Archive for September, 2008
Friday, September 26th, 2008
LOVE-IN-A-MIST
The flowers appear above a whorl of greenery branching like coral. The “love” in the name is a flower just a few centimetres (an inch or so) wide. It may be white, pink, red, blue, or something in between. Even the wild species from southern Europe and North Africa sometimes bear flowers in one color, and sometimes in another. The annual plant grows about 12-20 in tall. Sadly, they flower but briefly – just four weeks or so. Fortunately, however, we do not have to part with them then, because decorative inflated seed pods appear in their stead. Cut them off as soon as they are fully developed, and hang them up to dry upside down. They will provide a delightful memento of the summer later on.
(more…)
Posted in Summerflowers | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 9th, 2008
ANGELS’ TRUMPETS
The reason the Dutch nickname for this plant is ‘thorny apple’ is easy to guess when you see its spherical fruits which are densely covered in spikes. In their American homelands, their purpose was probably to fend off grazing animals in search of an evening meal. The animals concerned must have had special stomachs, because the plants are exceedingly toxic. The poison anaesthetizes and was at one time used for that purpose during surgery. The ‘thorny apple’ presumably arrived at some time as a medicinal plant in a herb garden – the first botanical gardens. From there it escaped, and the plant now grows wild in open, nutritive soil such as rubbish tips. This indicates where it feels most at home in a garden: near a sunny manure or compost heap. Make sure there is loose, nutritive soil in a border and the species will sow itself freely there as well. It will sometimes even germinate in autumn and survive a mild winter. After a severe winter, a second crop will germinate in March-April. It is best to do your own sowing in April-May. The flowers will then appear from July until well into September. They are usually white and jut out sideways.
(more…)
Posted in Summerflowers | No Comments »
Tuesday, September 2nd, 2008
SLIPPERWORT
Calceolarias are difficult to combine with other plants because of their bright colors. The pale yellow flowers of Calceoraria mexicana appear to be no exception until you see them in a border with foliage plants, or on the rough banks of a stream. In that kind of position, the small flowers will light up like Chinese lanterns. They are only V4 in wide and are suspended gracefully from slender red-tinged stems.
(more…)
Posted in Summerflowers | No Comments »
Monday, September 1st, 2008
Plants that are called new are often rediscovered treasures. This is true of Orlaya grandiflora, which may be included in books on the wild plants of Europe, but is not to be found in even the very fattest volumes on plants for the garden. It self-seeded freely in the olive groves of Tuscany, and on other dry, warm hillsides in southern and central Europe, but nobody made the effort to market the seed of this annual plant for growing in a garden. Those days are now past, and it looks as though Orlaya grandiflora has a golden future in the garden.
(more…)
Posted in Summerflowers | No Comments »
