Tag Archives: Abbie Jury

Stripes, splashes and edges – variegated plants

Yellow variegated conifers are redolent of the 1960s and 70s but we have retained those that add a statement to the garden landscape

Yellow variegated conifers are redolent of the 1960s and 70s but we have retained those that add a statement to the garden landscape

New Zealand gardeners are not, in the main, huge fans of variegated foliage. There are exceptions – hostas being one – but as a general rule, we tend to avoid bi-coloured variations. This often surprises overseas gardeners, particularly British ones who are far more enamoured of such things.

I am sure it is related to the differing quality of light in this country. New Zealand is remarkable for its clear, bright light. In recent times, that light has been even less filtered due to the hole in the ozone layer. Those prized white, cream, yellow or pale variegations burn badly in the sunlight. If the sun doesn’t get them, then the winds often do and burned brown edges take the charm away.

It is different in countries with softer, more diffused light. Often such conditions go with lower sunshine hours and in a climate which is generally greyer, yellow plants and variegations can add a bright touch in the garden and landscape which is valued.

Variegations are usually sports – mutations, genetic aberrations, if you like. Sometimes it is the result of a virus. Most plants grow with one solid colour on the foliage. All sorts of plants can throw up a branch or stem with a variegation but most of these will be unstable and revert back to the original single block colour. Where a variegation can be isolated and increased by propagation, the resulting plants often the lack the vigour of the original plant.

Hideous variegated plants I have seen include a nasty variegated oleander in Spain. The mottled and margined leaf added nothing to what is a lovely flowering street tree in the right climate, in my opinion at least. There was a ghastly variegated spirea (a yellow and green leaf with murky pink flower) that we saw being sold widely in the UK. In this country, the top selling rhododendron for a number of years in the 80s was a mutant named President Roosevelt. Some of you may still have it in your gardens so stop reading now if you are going to take offence. It was the first plant I cut out when we bought the property across the road from where we now live. I do not think the yellow mid-rib to the leaf added anything but when you add a red and white variegated flower to green and gold foliage, it was all too much for me. But distinctive, so it sold.

We have retained the odd variegated yellow conifer here but only because they are handsome, established trees which make a contribution to the landscape. I can’t think that we would choose to plant them from scratch.

The variegated disporum lit up a dark area but proved altogether too invasive

The variegated disporum lit up a dark area but proved altogether too invasive

That said, in darker areas of the garden, the odd bit of variegated foliage can light up an area. It was for this reason that Mark planted the ground cover that I think is Disporum sessile variegatum. It’s pretty green and white foliage gave a lift in the shade. I have spent the better part of this week weeding it out because, unlike other disporums we grow (‘diaspora’, I keep calling them), this one was scarily invasive. It spread alarmingly, rampantly and through everything. We have retained only one small patch in a confined area. The rest is now in the compost heap. Plant this one at your peril. This variegated form is an exception to the rule in that, for us, it is much strong growing than the others we grow.

Farfugium tussilagineum argenteum looks good in shaded areas

Farfugium tussilagineum argenteum looks good in shaded areas

Other variegated shade plants we use – but in moderation – is a white edged form of Soloman Seal, a yellow striped renga renga lily (arthropodium), a handsome variegated crinum, farfugiums (which most readers will still know as ligularias) and, of course, hostas. But not all together. The secret to using plants with variegated foliage is to set them off with plenty of block-coloured foliage.

Offset variegated hostas with other plain coloured varieties for best effect

Offset variegated hostas with other plain coloured varieties for best effect

Nowhere is this more apparent than with hostas. Too often, people will only buy the fancy, variegated ones and I have never seen a good planting of a variegated hosta beside other variegated hostas, all different. But take the same hosta and put it beside some plain coloured foliages and it can add zing and star in its own right.

Most variegated plants lean to the “Look at me! Look at me!” sort of statement. If you are going to grow variegated plants, make sure that you use them so that they are the feature they want to be and don’t sit them alongside a medley of other plants also demanding to be the star. That becomes a jumble.

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

Garden Lore

“The moment trees are in bud and the soil is ready to be worked, I generally come down with a crippling muscular complaint as yet unclassified by science. Suffering untold agonies, I nonetheless have myself wheeled to the side line and coach a small, gnarled man of seventy in the preparation of the seed-bed. The division of labor works out perfectly; he spades, pulverizes and rakes the ground, while I call out encouragement and dock his pay whenever he straightens up to light his pipe. The relationship is an ideal one, and I know he will never leave me as long as the chain remains fastened to his leg.”

S. J. Perelman Acres and Pains (1951).

Following an association of ideas from Collector this week, if you want to camouflage something in your garden, colour it matt dark-charcoal or black. The eye passes over it without registering it because the colour recedes into the background. Too often, gardeners think that if you paint something green, it will meld but it is very easy to get the wrong shade. Blue greens tend to stand out in the garden (which is why glaucous or blue foliage is often prized), yellow greens can look a bit yuck and there are some ghastly synthetic-looking greens. I saw friends get it wrong with a green fence which really, they should have painted black. It stood out like a sore thumb when they wanted it to merge discreetly into the background.

The same goes for plant ties, permanent stakes, supports, ugly tanks or even trellis screening – anything that is necessary but you don’t want to notice. Just don’t go for a high gloss finish.

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

Plant Collector: Ornithogalum arabicum

The lovely Ornithogalum arabicum

The lovely Ornithogalum arabicum

I am so delighted to see several of these in bloom in the rockery this spring. I planted flowering sized bulbs a few years ago and they failed to reappear for probably the last two seasons. I assumed they did not like our conditions but apparently they will, upon occasion, bide their time.

Sometimes known as the Arabian star flower or the Star of Bethlehem flower (this may depend on whether one is Islamic or Jewish, maybe?), I have also seen O. arabicum referred to as a black-eyed Susan although that is more commonly ascribed to rudbeckias. Whichever, each lovely, creamy white flower looks as if it has a black bead in the centre, surrounded by soft yellow stamens. The foliage appears to die off as the flower comes and it sits at about 30cm high, without needing staking – just the right height to sniff the pleasant fragrance. It is reputed to be good for picking but I will need a whole lot more in the garden before I’m willing to cut them.

This particular ornithogalum comes from the Mediterranean area so is going to be happiest in full sun with well drained conditions. Other species come from Europe and South Africa and they all belong to the order of hyacinthaceae. Believe it or not, there is a Facebook page for O. arabicum which has some lovely photographs though only 73 “likes” as one says in Facebook parlance.

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

Irises – named for the Greek goddess of rainbows

Louisiana iris are flowering by our stream

Louisiana iris are flowering by our stream

I am enjoying the irises enormously this season. This week we have three main types in flower – the Sibericans, bearded irises and the Louisanas.

Botanically Iridaceae, they are more romantically named for Iris, the Greek goddess of the rainbow. It is a big family – there are maybe 300 different species and they are grouped in different botanical sections. Then there are thousands upon thousands of different hybrids, for irises have been bred extensively for hundreds of years. Some of those hybrids are what I would describe – politely, if disparagingly – as ‘novelties’. This is more evident in the bearded iris class than anywhere else but I will draw veil of silence beyond saying that not all hybrids are improvements.

'Crowned Heads'

‘Crowned Heads’

We are not the best bearded iris territory here. These ones grow from rhizomes that sit on top of the soil and they tend to prefer free draining, sandy soils (great if you live on the coast though you may have to stake the flower spikes). They like their rhizomes baked in the sun and they are fine with winter frosts but are not so at home in high rainfall, high humidity climates. They are also better without a whole lot of other foliage flopping over their rhizomes, which tends to happen in perennial beds.

Yes that is a black iris, called 'Anvil of Darkness' no less, and an old yellow variety to the right

Yes that is a black iris, called ‘Anvil of Darkness’, and an old yellow variety to the right

The modern hybrids are often touchier than the old toughies. I was delighted by the iris fields of nursery plantings I saw last spring (www.theirisboutique.co.nz) and tramped up and down looking at them all. The owner, Coleen Peri, has given me a few new ones to try here. Bless her, she avoided the weird colour mixes, splashes and splotches that I personally dislike. The very dark ones are interesting but are not going to be easy to place in the garden so that they stand out. There are some exquisite blues available but my most reliable standby is still an old pure yellow one which dates back to Mark’s mother. It is very forgiving and tolerant.

One of the easiest of all iris to grow, as long as you have heavy or damp soil - Iris sibirica

One of the easiest of all iris to grow, as long as you have heavy or damp soil – Iris sibirica

The easiest of all irises to grow must be the Siberian iris or I. sibirica. As its name suggests, it is fully hardy but it does want to grow in a heavier soil which doesn’t dry out during the growing season. It is dormant in winter, so winter dry won’t matter – though few of us have dry winters in this neck of the woods. It has the classic form with three upright and three falling petals and comes mostly in gorgeous shades of blue. Because it is clump forming (it has a fibrous root system as opposed to many irises which are either bulbs or rhizomes), it can be planted and left for many years. I get a lot of pleasure from the border where I have combined it with the big hairy-leafed Bergenia ciliata. I like the contrast between the foliages and they co-exist happily together.

The Louisiana irises are in flower down by our stream. These ones hail from the bogs and swamps of Louisiana and are easy to grow in clumps on the margins of water, although they can also be grown in heavy soils. These are plant and leave types, too. The lovely Japanese Higo irises will not come into flower for another few weeks yet. We are still working on establishing these here and they appear to be at their best immediately by water. We want lots of them blooming into December because we love their colours and ethereal form.

Moraea villosa or the peacock iris

Moraea villosa or the peacock iris

Then there are the Dutch iris (often sold widely and cheaply as corms in autumn). They looked out of place in the rockery, vulgar even, so I moved them into a perennial border where they flowered away in early spring and looked much better. Dutch iris are not native to Holland. It is just the Dutch who did the breeding to get these popular forms for the floristry and garden markets. The dwarf (ground-hugging) Iris cristata from USA look much more appropriate in the rockery and have that classic three up, three down petal formation so often associated with the iris family. The peacock iris (moraea) species which grow from corms, also fit in well with the rockery and different species flower through autumn, winter and spring though many people would not even pick some as irises.

It seems a general rule that if the iris grows from rhizomes or bulbs, it needs excellent drainage and will do better in lighter soils and full sun. If it has a clumping, fibrous root system, it leans more to heavy soils and damper conditions. One size does not fit all when it comes to the large iris family.

A field of irises being grown commercially

A field of irises being grown commercially

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

Garden lore

“If gardening isn’t a pleasure for you, chances are the work will merely give you a rotten disposition. If you’d rather be golfing or fishing, get a bumper sticker that says so, and forget gardening.”

Elsa Bakalar A Garden of One’s Own (1994)

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Dividing plants

If you have been buying perennials recently, you can often divide these immediately and plant double the number. This is Hosta June which showed more than one growing point. I cut it down the middle, making sure that each side had both leaves (which means growing tips) and roots. I find a meat cleaver is easiest for this operation although a carving knife will do. Some people use a sharp spade but it is harder to get the cut in exactly the right place because you have less control over the spade.

Plants which are in full growth, as most perennials are in spring, will recover more quickly. Just make sure you plant them into ground which you have prepared well by digging it over thoroughly and preferably adding compost or humus. Water the plants in and keep the moisture levels up for the next few weeks. You need to give them a good start because you will have shocked the plant by cutting it in half.

Commercially, these plants are generally divided in winter with much more precision and controlled conditions (which will generate many more plants) but for the home gardener, dividing it in full growth can give good results and it is easy to see what you are doing.

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