Category Archives: Plant collector

flowering this week, tried and true plants

Plant Collector: Cyanella capensis

Cyanella capensis - described by Mark as appearing like a blue gypsohila in the garden

Cyanella capensis - described by Mark as appearing like a blue gypsohila in the garden

There is some debate as to whether this plant is accurately named as Cyanella capensis and whether that is in fact synonymous with Cyanella hyacinthoides, but there is no doubt that it has been a quiet star in the rockery for nigh on two months now. Many bulbs are a wonderful, quick, seasonal flash. Plants like the cyanella which just keep going week after week are considerably rarer.

The “capensis” part of the name gives a clue – South African again, from the Cape Province. It is not a big show-stopper. Like some of the species gladiolus and the ixias, the foliage starts to die off and look scruffy as the flowers open but in this case, the flowers have continued long after the foliage has withered away and disappeared. Each six petalled flower is about 15mm across, lilac blue with golden stamens and masses of them just dance on the leafless branch structure, reminiscent of a blue gypsophila.

We have had this cyanella in the rockery for many years now. I have ferreted around looking for the bulbs to spread further afield but clearly they are of the type which can find its own depth and in this case, that is deep. I have failed to find them. Apparently they are edible and somewhat oniony in flavour, also used in times past as a poultice, so they must be a reasonable size. I may have to have another dig to see. The flowers are pollinated by bees and can set viable seed.

There are different species of cyanella – about seven in fact – and we were given the yellow form, Cyanella lutea but it failed to last the distance with us.

First printed in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Plant Collector: Hydrangea Libelle

Hydrangea Libelle

Hydrangea Libelle

Were we to host garden weddings here (which we will not), I would be targeting white hydrangeas for easy care summer display in semi shaded areas. The compact white moptop Immaculata is very, very good but perhaps just a little clichéd in a bridal sense. Hydrangea macrophylla ‘Libelle’ is looking equally good this week.

Libelle is a large grower. This plant is well over two metres even though I prune it every winter and it is growing in competition with an adjacent tall hedge. Its flower heads are appropriately large and abundant. It is a lacecap which means it has a flat head. The true flowers are the small blue clusters in the centre. The outer rim of large, white individual flowers are sterile (which means they do not set seed) and technically they are sepals. The blue and white contrast is a very clean and attractive combination. Later in the season, the white will turn to pink tones in that olde-fashioned antique colour range that hydrangeas do so well.

Hydrangeas are a wonderfully obliging plant family that is often taken for granted. But after the unrelenting rains of last week, when pretty much every other bloom was sodden and disintegrating, the hydrangea flower heads just serenely continued as if nothing would bother them. They can last for a long time on the bush and make a splendid cut flower as well.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Plant Collector – Sprekelia formosissima

The Sprekelia formosissima or Jacobean lily

The Sprekelia formosissima or Jacobean lily

You learn something every day. This bulb is what is commonly known as the Jacobean Lily, even though it has nothing to do with the Jacobeans and it is not a lily. For years I have freely tossed the descriptor around, “it resembles a Jacobean lily”, thinking more of William Morris textile design than botany. And all the time, there is a wide level of agreement internationally that the Jacobean lily is Sprekelia formosissima. Added to that, when a species name is formasana or formasanum, it usually means that the plant comes from the former island of Formosa (now Taiwan). But the unwieldy formosissima means, loosely, beautiful. In fact it comes from Mexico.

It is indeed a beautiful flower with its rich red strappy petals and elegant form. A member of the amaryllis family, it is closely related to hippeastrums. It grows on quite a tall stem, around 30cm, with just a single flower per stem but fairly long lived. Aside from the genuine lilies, there aren’t a lot of bulbs that flower in early to mid summer. It is not particularly rare but it is one of those collectors’ items that is getting ever harder to source with the shrinking plant range offered for sale these days. If you find a plant with seed, it germinates easily when fresh.

As with all bulbs, the sprekelia likes well drained, friable soils and good light levels. It can get attacked by bulb fly (as can the hippeastrums) so we go for the woodland margins to outwit the sun-loving bulb fly. Despite its Mexican origins, sprekelia is regarded as half hardy which means that it can tolerate cool conditions and light frosts.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Plant Collector – Philadelphus

The exquisite simplicity of the fragrant philadelphus

The exquisite simplicity of the fragrant philadelphus

I went out to the garden looking for something Christmas-y but the recent rains haven’t helped. The perfect red dahlia did not quite cut the mustard for this column but my eye fell on the pristine, snow white flowers of the philadelphus. I think this one is P. coronarius, the most commonly grown species. The whole family is often referred to as mock orange blossom. Sweetly scented though this plant is, as one whose garden is at times awash with the genuine orange blossom scent, all I can say is that to label the philadelphus so was the work of either an optimist or a plant marketer.

Philadelphus only star when in flower. For the rest of the year, they are largely anonymous border shrubs but that is fine because gardens need some quiet fillers in order to highlight showier plants. While there are a few evergreen ones, they are generally deciduous. The simple blooms remain pristine white, not burning in the sun or turning brown with age.

We saw a large range of particularly showy philadelphus in early summer English gardens, many much larger flowers, semi doubles, doubles, even pink tones. We figured they are hugely more popular there because they are such an obliging plant in a wide variety of conditions including alkaline soils and hard winters. New Zealand gardeners tend not to be fans of twiggy, deciduous shrubs. Plants flower on the previous season’s new growth which means that it is better to prune and shape by taking out older, woody stems entirely rather than giving the plant a hair cut all over. However, these are well behaved shrubs which only need attention every few years.

Apparently they pick well. I may have to try combining them with my red dahlias for a Christmas themed vase.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.

Plant Collector: Tetracentron sinense

Tetracentron sinense

Tetracentron sinense

The Tetracentron sinense growing in our park is a pretty special tree for us. We rate it as a small tree – after five decades it is still only about six metres high and with a graceful, arching habit of growth. It is deciduous and the fresh spring growth emerges pink which seems appropriate for heart shaped leaves, but only briefly before it turns green, though keeping the red stems.

Sinense means it comes from China, on the western reaches where it borders with Nepal. It is a relatively late discovery, dating to 1901. As far as is known, there are no other members of the Tetracentron family (which makes it monotypic – meaning one of a kind). Our tree grew from seed collected in the 1950s. Frank Kingdon-Ward (often incorrectly referred to as Kingdom Ward) was an intrepid British plant collector and, like many of his forbears, financed some of his expeditions by selling subscriptions in return for seed. Mark’s father, Felix Jury, subscribed though we don’t know now how much he contributed. He received the tetracentron and a rhus which we could have done without.

It flowers in summer with relatively insignificant yellow catkins, though loved by bees. In our climate we don’t get autumn colour and I can’t find any mention in the literature so I would guess nobody else does either. I did find wildly varied accounts of its ultimate size – up to 40 metres in fact which is enormous. I can’t think that our specimen, rated by international experts who have seen it as a large example, is ever going to get to that stature. However it is apparently rare in the wild (sightings are recorded) so perhaps the heights are more a case of guesstimates.

First published in the Waikato Times and reproduced here with their permission.