11 Plus Exams Forum

Hi,

When i say unusal- it is only unsual to grow at home in the uk. I am sure all of you must have heard about curry leaves.

I am trying to grow the curry leave plant at home, and this is my first time.

The tender plant which i received is now planted in a 4liter pot ,and looking healthy in organinc compost and i water it a little every other day. My query is how to pick leaves, when the plant has established. If i cut a whole stem off, what will happen. If i pick just some leaves, then would they grow back. What i am actually asking is, how to keep the plant healthy and growing, when i would be picking leaves.

How else could i take care of the plant. I have kept it on the window sill, which gets the best sunlight, and the room is usally 15-20 degrees warm, sometimes even warmer in the summer. Has anyone grow curry leave plants at home....do they give seeds and flowers...well i am sure they do but i have not seen it myself. What do i do when they give flowerss, do i have to pick it, so that most nutrition goes to the leaves.

As you can see, i am most excited with this new venture. So any tips or advise from plant lovers, garderners are most welcomed.

Thanks

This might help http://www.logees.com/pages/articlecurry.asp" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

I did wonder what unusual "herb" this might be

scary mum wrote:I did wonder what unusual "herb" this might be

Glad I'm not the only one who thought like that.
I thought curry plant was an outdoor one.

This is completely different to the curry plant I grow, outside, at home.

I've never seen this one before.

Which of course is where 'common names' for plants can lead to confusion

The garden plant we call Curry Plant (Santolina something-or-other?) gets it's name because it smells like what we think of as 'curry', generically. 'Curry leaves' give a different flavour (and aroma) from the scent of the Curry Plant, so to speak. I only ever buy them dried - I can kill anything in the houseplant line stone dead just by bringing it into the house...

Santolina is cotton lavender and in my mind stinks like moth balls.

Curry plant is Helichrysum italicum and smells of curry.

ToadMum wrote: I can kill anything in the houseplant line stone dead just by bringing it into the house...

Could you pop round then TM? Our inlaws foisted a hideous orchid on us 2 years ago. I cannot bear the thing - looks like some kind of floppy white fungus on sticks - and neither can 2 of my children. However, DOH inexplicably likes it and one of my children, despite what I think of as a good moral upbringing, surrounded by nice tasteful things, has obviously inherited some kind of rogue gene from the paternal side and likes it too. I assumed these things lasted for one Christmas and then dropped dead but alas no - an orchid is for life, not just for Christmas, it seems.

I have tried several ploys to kill it off, from overwatering to putting it in direct sunlight (remember sunlight?) to dark corners to not watering it at all. I scowl at it every day (Prince Charles eat your heart out - it really does not know what I am thinking). DD suggested that we leave the window open and say the squirrels had got it. The damn thing refuses to die and has now sprouted scary-looking fronds which are attaching themselves to the pot and seem set on world domination. Maybe I should call the producers of Dr Who.

Amber, I've got one of those too. When I first got it, it flowered briefly, to much excitement. 2 years later, we just have big green leaves, lots of roots/rootie shootie things in a pot - and, get this, the pot, I now find, only has some sort of bark stuff in it?!!! So this "plant" is living off the occasional tap water I sometimes remember to wet the bark with. What is that all about....?

My mother has a Curry leaves plant in her kitchen, I'll ask and come back to you.