Re: Cambridge, the Canaries, Cumbria, the Azores and S. Africa



Tim Longville wrote:

> Mediterranean?! You have to be joking...
>
> Before I forget: thanks to everyone for info. on the white-and-red
> variant of Anomatheca. Encouraging! Still surprising that so few
> nurseries in the UK offer it. It's making a lovely front-edge drift in
> a raised bed here at the moment.
>
> Lurking on Alpine-L I picked up Peter Lewis's reply to Jack Elliott on
> his Azorina vidallii (we ought to have cross-list postings!). I'm just
> growing this myself and am much impressed by my (unflowered) specimens
> simply as wee foliage plants. Peter's reply suggested that this
> Azorean will take virtually no frost at all (particularly vulnerable
> in pots??). My question is simply to ask if others can confirm or deny
> that? I am (desperately, unsuccessfully, for the nth time) trying to
> cut down on the number(s) of plants I overwinter under glass, so would
> like to try it in the ground if I've at least a fighting chance of
> success. My average winter involves a few nights with a degree or two
> or three of frost; few if any sustained frosts; but a lot of wind and
> wet (combatted by lots of raised beds and gravelgravelgravel). If it's
> worth a go at growing it in the ground, what are its preferred
> conditions? Is this a sunny campanula relative or a shady campanula
> relative? Just from its looks, I'd guess sun and maximum drainage.
> Yes?
>
> Peter: books v. plants. Dilemma understood! And shared....
>
> And a few S. Africans.
>
> First, Agathosma imbricata. Anyone grow or know this or others of the
> genus? (My seeds came from Kirstenbosch via a friend outside Bath, who
> grows it successfully.) I'm told it should have scented white flowers.
> No sign here. It makes (has made) a neat dapper little more or less
> conical shrub to around a foot but flowers - nah! What do I need to do
> to persuade it? Simply give it a lot more heat? My plants are coming
> to the end of their second season: are they simply too young to
> flower??
>
> x Ruthyrospolia 'Phyllis van Heerden.' This will sound like
> showing-off, I suspect. Sorry. Isn't meant to. Indeed, it has nothing
> at all to do with me-as-a-grower, really. A friend who has a garden in
> the UK and a garden in S.A. (lucky woman) gave me a cutting of this
> bi-generic hybrid (a member of the Acanthaceae) between Ruthya ovata
> and Ruspolia hypercraterfolia (? sp of species name), named after the
> woman who found it. My friend said it should grow to around 5ft and
> have spikes of pink flowers. She said nothing about its growth habit
> or its preferred conditions beyond that. Here, it's made a strongly
> suckering clump to around 3' which seems to wilt whenever the temps.
> get over 25-6C but shows no sign of flowering. I wondered about moving
> it into damp and shade?? but to make it flower will it need more heat
> than it's likely to get in those conditions in my climate ? We
> haven't, I think, heard from any of our S.A. members for a while but
> if any of them are lurking and know anything about this plant, I'd be
> more than usually grateful for any info. It's such a pleasingly
> vigorous creature I'd like to make a real success of it by getting it
> to flower.
>
> Then, Burchellia bubalina, common name Wild Pomegranate (tho' it's in
> fact got nothing to do with'em), a member of the Rubiaceae with orange
> tubular flowers, the only member of its genus and named after an early
> S.A. plant collector, Dr W.J. Burchell. 'A slow growing big shrub or
> small tree which flowers when quite small, in sun or semi-shade,' said
> the aforementioned friend when she gave me a cutting of this one.
> Well, slow growing it certainly is. It's just sat and looked at me for
> 18 months. Nothing. Nary a new leaf, even. On the other hand, it
> doesn't look dead or even sick. It just sits. What could be more
> infuriating? As for 'orange tubular flowers': forget it. Anyone have
> any knowledge or experience of this brute and/or ideas as to how best
> I can persuade, sweet-talk or savage it into playing ball?
>
> Talking of S. Africa: no one picked up my query about spp of Aristea
> other than A. ecklonii. Does no one else grow them?! I'm amazed if so.
> Or have they been rejected as boring weeds? I'm amazed if... A.e.
> isn't the world's showiest plant, I confess, but it's a good sturdy
> doer, always neat, uncomplaining and vigorous, and the flowers if a
> touch short in volume compared the volume of foliage are a good clear
> blue - always a desirable colour. (At least, they're a touch short in
> volume in this climate in most years; this, relatively dry, relatively
> hot, year, it's in fact had dozens of flower-spikes for a good two
> months; perhaps in a hotter, drier climate it would perform like that
> each year?)
>
> Generally, postings about S. African plants seem to provoke the
> smallest response. Is my vague feeling that this is perhaps an area
> few of us have yet seriously explored an accurate one??
>
> Interminable posting - sorry - after-effects of a consoling bottle of
> wine while watching the English cricket team come unstuck against the
> Kiwis again - when of course I should have been out in the garden
> doing good responsible garden-owner things: don't remind me....
> Tim Longville

Dear Tim, I grow Azorina vidallii near San Francisco, Ca. It definitely
cannot take a  much of a frost but would probably survive light frosts if
you covered it.. I grow mine in pots  in bright shade though it seems to
take deeper shade quite well. It is quite tolerant of neglect , I water
them about once a week.
It blooms late Summer/early Fall and seems to last about 3 years before
tiring out. Snails like them.  It is a lovely thing.
Annie Hayes

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