RE: "low maintenance?"

At 01:11 PM 7/15/1999 -0700, you wrote:
>I'm embarrassed to say that I have about 10 roses which I love and which
>do need lots of water--except for the antique once blooming ones. So--does
>anyone know of particular roses which don't need as much water as others
>when they're established?
>
>I have some strange areas in my garden which are in hot, southern sun at
>the end of the day and in late morning, and which are in shade the rest of
>the time (more so in winter). I find that achillea does very well there
>and so does salvia Indigo Spires. However I've tried a penstemon which
>grew very well but never flowered. Any suggestions for such a spot?
>
>Barbara

Barbara:

There are a lot of New World Salvias that will work, including the
puberula/involucrata group, the guaraniticas, the greggii/microphylla group
for zone 7.  If you are in a warmer zone, there are many more. 

Agastaches will also do well in this situation.  In fact, wildflowers in the
tropical mountains are often found in breaks in forests near moisture,
especially a few years after the trees have disappeared, whether by nature
or man.

Not only the Amazon has thin, poor soils that must be hyperefficient at
recycling minerals.  The mountain soils where Salvias grow are quite thin
and are also liable to be washed out by rains (rare as they may be, they may
come as a downpour, which is why I am very anxious about deforestation in
Mexico.)  When these soils have been disturbed and the trees have
disappeared, the soils will be stabilized by the sudden appearance of many
wildflowers, which hold the soil down while new trees grow back in.  

Since these plants have to appear at the random sites, they have to be able
to disperse.  Showy flowers and edible fruit provide the means for animals
to move seed or pollen around to these sites, which they search out as
convenient homes.

So our home gardens are really emulations of these conditions.  Perhaps
there is a deeper instinct at work when we design our gardens.  Imagine our
ancestors clearing out a patch of forest by a stream, then building a log
cabin.  Whether the slash from the clearing and building is burnt (providing
potash, lime, and other minerals ouright) or allowed to turn into humus, the
garden has aleady been started.  After some foraging to find useful or
edible plants in similar environments, the garden can then be planted.

Whether its Salvias under powerlines in Hidalgo off Federal Highway 85,
blueberries under New England powerlines, or blackberries in the Carolinas,
we like to take these plants to our homes, making new homes in turn for
them. I brought back a few cuttings of Rosa nitida from the brookside wher I
used to wait for my school bus in Massachusetts back with me from my
Memorial Day vacation to grow and plant on my Greensboro property (which has
a power line running its length, intersecting with a stream down at the bottom).

The more like the original conditions, the more likely they are to be low
maintenance (unless we provide too rich an environment for them).  I'll just
have to wait and see if my northeastern rose can handle the Carolina heat.
Otherwise, it will probably be pretty carefree.

Richard F. Dufresne
313 Spur Road
Greensboro, NC  27406
336-674-3105
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