PLANTWISE

plant of the week

Lawn Crocus

Crocus tommasinianus – a classic English technique for dressing up a dull lawn

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Feb 07, 2011 at 06:00PM 6 Comments

Spring comes in waves in the Pacific Northwest.

First we have the native osoberry (Oemleria cerasiformis ) whose green, chain-like flowers light up the woods in January. Next come the spicily-scented witch hazel flowers that unfurl as January progresses – a sweet, earthy reminder that winter will one day be over. Then the snowdrops send up their tiny white spears and gardeners everywhere sigh with hope that spring is just around the corner. Then come the adorable little purple crocus , heralding possibly the most important moment in the slow, tantalizing dance that is late winter in our region: the moment we’re over the “hump.” The hump of winter, the hump of horrid weather – let’s just say we’re over the general hump of gloom. Of course the sunshine-yellow forsythia and golden daffodils are still to come. But by then, we’re already over the hump so they’re like icing on the cake.

Right now, just bring on those teeny little purple crocus – the ultimate in springiness!

There are many kinds of early species crocus. Crocus tommasinianus (pictured above and to right) – affectionately called “tommies” in England – are preferred for lawns because the flowers and foliage fade long before the grass needs mowing. But most of the delicate little species have slender, grasslike foliage and dainty, cupped flowers that would look natural in a lawn. The big, hefty purple, white and yellow ones sold in big boxes in, y’know, big box stores wouldn’t look so good in a lawn.

Instead, plant tiny treasures like Crocus tommasinianus, C. chrysanthus, C. biflorus, C. sieberi and C. flavus. They can be found in specialty bulb catalogs like Brent & Becky’s and Van Engelen Bulb Co. during the fall planting season. They are inexpensive at about $25 per hundred – and look especially fantastic in drifts, emerging from a mossy lawn. If you have to have a lawn, plant these all through the grass in the fall, clip the grass short in November and enjoy the tiny, often fragrant flowers in February.

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Tags: Plant of the Week, winter-interest-plants

plant of the week

Sweet box

Sarcococca (that’s pronounced sar – co – co – kah!)

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jan 31, 2011 at 05:00PM 1 Comments

Gosh, I’m predicable: I enthuse about sweet box (Sarcococca sp.) every January and February. Also known as Christmas box and Himalayan box, these demure shrubs possess the sweetest scent around and you don’t even have to crouch down in the cold mud and plunge your nose deep into the wet foliage to smell it – no, just stroll around within 20 feet downwind of it and it will be unmistakable. It’s that powerful, that delicious, and that enchanting.

The softly sweet, vanilla fragrance is the primary reason to grow it. But it also happens to be a pretty little thing, with glossy, dark green evergreen foliage and tiny, thread-like creamy white flowers which turn into small red or black fruit in summer.

Perhaps best of all, Sarcococca are also adaptable and tough plants. Given reasonably rich, well-drained, acidic soil and shade or dappled sunlight, they are quite tolerant of our dry summers, although they flower best if they receive some supplemental water in late summer, when they are forming the following year’s flower buds. Like most rhododendrons and camellias, they can take direct morning sun if they receive a bit of summertime water but keep them out of dry spots in direct, hot afternoon sun – that’s what rosemary, Santolina and Cistus are for!

Like their close relative, boxwood, Sarcococca are not bothered by deer. But what’s especially nice about Sarcococca is that they are tough enough to withstand the often-difficult conditions found near the foundations of houses. For instance, they can take some root competition from other plants once established, and often grow remarkably well in those marginal areas around the eaves. (They cannot grow directly under one of those giant, overhanging, Craftsman-style eaves, though – not much can!)

There are several species of Sarcococca that do well in the Pacific Northwest: three common types – all exquisitely fragrant – and a bunch that are less common and require a little poking around to find.

Sarcococca hookieriana var. humilis is a low-growing, politely suckering plant that can spread widely over time making a 1 to 2-foot tall evergreen ground cover for a shady spot. It’s great as a ground-cover and an understory beneath rhododendrons, camellias,

Sarcococca ruscifolia is a 4-5-foot tall (and about as wide) species with small black fruit that turn red in late summer when ripe.

Sarcococca confusa – also a 3-5 foot tall (and about as wide) species but with black fruit.

A little harder to find but worth the search:

Sarcococca hookeriana var. digyna – said to be “the best form of Christmas box” by Xera Plants (and much-touted in classic English gardening books), it has purplish-red stems and larger flowers than the fairly commonplace S. hookeriana var. humilis.

Sarcococca orientalis – possessing the largest and perhaps most fragrant flowers of the winter boxes, this 3-foot tall and wide species flowers from December to March. The leaves are a bit chunkier and wider than most other species.

Sarcococca saligna – a little less cold-hardy than the other species, this species has slender, lighter green leaves and clusters of sweetly fragrant green flowers that appear in the autumn from October to mid-winter. Plants reach about 3 feet tall and wide and have a more delicate, willowy, arching form than any of the other species mentioned here. I snuck this one in – it’s really more of a fall-blooming plant than a winter-bloomer but heck, it’s still darling.

Sources:

Cistus Design Nursery

Xera Plants – a wholesale-only outfit whose plants can be found at most of our wonderful local retailers including Garden Fever Nursery, Dennis’ Seven Dees Nursery and the Portland Nursery

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Tags: Plant of the Week, winter-interest-plants, fragrant flowers

plant of the week

Flowering Maple

One of the most luscious plants of late summer. And fall. And winter.

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jul 30, 2010 at 06:44AM 0 Comments

Flowering maples – members of the genus Abutilon – aren’t easy to categorize. They are perennial, semi-evergreen shrubs, sometimes acting like deciduous perennials, they are climbers, and some tender types are used as summer annuals… the diversity of Abutilon size, form and flower color makes them incredibly versatile.

Their striking flowers contribute greatly to the summer, fall and even winter garden and they bloom forever – often right up until the winter holidays if there isn’t a deep freeze. Their lantern-shaped flowers come in a vast range of colors, from pastels (pink, peach, cream, soft red, pale yellow) and white to sizzling oranges, yellows, blood red, and hot pink. Depending on their genetic inheritance (ie, which species are in their “bloodline”), they can range from little 2-foot cuties (like Abutilon ’Li’l Red’) to 8 foot wonders like Abutilon megapotamicum.

Did I mention they are a beloved nectar source for hummingbirds?

Flowers can be elongated, slender pendants (as with Abutilon megapotamicum) or more open and flattened – very tropical looking, in either case.

Foliage can be wide and palm-shaped, vaguely like our native vine maple leaf, or slender and elongated. Some forms (not cold-hardy) have gold or cream variegated leaves.

Flowering maples love sun, rich soil, and plenty of moisture in summer. Having said that, if you give them plenty of moisture and rich soil when young, you can get away with some neglect later, once its established.

Plant tall Abutilon types at the back of a bed, behind other sturdy shrubs. That way, you don’t have to look at the twigs in spring and other shrubs help protect the plants from winter cold. Although not technically a vine, Abutilon tend to clamber and weave through other shrubs and it creates a lovely effect when the bell-shaped flowers appear through the foliage of the support shrub. Abutilon are especially nice planted on the south or west side of a structure – they can flower right into December in a protected spot. Smaller types are fantastic in summer containers, as they flower continuously, like any annual plant.

Pick a reasonably cold-hardy, Zone 8a (10-15F) variety like Abutilon megapotamicum and its cultivars, get it through the first winter and you’ll enjoy your Abutilon for years to come. Or pick whichever one tickles your fancy – most are listed at Zone 8b (15-20F) or into Zone 9 – and relish the showy flowers all summer and fall. (It will be a bonus if it comes back next year.) Sometimes they come back even when by all rights they should have died! A few A. megapotamicum cultivars including the one called Red surprised me by returning hale and hearty this spring.

If planting an Abutilon you hope to overwinter, don’t fertilize it from mid-August on and mulch it well after the first frost of the season (usually late October/early November).

In the perfect world, you’d plant your Abutilon in spring so it has a full season to establish a strong root system. But it’s nearly impossible to find abutilons in the nurseries in the spring – they look like bundles of sticks in a pot in April and May so you’ll rarely even see them on nursery shelves. Shop for them now, while they’re in full bloom, mulch them well through their first winter, and cross your fingers for a sweeter winter than we had last year.

Sources:

Cistus Design Nursery, Sauvie Island
Garden Fever Nursery, NE Fremont & 24th Ave (along with the Portland Nursery on Stark Street, they carry the best selection of plants from wholesaler Xera Plants, which grows a great selection of Abutilon.
Plant Delights Nursery, Raleigh, North Carolina (mail order)

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Tags: Flowers, Plant of the Week

plant of the week

Hops

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jun 27, 2010 at 07:11AM 0 Comments

In honor of Portland Monthly’s July beer issue and the many brew festivals happening in the next month, I present hops (Humulus lupulus) – a fun, funky and fast-growing climber with ornamental flowers that are also a crucial ingredient in beer.

If you make beer yourself, you’ll have a special interest in exploring the flavor and aroma differences of some of the different hops cultivars. You can try growing and harvesting your own (see the Oregon Hop Commission’s cultural tips) or purchase hop flowers from a brewing supply shop.

If you’re growing hops not for beer-making but for the attractive vines or to harvest the pretty cone-like hop flowers for wreaths or decorations, there are some differences in flower shape and size but the foliage is generally similar – except in the case of the golden hops.

While not much used in beer-making, golden hops (Humulus lupulus ‘Aureus) is by far the most striking of the hops, with greenish-yellow spring foliage which turns brassy, sunshine yellow in summer. Since the foliage can bleach and develop brown edges in full, hot sun, it’s best to plant it where it gets a bit of shade in the afternoon.

Be forewarned – hops are super-vigorous vines with roots that spread considerably so confine the roots in a roomy whiskey barrel or large planter or trench the area in late spring to keep the roots from spreading far and wide. Find more detailed cultural instructions at the Great Plant Picks website, here.

Hops are herbaceous perennial vines, meaning they die back down to the ground each winter but return in the spring with fresh shoots from the base. In an established plant, these shoots can grow 15-20 feet in a season and twine around anything in their path.

Golden hops are available in 4-inch pots at some retail nurseries for about $6 and, more commonly, in 1-gallon pots for about $10-15.

When sampling suds at some of this summer’s beer fests, take note of which hops are used in your favorites – you may be able to grow it in your garden:

Portland International Beer Festival, July 16 to 18, 2010

Oregon Brew Fest, July 22 to 25, 2010

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Tags: Plant of the Week, Vines

plant of the week

Clematis ‘Rooguchi’

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Jun 14, 2010 at 06:55AM 2 Comments

Some say ‘Roguchi,’ others say ‘Rooguchi’ – it all depends on how you translate the word from the Japanese. In any case, it is a lovely plant that deserves a place in any garden. It’s unfussy, flowers over a long period in summer, and the thickly textured, rich purple-blue bells seem to elicit the same response from nearly everyone who sees them: “what IS this? I want one!”

I wrote about it for the June issue of Portland Monthly Magazine. (My Dig plant profiles and gardening tips live in the Mudroom section of the magazine.) I picked the June issue for Rooguchi because it has always begun its flowering season for me in late May, when the June issue comes out. But this year – probably because I touted it as starting to flower in May – it has decided to play passive-aggressive on me and is sulking in its corner: leafy and healthy but withholding its gift of flowers thus far.

So I contacted Linda Beutler, author of Gardening With Clematis and Curator of the Rogerson Clematis Collection, located at Luscher Farm in West Linn. I wondered if hers were flowering yet. And yes, she’s seen it flowering already, although just barely. So while they’re all a little late, mine is just definitely having a personal sulk all its own.

I love Rooguchi but what does one of the country’s foremost experts on Clematis have to say about it? Beutler calls it “a breakthrough plant, in that it is the first of any clematis that have Clematis integrifolia as a parent to be able to climb in the traditional way, by wrapping a petiole around anything standing still.” Clematis integrifolia, one of Rooguchi’s parents, is a lovely, lax but small-flowered species that is used to breed smaller plant size – and that sweet, bell-shaped flower form – into big, rambling Clematis, thereby creating charming little plants that clamber through small shrubs or tuteurs without smothering them – perfect for small gardens and pots.

So while most of the early hybrid Clematis bred with C. integrifolia blood in them are generally lax and can’t exactly climb – they just sort of drape themselves over things (and sometimes fall off, because they don’t have those nice twining petioles that wrap around things to hold on) – Rooguchi can actually ascend a small fence or trellis. It’s still a petite little plant, though, reaching only about six feet.

Other nice features: Rooguchi can tolerate loads of sun and in my experience, a well established plant requires less water than you’d think (as long as the roots are shaded from the hot afternoon sun by a wall, or other plants).

Drawbacks: it is reputed to get mildew without good air circulation. (Mine, rambling about on a chain-link fence, rarely suffers from this disease.) But if it did get mildew in the next couple of weeks, Beutler suggested cutting it back to 12" and making it start all over, which results in lush, clean new growth and ample flowers from July to Sept.

She also recommends planting this and other “lanky” clematis at the base of a hydrangea, where it can ramble through the stiff, upright branches and offer fantastic contrasts and harmonies in color and form. Great idea – my old-fashioned purple Hydrangea would be much improved by a rambly Clematis. Hmmm, now what color?

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Tags: Flowers, Plant of the Week

Plants to love

More Chinese paperbush

a classic “tropic-ennial”

Posted by: Kate Bryant on Oct 28, 2009 at 11:00AM 0 Comments

The other day, I compared the Chinese paperbush (Edgeworthia chrysantha) to the tropical Plumeria. And what’s the first thing I see when I get off the plane at the Honolulu airport? A Plumeria, looking for all the world like a paperbush!

The first picture shows the tropical Plumeria; the second is a close-up of the Chinese paperbush. Wish I had a picture taken just three or four feet away – you’d see how very similar the plants’ habits are, even though they are in completely different families. For science geeks, the paperbush is a close relative to Daphne and is in the rather diverse Thymelaeaceae family, while Plumeria (or frangipani) is in the same family as Oleander, or Apocynaceae)

Here are two other photos of Edgeworthia chrysantha: in bud (above) and in flower (below). Both photos taken in winter, of course.

Edgeworthia (Chinese paperbush) makes such a good addition to the “tropical” garden, with its large, lush leaves. There are several species and cultivars – these three are the most commonly seen in Portland:

Edgeworthia chrysantha ‘Gold Rush’ is the heftiest, most robust type, with big, rubbery stems like a Daphne on steroids and large clusters of sweetly fragrant yellow flowers in winter. Plants reach about 5-6 feet tall.

Edgeworthia papyrifera (or the plant typically sold under this name – it isn’t clear whether it’s a separate species or not) has similar lovely yellow flowers in winter that are less fragrant than those of Gold Rush. But the plant’s flowers, leaves and stems have a more refined, graceful appearance. The plant reaches about 5-6 feet tall and wide.

Edgeworthia papyrifera ‘Akebono’ This plant looks delicate, the way E. papyrifera looks, but has reddish-orange flowers. The fragrance seems light compared to Gold Rush but the color is completely dazzling, particularly in the dead of winter, and it’s about the same height as the others.

The Chinese paperbush’s foliage and appearance is so lush as to be downright tropical – yet it is cold-hardy to USDA Zone 7, so it is solidly in the “tropic-ennial” (tropical-looking yet hardy and perennial) category. And since it’s winter-flowering, it’s the next best thing to a Hawai’ian vacation for alleviating the winter blues.

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Tags: Plant of the Week