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Re: Solanum pyracantha, Chile, etc

On Thu, 18 Dec 1997 19:22:54 +1300, you wrote:

>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: Entirely agree about the virtues of these two solanum spp. They
are grown in the UK, particularly S. laciniatum, though they're not
common. They're ok in mild gardens most winters here, though a really
sharp snap will see them off. Here in the wet North West with no real
summer heat to harden them, I reckon about 10 degrees of frost is the
absolute maximum they'll take and they're not really happy with more
than 5 or 6. E.g., all the ones I was growing in 1995 were scythed
down by the exceptionally hard 95/96 winter. (A rap over the knuckles
to remind me always to save seed or seedlings.)

Although S. aviculare doesn't have such SHOWY flowers as S.
laciniatum, to my eye they have a quiet charm of their own. I
particularly like the ssp S. aviculare latifolium, which isn't
commercially available in the UK. The big bold uncut dark-green leaves
contrast well with the pretty pale-mauve cap-shaped flowers. What's
more, it's less of a space-consuming branching monster than S.
laciniatum, which with me is often as broad as it's tall. A friend of
a friend got seed of this one for me from Three Kings Island.

Tim Longville
>
>

Celia Eddy
celia@eddy.u-net.com
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