Re: Prostanthera Identity/Nursery Availability, and musings on local climate

Hi Moira,

Thanks for the identification of the Prostanthera, I
looked it up in my most comprehensive book on
Australian natives, Australian Native Plants, authors
John Wrigley and Murray Fagg, Reed New Holland
Publishers, ISBN 1 876334 30 4, and didn't recognize
it in any of the 20 or so species listed.  I highly
recommend this book for those interested in Autralian
natives, and it can be purchased at San Marcos Growers
Nursery in Santa Barbara for anyone here in
California.

As to lack of popularity of Prostanthera, it has never
been common here, and is rare to see in gardens around
town, but there are more and more species and
cultivars being offered for sale here in northern
California all the time, so someone must be buying
them all.  (Or maybe Nevin Smith at Suncrest just has
a major jones for Prostantheras...)  Very few shrubs
surpass the most floriferous species for stop you in
your tracks floral display in late spring, although
most species are rather anonymous background shrubs
that get rather too large for small gardens the rest
of the year.  I must admit I have rarely exploited
their use to take proper advantage of the fragrant
foliage, being more visually oriented with a weak
sense of smell myself, but even I can smell the minty
frgarance of P. ovalifolia and P. rotundifolia.  For
those wishing to explore the genus, a trip to UC Santa
Cruz Arboretum in late April/May on into early June
can be most instructive, and they have by far the
largest collection of species and cultivars.

Regarding the dumbing down of the nursery industry in
New Zealand, I am glad to say that this is not the
case here in California.  We do find this so in the
larger chain nurseries and mass marketers like Home
Depot Stores, but the local independent nurseries here
in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area have
some of the best selection in the state, if not the
world.  If anything, it can be a bit overwhelming with
all the choices, and we have specialist nurseries
focusing on old fashioned plants to the most exotic
foreign plants, as well as an everwidening selection
of cultivars and selections of California natives and
appropriate mediterranean species.  I do find myself
wishing that we had an even greater selection of South
African plants, comparable to the diversity of species
possible.  No sooner said, than someone like Annie
Hayes of Annie's Annuals starts propagating all sorts
of new things from South Africa!  Late summer is
always a great time to see what she has in the less
common/more unusual perennials/flowering shrubs
department.  A great collection of species Aloes in 4
inch pots are among the current specialties.

I also got a kick to see that seed I had given her of
Xanthostemon chrysanthus/Golden Penda Tree from
Queensland, Australia is doing well, and hope one day
to find out if this tree is a good candidate for an
evergreen flowering small tree in our climate.  The
flowers are very similar to a daffodil yellow
Metrosideros excelsa, with foliage more similar to
Tristaniopsis laurina.  I know that this blooms young
and grows quite quickly in south Florida, but no one
has tried it here in California, that I know of.  If
anyone is growing this succesfully in cooler maritime
mediterranean climates similar to the San Francisco
Bay Area USDA climate zone 9/10, I would love to hear
about it.  So far, I know that it is grown as far
south as Sydney, but don't know if it also can be
grown and bloomed in Melbourne or Adelaide.  I suspect
that the warmer parts of Sydney correspond more to
Miami or San Diego than San Francisco, so may not
warrant a good comparison for hardiness.  Perth also
is both milder and hotter in summer than our local
climate.

Speaking of local climate variations, I truly
appreciate that the San Francisco Bay and the offshore
cold water current out of the Gulf of Alaska make this
a mediterranean climate like few others.  Here in
Berkeley we stay mild in winter, and relatively cool
in summer, lots of summer fog,(no air conditioners or
swimming pools for the masses, nor outdoor evening
dining in summer without infrared heat lamps or
sweaters on).  On the other hand, subtropicals and
tropical cloud forest plants grow to perfection, and
we can also manage a few temperate rainforest plants
and alpines.  It can also result in the jarring
juxtaposition of Coastal Redwoods happily coexisting
alongside Canary Island Date Palms, or Fuchsias and
Opuntia equally thriving side by side.

A recent personal plant combination of my own combines
the (usually)water loving silvery foliaged Astelia
nivicola 'Red Gem' with extremely drought tolerant
South Africans such as Kalanchoe pumila and
Plectranthus neochilus, along with Aeoniums and
Echeverias.  Throw in a few sun tolerant Bromeliads to
the mix, and it becomes an international mix and match
only possible in our local variation of a
Mediterranean climate. ( I must admit, that the
Astelias only do well if they get some supplemental
irrigation beyond the other plantings, but if they
don't, they simply remain the same size and don't give
a growth spurt until the fall rains arrive).  The
danger of having too many choices...  


--- Tony and Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

> Hi David
> This is almost certainly P cuneata (alpine Mint
> Bush). I grew it myself 
> at one time but eventually lost it.
> 
> Prostrantheras seem to be out of fashion here these
> days and hard to 
> come by. Like many other countries I guess, our
> local nursery trade, 
> which used to offer a brilliant selection of
> interesting exotic plants, 
> gets more and more dummed down each year. The only
> good recent 
> development is that they now seem to carry an
> extended list of cultivars 
> of our excellent native shrub flora. (But I should
> like some more of the 
> overseas stuff as well).
> 
> 
> Moira
> 
> -- 
> Tony & Moira Ryan,
> Wainuiomata, North Island, NZ.     Pictures of our
> garden at:-
>
http://mywebpages.comcast.net/cherie1/Garden/TonyandMoira/index.htm
> 


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