Individual Plants
About specific plants
Pomegranates offer garden and health benefits
I was just thinking about the pomegranate. It’s such a versatile plant. After planting a row of dwarf pomegranates (Punica granatum nana) as a natural low hedge in a design, I had the opportunity to design the larger variety into a space where it worked as a colorful screen. The bright orange-red flowers are as decorative as any ornamental blooming shrub and the fruit hangs off the tree like jolly red Christmas ornaments — unless you pick them to eat or extract the juice instead.
The pomegranate is a venerable fruit that dates back to biblical times when it was honored in ancient artwork and included in many tales and parables. Popularity today has been boosted by recent research that recommends it as a natural preventative of the free radical cells that can be a precursor to cancer. Some believe it is a helpful aid for weight control. It is also an excellent source of vitamin C, niacin and fiber. Other curious facts about the pomegranate is that it is recorded as having 365 seeds — just like the number of days in a year. Another myth is that they have 614 seeds like one ancient calendar. I haven’t had the patience to count them to find out.
Pomegranates are easy to grow, like full sun and are more drought-tolerant than many other fruit trees. They thrive in rich and poor soil. The flowers are so showy that there are decorative cultivars bred to show off pink, coral or white flowers with flouncy layers like petticoats. These ornamental varieties don’t even bother much with fruiting. You can let the full-sized Punica granatum ramble or sprawl. Or you can clip it into a neat, small tree. The Pomegranate will even tolerate pruning it into a simple, formal topiary.
So, if you are thinking about an interesting fruit to grow, consider the Pomegranate. Small varieties will do fine in limited garden space or even in containers on a patio or balcony. Big Pomegranates will produce lots of fruit and serve as trees, living walls or fill in awkward spaces. Oh, and just for a bonus, the Pomegranate will turn a brilliant yellow at the end of the season before going into winter dormancy, just to add some seasonal color to your garden. What more could you ask of a fruit tree?
Plant profiles: Rosemary ‘Ken Taylor’
There are many different varieties of rosemary you can grow in your garden. There are shrubs that grow from trailing groundcovers to sprawling four foot tall bushes. Some flower in blues, some lavender, some in pink, and some in shaded whites. All are herbs that have the unique rosemary scent and essential oils that can be used in cooking or for medicinal purposes. One of my favorite rosemary plants is the ‘Ken Taylor’. This is a cultivar that grows about two feet tall and stays reasonably neat looking – more than most other varieties. It blooms in early spring with brilliant sky blue flowers unlike the usual dull, pale flowers.
A well-behaviored plant, the Rosmarinus ‘Ken Taylor’ loves full sun in lean, well-drained soil, the same as other rosemary plants. It will handle light frosts and high heat. It also does well in dry air where so many other plants fail to grow.
Grow rosemary in informal or formal garden designs. It will tolerate pruning and looks fine when allowed to determine its own shape. The bright blue color is startling when the plant is in flower so design it where it can strut its stuff in spring. You can even grow a garden of mixed rosemary plants in different growth habits and flower colors. These plants will stay handsomely evergreen and make a good foil for other flowering plants. They also look fine on hills or slopes where they can decoratively help stop erosion.
Plant Profile: Salvia Indigo Spires
The Salvia (Sage) family is filled with marvelous plants for your garden. Edibles like common cooking sage become colorful with purple flowers and come in decorative (yet still edible) foliage with yellows, whites, purples and varied greens. Annual red, purple, white and now pink salvias fill in empty spots in borders. And the choices in show-stopping perennials from tiny delicate specimens to huge shrubs, moisture-loving gems to tough native chaparral denizens, soft, subtle colors to blazing intensities, are immense. I could have chosen any number of salvias to praise (and I’m likely to do so in future months since salvias are some of my favorite flowering plants). But, I decided to honor ‘Indigo Spires’ because it is one of the showier blue-flowered varieties in my garden that has made it through hot summers and cold winters. In fact, the plant can take temperatures down to 10′F (though it is a good idea to protect the roots with mulch under freezing and there will be some damage). ‘Indigo Spires’ will grow 3′ – 4′ tall and should be pruned down low at the end of the winter to assure a shapely form for the next season’s growth. The long spikes, thickly studded with rich purple flowers, can grow to 10″ long. If cut under water they are both beautiful and long lasting as cut flowers. They also retain their purple color when dried so they are great in dried flower arrangements. Cutting for either reason is a good idea since you need to cut the spent blooms off anyway or they will weight the slender stems down to the point of breakage and the plant will sprawl and look unkempt. Since the plant has a very long blooming season, you will have plenty of flowers. ‘Indigo Spires’ is said to take full sun, but I have had the most success with partial afternoon or lightly dappled shade in the hot summer sun of the chaparral. Slightly drought tolerant, the plant will take to regular watering as well. Salvia ‘Indigo Spires’ is a beauty in the mixed border or standing on its own — a true royal member of the sage family.
New plant introductions: the Black Petunia
This year’s California Spring Trials introduced the elegant black petunia called ‘Black Velvet’. Black flowers are rare in the garden and highly prized. This one really does look as if it is made of delicate black velvet. Along with several other black pansies, Ball Growers has developed a line of dark colored pansies that are eye-catching and unique. Some of these other black varieties are already on the market. Use black petunias with plants of any color in the garden bed, edge them along a border as a dark outline or pile them into a decorative pot and place them in an entry were they won’t fail to capture attention.
Olive Tree Information (Olea europaea)
Plant profiles: Olive trees
Olive trees are one of the most attractive trees to use in a Mediterranean, Southwestern, or romantic styled landscape designs. Native to the eastern parts of the Mediterranean, Asia and Africa, the olive tree can grow into a small to medium sized tree usually topping out between twenty five to fifty feet tall and often wider than high. Young olive trees can be single or multi-stemmed and quite graceful. The multi-stemmed trees tend to grow shorter than single trunks. As they age they can acquire gnarled, sculptural branches that give them character. These handsome trees are evergreen so they will offer shade year round. Olives are ideal for drought-tolerant gardening and are low maintenance trees.
The fruit can be a problem. For people who enjoy processing olives for eating – they are very bitter and can be slightly toxic if eaten raw – the fruits can be a a fun project to cure and preserve. For landscapes where the goal is purely aesthetic the fruits can become a nuisance, littering the ground and staining concrete surfaces. There are several kinds of olive trees that would be better selections to use for landscaping where the fruit is not desirable.
The Olea europea ‘Majestic Beauty’ with its small, inconspicuous fruit is a good choice for an attractive olive tree without the mess. More expensive to purchase is the Swan Hill Olive® of Olea. This olive does not produce fruit and, although it is a little more costly since the variety is still under patent, it is a lovely tree that will give you years of easy-care beauty. The Olea ‘Wilsonii’ is another good fruitless choice olive tree. All these are ideal for lovely and practical landscape use. Some people are allergic to the pollen from olive trees. This would be another reason to select one of these non-fruiting varieties.
The olive tree is an evergreen native to warm, sunny climates. It thrives in dry summers and well-drained, calcareous (lime rich) soil. Where happy it will eventually grow into a handsome shade tree or create an attractive backdrop for other plants. Fruitless varieties are also good choices for designing near water features like ponds or swimming pools. It is one of the best shade trees to plant for evergreen performance in areas of poor soils, hot sun and low rainfall.
Plant profile: Festival Grass™
A rather recent introduction into the world of colorful garden foliage plants is the Festival Grass™ . This is a member of the Cordyline family. Cordylines are typically tropical plants with showy, colorful foliage. Some
have been popular house plants, like the ‘Ti Plant’or ‘Good Luck Plant’ (Cordyline terminalis). The other half of the family grow in Australia and reach small tree-like proportions with simple branching and stiff leaves. These are tougher plants, drought-tolerant, and capable of growing well even in poor soils. Although the original species were mostly plain green or tinged with purple, hybrids now offer colors with chocolate, yellow, and even bright pink hues. All cordylines have wide, ornamental, grass-like foliage that grows around a central stalk.
Festival Grass™ has a look that seems half way between the delicate thin leaves of the tropical varieties and the stiff Australian types. It has a glowing burgundy red color thatsuffuses the entire leaf. The leaves are flat, about a half inch wide, pliable, and graceful. I They form a decorative, arching fountain in the landscape design. This plant carries the rather cumbersome official name of Cordyline hybrid var. ‘JURred’ P.P.# 14224.
Festival Grass™ grows to a height of two to three feet tall. It loves a moist soil, but has proven to be reasonably drought-resistant. Give it full sun in mild areas, but offer some shade in dry, hot gardens. The Festival Grass will handle a light frost.
Use the eye-catching foliage to accent the garden with ruby gem stone glowing color year round. In the spring it puts out a spray of delicate whitish flowers. It is decorative enough to be a focal point as a single plant or design Festival Grass™ plants into the landscape in clusters for high impact color. It also looks good used like an ornamental grass.
The popular Hibiscus (Hibiscus syriacus and Hibiscus rosa sinensis)
The Hibiscus is one of the more popular tropical or tropical-looking garden plants because of its colorful, showy flowers. There are many species of Hibiscus but the two most sought-after garden plants are the Hibiscus syriacus (the garden hibiscus, Rose of Sharon or Rose of Althea) and Hibiscus rosa sinensis (the Chinese hibiscus). These garden plants are part of the Mallow family that includes such familiar members as okra, cotton and the hollyhock. One more Hibiscus, Hibiscus sabdariffa is used for food, jams and as an herbal tea in parts of the Caribbean.
The Hibiscus syriacus (Rose of Sharon, Rose of Althea) is a species that can grow in cooler temperatures. It blooms prolifically in reds, whites, pinks and purples sometimes with blended colors. The flowers are edible and decorate shrubs or small trees that usually grow six to ten feet tall. It thrives in much of the eastern part of the United States – so much that it is becoming invasive in the state of Connecticut – and can be grown successfully in most gardens across the country. The Rose of Sharon will tolerate full sun or part shade and soil that ranges from slightly dry to a bit on the moist side.
Hibiscus rosa-sinensis (Chinese hibiscus) is a tropical plant that is not frost tolerant. The original species is red-flowered and is the national flower of Malaysia. This species is native of the Pacific Islands and Asia and has been cross-bred with the local species that has become the state flower of Hawaii; Hibiscus brackenridgei. The resulting hybrids offer a vast array of plants that produce flowers from a couple of inches to almost a foot in diameter and shrubs that grow from two feet to fifteen feet tall. Hybrid Chinese hibiscus are available with remarkable self (one-color) and blended colors in both single and double forms. (These are also edible flowers.)
Give these plants full sun for four to six hours a day and feed them lightly and frequently with a low phosphate fertilizer. Regularly inspect the plants for sucking insects like whitefly, aphids, and mealybug. Prune plants for shape when young.
If you live in a cool climate grow your Hibiscus in a large pot. Bring it outdoors to enjoy the warm months of the year. Whether they grow in the ground or in a container, you will encourage more blossoms if you keep spent flowers removed. Each flower lasts only a day.
The Puya
What’s the weirdest and most beautiful (bromeliad) of them all?
Certainly nature has created some very unusual plants and flowers. Perhaps my choice here is not the weirdest or the most beautiful of them all. But it might be a contender!
In the world of bromeliads it would be a hard contest to decide which flower is most breath-taking. Bromeliads grow in a rosette fashion can perch on tree limbs as epiphytes or show off on the ground as terrestrials. Many are tropical and a few will brave desert sun. This is a large genus that boasts the tasty pineapple as the only commercial member. There are many species that bloom with fantastically shaped bracts and flowers that look fashioned out of plastic in brilliant colors. Some have gaily colored or patterned leaves. Others can be covered with fine scales and look whitish or fuzzy. There are bromeliads that are only an inch big and a few that grow several feet in height. A lot of them will grow young plantlets (pups) out the side and create wide colonies.
The Puya is one drought-tolerant member of the bromeliad family that grows on the ground and puts up with hot sun and dry, hungry soil. One of the Puyas blooms with what could arguably be considered the weirdest and most beautiful flower of them. This is the Puya alpestris that is native to the high Andes mountains in Chile. It has a larger cousin that looks very similar, the Puya berteroniana or the Blue Puya.
Both these plants bloom with a spire of thick, wax-like blue or turquoise blooms with a metalic sheen. They are as bizarre as they are beautiful with a form, texture and coloring not often seen in the plant world.
These plants are available from some garden centers and on the Internet, but you’ll probably have to search a little for them. Give the Puya alpestris conditions like it’s mountainous home with full sun, lean and very well-drained soil and low water. This is one plant that is bound to be a conversation piece in the garden when in bloom.
Plant profiles: Drought-tolerant plants: Verbena rigida
Verbena rigida (Rigid Verbena, Sandpaper Verbena or Tuberous Vervain)
This is a colorful groundcover plant that blooms in rich purple for a long flowering season. The leaves are coarse and tough with a sandy texture and the plant creeps and crawls with underground runners. Flowers are clustered in groups and grow from six to eighteen inches high. The color can be a vibrant violet. The Verbena rigida likes full sun and well-drained, lean soil, but it isn’t fussy about soil type. It thrives in high heat and is frost tolerant to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. This is an ideal plant to cover hills, slopes and open expanses. It has an informal habit of growth that will make it attractive in a natural garden. It can become invasive where happy and rambles too much to work well in a formal, controlled landscape design. In the right location, the Verbena rigida is an excellent choice for a water-wise garden, although it won’t mind if it gets regular water either.
The Tropicana Canna
In the last few years this relatively new Canna lily has cropped up in nurseries everywhere. It is one of the most colorful foliage plants you will find anywhere, yet it grows in many areas where your more delicate, showy plants wouldn’t have a chance. The Tropicana Canna is drought tolerant yet handles so much moisture that it can be grown as a bog plant in a pond. Although it supposed to take only full sun, it will accept some shade, too. The large leaves unfurl in bronze, ruby red, pale yellow and slightly green-etched stripes. The “Tropicana” Canna is not as delicate as its name implies. It is hardy to 20′F (sometimes lower), dying down to its tubers (long swollen roots somewhat like narrow sweet potatoes) in the wintertime only to reappear in the early spring. Leaves will be burnt back at the first frosts. Tough colorful leaves tolerate heavy winds so long as they have a wall reasonably nearby. They grow from 2 ½ ‘(dwarf varieties) to 6’ tall. Use this flamboyant plant wherever you want a splash of bold color to accent the ordinary green of most gardens, especially when out of flower. The leaves give a tropical feel to any design and the size and stature make a sculptural statement wherever placed. As if the showy leaves weren’t enough, “Tropicana” Canna crowns itself with a bouquet of brilliant orange flowers that should be removed when they wilt to make room for new flowers and more leaves. This plant is worth every penny you spend on it. And it will cost a few cents more than most other cannas since the variety is still under patent.
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