Category: Interesting Plants

Volunteering for duty

One of the advantages of having a couple acres (and not being especially fastidious about weeding) is that sometimes you get your landscape plants for free.  I always keep an eye out for interesting plants that may turn up on their own – or a least get left behind by our bird friends.  Here are some volunteers that have shown up recently at Daisy Hill farm that I’ll work into the landscape.

 


Sassafras (Sassafras albidum) are notoriously difficult to transplant.  I’ll leave these sassafras volunteers where there are and relocate the shrubs in the bed.  I’m looking forward to some awesome fall color in a few years.

 


The native range of redbud (Cercis canadensis) only extends into the southernmost counties of Michigan but they generally do fine here in the Lansing area (just north of the end of the native range).   We have an old redbud in the front of our house so we get volunteers from time to time.  This one is on the edge of our patio so it’s easy to keep an eye on.  I’ll let it grow on another year or so and then find it home.

 


Most people probably wouldn’t get too excited about eastern redcedars (Juniperus virginiana) showing up on their own.   When I was with the US Forest Service, my grad student and I did research on seed germination of eastern redcedar and Rocky mountain juniper (J. scopulorum).  Ironically they can be difficult to grow as seedlings in nurseries because the seed are doubly dormant (they have a tough seed coat that requires scarification and the embryo is dormant and requires cold stratification).  I’m planting conifers as a screen on the south side of property. I’ll move these guys and a couple of their friends in the spring.

Freaky flower flummoxer

Finally, I’ve given a quiz that’s fooled everyone!

Believe it or not, this is a foxglove flower mutation:

Often, species with irregular flower will have flower which revert to a more primitive form.  In the case of foxglove, the bilaterally symmetrical flower reverts to the ancestral radial form – a phenomenon called peloria.  Apparently foxglove floral variations are pretty common and have been reported in the literature for many decades.

Friday’s freaky flower

Having now depressed my Michigan colleague with my earlier post, here’s a little lighthearted fun for the long weekend:

This photo is from Brandi at Fine Gardening.  Can you figure out (1) what it is and (2) why it looks like this?

Monday’s photo will reveal more, and we’ll discuss the second question in more detail.

Have a great holiday – enjoy yourselves!

Quiz Plant Revealed

Ha ha  hahahaha
 *mad scientist-type cackling*

Purslane? Nyet! (but good guess).

It’s an Impatien! Specifically, Impatien repens, common names variously Ceylon Jewelweed, Golden Dragon Impatien, etc. Ours is actually pretty small – can form huge clumps and cascading torrents in warmer zones.


 
Flower is typical of many members of the genus, and they ALL have the little spur in the rear.

For more weird, wild species impatiens, visit the Cistus Nursery website (I’m pretty sure they used to sell this, but I don’t see it listed currently).  We got ours from local plantswoman, gardener, and mail-order-addict Elissa Steeves.

Thanks for playing, all!</d

Quiz Plant!

Ooooh, this is a good one. 

Factoids:
– Tropical, but doing well in our campus garden (Blacksburg, VA).
– Succulent stems; alternate, lima bean-shaped leaves.
– Rampant scampering.
– Very cute yellow flowers. (Hee hee, that really won’t help.)
– I hesitate to say this, ’cause it may just give it away: a couple of other members of this genus are common as mud.

Guesses, anyone? Or maybe this one’s already common as mud for you Pacific Northwesterners…
(and P-Dub, do refrain until others have had a chance 😉

I’ll post the "D’oh!" flower photo in the morning.


Hellebore and Hosta for scale. There are flowers, just not in this pic.

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A ground cover I just love

I’m a particular fan of ground covers, especially those that replace bare soil or synthetic mulches (plastics, fabrics, and the sciency-sounding “geotextiles”).  That enthusiasm is tempered, however, by those invasive species, like members of Hedera, that seem to take over the world (or at least my little corner of it).  So while logic might dictate a preference for native species, I can’t help but love Rubus hayata-koidzumii (often mislabeled as Rubus calycinoides), and commonly called creeping raspberry.

When it comes to ground covers, I prefer species that stay on the ground; I like them low, tough, and dense enough to keep weeds out.  Of course they need to have attractive foliage and/or flowers.  But the icing on the cake, quite literally, is when they have edible fruits.

That’s why I love Rubus hayata-koidzumii, a high-elevation species native to Taiwan.  This USDA Zone 7 plant prefers sun to part shade (as you can see in the photo above), thriving in hot, dry conditions.  Not only does it do yeoman’s work in covering and protecting slopes, it bears abundant white flowers which morph into tasty fruits that practically beg to be baked into a cobbler or crisp.

But have I let my heart overrule my head?  Are there places where this species has become a problem?  I haven’t found anything in the literature to suggest it’s invasive, but am curious to hear from others.

Hues of hydrangeas

Hydrangeas are in full bloom this time of year.  I snapped these photos yesterday of several hydrangeas, all planted along the same strip of land.  Just look at the different colors:

Why so many colors? Most of you probably know that genetics play a role, as does soil pH.  But there’s much more to it than simple soil chemistry and genes.

1. pH:  Strongly acidic soils produce blue hydrangeas, while slightly acid to slightly alkaline soils favor pink or red flowers.  Soil pH can be modified by adding lime to raise soil pH or ammonium sulfate to acidify the soil.

2. Aluminum: Aluminum, a toxic heavy metal, is required for blue hydrangeas. Like other metallic elements, aluminum binds tightly to clay particles under alkaline conditions. As the pH becomes more acidic, aluminum becomes soluble and can be taken up by plant roots.

3. Nutrients: Relative concentrations of phosphate, nitrogen, and potassium have significant impacts on the uptake and activity of aluminum.

4. Pigments: Blue hydrangea flowers depend on the formation of a complex among three partners: an anthocyanin called delphinidin with a sugar attachment, a phenolic acid co-pigment, and aluminum. Co-pigment differences among species and cultivars will influence flower color.

And here’s an interesting factoid about hydrangeas: ever notice that they are rarely bothered by insects or other animals? Accumulation of a toxin like aluminum in their tissues may be the reason.

The Importance of Not Leaving Your Veg Garden Unattended for a Week in July


Small dog snout + normal-sized cucumber provided for scale.

This problem is self-explanatory and probably not at all atypical for our readers. Pattypans became UFOs; grey zucchini, footballs.  Note that it’s been very dry here in the Blue Ridge. I shudder to think what would have happened with normal rainfall.


Beans amuck! Scared the hell out of Joel when he opened the fridge. But they wouldn’t fit in the bucket!

If you haven’t tried yard-long beans, give them a shot sometime. Super easy to grow, just need the usual pole-bean structure. Pick daily, or they get out of hand. They have a rich, “beany” flavor and no strings attached. Best sauteed – I toss them with a bit of sesame oil and soy sauce in honor of their Asian heritage. Leave ’em long to impress the kids! I bet one or two beans equals a full serving of vegetables.


Yard-longs (Vigna unguiculata subsp. sesquipedalis)  come in both green and a dark red that keeps its color after cooking! They’re actually in the cowpea genus. Normal green bean at top of plate for scale (it now has a complex).

 

Why do nurseries sell this plant?

I wish I were more like Holly…wandering around nurseries finding pretty and unusual annuals and perennials to get excited about.  Instead, I seem to gravitate to plants that annoy me.

Today while looking for some trellises (for those containerized Clematis vines that I’ve been torturing) I saw pots of the Equisetum hyemale (“a tall, evergreen, spreading, reed-like grass”) for sale:

 

As readers of this blog surely know, Equisetum spp. – or horsetails – are not grasses but primitive relatives of ferns.  That taxonomic blunder aside, the thought of deliberately planting any Equisetum species in a landscape sends shivers down my spine.

Now E. hyemale is not as weedy as E. arvense, but in nearly every seminar I give on controlling weeds with mulch someone asks about getting rid of horsetails.  Short answer – you pull.  And pull and pull.  There’s no good herbicide for them, nothing seems to eat them, and they spread aggressively.

And speaking of eating, did you know that horsetails are poisonous?  They contain an enzyme (thiaminase) that deactivates thiamin (vitamin B1) in the unfortunate consumer’s body.  The most common victims of horsetail poisoning, ironically, are horses.  Horsetails are considered noxious weeds in pastures used for grazing – and yes, they are native to the United States.

Sure, horsetails are interesting looking plants.  But do you really want something in your garden that the production nursery describes as having “indefinite spread?”  And how does keeping them in a pot, as one production nursery recommends, keep them from spreading spores?  Especially if you plant them “in or around ponds and streams?”

I just think this is such a bad idea for home landscapes.  Even if it is a native species.

Lamb’s Ears Revisited

A bit more on my recent travels to the big floriculture conference in Columbus, Ohio.  I always try to make it out to the Chadwick Arboretum & Learning Gardens, on the campus of THE Ohio State University. There are several components, including trials, a large arboretum, and several small gardens.  My favorite is the Steven Still Perennial Garden. It’s a lovely mixed garden, designed by Adrian Bloom (Blooms of Bressingham), and was installed in ONE DAY by their garden volunteers – 2005, I think.

Watching it grow has been fun. I noted [ with pleasure] that they’ve already had to start cutting back and removing some things. This makes me feel better because I am The Queen of Planting Too Close

A few highlights:

I thought of y’all when I saw
this…remember our conversation about Stachys the other day? Here’s a
new one on me: Stachys byzantina ‘Silky Fleece’.   What teeny, tiny
little leaves! And seemed to be limiting itself to a small area on the
edge of the border. Introduced in 2006 by German seedmeisters Jelitto
Perennial Seeds. They missed the boat on naming it…could have all kind
of fun with ‘Little Lamb’ or even ‘Mary’s Little Lamb’ as the director
for their North American office is Mary Vaananen. Heh.


My foot is just in there for scale – I’m really not that inept a
photographer.

 

A gorgeous flock of Rhus typhina ‘Tiger Eyes’.  Hardy to Zone 4, the foliage is golden in summer, blazing apricot in fall, a wonderful shrub accent in any garden… What? Hang on a sec.

Correction:
That’s Rhus typhina ‘Bailtiger’ PP16,185. Trade name is First Editions® Tiger Eyes® Cutleaf Staghorn Sumac. Well, that took all the fun out of it.

Moving on…



Belamcanda chinensis – Blackberry or Leopard
Lily.  A tough cookie, this midseason bloomer takes drought and even
reseeds a little bit in my home garden. The pods burst open to
reveal a cluster of seeds that look exactly like a blackberry. These
weren’t quite that far along, but in between flowering and seed setting, they
do something else interesting..


The petals twist up into these hilarious
little bundles. I have no idea why or what for. Just kind of neat.

All for now!