Kitchen Garden Forum

Want to save airmiles?
Do what Medwyn does - grow coffi Cymreig - or for the non-Welsh-speakers Welsh coffee
Need a warm greenhouse though

Dear Alan, i wonder what his coffee will be called, Red Medwyn or maybe Medwyn house.

Not sure the Ethiopian shepherds would be terribly impressed with that comment.

Nice ones, OH.

Or maybe Medscafe or Medspresso

Hi alan, apparantly there's no reason why you shouldn't try growing your own coffee

Well, at least if you can believe this:
http://www.seedsofitaly.co.uk/product/679

Since S.O.I. are usually pretty open about things, I'm guessing this is real. However as with many slightly exotic things, I guess the devil is in the detail.

I was given seeds for a Bird of Paradise plant a few years ago. The instructions were very honest about the difficulty of getting them to germinate (involved carefully filing off one end of the seed coat on each seed!). Out of about 15 seeds, one germinated.

In a way I'm glad, as I later bought another plant and it's growing like a weed (currently split into 2 separate plants, each of which are over 4 feet tall and reaching for the ceiling!).

Colin

Hi Colin, I great Bird of Paradise which is now so big it's been rehomed at my sister's restaurant. Still hasn't flowered though and it's over 8 years old!

Dunno about the coffee though

Hi Chantal, we've had to re-pot ours several times and they do get slightly spoilt:
- The pots sit out on a garden border in the summer
- Then back into the conservatory in the winter (if there's room)

Ours have flowered on each of the last 3 years, though there's often 6-7 months between flowers. The flowers also take several weeks to unfurl, almost one "beak" at a time (they produce 5-6 beaks for each flower).


What sort of restaurant does your sister have? The B.O.P. would go well alongside Caribbean or maybe South American cuisine


Colin

Hi Colin

Mine was repotted quite a few times, very scary roots (tubers) and lived indoors all it's life.

My sister owns a Mexican restaurant which is over an arcade (also hers) and the central atrium has a balcony running around just below restaurant window level. My BoP sits there with a load of other plants and Mexican artifacts. It's better off there as there's good light and everything is watered regularly with no space problem.

http://www.lacasaloco.co.uk/index.htm

I had it in my kitchen on the window ledge and was assaulted by leaves on a regular basis

I suppose we'd better get back to the coffee, sorry Alan

I wish I hadn't seen this - now I'm wanting a coffee plant, black fig and pomegranite!

Yesterday, I went into C'fon to go shopping for chopsticks. I went into Woolies and came across a coffee growing kit. Hmm. I don't like coffee though. Tea - yes. Coffee - yuck.