Re: Hebes and other things...
- To: m*@ucdavis.edu
- Subject: Re: Hebes and other things...
- From: d* f*
- Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 01:25:06 -0800 (PST)
--- Tim Longville <tim@eddy.u-net.com> wrote:
> I wouldn't have thought these(Hebe's) were naturally
suited
> to a real
> Mediterranean environment. They come, after all,
> from NZ - which,
> though parts of it are Mediterranean in some senses,
> doesn't anywhere
> (does it? Moira? Tim?) have the characteristic
> extended hot dry summer
> of a true Med climate. Ideally, they seem to
> flourish best with
> relatively cool moist summers and mild moist winters
> - almost the
> reverse of your hot dry summer and quite cold
> winter. So it's
> difficult to be encouraging. Pity, because I think
> they're splendid
> and undervalued plants.
>
> Gardeners in the milder parts of the UK, certainly,
> tend to be a bit
> sniffy about them. It's an absurd form of
> 'specialists' snobbery' or
> 'horto-masochism,' IMO. Because in such areas they
> thrive so well,
> need so little care, flower so profusely and for so
> long (six months
> non stop is nothing unusual), suffer no pests or
> diseases worth
> mentioning, root as cuttings in a matter of moments,
> self-seed with
> (generally!) tactful enthusiasm, 'serious' gardeners
> look down their
> noses at them. Silly, really, isn't it?
> Tim Longville
I have never seen any Hebe species which self sowed
here in Northern California, although most are
exceptionally easy to grow near the coast, in
particular. Not really drought tolerant, but not
water thugs either... We do not have nearly the
variety of species here that you have in England and
New Zealand, but some of the more interesting fine
foliaged and low growing types are even considered
choice here, not common. H. ochracea 'James
Stirling' and H. pimeloides 'Quicksilver' are two less
commonly found, and grown more for the foliage than
bloom. I will always have a fondness for H. menziesii
and H. buxifolia, both with elegant form and Boxwood
type foliage and clean white bloom, not particularly
showy, and always in my garden. None of these would
be good candidates in hotter summer areas, but love
our cool and fog.
There was a period in the 1970's/early 1980's when
one even could say that Hebe's were ubiquitous, but
that is less so now. The wholesale nursery industry
was propagating from stock which had become infected
with a virus, and sudden death syndrome probably had
alot to do with the falling off of popularity here.
Also, because they are not so long lived, they don't
stand out like many other overly popular plants here
in California, such as Rhapiolepsis indica/Indian
hawthorn, Photinia x fraseri, Dietes vegeta/Fortnight
Lily, and Agapanthus africanus/Lily of the Nile.
Throw in some Tam Junipers and you have the classic
gas station/fast food restaurant/motel chain
commercial landscaping in California over the past 30
years.
I suppose you could make the same claim for over use
with Alsophilia cooperi/Australian Tree Fern,
Bougainvillea, Coleonema pulchrum/Breath of Heaven,
Pittosporum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf'/Mock Orange,
Tulbaghia violacea/Society Garlic, but for me, these
plants have become signals for recognizing coastal
influenced California, along side of our native Coast
Live Oaks/Quercus agrifolia and Q. chrysolepis,
Madrone/Arbutus menziesii, Sequoia sempervirens/Coast
Redwood, and Toyon/Heteromeles arbutifolia. These can
all be grown as easily in other mediterannean
climates, but are never as abundant as they are here.
Travelling through Greece, Spain and Portugal this
summer,I didn't really notice that many California
native plants being grown in the Mediterannean basin,
and wonder why our Ceanothus and Manzanita's are not
more widely grown outside of California and England.
Is it that they are difficult, not available, or
simply not known? Although they are certainly
recognized by most Californians, they aren't all that
commonly grown here, either. Ceanothus because they
are often short lived in an irrigated landscape, and
Arctostaphylos/manzanita for being prone to fungal
diseases and twig die back. It will probably take
another drought, and expensive irrigation water to
increase their use in gardens again.
>
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