Re: An un-nerving yet rewarding time of year.


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <dave-poole@ilsham.demon.co.uk>
To: <medit-plants@ucdavis.edu>
Sent: Sunday, May 23, 1999 9:08 AM
Subject: An un-nerving yet rewarding time of year.


> 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
> 
>
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