Re: Astelia

speaking of silver spear, I have one in a raised rock garden on sandy soil, 1/2 block from the Pacific Ocean, which is 10+ years old, about 4.5 ft high x 8+ ft. wide. It has always done quite well thru the winters of 60 inches of rain and 60-80 mile per hour winds, and other than the fact that it has gotten too big for its niche, I haven't had any complaints..... yet recently it has slowly lost parts of itself, greater numbers of exterior leaves browning, and finally individual crowns over the last year + and this winter has completely keeled over w/ only one crown alive. It has flowered more than once over the last several years.

Q:...is this demise and tendency to rejoin itself with compost a function of age? or voles? or rain? or flowering?...or merely responsiveness to the wishes of the gardener for a smaller version?

other question: is the dark purple form of Astelia in California yet?....if so, paleeeze email me the source privately....gg


jae

At 10:35 AM -0800 1/19/03, david feix wrote:
Hi Deborah,

I am not a big fan of roses either,(especially a whole
bed of them!) and it sounds as if you are wanting to
base a new sunny bed around the existing birch and
background shrubs,  none of which are really drought
resistant in a roof top garden situation.  How about
being bold and just getting rid of the roses and
replacing the whole bed with something that would be
more interesting year round?  All gardens change over
time, and this may be this bed's time?

I could see a mass planting of Astelia chathamica
'Silver Spear'(or the similar dwarfer Astelia nervosa)
in lieu of the roses, interplanted with Sollya
heterophylla and/or Lantana montevidensis with some
smatterings of Limonium perezii and perhaps a
foreground edging of Erigeron karvinskianus
'Moorheimerii'.  Lots of purple and silver, and you
could also throw in some Aeonium 'Mint Saucer'(from
San Marcos Growers) for a succulent green accent
perhaps with Hebe buxifolia below the Birch.  I would
envision this as massed groupings in swirls, ala Burle
Marx of Brazil.  As roof top gardens also play to
surrounding taller highrise buildings, patterns which
are bold as viewed from above can be an important part
of the garden's year round appeal.

You could also consider another color scheme
altogether such as Phormium 'Yellow Wave' mass planted
in lieu of the roses, with a blue groundcover of
Senecio mandraliscae.  You could add some year round
flowering Plectranthus as sinuous lines within this
field with the lavender Plectranthus zuluensis(blooms
year round on herbaceous shrubs to 3') and a dwarfer
low growing Plectranthus neochilus(12 to 18" tall with
year round deep purple flowers).  Some Lavandula
'Goodwin Creek Gray' or L. multifida could also add
some great color accent.

Another scheme might get more adventurous, and throw
in some things like Aloe saponaria 'yellow form' and
Bulbine frutescens, with Isopogon formosus, Adenanthos
drummondiii for shrubs, and Crotalaria agatiflora and
Cussonia paniculata var sinuata for accents, and
groundcovers of Convolvulus mauritanicus.

I think the Kaiser roof top gardens would actually
benefit from some larger scale changes to some of the
boring/tired older plantings that haven't necessarily
worked well over the decades.  (And you can always say
that you are retaining the overall scheme by retaining
trees and hedges, and heights/massing of plantings...)

Regards,
David



--- "Lindsay, Deborah" <Deborah.Lindsay@kaiseral.com>
wrote:

 I want to say a big thank you to all who responded
 to my Myrtle and other
 queries. You all are the most generous folks with
 sharing information. I
 really
 appreciate it! I'll send an update on my project as
 it progresses.

 >
 > best regards,
 >
 > Deborah
 >


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