cover seeds with 1/4" sandy mix. Needs constant warmth, high humidity, keep damp, in bright light.

African lilac, Jamaican lilac - Fast growing shrub with astonishing fragrant velvet leaves. Tall stalks shoot out multiple lavender blue flowers. Both foliage and inflorescence makes an outstanding display. Attracts butterflies. Leaves have pleasant tobacco-like scent.

Devil Bean, Rattleweed, Shack Shack. This low growing flowering plant has bright yellow flowers. Very easy to grow, not demanding and fast growing. Attracts butterflies and bees. Grown as a green manure, fibre crop and ornamental, the plant has escaped from cultivation and become naturalized in some areas. The plant can flower and produce fruit all year round.
This species has a symbiotic relationship with certain soil bacteria, these bacteria form nodules on the roots and fix atmospheric nitrogen. Some of this nitrogen is utilized by the growing plant but some can also be used by other plants growing nearby.
The plant contains alkaloids and used medicinally in some tropical countries.

Light-colored fruit, greenish, cream to off-white.
Tamarillo, or Tree Tomato is a small, attractive, half-woody, evergreen or partially deciduous, shrub or small tree. The fruits are juicy and sub-acid, they are eaten out of hand, added to salads, used in preserves, jams, jellies etc. The mature fruits resemble a hen's egg in size and shape and, in the West Indies, ripen from October to January. The seedlings grow rapidly and generally produce the second year. Will grow indoors with warmth and bright light.

Pleasantly fragrant, six inch white flowers flushed purple or indigo in the throat. Good for containers.

A dynamic border and container plant with large, beautifully double, frilled flowers of canary yellow. The many flowers are earlier than most varieties and will continue through to frosts. Makes a stunning conservatory plant too. Flowers mid to late summer. Height 140cm (5 feet). Sow February to March. Soak seed in warm water for 24 hours before sowing. Place seed on the surface of lightly firmed, moist seed compost in pots or trays and cover with a fine sprinkling of compost or vermiculite. Seal container inside a polythene bag and keep at a temperature of between 15-20C (59-68F). After sowing, do not exclude light as this helps germination. Keep the surface of the compost moist but not waterlogged; germination usually takes 21-60 days.

Variety with purple flowers releasing a wonderful fragrance. Good for containers. Start plants early. Germination: 2 to 4 weeks (steep in water then sow and keep warm.).