Now i'm growing cinnamon

Cinnamomum verum

ebay from Sri Lanka

Took a solid 20 days or more to get here.

Have no idea how to grow them…i’ll keep them in the shade for the time being. Overwintering…i think i’m building a small grow room for tropicals in my basement.

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Oh I love it. Were those seeds or plants? Keep us posted.
I’m growing Cardamom, which will also need to be brought in. Haha, no basements here - we are ~15 ’ above sea level.
I’m going to try a variety of spinach which is not available in the US - that I can find. The seeds are coming from the UK and will be here next month.

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Plants…i can’t believe that they handled the long trek. I soaked them some and planted them. I hope they make it.

I’m also growing coffee (i have a few plants==small), jasmine and green tea.

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20 days in shipping! Good to know plants can handle that. Do you know the variety? Ceylon is the healthiest but not the best tasting. I use the Ceylon since I use it almost everyday.

A number of species are often sold as cinnamon:

Cinnamomum cassia (cassia or Chinese cinnamon, the most common commercial type)
C. burmannii (Korintje, Padang cassia, or Indonesian cinnamon)
C. loureiroi (Saigon cinnamon, Vietnamese cassia, or Vietnamese cinnamon)
C. verum (Sri Lanka cinnamon or Ceylon cinnamon)
C. citriodorum (Malabar cinnamon)
C. tamale (Indian cinnamon)
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The listing shows Cinnamomum zeylanicum…

I have a big bag of Vietnamese cinnamon (from Amazon)…that is very strong stuff. I also have some Mexican cinnamon i assume is Ceylon (mild) and i have typical store bough cinnamon…which seems somewhere in the middle.

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Cinnamomum verum is Cinnamomum zeylanicum so that would be Ceylon.

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I got one of those too…

(Can’t believe yours survived that trip…very impressed)

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Awesome…i love the leaves. I think they were like $15 for the 3 of them (plus free shipping)… i don’t really need 3, but i figure they must count on the chance that not all 3 are going to make the around the world trip to the tropical highlands of southwestern Wisconsin :sunny:

I looked.i placed the order on June 27th. It came yesterday.

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Cinnamomum verum

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The hardiness of Cinnamomum verum is perhaps a bit underappreciated. Mine survived the winter here in zone 9b with only about 10% dieback.

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That’s pretty cool! Are they fragrant as live trees? What are their light requirements like? I E, would they live as houseplants?

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One thing I love about this site is you never know what might show up! Growing cinnamon…very cool!

I always thought getting live plants from out of the country was a huge hassle requiring approval, permits, etc. Looks like they just mailed your plants directly to you?

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It was an illegal shipment of seeds via eBay.

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You can get anything online. Just bring money and be prepared for a knock on the door. :wink:

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hahaha. I promise I wasn’t trying to call you out or bring attention to you doing anything wrong, if you did. It was more curiosity than anything. And anyone who knows what Silk Road was (online I mean) knows you are right…if you have the money there is nothing you can’t get on the internet. Of course, the Silk Road owner/programmer is doing life without the possibility of parole now!

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Cinnamon; Non-gardeners look slack-jawed at me for grafting apple trees that don’t need a lot of fuss. I simply have the urge but not the time.
I’m slack-jawed: cinnamon and tea and coffee and jasmine. Wow, may they bring you satisfaction and delight.

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I’m soo tempted to push the “buy now” button…

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Coffee trees make awesome house plants. I have three. They like shade (shade-grown)so they handle indoor light levels well. They like 60-80 degrees, so room temperature is perfect. Mine are six years old and have never bloomed, but I don’t expect them to. I haven’t tried to get them to. They have pretty glossy leaves and are nice just as foliage. Someday I will try pruning and fertilizing agressively to see what that does, but for now they are just pretty.

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Coffee is grown in plantations with partial shade or translucent high tunnels. They are very deep rooted and do well in the volcanic ash laden mineral rich compost soils of central and northern South America.

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Yup, that was kinda my point. Without a lot of effort, I probably won’t be able to make them happy enough to fruit. But with almost zero effort, they are happy enough to look good.

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