Re: Tecomaria capensis

At 01:17 PM 3/21/2002, Charl de Winnaar wrote:
>Does anyone have experience with Tecomaria Capensis and picket fences?
>
>I have planted several of these plants alongside a timber fence and the
>shoots need support in order to cover it. I want to thread them through
>the fence but fear that as the plant ages the  shoots will thicken and
>eventually start to pull the fence apart. How thick do these shoots
>become?

Charl -

My experience with Tecomaria capensis would suggest that it would be best 
to tie the branches to the fence rather than to thread them through.The do 
gain some girth as they grow, but this is not the main reason I make this 
suggestion.

Tecomarias are 'sort of' vine-like, with long pliable young stems.  As they 
age, they become woody and self-supporting.  I find that it is often good 
to cut out a stem occasionally to correct the plant's form.  Trying to 
remove a single stem that has been 'threaded' through a picket fence would 
very likely damage the fence stakes.  If the stem was tied, especially with 
something that would naturally degrade all by itself (natural jute twine, 
or something like this), then this would not be a problem.  By the end of 
the first season the stems should be pretty much ready to support 
themselves so the twine would no longer be necessary.

The dwarf yellow form often called 'Lutea' is a little different.  Instead 
of the new shoot growing up through the plant (or whatever else is growing 
nearby), they come out completely horizontally, even running along the 
ground for several feet.  These stems become rigid as they mature, and can 
hold themselves at whatever angle they have assumed initially (even kinks 
and bends that they acquired as they 'bumbed' into walls, rocks, etc.  The 
shrub never gets as tall as the regular forms, but the secondary shoots 
become more upright and shrubby.  This habit makes me curious to know where 
this form occurs naturally and is this is a specific adaptation to local 
conditions.

My own plant of 'Lutea' cannot be allowed to run horizontally as it would 
like, so I try and train the new shoots into a more upright form as they 
appear.  This makes for a mass of arching stems about 4-5ft tall.  Nearby, 
I have a melon orange form that is about 10-12ft tall, with a narrow 'vase' 
shape that arches outward slightly at the top.  Each of these grows in poor 
soil, south-west exposure, between two stairways in a difficult to irrigate 
bed only about 2ft wide.  I love the evergreen, glossy foliage of these 
shrubs and their bright flowers which come over a long period from summer 
through fall (and into winter most years).

I also have the form called 'Buff Gold' which has flowers of a peachy 
yellow with overtones or orange-bronze, quite different from the two clear 
colored forms mentioned above.  I can't wait to find the 'perfect' spot to 
plant it . . .

Regards,
Seán O.

No. Calif. Branch of the Mediterranean Garden Society
Seán A. O'Hara - Branch co-chair
(510) 987-0577; fax (707) 667-1173; sean@support.net
710 Jean Street, Oakland, California 94610-1459, U.S.A.
http://www.MediterraneanGardenSociety.org/branches_CANo.html
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