Flora blessed me with an extraordinary week, for I
encountered many fantastic plants, and all of the photos in this blog will join
the many thousands of others that can be seen in our website photo library.
Unfortunately many people call us wanting to buy what they see in the library,
but I don't grow all of the plants, let alone have a market to sell them.
Rather it is a record of my floral encounters, my autobiography as it were. It
is true that you are what you eat, but equally so with what you see.
A spathe* developed on our Dracunculus vulgaris and I would
inspect it daily. One day last week, voila, it opened, and I was surprised that
it could happen so fast. The species name vulgaris is Latin for
“common,” but this stinker went beyond “common” to the realm of putrid,
all in an attempt to attract flies to aid in pollination. It is native to the
Balkans, Turkey, Crete and Greece, and in the latter it is known as drakondia
since the long spadix** – to someone who drank too much wine – looked like a
dragon*** hiding in the spathe. Dracunculus belongs to the Araceae
family and is related to the Arum genus.
The spathe is a bract, so to speak, while the spadix bears numerous flowers,
both male and female which are hidden inside the bulbous chamber inside the
spathe. Even though the flower smells like rotten meat, it is poisonous, and
animals keep clear.
*Spathe is Greek for “broad blade.”
**Spadix is Greek for “palm branch.”
***Dragon is from Greek drakon for “serpent.”
Of course most everything from Greek went to Latin and was altered to some
degree. Latin Graeci was the name given by the Romans to the people who
called themselves the Hellenes, which was from the Greek Graikoi,
and was believed by Aristotle to be the
prehistoric name of the Hellenes. Latin, or Latium was the
country of the Latini, a people from Mount Album – today Colli Albani –
located twelve miles southeast of Rome. The area has been occupied by agricultural
populations since the Bronze Age, and the name is possibly derived from the
Latin word “latus” meaning “wide,” referring to the flat land. I don't know
about you, but sometimes the asterisk (from Greek asteriskos
for “little star”) is more interesting than the paragraph which preceded it.
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| Fagus sylvatica 'Aurea Pendula' |
May is a wonderful time to see our magnificent specimen of
Fagus sylvatica 'Aurea Pendula'. When we eventually reach 100 degrees F this
summer the foliage will burn to a degree – for we have very little humidity –
but the longer it has been in our original display garden the better it handles
the sun. The tree behind the 'Aurea Pendula' is the original Acer palmatum
'Purple Ghost', and beyond that is an Abies nordmanniana, planted as a sapling
to one day provide shade. The “Golden Weeping beech” was introduced by Van der
Bom of Holland in 1900, but you don't see it very often in American gardens.
Everyone wants to buy our larger trees so they are a cinch to sell, but clients
never know about our dismal propagation results, and just what it takes to get
little plants of weak constitution to shoot upward. I saw my first plant and
got a start 35 years ago from Howard Hughes – no, not the loony Vegas tycoon –
who was a generous man of 92 at the time. Before J.D. Vertrees had a sizeable
maple collection, Hughes had also gathered a collection, and when the Vertrees
maple book came out in 1978, due acknowledgement was given to Mr. Hughes.
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| Acer macrophyllum 'Santiam Snow' |
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| Acer macrophyllum 'Santiam Snow' |
Acer macrophyllum 'Santiam Snow' is a new, but apparently
stable variegated form of our “Oregon maple,” meaning that – hopefully –
vigorous green reversions won't appear. It received its name because it was
discovered on the Santiam Highway which begins just south of Salem, Oregon, and
goes east...up-and-over the Cascade Mountains and into central Oregon. I don't
know who found it, but the company that introduced it is Heritage Seedlings of
Salem. Santiam is a river in the area, so-named by the Kalapuya tribe.
The natives are gone now; those who survived the white-man's diseases and the
disgusting concept of Manifest Destiny were relocated. It's fitting that
they now run a large casino and suck huge sums of money from the slovenly
descendants of those whities who first screwed them. Anyway, 'Santiam' has
never been tested by me in the real world, that is, out in the garden in
full sun.
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| Onoclea sensibilis |
I encountered Onoclea sensibilis last week at a nursery that
sells many groundcovers and ferns. In Sue Olsen's Encyclopedia of Garden
Ferns, she says, “The name Onoclea is from the Greek onos, vessel,
and kleio, to close or sheathe, in reference to the podlike pinnules
enclosing the spores on the fertile fronds.” With the specific name sensibilis
I wondered if the fronds would curl up if I touched them. I did, they didn't.
They are “sensitive” in that the sterile fronds turn yellow and die at the
first frost. Sue adds, “It was supposedly the first fern introduced to Britain
from North America, in 1699.”
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| Dryopteris sieboldii |
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| Dryopteris erythrosora |
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| Polystichum polyblepharum |
The fern greenhouse contained many genera and species, and
none fascinates me more than Dryopteris sieboldii, “Siebold's wood fern.” Also
noticed was Dryopteris erythrosora, the “autumn fern” from Asia. Its specific
name means “red sori” in Greek, and sori is plural of sorus,
which is from ancient Greek soros for “stack” or “heap.” The sori are
the structures producing and containing spores, visible on the underside of the
fertile fronds. Polystichum polyblepharum is the “Tassel fern” from Japan,
Korea and China and the specific name means “many eyelashes” due to the bristly
scales on the stipe. A stipe is a stalk or stem.
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| Cornus kousa 'Summer Fun' |
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| Cornus controversa 'Variegata' at Schreiner's Nursery |
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| Cornus controversa 'Variegata' at Arboretum Trompenburg |
I arranged a visit to Schreiner's Iris Gardens, not so much
for the iris, but to see Ray Schreiner's personal garden. His is a sprawling
collection of trees and shrubs that he likes. After planting he doesn't worry
about the labeling, for after all the trees are not part of his business. It's
as if the countless crops of iris on 200 acres got a little boring, and his own
garden seems to be where he has most fun. Ray likes variegated plants, and I
was pleased to see three or four of my Cornus kousa 'Summer Fun', although he
didn't get them from me. He also had a good sized Cornus controversa
'Variegata', a cultivar common in the gardens of tasteful plantsmen, but seldom
seen in the landscapes of the general public. Cornus controversa, a tree native
to eastern Asia to about the 5,000' altitude, was first described by William
Botting Hemsley (1843-1924), an English botanist who worked his way up to Keeper
of Herbarium and Library at Kew. 'Variegata' was introduced in 1896 by the
Frenchman Barbier, and it is probably more commonly found in Europe than
America. For me, the most grand specimen I have ever seen is at the Arboretum
Trompenburg in Rotterdam, and even on dismal rainy days it will light up its
area...as if it was preparing for a glorious wedding.
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| Schreiner's Display Garden |
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| Schreiner's Iris Gardens |
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| Iris 'Fringe of Gold' |
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| Iris 'Sea Power' |
I will admit that Schreiner's iris fields were spectacular,
and customers and visitors are welcome to wander around a display garden, where
labeling was a priority. Ray is a third generation iris-man, with his
grandfather starting the business in Minnesota. Eventually they relocated to
Oregon's Willamette Valley where growing conditions were far more superior, and
they didn't forget to bring along their Adirondack furniture.
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| Audrey's place |
Back at the nursery I encountered a lush scene in our
Display Garden's lath house. I constructed this structure as a place of repose
when I was in my early 30's, and even my older children would whisper when they
were near it. It was known as Audrey's place, named after a friend who
had passed away at a young age. She was my age, but could never seem to find
her place in life, and was forever complaining about her job or her boyfriend
etc. Finally I advised her to change her course and volunteer for something, to
make the world a better place...and quit thinking about herself. She took me up
on it and joined the Peace Corps and was shipped to a remote island in the Philippines.
The villagers assumed she was a witch and would stare into her window, but she
tried to accept the situation. After only a month of her stay we received a
phone call from her mother that Audrey had died of “heart failure.” She was
healthy and only 35, and to this day I conclude that she was murdered. In any
case I built her monument and planted it with some choice shade-loving plants.
Acer palmatum 'Golden Falls'
Also on my camera from the past week are some Japanese
maples, all of which are seedlings from named varieties which we hope to
introduce in the near future. Acer palmatum 'Golden Falls' is a yellow-leaved
seedling from A. p. 'Ryu sei' with the same pendulous habit of its parent. From
the two hundred seedlings that we raised about 20 showed the weeping
characteristic, while the others – the uprights – became rootstock. I have come
to the conclusion in my career that it is best to have a cultivar name firmly
in place before you propagate so as to avoid confusion later. I have
broadcast that view before so I won't go into it further now – unless someone
is inexperienced enough (or foolish) to debate with me.
Another attractive new maple is Acer palmatum 'Celebration'
which originated as a seedling from 'Purple Ghost'. Its leaves are more
brightly red than with 'Purple Ghost' or 'Amagi shigure', and it displays good
vigor as well. A seedling from 'Amber Ghost' became 'Strawberry Spring', while
'Koto no ito' yielded 'Yellow Threads'. One should be cautious to describe a
cultivar based on the original seedling, because one will never again be
produced that way. The original is the one and only and all of its propagules
will have a borrowed – and probably more vigorous – rootstock. For example, my
first two grafts from my 'Fairy Hair' are over three times the size of the original seedling.
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| Paeonia ostii |
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| Paeonia ostii |
I was disappointed with a shipment of Paeonia ostii 'Phoenix
White' which I bought from another wholesale grower. He did not provide what he
promised, as they all turned out to be seedlings of 'Phoenix White', and
while some flowered white, most bloomed an insipid pink. One seedling was a
strong pink and I like it, but it looks funny with a label that describes it as
“white.” 'Phoenix White' is a tree peony from China, known as Feng Dan Bai,
while a pink-flowered form is called Feng Dan Fen, and they are
cultivated for the bark of their roots which is used as an anti-spasmodic. The
tree peony is the national flower of China and is known as hua wang,
“King of Flowers,” and this connotation goes back over 2,000 years. The
herbaceous form of Paeonia is native to the Mediterranean region of Europe, and
an anonymous Greek poet called it “the Queen of all herbs.” The Roman Pliny the
Elder wrote that a tincture of peony roots “prevents the mocking illusions that
the Fauns* bring to us in our sleep.”
*Faun is derived from the name of the pastoral god Faunus.
In classical mythology they are one of a class of rural deities, represented as
men with the ears, horns and rear legs and tail of a goat. Faunus was a nature
god who was the father of Bona Dea, sometimes identified as Fauna.
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| Callicarpa japonica 'Snow Storm' |
Callicarpa japonica 'Snow Storm' is a new plant from Japan,
but in Europe it is known by its Japanese name of 'Shiji murasaki', which does not
translate as “snow storm.” Murasaki is Japanese for “purple,” and I
think that shiji is referring to the stems. The “purple” of course is
referring to the “beautyberries.” Sadly the cultivar has been trademarked in
America – meaning that I can't use the name and wouldn't be able to sell it.
Furthermore, it will be peddled with the dumb name of 'Wine Spritzer', and I
read that “landscapers are clinking wine glasses over this beautiful new
shrub.” Yuck – count me out!
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| Abies concolor 'Wattezii' |
Abies concolor is a western American fir that received its
specific name because the trees are of one color, whole-colored, not
partly-colored or variegated. Well, in general I guess, as the trees in the
wild do look alike, but certainly not alike in the world of cultivars. This past
week I walked around my upper gardens at Flora Farm, and I happily stumbled
into Abies concolor 'Wattezii' which was flushed with beautiful new growth.
Hillier describes the foliage, “leaves creamy yellow when young, becoming
silvery white later.” Krussmann describes, “needles pale yellow on new growth,
generally turning silver-white.” It originated as a mutation on A. concolor by
D. Wattez in Bussum, Holland.
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| Dr. Forrest Bump |
My connection to 'Wattezii' was due to the late Dr. Bump and
his wife of Forest Grove, Oregon, who encountered a specimen in the Hillier
Arboretum in England. Bump was a keen plantsman but his wife was not. After a
long tour of the collection, led by Sir Harold Hillier himself, Mrs. Bump
declared that “Wattezii' was the most interesting plant that she had ever seen.
Bump went on a quest to acquire it, and I was pleased to provide him a tree
from scions sent to me from an East Coast conifer collector. Dr. Bump was
surprised that I remembered his story, but I was just beginning my nursery, and
I reasoned that if a non-plant-person liked one tree out of the entire Hillier
collection, it was probably something I should grow.
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| Acer griseum |
very interesting Acer macrophyllum 'Santiam Snow'!!
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