If you like odd looking plants!
Posted on | September 10, 2011 | 2 Comments
Haemanthus albiflos more commonly known as the ‘Shaving Brush plant’
If you like odd looking plants, nothing can beat Haemanthus albiflos more commonly known as the ‘Shaving Brush plant’. It is the most commonly available of three evergreen species of Haemanthus hailing from coastal areas of the southern Cape through the Eastern Cape to KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa. It is one of those plants that gardeners occasionally have languishing at the back of a greenhouse or under a bench; hence it is very good at taking total neglect for months. Mine was gathering dust up a corner so feeling rather benevolent, instead of binning it I started to water my rather dishevelled specimen and now it is in full bloom and looking gorgeous with its short greyish green leaves and shaving brush-like flowers.
H. albiflos has a long flowering period extending from early April through high summer and occasionally through autumn and into winter under cultivation. I think mine is flowering because it had been suffering from a near death experience through neglect! The first thing you notice when gazing at this rather odd looking plant is its shaving brush like flower heads (known as an umbel in botanical terms) which are compact, usually about 1½ to 2ins wide, consisting of numerous erect, narrow white flowers, enclosed by several broad, greenish-white bracts on a very short stem. The erect stamens protrude conspicuously beyond the tips of the flowers and their anthers turn bright yellowy-orange when ripe. If pollinated, bright orangey-red fleshy berries are produced with a distinctive musty odour! The name Haemanthus is derived from the Greek ‘haima’ meaning blood and ‘anthos’ meaning flower – a reference to the red flowers of most species, though albiflos refers to the white flowers of this particular species.
On a less bizarre front are the fairies of the garden, the many dwarf cyclamen that are in bloom at the moment and well into the autumn. I absolutely adore them as they flower in the dappled shade of trees and shrubs pushing up through leaf litter where they sparkle in pools of light. Luckily I planted quit a few of these diminutive gems many years ago and with time they have now distributed themselves around the garden. Most of mine are in the more arid parts of the garden as they are dormant during the summer months; hence take dry conditions well, though the recent rains have promoted masses of flowers.
Cyclamen hederifolium is the most commonly available in shades of rose pink, pale pink and purest white with some having dark crimson markings around the centre. The ‘ivy-leaved’ foliage quickly follows the emergence of the flowers, usually in September depending on the rains, making attractive ground cover throughout the winter months until the following spring when they disappear below ground again for the summer months. The flowers of this autumn-flowering cyclamen often appear well before the leaves with some coming into bloom by late July here at the Exotic Garden. Although they are usually considered as dappled shade plants, they originate from the Mediterranean, so are equally happy in sun, taking dry conditions well as this simulates their native habitats. They look excellent planted en masse in a woodland setting with ferns and other shade-tolerant plants or around the base of deciduous trees where they will grace your garden for months with their diminutive beauty.
Cyclamen hederifolium pink form
Cyclamen hederifolium white form
Seen pods earlier this year - They are covered in a sticky goo that ants adore then they transport the seeds around the garden…
Earlier in the year I bought several pot-full’s of the late winter flowering Cyclamen coum ‘Maurice Dryden’ which I planted on the grave of my late Devon Rex cat Dweezal – I’m sure he would have approved. The leaves on this form are a strong shade of silvery-pewter edged with the smallest amount of green. From late January onwards, good-sized, dumpy white flowers appear heralding the start of the new gardening year.
Cyclamen coum ‘Maurice Dryden’ in February
September is often a difficult month for colour in the garden, but if you have Dahlias, you are always guaranteed a really good show. Unfortunately they are very brittle stemmed plants that if not well staked, easily break and fall over. This past week with high winds it has been a real challenge for Dahlia growers, but thankfully mine are all fine apart from a few snapped flowers. In early August I mentioned Dahlias, but now they are all flowering to perfection. I have gone mad with Dahlias this year as they are such spectacular flowering plants that bloom profusely from high summer right through to first frost providing they are dead headed regularly.
For years I had been put off Dahlias as rather passé but they are well and truly back in fashion and not only in my garden! I still have some bright orangey-yellow Dahlias that I rescued from my father’s garden after he passed away, which had been growing happily with little or no feed for at least forty years, through many an icy winter. They are now in their second year here having easily survived two really cold winterers’ in the ground so should easily outlive me as well!
One of the first large flowered ones to come into flower this year was Dahlia ‘Wittemann’s Best’, a semi-cactus type, with well-formed flowers of intensely vibrant red from 6-8ins across which stand out really well above the bright green foliage. Staking has to be very solid for this one as it grows from 5-6ft tall. Dahlia ‘Thomas Edison’ has to be my favourite this year. It’s a decorative type with absolutely stunning, intense dark violet flowers 8ins or more across on 4ft stems.
Dahlia ‘Wittemann’s Best against a young Trachycarpus
Dahlia ‘Thomas Edison’ with the smaller flowers of Dahlia ‘Roxy’ underneath and a leaf of Sauromatum venosum (Voodoo lily)
Over the last twenty years or so the many dark bronzy leaved forms have become popular with Dahlia ‘Bishop of Llandaff’ being one of the most readily available. This is not surprising as it has show-stopping scarlet red, semi-double flowers with yellow centres held on tall stems above strikingly deep greenish-red leaves and stems, growing to around 3½ ft tall. There are several others forms of this popular Dahlia with names like ‘Bishop of York’ which has a combination of dark foliage and warm orange-yellow flowers. ‘Bishop of Oxford’ is an excellent form with bronze-purple foliage and coppery-orange flowers, while ‘Bishop of Leicester’ has Pale pink flowers.
Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff'
Dahlia 'Bishop of Llandaff' Iresine herbstii Aureoreticulata
For those visiting the garden this Sunday, you may well need some patience getting through the traffic as Norwich City are playing at Carrow Road. Maybe coming by foot or on a bicycle is the answer – and for those who do make it, I look forward to seeing you in the garden!
''Dahlia 'Emory Paul''
Dahlia 'Firepot'
Dahlia 'HM Winky'
Tonkinese pustifer known as dog and biscuit !
It’s ginger time again!
Posted on | September 2, 2011 | 3 Comments
Hedychium densiflorum 'Sorng'
At this time of year Gingers and Dahlias are some of the most prolific showstoppers here at the Exotic Garden though gingers in particular are still a rare sight in most people’s gardens which is a shame as they are as tough as Dahlias when left in the ground over winter! I don’t say this lightly after having had one of the coldest winters in living memory, but I can say I lost none of my gingers to last winter’s big freeze, despite having had permafrost penetrating the ground to a depth of at least two inches!
I was hosting a garden tour around the Caribbean when the first big freeze arrived unexpectedly in November last year; hence I hadn’t protected my ginger clumps with a thick mulch as I don’t normally consider doing so until well into December. This autumn though I will be prepared with bales of straw at hand ready for those early frosts!
I grow four different gingers permanently outside with a couple of the more tender species brought into frost free conditions for the winter months. One of the most cold-tolerant gingers I grow is Hedychium densiflorum which has been happily growing for at least fifteen years here, with lows of -5C though last winter it went down to an arctic -11C with no mulch at all! Luckily they all survived and have grown to perfection this summer and if anything are even more prolific than ever. It is one of the easiest gingers to grow in our Norfolk gardens, growing to about 4ft tall with slightly arching stems and strap-like green leaves, topped at this time of year with dozens of densely packed 5-8ins long racemes of bright orange flowers. ‘Assam Orange’ is similar but with orange honey-scented flowers. If a flower stem is broken in half, it gives off a strong scent of camphor which for some reason always reminds me of my grandmother! Hedychium densiflorum is one of the first gingers to break through the ground in April.
A second and very welcome display of bright red berries is produced in late autumn, so they shouldn’t be cut down until first frost, when the seeds can then be collected for sowing the following spring. If you want something more dramatic ‘Stephen’ has larger more open flowers in a shade of warm apricot with burnt-orange stamens and of course that essential if not irresistible scent!
‘Sorung’ is a fairly recent introduction by the late Cornish plantsman Edward Needham. It is somewhat similar to ‘Stephen’, but with spikes of alluring salmon pink, fragrant flowers making this a very desirable ginger for the garden. I bought my ‘Sorung’ on a trip down to Cornwall about five years ago and from the original two stemmed plant I now have at least fifty flowering stems of this rather divine ginger, all flowering at around 4-5ft tall.
One of the tallest that can be grown in our gardens is Hedychium forrestii. This robust ginger easily grows from 7-8ft tall in one season, towering above your head giving a very exotic feel to the garden indeed with its rather bold glossy, mid-green leaves which can easily reach 2ft long. From late summer to early autumn, it bears loose terminal spikes up to 1ft long of pure white, slightly scented flowers with pale-yellow stamens. A large spreading clump of this hardy ginger is a joy to behold.
Although not considered as hardy as the others, Hedychium gardnerianum more commonly known as the ‘Kahili Ginger’ is one of the most spectacular gingers that can be grown in our temperate gardens. Until recently it was considered as a tropical plant, only suitable for greenhouse culture, but it can be planted out permanently if exceedingly well mulched, otherwise it should be dug up before the first frost and overwintered as an evergreen. If grown outside permanently it never grows to more than about 3½ feet tall, though if overwintered frost-free it can easily be double this height. It has thick stems with large, shiny-leathery leaves. The flower heads can be up to 1ft tall by 8ins wide consisting of massed intense yellow flowers with greatly extended orange-red stamens and of course that heady scent that accompanies such a beautiful H. gardnerianum is quite variable with some forms being more floriferous than others. If grown outside it is usually rather late breaking ground, often not until June, but it soon catches up.
Two gingers I prefer to dig up before first frost and over winter as evergreens are Hedychium greenii and Hedychium wardii. H. greenii is a highly ornamental evergreen ginger growing from 3-4ft tall with exquisite dark green leaves that are rich maroon on the underside and on the stems. The short, fairly small, cone-like terminal spikes have individual bright orange-red flowers with a large, showy lip, borne from summer to early autumn depending on the temperature though they do respond well to a hot summer. Unfortunately, this beauty is unscented. Although it is hardy down to about -8C if well mulched it can be rather slow coming into flower, whereas over wintered frost free in the green it flowers really well in August. It has the added bonus of producing small plantlets or bulbils from the inflorescence once the flowering has finished which can be collected and propagated.
Hedychium wardii is a very special ginger as it looks quite different when in flower to the others mentioned here. It produces six or more large flowers from an upright bract which, as they go over, are followed in sequence by new flowers for up to six weeks or more, unlike most gingers which produce flowers that only last a week or less. The individual blooms are very large and purest almost day glow chrome yellow and produced from a fat 6-8ins cone-like bract from early August right through September. If the bract is slightly squeezed it oozes a scented sticky soapy liquid. A large clump of this fine ginger is a joy to behold really brightening up the dullest of days.
The garden is open on Sunday so why not come along and enjoy an afternoon surrounded by exotica and of course many gingers – you might even see the odd cat lurking in the undergrowth!
Going crazy over Bromeliads!
Posted on | August 26, 2011 | 2 Comments
Visitors to the Exotic Garden regularly ask me what is my favourite plant or group of plants. This is a question that I always find difficult to answer as I love all plants and usually say the one I am looking at right now! Every year some plants in particular do really well or are new to the garden so register high on my list of favourites, but the ones that seem to catch most of my attention at the moment are the Bromeliads. This time last year I wrote an article about this fascinating family of plants (http://www.exoticgarden.com/blog/the-garden/it%E2%80%99s-crazy-bromeliad-time-at-the-exotic-garden/) and since then my collection has grown considerable almost becoming an addition – well at least they aren’t deleterious to my health, only my pocket, though they often scratch my arms when moving them around as some are fairly spiky beasts!
Many gardeners have or know of Billbergia nutans, an epiphytic bromeliad with greyish-green leaves native to Brazil, Uruguay, and Argentina in South America. It is surprisingly hardy as it will take a few degrees of frost quite happily if grown in a dry situation. It does look stunning when in flower though with its slender pink-bracted stems which bare arching racemes of flowers with pink tubes and bright green recurved petals and spectacular purple-edges. The down side is that for the rest of the year it tends to look more like a rather boring tussock of spiky grass! There is a more interesting cultivar named Billbergia ‘Santa Barbara’ with irregular creamy white edges with similar flowers that is well worth seeking out.
Most of the Bromeliads available in this country are grown in vast greenhouses in Holland and are generally known for their intense spikes of colour, such as the Guzmanias which are green leaved with a central spike that can be bright red, yellow, pink, purple and so on. Unfortunately when not in flower they are just plain green and being truly tropical in nature are quite tricky to over winter successfully. Because they are relatively cheap to buy they are often thrown out after flowering like cut flowers, though the flowering spike does last for several months.
Like all Bromeliads, once the inflorescence has finished (being monocarpic) the whole plant slowly dies over the following year, but as this happens small plantlets known as pups appear around the base of the parent plant. These can be removed when they are approximately one third the size of the parent and potted into a mix of roughly 50/50 mini-bark chips and general purpose compost thus simulating the sort of growing medium they would find in the wild. A large number of Bromeliads are epiphytic, meaning that they grow on tree branches or pretty much anything they can get a hold of, hence the root system is not for tacking up food but as an anchor to hold them in place.
I have been hunting for Bromeliads over the last few years that are grown primarily for their foliage rather than flowers as these give me a continuous display of colour throughout the summer months. During the dull winter period the foliage tends to turn green but soon regain their glorious colour tones once spring returns and the suns power grows in strength.
Some of the most ridiculously coloured foliage can be found on the Neoregelias, a genus of bromeliads with mostly broad and relatively flat leaves often forming fairly wide plants. They have a shallow depression in the centre which is usually filled with water (also known as tank types) through which their fairly short flowers bloom, often under the water! As fascinating as the flowers are, it’s the foliage that captivates the eye. Through hybridization, especially in the US, an absolutely vast array of colour combinations can be found, many looking as though they have come from some absurd alien fantasy world! There are over 5000 registered cultivars; hence the choice is enormous though it can be quite a challenge to get hold of interesting Neoregelias in the UK.
One of the most commonly available is Neoregelia carolinae which is green with a bright red centre or Neoregelia carolinae ‘Tricolor’ which is a very jazzy yellow with green edges to the leaves with a bright red centre. There are quite a few variations on this and a new Dutch one I purchased recently named Neoregelia ‘Freddie’ has dark green leaves with paler green stripes and a brilliant red central rosette.
Vriesea’s are also very attractive tank type Bromeliads that are slowly becoming available in the UK. I have several very colourful forms like Vriesea ‘hieroglyphica’ which has shiny green leaves with dark, hieroglyphic-like cross bands. Vriesea Gigantea ‘Nova’ is a rather stunning hybrid that has mottled foliage which has finally banded markings that change between green and light green to almost white.
Vriesea ‘Kiwi Sunset’ is a very desirable tightly banded maroon-red form, while Vriesea fosteriana ‘Rubra’ has rich, chocolate brown tones with creamy green bands. All these make excellent house plants that can be stood out for the summer months to keep them fresh.
As my collection has expanded so quickly I have decided to concentrate on collecting Billbergias as they tend to be very upright in habit taking up far less room when overwintering. There are some fabulous hybrids available and if I had to choose only one it would probably be Billbergia ‘Domingos Martins’. This highly desirable Billbergia reminds me of one of those tubeworms that are found clustering around deep sea vents at the bottom of the Ocean! Mine is deep brownie-green with irregular splotches of white. There are many crosses with ‘Domingos Martins’ creating very interesting forms like ‘Boracho’ which is greyish-green heavily spotted white and ‘Pink Champagne’ which is a sort of bubbly pink!
New arrivals from Westerman in Germany
Space is short so I must tare myself away from the Bromeliads as there are so many other beautiful plants in bloom at the moment, especially the many gingerers which came through the winter unabashed by the cold and are now bursting with colour.
Hedichium densiflorum 'Sorung'
Here’s wishing you all a very enjoyable holiday weekend whatever you do…
As well as having its normal opening time this coming Sunday, the Exotic Garden will also be open to the public on August bank Holiday Monday 29th from 1-5pm, so come and join us for a wonderful afternoon and enjoy high summer in the garden.
It can’t be autumn already!
Posted on | August 19, 2011 | 4 Comments
Rudbeckia 'Herbstonne' in full bloom and proudly standing at 8ft plus tall – thankfully I staked it really well this year as it has a tendency to flop all over the place! These are growing in front of an old grove of the hardy banana Musa basjoo.
Thank you to all those who braved the road works outside my garden entrance over the last two Sundays; you did well to find the garden! Thankfully all the work is now finished and ready for you to visit the garden over the Sundays to come.
At one point in the early afternoon last Sunday the entrance to the garden was completely blocked by heavy road work vehicles!
The evenings are really pulling in now and it is starting to feel rather autumnal as some plants seem to think it is autumn already! Some of the Parthenocissus quinquefolia more commonly known as ‘Virginia Creeper’ that covers my house here at the Exotic Garden started turning red in patches by mid-August which seems exceptionally early to me! Maybe it was the fact that our very early and hot spring has moved the seasons along a pace! Normally this doesn’t happen until well into September.
Parthenocissus quinquefolia more commonly known as ‘Virginia Creeper’ is turning red exceptionally early this year!
Thinking of shortening evenings, I had the pleasure of Salhouse & District Gardening Club visit the Exotic Garden on Monday and it was almost dark by the time they left though they all enjoyed their visit as the garden does look rather magical at twilight! Gardeners are always such a happy bunch and this group was no exception as they had such enthusiasm and interesting stories to tell as they enjoyed a glass or two of wine and tasty nibbles. My good friend and organizer of the event was Ian Roofe, well known for being on Radio Norfolk’s Saturday Garden Party.
Cakes and wine at twilight in the Exotic Garden…
Another friend of mine Sandra Pond gave me a few plants grown from a packet of mixed Ipomoea ‘Flying Saucers’ seeds in the spring. They have now grown into glorious specimens that really shine out on those dull days we have had recently lighting up the garden with their tantalising beauty. This particular Ipomoea is quite variable as it can be white with bright blue to purple striations, or like the ones I have grown, white with a touch of palest blue with a yellow eye on 4ins wide flowers. The blooms are produced in abundance from morning to early afternoon for just one day, though there are always lots of buds ready to follow on the following day.
Ipomoea ‘Flying Saucers’ ejoying a rather dull day...
Another one I was given to try out is Ipomoea ‘Carnival di Venizia’, a vigorous climber producing masses of spectacular, striped blue and pink blooms with intricate markings, as if painted individually by hand. Mine seem to be mostly white with blue striations on delicate flowers about 2ins across.
Ipomoea ‘Carnival di Venizia’
There are many Ipomoeas worth trying in the garden as they are such easy annuals to grow from seed and comparatively cheap to buy. Apart from the well known and very traditional Ipomoea ‘Heavenly Blue’ which as its name suggests has rich, sky blue flowers.
Thompson & Morgan photograph of Ipomoea 'Heavenly Blue'
There are lots of others worth trying such as Ipomoea alba with large 5ins wide purest white blooms that look superb grown en-mass up a fence or pergola, growing as most annual Ipomoeas do from 5-10ft tall in one season. For intensity of colour though Ipomoea ‘Crimson Rambler’ is outstanding as it sports vibrant crimson blooms with a contrasting white eye. Ipomoeas can be found in a large range of colours from white, purple, red and blue with some having mixtures of all these colours. There is also a very desirable double form Ipomoea ‘Sunrise Serenade’ which has large double flowers that are a deepest cherry-red with a contrasting white base to the petals.
I couldn’t resist this rather funky packet of Ipomoea ‘Crimson Rambler’
Of course, these are all related to that pernicious garden weed and bane of most gardeners, the common bindweed Calystegia sepium formerly known as Convolvulus sepium. I say most gardeners, as I do allow it to grow up a hedge in my driveway which easily twines up 20 feet or more every year. As long as it doesn’t get into my herbaceous plants, I leave it alone to do its own thing and besides I do like its beautiful pure white flowers – I just don’t like it’s ridiculously long which if allowed too, will get into everything and will soon take over the whole garden if not kept an eye on!
Common bindweed Calystegia sepium formerly known as Convolvulus sepium - I have masses of this if anyone wants a root!
There are many other Ipomoeas available including the well known ‘Sweet Potato’ Ipomoea batatas which has several ornamental forms that can be readily obtained from our larger garden centres. ‘Blackie’ was the first ornamental sweet potato cultivar to make its way into the nursery trade and there are now several forms which are becoming increasingly available in the British Isles. The ornamental Sweet Potato is a vigorous grower in a warm summer easily trailing from 24-36in in one season forming a dense ground cover during the summer months until first frost. They look excellent trailing over walls, in containers and hanging baskets. They prefer moist humus-rich, free-draining soil in full sun for the best colour. ‘Blackie’ has dramatic deep purple-black foliage and deeply cut lobed leaves.
Ornamental Sweet Potato – Ipomoea batatas 'Blackie' – unfortunately small snails and other chewing things find the foliage rather tasty
Another good dark form is ‘Black Heart’, with virtually black heart shaped leaves.
A large container with a specimen Pygmy Date Palm, Phoenix roebelenii surrounded by Plectranthus, Coleus (Solenostemon) and Ipomoea 'Black Heart’
I do like ‘Marguerite’ though as it has the most delicious looking chartreuse lime-green foliage with heart-shaped leaves.
Ipomoea potatas 'Marguerite'
Ornamental Sweet Potatoes growing in the foreground
Ornamental Sweet Potatoes growing with other summer exotics
‘Tricolor’ is an interesting multi-coloured cultivar with green, pink and white foliage on the same plant, though it is not quite as vigorous as the others however it is never-the-less alluring as a trailing plant with smaller leaves. Two more recently introduced compact forms are ‘Sweet Caroline Purple’ and ‘Sweet Caroline Light Green’. One of my favourites though is a fairly new introduction to the UK from the US; Ipomoea ‘Sweet Caroline Bronze’ which, as its name suggests has bright bronze rusty brown foliage – wonderful!
Ipomoea 'Sweet Caroline Bronze'
There are of course many more members of the Ipomoea Family: Convolvulaceae worth trying in the garden from annuals to perennials, so my suggestion is to get several seed catalogues or go on line and see what you can find to grace your garden next summer!
On one of my open days I was given a gift box containing six exotic flower themed cup cakes made by Tania Simmons who brought them all the way up from her shop in Cornwall named ‘Cakes Beautiful’, where she specializes in handmade edible decorations. I have to admit that they were so attractive that I didn’t want to eat them, but now after having photographed the contents of the box I only have two left, so I think I will eat them both now with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea!
A box full of awesome cupcakes made by Tania Simmons
Hmmm - only two left!
And of course a blog must have a picture of at least one cat!
Tink – my Chocolate Havana…
A rather cool mid August at the Exotic Garden…
Posted on | August 13, 2011 | 5 Comments
Congratulations to all those that actually made it to the Exotic Garden last weekend, you all deserve a prize for making your way around the diversions set up to get you here! For those who don’t know, the road surface is being renewed on a several hundred yard stretch outside the entrance to the garden at 126 Thorpe. This coming Sunday Aug 14th will be the final day resurfacing the road, though access to the garden will be maintained throughout the day. Access to the Exotic Garden will be from an easterly direction (A1242) into the city where Thorpe Road forks left into Carrow Roads one way system and then signposted into Cedar Road which comes out opposite the entrance to the garden. Good luck!
It may be nearly mid August and the evenings are defiantly drawing in, but the garden goes from strength to strength and is now exploding with riotous colour thanks to all the rain and comparatively mild days over the last week or so, though I know a good dose of sun wouldn’t go amiss!
Replacing plants can be a very expensive business, so this year I have planted lots of annuals which usually cost no more than a couple of pounds a packet, often having several hundred seeds in each, far more than you would ever need for your garden and a cheap and colourful way to cover large areas quickly. Well chosen annuals look good all summer long and can be planted around newly planted shrubs to fill the gaps while they are growing giving more or less instant colour and often fabulous foliage.
In late May I planted out several drifts Amaranthus, an easily grown annual that I have used en-masse to fill in some of those large holes left by perennials and shrubs that didn’t come through the big freeze in December. A good old Victorian favourite of the cottage garden style has to be Amaranthus caudatus more commonly known as ‘Love Lies Bleeding’. You might not think it goes with exotic plants, but it really does! From spring sown seeds this lovely old favourite easily grows from 3-4ft tall flowering from June right through until first frosts flopping delightfully all over the place. It produces long weeping tassels composed of thousands of tiny flowers forming tightly packed racemes 2ft or more long in intense crimson-red!
Next to this I have planted an equally attractive form with similar sized leaf green tassels making it a really good contrast to the red form; in fact you can buy them in mixed seed packets from Thompson and Morgan. Both of them make excellent summer container plants where the long tassels can be enjoyed for months cascading over the sides to the ground look very tropical indeed!
I have also planted drifts of a much taller form – Amaranths paniculatus ‘Hot Biscuit’ I haven’t grow this one for at least 10 years – I’m not sure why as it’s absolutely gorgeous and will be on my seed list again this autumn! ‘Hot Biscuit’ is a tall plant easily growing to 4ft plus in one season with floppy green leaves topped with huge warm, rusty orange branching plumes, some standing upright while otherwise bend crazily in all directions.
Another good one is Amaranthus Caudatus ‘Fat Spike’, with its highly attractive erect fat spikes as its name implies, held well above the foliage in deep purplish-red, tapering from 3 inches thick at the base to 1 inch at the top, as if standing guard like sentinels 2ft or more tall. I have planted this Amaranth next to Dahlia ‘Fascination’ which also has purple-flushed foliage topped with semi-double, pinkish-purple flowers on dark, upright stems – the two working together really well.
Staying with a purple theme, Amaranthus paniculatus ‘Marvel Bronze’ is a very statuesque annual that looks good as a dot plant or planted en-masse for explosive results! This charming cultivar grows from 3-4ft tall with eye-catching bronze foliage and stunning deep red plumes all summer long.
Two Amaranthus I haven’t grown this year but never-the-less want to include here as they look so darn tropical looking are Amaranthus ‘Illumination’, a form of Amaranthus that will challenge any tropical flower for brilliant colour. Growing to about 2ft tall, it has purple-bronze foliage topped by modified leaves which are scarlet and yellow much like a poinsettia. The other is Amaranthus ‘Early Splendour’, another highly colourful variety, with dark bronzy foliage with modified top leaves in brightest scarlet giving a ridiculously over the top display through high summer! There are of course many other Amaranthus worth trying in the garden to really brighten up the second half of the year, so my suggestion is get a seed catalogue where you can happily drool over the many forms!
Seeing as I have been talking about cheap ways to cheer up the summer garden – I must tell you about a purchase I made at a well known shop that sells everything for £1.00! I bought several bags of the small bulbous plant Oxalis ‘Iron Cross’. This little gem has the appearance of a large 3-4ins wide four leaf clover with a very distinct dark brown centre to each leaf hence its common name. At this time of year it is covered with five petalled pink flowers when the sun comes out otherwise they close up like rolled up umbrellas on dull days. These are really dainty plants to have in a full sun to dappled shade position. In some gardens it can become invasive so probably best grown in a pot.
If you want to keep your garden in flower over the months to come, dead heading (removing the faded and withering flowers) is very important – If they are left on, they will go to seed and stop flowering. This afternoon I am going to do just that. Have an excellent weekend in your garden – let’s hope it’s a good one!
