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RE: Solanum pyracantha, Chile, etc

We do have a couple of species of Solanum that are native to New Zealand, 
these being S. aviculare and S. laciniatum (Maori name is Poroporo). 
Neither is a climber and both are rapid growing shrubs, or could even be 
considered as small trees as they have a single stem.

I have a nice specimen of S. laciniatum that has self seeded near the 
bedroom window this year and is currently about 1.8m tall (6 feet). It has 
nice purple flowers about 5cms (2 inches) across with yellow anthers and 
bright orange berries. It has a long flowering period so it is common to 
have flowers and berries in varying stages of ripeness at the same time. As 
it has lovely big deeply divided dark green leaves and green to purplish 
branches I find it altogether a nice plant. I have grown them before when 
the birds have been kind enough to drop the seeds in my garden!

Neither of these species minds the frost, to my knowledge, and both grow 
easily from seed. I have never seen them for sale in garden centres.

Tim Dutton
"Raindrops", Main Road North, Kaitoke, Upper Hutt, New Zealand


-----Original Message-----
From:	Tony & Moira Ryan [SMTP:theryans@xtra.co.nz]
Sent:	Saturday, December 13, 1997 2:03 PM
To:	Mediterannean Plants List
Subject:	Re: Solanum pyracantha, Chile, etc

Celia Eddy wrote:
>
> >
> Moira: delighted to know New Zealanders aren't daft enough to use such
> vicious spikies as tree plants! Not that this one would cause much
> damage since, far from proving to be a tree, it doesn't seem to have
> the oomph to make more than 2 or 3 feet! I'm surprised, though, that
> you say only three solanums are grown in NZ and only one is reliably
> hardy. And even more surprised that the reliably hardy one is S.
> jasminoides. In the U.K. I think S. crispum (particularly in the
> 'Glasnevin' form) is generally thought of as hardier. Certainly both
> will take well into double figures of frost. Another good climber, not
> SO hardy but able to take a certain amount of frost, is S.
> rantonettii. It's not as big as the other two, only making about 10ft
> x 10ft, so can quite easily be grown under glass (it takes being
> trimmed to size very happily) and the profuse flowers are big, showy,
> flat, rich purple, with paler bands running from the centre to the
> outer edge. Sadly, it doesn't set seed with me so I can't offer you
> some to try. It's absolutely easy from cuttings. Which is no use at
> all, in the present situation! Doesn't anybody offer this sp in NZ? If
> they do, it's well worth giving a try (taking cuttings for insurance
> if you're going to try it in the ground).

Dear Tim

Interesting to see you live in Cumbria, we have a niece in Ulverston,
whom we visited just over ten years ago. It was the first trime I had
been so far north in England, though I once knew the south east pretty
well. Among other contacts, just after the war I had four years at
Reading University.

I find the "three species only" hard to believe too, but a check on a
further recent book on climbers also yields only SS jasminoides,
seforthianum and wendlandii. The latter two are commonly grown out of
doors in our northern (warm) region (Remember we live upside down!)
However I did strike oil in a much older book published in '73 which did
mention crispum, so I suppose I might be lucky and come across it
sometime in an old garden. Goodness knows why it has fallen out of
favour in the interim.

Complements of the season
Moira
Tony & Moira Ryan <theryans@xtra.co.nz>
Wainuiomata, New Zealand
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