A not so simple garden

Sunday, January 11, 2015

Crotalaria, not your usual annuals

Crotalaria is a large genus with both annual and perennial species. Most are concentrated in Africa though they are found elsewhere too. This year I started several from seed but two got large enough to get out into the garden. Unfortunately I lost the tag on the yellow species, it is an African one and I will have to grow out more seed from what I have to figure it out. Another very unfortunate thing is that it is not self fertile (the only crotalaria I have run into so far with this annoying trait) so I did not get seed from it, nor was I able to propagate it from cuttings. It has blue green glaucous leaves and gets quite robust, and bloomed all summer long right till frost. Since I have several spp of crotalaria seeds, I can rule out a few names but will have to actually grow more out from what I can't eliminate as this species and make sure to get more than one plant started. Perhaps I will send a photo to the supplier so I can get a good ID and more seed of it, I don't think I could have too much of such a nice flower.
The second species is one I collected many years ago in a cornfield in Malawi, where it grows as a weed. It has lovely bluish flowers, not common among African crotalarias, nearly all of which are some shade of yellow. I think it is C. polysperma. It is easy to grow but only opens its flowers for several hours each day, but it does produce abundant seeds and is very self fertile. So its no problem to propagate, this one plant made hundreds of seeds even though it was off to a late start due to me not getting the seed started earlier.
The seed pods of all crotalarias are known as rattleboxes because they actually do rattle when dry due to the inflated pod and numerous seeds inside. Like other legumes, the seeds benefit from being soaked and/or chipped and soaked to ensure that water gets through the thick seed coat. This speeds germination, and they like full sun and warm to hot weather to do their best. Some species bloom in winter, which is unfortunate as they would otherwise be good garden plants. I collected seeds of some species in Malawi that are also nice plants but have the fault of winter blooming habits which precludes them from anything but greenhouse use in NY.
There are some other species I have grown earlier and need to restart from seed as well as some that are being maintained indoors as small plants because they didn't come up fast enough to get out in the garden in time. They will have a head start next year so I should have some more of these intriguing African legumes to experience in my garden later this year.

Saturday, January 3, 2015

Crinums, tough bulbs for tough places

Crinum bulbispermum "Jumbo"

"Jumbo"

C. moorei

Found crinum from South Carolina

The other found crinum from South Carolina, growing in the same location as the pink one above

Crinum is a fairly large genus with quite a few hybrids, and some of the species and hybrids are more cold hardy than might be expected. The species C. bulbspermum is especially cold hardy, and all the bulbs I planted out in my home gardens came through last winter, the coldest in decades, unscathed. They were young bulbs, maybe 3 years old in most cases, from 2 different sources, a few of a "Jumbo" strain from a PBS seed distribution, and many more from South African seed. One of the Jumbos bloomed in October, much later than it should have, so the flower didn't open completely due to the cold but I was pleased nonetheless. C. bulbispermum tends to not offset readily, but its hybrids often do. I have one such hybrid or selection growing from seed now, it has been named Oaklawn Cemetery strain from where it was found by Nestor, a crinum aficionado if there ever was one. He sells on ebay as bulbsnmorenurseryfl, and the numerous seeds were a bonus I got with an order of three crinum bulbs. I am overwintering the seedlings under lights so they can grow continuously and get large faster so I can plant them out in the garden. The true bulbispermums that I did plant out last year were maybe the size of tulip bulbs or smaller and I planted them deep, but they were quite quick to resume growth once the danger of frost was past, and I hope the bulbs fattened up so many more will bloom next year. Jim Shields of Indiana has posted information on Crinum hardiness in a climate that is colder than mine, according to that information C. variabile is the most hardy. I have small seedlings of it coming along so it will get its chance in the open garden one day.
At school I have a pink C x powellii that has survived for several years in an unprotected location. C. powellii does not set seeds (though I think its pollen can be used for hybridizing) but does offset readily. I planted the alba form in my new flowerbed I carved out of the front lawn, it is a blooming sized bulb from a Brent and Becky's late season discount sale. It didn't flower, which is not unusual as crinums don't like disturbance and take a while to settle in. Next year I am pretty sure it will flower, its got great sunshine in its location and I amended the heavy soil we have here with roadsand and compost to make it more suitable for what I like to grow.
In pots I also grow several other crinums, including C. moorei which I grew from South African seed. It has lovely pink flowers and offsets readily, and it fairly quick to bloom from seed. I just haul the pots inside for the winter into the cool garage and allow it to remain semidormant with an occasional watering. I also grow C. macowanii from Malawi that a friend collected for me, it never offsets and wont form seeds. I have since acquired both seeds from South Africa of the same species and a large (well huge actually) bulb from Telos Rare Bulbs when they were having a sale on crinums and oxalis early this fall. I only wish I had ordered more crinums, Diana was trying to get rid of some of them because they take up a lot of space, and the bulbs I got were impressive to say the least. They will have to grow new roots, so I am keeping them unpotted till spring, at that point they will be able to grow new roots when it is warmer and their is less risk of root rots. If the macowanii from Telos blooms next year I can cross it with my form from Malawi and then get my own seeds.
Nestor sells a lot of crinums on ebay, and with each order you get a cd that has many nice photos and a great deal of information on the various crinums he grows, including many "found" ones growing in all sorts of odd places. You see, crinum grow all over the deep south, and are indestructible (we don't have the amaryllis caterpillar that is their main enemy in Africa), often outliving their owners or even their homes. So there's lots of "found" heirloom crinums to hunt for down south, where they have been surviving as long as they get enough sun to grow. I also found a couple of crinums in a field off a highway entrance ramp in South Carolina, I dug up one example of each and they are in pots now. I don't know if they were purposely planted there (but crinums aren't the sort of thing highway beautification folks plant) or, more likely I think, they might have been on a property that was demolished when the highway was built. Either way there are plenty left where I found them, and they should grow for many more years as they are not that close to the roadside. The biggest threat they face is probably trees growing up around them, they can survive in shade but really need full sun in most cases to do their best.
No one around here grows crinums, as with most parts of the USA homeowners only grow what is familiar to them or what their landscapers suggest. I could never have my gardens look like everyone elses, after all novelty is the spice of life, especially in gardening! So next year if more crinums bloom in the front gardens I guess the neighbors will be gawking at one more "weird" flower growing here as I continue to expand and remodel the gardens at my home.
If you want to try growing C. bulbispermum in a cold climate area, it is best to either get large bulbs or grow your own from seed in pots. The pots can be allowed to dry out and go dormant for winter if you don't want to keep them growing year round, and then when the bulbs are large enough to plant with their noses at least several inches under the ground surface, you can place them out in the garden. As far as I know they do not successfully resow in cold winter areas so it seems it is necessary to get the bulbs to a decent size before putting them outdoors. And if it is too cold for some crinums that you wish to grow they do fine in pots, just make sure the pots are as large as possible because they are greedy feeders with thick roots. Haul them in for winter and dry them off, or if you have the space and good sun you can keep them in leaf. If you are down south, well growing crinums is idiot proof, just plant in sun or partial shade in the case of C moorei, and provide enough water. Soil type wont likely matter, they can even manage in the clay soils that are so common down south. They will take time to establish, but once they do, remember, crinums are forever.

Wednesday, December 31, 2014

Another gardening year gone, a new one to come

I think facebook and all of its plant interest groups has taken my attention away from my blog, so its about time I write something. Its been a good gardening year after the most horrendously cold winter in decades. We did get the at least one hot humid wet spell during early summer that spelled doom for some of my ice plants, notably Delosperma "congestum", which I fortunately have several more of, and which is the toughest of the lot when it comes to dealing with winter cold. Its probably not even a delosperma, just an undescribed species that is now common in the horticultural trade, along with its white form "White Nugget". The same spell was also hard on the "Jewels of the Desert" delosperma series, I think only "Garnet" made it. I do have to note that the affected plants were all in the same area and it was flat, many other delospermas did fine. And they all liked the dry end of summer and fall, it was ideal for flowering and seed set. Another delosperma series, the "Wheels of Wonder" group, set copious seed that I am curious to grow out, and did well even though they were in an area that gets a little less sun than the others. I suspect they have D. floribundum in their bloodlines since they bloom constantly as does the species, and have a growth habit not all that different. D. floribundum did so well it actually self sowed into nearby areas. The late summer drought was not so good for woodland type plants, nor the impatiens species I grow, eg I bicolor, glandulifera, balfourii and namchabarwensis, all of which did fine till rather late, although namchabarwensis did well pretty much until frost, by which time the rains had returned. All of these species are vigorous reseeders in my gardens and I keep them mostly in their own areas otherwise I think it would be a battle between glandulifera "Red Wine" and bicolor. Another form of glandulifera I grew from seed exchange seeds as a sp from a Chadwell collection is taller than Red Wine but not as resilient to heat and humidity, but it persists though not in large numbers. Helichrysum splendidum came back strongly from winter dieback, it even flowered a bit, but not as much as in years where it isn't killed back to the base. Two seedling dieramas bloomed, a white and a purple one, and the latter set seeds. Many more grew stronger this year and from the mélange of species and hybrids I've grown I expect to see some nice ones next year. Berkheyas did well also, namely radula and purpurea in my home gardens, and speciosa flowered in its first year from seed. Other spp have been planted and I hope they will all make it to next year. Kniphofias also did very well, particularly one I think is caulescens or a form of it I grew from seed from one of the German botanic gardens years ago at NYBG, it has followed me since and is bone hardy. K. triangularis also put on quite a show in midsummer, it looked lovely in front of "Little Joe" Joe Pye Weed. Some really nice gladioli hybrids bloomed for the first time, and their were plenty of survivors in the glad patch in the former vegetable garden, including "Ruby Papilio" and my dalenii and Atom hybrids. A surprise was the survival without dieback of Hibiscus paramutabilis "Shanghai White", it doesn't bloom a lot but it is not in the sunniest of positions being near the northwestern facing house wall. A tragic loss was finding Clematis morsefeldii eaten at the base of the stems by some rodent just as it was setting lots of seeds, then the plant died after making one feeble sprout. I am trying to germinate some of those seeds now and am hopeful that some of them got mature enough to sprout. The new vegetable garden took over another patch of lawn and we were overrun with tomatoes, beans, and Asian cucumbers. I am sure the compost we brought and I dug into the ground helped immensely. In the front of the house dog fennel grew lush and tall, as did Arundo donax "Peppermint Stick" which surprisingly did die in the school garden. I suspect winter salting may have done it in, I am glad I propagated it before it expired, it is a stunning plant and I don't say that lightly for a variegated plant, as they are usually not my thing. I set up a new garden in the front lawn and planted crinums, snapdragon species, agastache hybrids, and loads of other stuff that seem to be quite happy there. One particularly successful plant was a species of Gomphrocarpus that I collected in the south Cape, probably from near Luipaardsekop as I saw a picture of it as I was scanning slides recently. Unlike the typical "hairy balls" plant as the genus is known for its interesting seed pods, this one is not a lanky plant, it branches well and covers itself with lots of white milkweed flowers. It set relatively few pods so I cut the branches with the pods before frost and let them dry in the cool garage--it worked, after a few weeks the pod began to split and reveal good seeds inside. I think they just took the remaining nutrients and water from the stems and used it to mature the seed as a survival strategy; where they come from unexpected droughts are a way of life. There is so much more to say about this year, but I think I'll end it here and just put up some photos from this past season. Perhaps I will expound in more detail about some of them, or other plants, later on this winter.

A special glad hybrid of mine with delicate picotee spotting

Tigridia pavonia seedling

Tigridia vanhouteii pollinated by wasp

Lapeirousia schimperi, a tall summer grower unlike most in its genus

Arctotis venusta

Microseris ringens

Ursinia from an old seed mix from Kirstenbosch, alas it did not set seeds

Impatiens bicolor, its indestructible around here

Crepis rubra, a nice but short lived annual

White form of this thistle from Spain whose latin name always escapes me. I'll come back and edit it when I remember.

Rudbeckia subtomentosa, a long and spectacular bloomer

Giant swallowtail on lantanas in the front

Costus spectabilis, a truly magnificent plant even out of flower

Dianthus species descended from seeds I collected in the Cape. Has pale yellow flowers, might be D. caespitosus.

Gladiolus "Ruby Papilio" a large hybrid that tends to come true from seed

Niermbergia repens, likes being divided and spread around, blooms forever, why don't more people grow it?

The nicest African crotalaria I have ever grown, but of course it is self sterile unlike most of them. Have to figure out which one it is and get more seeds from Silverhill.