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Hardenbergia violacea
It always surprises me in late January when these bright violet little pea-flowers erupt high up under the lights of the conservatory. The Australians, who see it scrambling everywhere, call the plant the coral pea. Here it lavishly repays its very modest keep (a ten inch pot occasionally watered), is unremarked for most of the year, then bursts out rejoicing just when we need it most. In February the temperature just under the glass must hover close to freezing (and rise to baking when the sun comes out).
More surprising still, this year it has the company of a Solanum ignoring the cold. S. laxum ‘Creche ar Pape’ (can this be right?) is a variety Beth Chatto www.bethchatto.co.uk pressed on us last summer. It smothers a wall in her garden, white flowers shaded pale purple. Nothing made me think it would flower in February here, coming as it does from Brazil. Now I come to think of it, seeing it with the snow outside, it is almost snow-shadow blue.
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