Six on Saturday #48 (September 28, 2019)

We’re almost a week past the autumnal equinox, but it still feels like summer. Temperatures are running about ten degrees F above normal, and we haven’t had measurable rain since August. The soil is bone dry, and leaves are starting to dry up instead of changing color properly. There’s a chance of a shower tonight, but the forecast for the next week is more of the same: bright sun and mid 80s-90s F until Friday at least.

1. Epiphyllum oxypetalum (queen of the night)

Epiphyllum3 — Collapsing at 0700 the next morning

The large, fragrant flowers of E. oxypetalum, an epiphytic cactus from southern Mexico and Guatemala, open at night and fade by the next morning. I was pleased with this solitary bloom, but when I posted a picture on Facebook, a friend told me that his plant had more than 40 flowers!

2. Spiranthes odorata? (ladies’ tresses)

Spiranthes

I think this is S. odorata, but I’m really not sure how to distinguish that species from S. cernua. Paul Martin Brown [1] says that there is considerable gene-flow between S. cernua and other Spiranthes species, so maybe a definite I.D. is impossible. Either way, I like the flowers. These little orchids don’t seem to be very long-lived, but they seed around and sprout in the pots of various bog plants. This one volunteered in a pot of Gentiana autumnalis.

3. Diospyros virginiana (American persimmon)

persimmon1

persimmon2

About nine years ago, I transplanted some root suckers from a large persimmon planted by my wife’s grandparents in Pennsylvania, probably in the 1940s. The transplants have finally given us some fruit, which is seedy but delicious. These are the first of the harvest, and we’ll be picking more as they become soft enough to eat. You do NOT want to sample an American persimmon that isn’t fully ripe. They are unbelievably astringent.

4. Hedychium coccineum ‘Applecourt’

Hedychium applecourt

I thought I had already featured this hardy ornamental ginger, but I can’t find it in any past blog posts. The flowers lack the fragrance of H. coronarium, but I am a sucker for bright orange. In previous years, it has given me one flush of flowers at the tail end of summer, but this year the clump has finally grown large enough to flower on and off for months.

5. Colchicum ‘Innocence’

Colchicum innocence

This is a white flowered clone of the sterile hybrid Colchicum byzantinus. My colchicums have struggled this year, probably due to the high temperatures and lack of rain in autumn thus far, and many have not yet poked their noses above the soil.

6. Salvia elegans (pineapple sage)

Salvia_elegans

S. elegans is usually grown as an annual north of zone 8, but my plants survived last winter. Another sign that climate zones are shifting north, I suppose. This species gives me attractive foliage on a neat shrub-like form for most of the spring and summer, and then it flowers just in time for the autumn migration of the ruby-throated hummingbird.

The propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Reference

1. Brown, P.M. (2004). Wild Orchids of the Southeastern United States North of Peninsular Florida. University Press of Florida, Gainsville, Florida.

Behria tenuiflora: cultural enigma

Behria tenuiflora

Generally, by the time I have had a plant for a couple of years, I am fairly sure of what it needs to grow and bloom successfully. Either that, or I have killed it and am sure of what was not successful. Behria tenuiflora is currently flowering for the first time in my collection, and not only do I not have any idea what induced it to flower, I’m not really sure what caused it to grow.

B. tenuiflora is a small bulb native to the southern end of the Baja California peninsula. It was once included in the onion family, Alliaceae, but more recently has been classified in the Themidaceae, a small family of bulbous plants from Mexico and the southern United States [1]. Its closest relative is the Mexican Bessera elegans (see entry 2 of Six on Saturday #8), which is commonly available from the big bulb vendors and seems relatively easy to grow as a potted plant in this climate. On the basis of my success with Bessera elegans, I leapt at the chance to purchase a seed-grown corm of Behria tenuiflora from Telos Rare Bulbs in 2016.

Based on what I had read about the plant, I expected it to be a summer grower–its habitat supposedly receives most of its rain in the summer monsoon–and its growth in 2016 supported that supposition. It started growing later than my Bessera plants and went dormant later, but it definitely grew in late summer. However, it did not bloom that year.

In 2017, it didn’t sprout, and at the end of the summer I unpotted it, expecting to find it dead. Instead, the corm seemed perfectly healthy, just dormant. The same thing happened in 2018. In winter 2018-2019, I tried giving it a few light waterings to see if it wanted to be a winter grower. No, it didn’t.

This summer, I put it outside yet again. Surprisingly, a single cylindrical leaf sprouted in July, and it has now rewarded me with its bright, candy-like flowers. Judging by their shape and color, they are surely pollinated by hummingbirds.

I am not certain what caused it to grow and bloom this year. My best guess–and this is only a guess–is that the growth is a response to moving it from a terracotta pot to a plastic pot this spring. Behria tenuiflora comes from an arid environment with irregular rain, so I had assumed that it would grow best in soil that dried rapidly. But perhaps it is adapted to remain dormant after intermittent showers and to grow only when significant rainfall occurs and the soil will likely remain moist long enough for the plant to complete its growth cycle. The more constant moisture in a plastic pot might be what it needed in order to break dormancy.

I guess I’ll have to wait and see what happens next year.

Reference

Gándara, E., Sosa, V., and León De La Luz, J. (2009). Morphological and Molecular evidence in the delimination of Behria and Bessera, two genera of the Milla complex (Themidaceae). Bol. Soc. Bot. Méx. 85: 113-124

Six on Saturday #47 (August 24, 2019)

The first two plants in this Six on Saturday post bloomed in early August, after S.O.S #46, but I thought they were worth including even though they aren’t flowering today. The remaining four plants are currently in bloom.

1. Rhododendron prunifolium (plum-leaf azalea)

Rhodo_prunifolium

Rhododendron prunifolium is one of the latest-blooming of the North American deciduous azaleas. With its flowers tucked in among leaves, I think it looks more subdued and elegant than the flamboyant species that bloom on bare branches early in the spring. Very rare in the wild, it is native only to a small region of Alabama and Georgia along the Chattahoochee River.

2. Lycoris x rosea ‘Neon Nights’

Lycoris_rosea

This cross of Lycoris radiata and L. sprengeri blooms at about the same time as my L. radiata var. pumila plants. The photo doesn’t exaggerate the intensity of its color.

3. Asclepias incarnata (swamp milkweed)

Asclepias incarnata-2

Despite its common name, Asclepias incarnata grows reasonably well in regular garden soil. It doesn’t seem to be as long-lived as Asclepias tuberosa, though. This is probably a third-generation seedling, and the first generation of plants that I grew are all long dead.

4. Gentiana andrewsii (closed bottle gentian)

Gentiana_andrewsii

Gentiana andrewsii is one of the more bizarre flowers in my garden. It is native to the northeastern and midwestern states and Canada but seems to do reasonably well in the NC piedmont. The flower never opens and is pollinated by bees that are strong enough to force their way inside. If I don’t do some weeding soon, these plants will be choked out by invasive Duchesnea indica (mock strawberry) that are invading the flower bed from a nearby lawn*

*lawn, meaning green weeds that can survive being mowed.

5. Barnadia japonica (Japanese squill)

Scilla_scilloides

I really don’t remember planting this little bulb among the cactus and agaves that surround our wellhead. I do have a small clump of bulbs elsewhere in the garden, so I wonder if a squirrel transplanted this one.

6. Calanthe reflexa

Calanthe_reflexa

Well, this was a disappointment. Calanthe reflexa has miniscule flowers, and the color of this clone is an insipid pale violet. About the only thing that makes it worthy of growing is its blooming season–months after all the other hardy Calanthe species and hybrids have finished flowering.

The Propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Six on Saturday #46 (August 3, 2019)

It has been more than two months since I managed to get a Six on Saturday post together, so this is a catch-up post: six plants that have bloomed since S.O.S. #45.

1. Bletilla Yokohama ‘Kate’ (Flowered in late May)

Bletilla_Yokohama

As I previously posted, Bletilla species and hybrids are among the easiest of terrestrial orchids to grow. B. Yokohama is a hybrid of B. striata and B. formosana, and it blooms about a month after B. striata in my garden. The habitat of B. formosana in Taiwan and the Ryukyu Islands is subtropical, probably trending towards tropical, but B. Yokohama is fully hardy in my garden during the winter. The new growth is tender, like that of B. striata, and must be protected from late frosts in spring. The flowers have better form than those of B. striata, and the inflorescences are daintier.

2. Gardenia jasminoides (Hardy gardenia; flowered in early to mid June)

Gardenia

This evergreen shrub, with its fantastic fragrance, is a perennial favorite in southern gardens. I have two different single-flowered clones which are efficiently cross-pollinated, presumably by moths, and produce lots of attractive red fruit in autumn. Birds spread the seeds around, and I have started to find volunteer seedlings–a nice bonus that you won’t get if you grow the sterile double-flowered clones.

My plants were badly damaged by cold during the winter of 2017/2018, but they sprouted vigorously from their trimmed stumps, and it is hard now to see where they were cut.

2. Hippeastrum ‘Mead Strain’ (Garden Amaryllis; flowered in early June)

Hippeastrum Meads_strain

This Hippeastrum hybrid is the product of crosses made by Theodore Mead about 100 years ago. Its background appears to include a large percentage of genes of the Bolivian species Hippeastrum vittatum, and similar hybrids often masquerade as that species in cultivation. Bulbs of the Mead Strain are common heirloom plants in southern gardens, and a very similar clone is passed around by gardeners in my parent’s neighborhood in Texas.

4. Lobelia laxiflora subsp. laxiflora ‘Candy Corn’ (Flowers intermittently all summer)

Lobelia Candy_Corng2
This Mexican Lobelia species is much more drought tolerant than our native L. cardinalis, so I grow it in a hot,sandy bed beside the driveway. Its bloom season overlaps with that of L. cardinalis (see photo #3 here), and both species are visited by hummingbirds, but I haven’t found any volunteer hybrids yet. I live in hope.

Lovelia Candy_Corn

5. Eucomis cf. zambesiaca (Pineapple lily; flowered in July)

Eucomis_zambesiaca

All of the Eucomis species and hybrids from southern Africa seem to be hardy in North Carolina, but many of them scorch and wilt in hot sun. They require bright light to grow well, so this heat sensitivity creates a cultural conundrum. This small variety sold as Eucomis autumnalis by the big bulb vendors is the most resistant to wilting of all the Eucomis that I have grown. It looks very little like a true E. autumnalis that I bought from a specialist nursery, and I am fairly sure that it is actually E. zambesiaca, possibly the clone ‘White Dwarf.’

6. Iris domestica (Blackberry lily; Currently flowering)

Iris Hello_Yellow — *Iris domestica* ‘Hello Yellow’

Iris domestica (formerly Belamcanda chinensis) is an old garden favorite, but most of the nurseries around here sell the newer all-yellow clones like ‘Hello Yellow.’ I really wanted the old fashioned wild-type orange form, too, and about two years ago I found a few plants growing wild along a power line cut. I collected seed, and the resulting seedlings started flowering this summer, about 18 months after germination.

Iris_domestica

The Propagator is the host of Six on Saturday. Head over there to see his Six and find links to the blogs of other participants.

Fragrance

Crinum_macowanii2

This Crinum macowanii smells just like Earl Grey tea.