An un-nerving yet rewarding time of year.
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: An un-nerving yet rewarding time of year.
- From: d*@ilsham.demon.co.uk
- Date: Sun, 23 May 1999 07:08:54 GMT
About a week ago, I was replied to a friend via e-mail, bemoaning the
fact that although everything seemed to start off well with an early
spring and plenty of vigorous new growth, the plants in the garden
have slowed down to a near full-stop in recent weeks. This is no
doubt due to the chilly weather that has plagued us for quite a while
and although there have been plenty of days when temperatures have
been in the mid 70's with night-time lows in the mid to upper 50's,
there have also been long periods of biting, cold winds during this
month. This past week has been much kinder and plenty of warm sunny
days coupled with mild, balmy evenings have replaced the chill of the
earlier part of May.
Suddenly there has been an explosion of growth and flower allaying all
of my fears about when things would start to pick up. At long last,
my hybrid Brugmansias which are 'tree trained' have shrugged off their
'cold chlorosis' and the stunted, yellow earlier growth is now being
replaced with rich green leafy shoots which should bear a mass of
flower within a few weeks. The cool loving Brugmansia sanguinea ssp.
vulcanicola had continued growing and suffered none of these drawbacks
and is now opening the first of its flowers. The 'Brugs' are all
grown in very large tubs and in theory should all suffer from root
chill in winter. I'm sure 'Golden Queen' does, but not so
vulcanicola. This latter has had to be moved to a lightly shaded cool
spot for even in our climate, it has flagged alarmingly in the mid-day
sun.
A 'bottle-brush' - Callistemon citrinus 'Splendens' which decided to
take a year off last year is back with great sires of fire-cracker
like, bright scarlet flowers. It is partnered by the variegated
Helichrysum petiolatum 'Variegatum' which clothes the fence and
provides a superb backdrop. The red passion flower - P. x
coeruleo-racemosa also lives in this cramped area and from a few tiny
buds 10 days ago, has grown out several feet in all directions,
scrabbling for what space it can. I'm murderously brutal with this
since it seems to flower better if severely pruned every March. This
year I reduced 20ft long stems back to hip height and despite such
butchery, it will be back in a month, clothed in 4" wide, richly
coloured flowers.
Euryops - those South African 'Daisy bushes' which seem to flower for
ever are a mass of yellow. E. pectinatus with it's fine, silver.
pinnate foliage and brilliant canary yellow flowers is now 6ft high
and clashes almost painfully with the last flowers of the brick pink
Diascia patens which clothes the wall and fence behind. The Diascia
is being progressively trimmed back in order to allow other plants to
grow in for the summer. Without regular, heavy trimming it would
become an immense and unruly mass and each summer I have to remove
several dustbin liners full of prunings. It has flowered superbly
since mid January producing countless thousands of half inch flowers,
but now it is going into it's summer recess and will 'take a backseat'
until mid August when it starts to flower again.
Another Euryops - E. chrysanthemoides has developed into a 4ft high
and wide bush, clothed ir the richest green, oak like leaves
imaginable. It has started to flower a good 2 months later than
normal, but at last its rich almost golden yellow daisies are again
dancing on wiry stems above the plant. Individually the flowers are
not quite so substantial as it's silver leaves cousin on account of
their narrower petals, but they certainly make up for it in sheer
quantity and by continuing to be produced well into early winter.
A low stone wall with a shallow layer of thin soil on top plays host
to a mass of the silver leaved succulent - Delosperma cooperi which is
now burgeoning with a mass bright magenta flowers. Peeping out here
and there, as well as flowing down the face of the wall is the bronze
leaved Polygonum capitatum, already smothered in sugar-icing pink
'bobble' flowers. This somewhat tender 'Himalayan Knotweed' forms
dense mats of well marked foliage which takes on orange and scarlet
tints in early winter. Here it flowers heavily for about 10 months of
the year, although there must be very few days of the year when there
aren't at least a few to be seen. In very warm climates where winter
lows remain above freezing, this species cold become a pest, because
here it seeds itself about with great freedom as well as rooting at
each leaf joint. It is tolerant of the light frosts that we get here,
but can be severely affected at minus 4C.
Mixed in with the Delosperma and looking rather well, are clumps of
the bromeliad - Bilbergia nutans with their arching wands of deep pink
bracted flowers. For years this species has remained a very common
pot plant here in the UK., but its hardiness as a garden plant seems
to be rather greater than originally thought. I also have it growing
outside in a wooden 'orchid' basket, where the roots are fully
exposed to the worst of our weather and like it's more cosily sited
brethren, it is bristling with spikes and looking very pert.
A newcomer this year has been the shrubby Ageratum corymbosum and I
have to say I'm immensely impressed with it. More so possibly,
because I have an intense dislike of its annual cousins (A.
houstonianum hybrids) which are planted here for summer bedding almost
to an excess. This is a moderate growing evergreen shrub with almost
madder purple stems clothed in large, finely velvety, deep sea green
leaves whose main veins are also flushed with the same purple. Dense,
terminal heads of violet mauve 'floss-like' flowers are borne from
late spring and really do acquit themselves extremely well.
Everything about this plant looks just right and its rounded habit
gives it a 'comely' appearance. I understand it to be a native of
Central America and none too hardy, but despite this, it has weathered
our cool, wet winter well and withstood several minus 2C. frosts.
Would that it was easy to propagate - cuttings have taken an age to
roots and subsequent growth is very slow. Seeds are being produced,
but whether these prove to fertile remains to be seen. I've sown some
recently, so time I should know in the near future. If so, I'll
happily distribute some to interested list members - it is too good to
remain in obscurity.
Another, more recent arrival has me holding my breath in anticipation.
It is the highly aberrant Campanula (Azorina) vialii. This densely
evergreen, low growing shrub from the Azores has the most wonderful
glassy sheen to it's elongated, spoon-like leaves which are carried in
whorls. On a sunny day you almost need shades to look at them so
bright is the reflection. A slow grower, it has nonetheless filled
out very well in recent months and the very first signs of the
terminal flower spikes are starting to appear. These will later carry
substantial, waxy textured, light pink bells each up to 2" long and
with pale orange centres. It's a lovely thing that I used to grow
under glass many years ago and I can hardly wait to have it flower in
the garden.
I've often considered the 'bamboo Irises' - Iris wattii & confusa to
be more quaint than beautiful. However a friend gave me a clump of
Iris confusa 'Alba' and I must say that this form has turned out to be
a real eye-catcher this year. The first few flowers were small, so
pale as to be nearly transparent and very disappointing. However since
then, there has been a succession of brilliant white, finely crisped
and crimped, orchid like flowers each with bright golden keels.
Carried on tall, wiry, simply branched racemes, each spike can produce
up 30, 2" wide flowers in succession over many weeks. I'm really
'sold' on this plant now and prefer it to the rich purple and mauve
variants. Already plenty of new shoots are forcing their way skywards
and by the end of the summer, the grey-green leaf fans should be borne
on 3 - 4ft high canes, giving the whole plant a decidedly tropical and
oriental look.
Only 14 months ago I planted a small clump of the 'New Zealand Iris'
Libertia grandiflora and early last summer it bore a dozen or so
spikes of it's three-petalled, white flowers. I fed it well and it
went on to produce a second, smaller batch in late summer. This year
it has gone berserk, producing well over 50, 4ft long, arching spikes,
crammed with flowers which immediately shout for attention as soon as
you walk out of the back door. We've had some very windy weather in
recent weeks, but the Libertia has stood up to it exceptionally well
with its great wands of flower dancing and jostling in the breeze
without breaking or falling flat.
Immediately outside my back door, a large Abutilon Patrick Synge has
been trained up and over as well as along a fence. It's glossy,
coppery orange bells are dripping with nectar, making the walk-though
a somewhat hazardous manoeuver on a warm afternoon. The Australian
'Bower flower' - Pandorea jasminoides winds its way through and will
eventually swamp the Abutilon, have first benefited from the
protection afforded by it. This supposedly, very tender climber has
really done well in the past couple of years, continuing to produce
its wonderful pink, reddish-purple throated trumpets for months on
end. Here, the old flower clusters remain and have recently started
to produce more flowers in a similar fashion to Hoya carnosa. Several
flowers have opened this week to remind me how stunning this plant can
be. Further along, I've trained in a common purple Bougainvillea and
finally it has really stated to move this week with masses of shoots
from every leaf node. I'm hoping to get the Pandorea and Bougainvllea
out in flower at the same time - it should prove to be quite a
memorable combination.
In a partially sunny corner, a golden hop - Humulus lupulus 'Lutea'
has commandeered the surrounding areas, forming sheets of near yellow
foliage. A big clump of Zantedeschia aethiopica was split and moved
this winter and it's 8" flowers on shoulder high stems now shine out
against this bright backdrop. The hop has been almost a source of
fascination in recent days. From a lowly 4ft high barely 2 weeks ago,
it has shot 10 feet into a neighbouring Pittosporum and run 8 ft
horizontally along wires which also carry Jasminum polyanthum.
Further along and already looking stunning against the hop, a fan
trained, Fuchsia 'Garden News' drips with rose pink flowers. Close
by, clumps of Lilium longiflorum which have sprung to over 3 ft high
in a matter of weeks, will soon join them and I look forward to their
heavily fragrant, narrow, white trumpets.
If you have managed to wade though all of this, you might be forgiven
for wondering why I was so concerned about everything appearing to be
'slow'. To be honest, reading through it, I wonder myself. All but
the slowest of the palms have so far produced several fans or fronds
each, the banana in the corner by the hop is on its 3rd leaf for this
month and I had to spend half of yesterday tying climbers in.
However, the Cannas have been desperately slow and still, the normally
vigorous C. 'Striatum' which usually does nought to 4ft in the
blinking of an eye, continues to languish at barely above ground level
and of the gingers, only Hedychium densiflorum is making any concerted
effort. Even H. greenii with it's marvelous, warm, chestnut red
shoots, ran up to 18" and then stopped and H. gardnerianum has barely
put in an appearance. I suppose it is the holes left by these that
make me so impatient - as well as occasionally reading about the
apparent mid-summer like conditions in parts of the US. In another
couple of weeks, everything will have filled-in and my frustration
will be history ...... until next year.
Dave Poole
TORQUAY UK
