Benign neglect.....and new goodies
June 17, 2008Please excuse my absence; I've been getting on with stuff. These blog things can be a bit of a...
Hey, special things on site now follow:
Catalpa fargesii f. duclouxii
I always find it rather strange how certain plants of such obvious quality remain so totally neglected, like the Chinese Catalpa fargesii f. duclouxii. This is one of the showiest flowering trees hardy in our Isles yet is still a rarity sold by just a handful of nurseries, indeed Pan-Global' was the only supplier listed in the RHS Plantfinder just a few years ago. They were seed raised stock, but in the meantime one of my customers, Roger Grounds (ex Apple Court owner), wisely suggested that we graft plants for earlier flowering. I have witnessed myself how long this species can take to flower from seed, so it was an extremely worthwhile suggestion (Roger seems to be rather good at those). A few of this years batch of healthy young plants have in fact already flowered in 2lt pots.
For many years this Eastern relative of the far more common 'Indian Bean Tree', Catalpa bignonioides from the USA, will be nothing other than a small tree, though the largest 100 year old specimens currently found in the British Isles have reached 18m (60ft). This is a tree that appreciates warm summers and soil that isn't excessively drought prone for best growth. In my experience its habit is more upright than C. bignonioides, which can often form a wide, low dome.
Plants in cultivation vary in their flowering display, but mine are derived from a highly floriferous specimen. Spectacular, large heads of lilac-pink flowers, speckled darker and with a rusty-orange stain appear in midsummer over elegant unlobed foliage with a long drawn out tip. It surely deserves a place in far more of our gardens.
Buddleja glomerata
New on the scene, Buddleja glomerata from the mountains of the Karoo desert in South Africa is in cultivation mainly under the particularly awful name B. 'Silver Service'; a name chosen either because no-one could be bothered to work out its true identity, or perhaps someone was adopting the all too frequent habit of adding a tacky name in the hope of selling more plants. Well, I'd rather sell less plants...
After a little Googling I found this species was perhaps not as tender as I feared it might be on first sight. Minimum temperatures of -5c were given, so I plonked one in hard up against a SW facing wall in the garden last September. Not only did this young specimen shrug off a -7c last winter, as well as countless other lighter frosts, it looked virtually perfect come spring; the evergreen foliage unmarked.
This is a first rate foliage plant; the whitish-grey leaves neatly and regularly lobed and with a delightfully undulating margin. The tight clusters of softly mustard coloured flowers seen in spring are at first glance most un-Buddleja-like, the anthers protruding so dominantly from the minute flowers as to conceal the other flower parts.
I'm looking forward to it forming a large shrub. It looks absolutely great against the soft, varied tones of the ancient brick wall here.
Phillyrea angustifolia 'French Fries'
If you want a very skinny leaved version of this useful and subtly attractive Mediterranean member of the Olive family then look no further. We have selected and named a very fine leaved form here from a batch of young plants raised from seed collected in S. France. It seems there is confusion in the trade as to what the true forma rosmarinifolia is and I think this should clear it up. In comparison with other material I have seen, I believe 'French Fries' represents this taxon and has very narrow leaves of a slightly more glaucous nature than straight P. angustifolia.
For those who don't know it, this will make a hardy, sun-loving, drought tolerant, bushy evergreen shrub, more compact than the species. Expect your plant to reach about 2m round eventually, unless of course you'd like to prune or shape, which it will respond to admirably. Clusters of creamy-white flowers line the branches in spring.
Juvenile Furcraea parmentieri, Hidalgo, Mexico
For lovers of the true exotic the name Furcraea conjures up images of mighty inflorescences rising metres high, seen on trips to the Med' or at the wonderful Tresco Abbey gardens on the Scilly Isles.
Many, but by no means all of the plants seen around gardens in Europe and beyond go by the name of F. longaeva. There are of course other species in cultivation, such as the truly huge but very tender F. selloa for example, but most plants encountered are down as F. longaeva. I hate to say it but virtually all the plants under that name are in fact, I believe, F. parmentieri. This closely related species differs in that it produces bulbils as well as seed capsules on the inflorescence after flowering, whereas F. longaeva produces only seed capsules. Other principle differences are the leaves being considerably larger and the branches of the inflorescence less weeping on F. longaeva.
So, if you've seen bulbils forming on a slim leaved species away from the very warmest areas of southern Spain or the Canary Islands for example, or even collected some for propagation, you have almost without doubt been looking at F. parmentieri. Not only that, but most if not all F. longaeva in UK cultivation and trade, let alone the rest of Europe, are F. parmentieri. Just to confuse you further, the name F. bedinghausii has been seen around recently, though that is actually a synonym of F. parmentieri.
What I offer this year are young plants of F. parmentieri with a difference. Bulbils for these have been collected at nearly 3000m (10000ft) altitude at one of the most northerly latitudes at which the species occurs in Mexico. I have witnessed myself a great deal of difference in hardiness between batches of F. parmentieri (labelled of course as F. longaeva) from cultivated stock over the years. This new collection should represent the hardiest of all Furcraea. That is not to say it will be an easy, bone hardy garden plant over large areas of the British Isles. If you want to grow this away from mild coastal (or inner London) areas put it right up against a warm sunny wall in well drained soil and if hard frost is forecast, lean something solid over it. I'll be planting some here, but will erect a semi-permanent, clear plastic shelter over the plants for the duration of the winter. Under those conditions it will tolerate some fairly hard frosts.
Another point about this offering is that in the wild state the plants had really rather pale-blue tinged leaves, as can be seen above, though whether that will be seen in cultivation here is uncertain.
Furcraea parmentieri, Hidalgo, Mexico.
The plant above has finished flowering and stands 10m (30ft) high. Foreshortening makes it look a lot smaller than it is, but note the happy gnome that is Paul Spracklin at the bottom right. Plants in cultivation never seem to reach that kind of size before flowering, but given soil that isn't excessively dry in summer and one can achieve mightily impressive proportions. I had a 15 year old specimen flower many years ago that reached 3m, but it had a pretty restricted life being stuck in a 20lt pot. I used to keep it in a cold unheated polytunnel over winter. It was nonetheless rather impressive and made the local TV news.
Posted on June 17, 2008 at 11:54 AM
« Chile here. Not there... | Main | More new goodies.... »
Comments
Post a comment
Thanks for signing in, . Now you can comment. (sign out)
(If you haven't left a comment here before, you may need to be approved by the site owner before your comment will appear. Until then, it won't appear on the entry. Thanks for waiting.)