Flora Fun

From Genesis we read a few passages:

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth...

Let there be light, and there was light...

And the evening and the morning were the first day...

I have tried to create a heaven upon my plot of earth, and after 40+ years of owning Buchholz Nursery I finally did the math, and I reckon I have put in about 14,650 days, as well as often working into the night. Some ex and some current employees have found nothing heavenly about their sentence here, and hell itself would be the summation of their term. Well, I haven't always enjoyed their company either. But if one shows up and labors within my gates, don't you think we can enjoy some mutual fun?

George Forrest

Pleione x confusa 'Golden Gate'

I should think so. Today, for example, we divided and multiplied our Pleione stock and I was pleased with our tally of 'Golden Gate', the relatively new “doer” yellow-flowered cultivar which features a fantastic red throat. The x confusa species was originally collected by the Scotsman George Forrest in SW Yunnan, China and sent to J.C. Williams of Caerhays Castle, Cornwall, England in 1924. It was first considered to be Pleione forrestii but now is known to be a naturally occurring hybrid between P. forrestii and P. albiflora. I and other orchid aficionados have floundered with the straight P. forrestii species, but the hybrid is just as beautiful and it easily thrives in our growing conditions.

Androsace sempervivoides 'Susan Joan'

Androsace sempervivoides 'Susan Joan'

Speaking of fun, I noticed an order was pulled to be shipped soon of Androsace sempervivoides 'Susan Joan'. The delightful alpine is not in flower yet – we're about a month away – but the customer knows how special it will be. As you can see from the photo above, even a single florette can bloom, but we have our original start in a trough and it forms a dense mat which produces hundreds of flowers. As is apparent, the genus is in the Primulaceae family and it originated in the Himalaya. The 100-or-so species have now spread throughout Asian and European mountain systems such as the Caucasus, Alps and Pyrenees. The genus name Androsace is from Greek androsakes which is a sea plant (probably a species of Acetabularia). The sempervivoides species is from Kashmir and Tibet and is hardy to -30 F, and our specimen has succeeded in full sun. I don't know anything about Ms. Susan Joan, but I'm guessing that she is English, and the plant that bears her name received the RHS's Award of Garden Merit.

Cyclamen hederifolium 'Silver Cloud'

Cyclamen coum 'Something Magic'

My wife loves the Cyclamen genus – not the gaudy florist-shop hybrids with large blossoms – but rather the petite species sweethearts. I think they're great too, especially since they remind me of her. For Haruko's birthday last April I surprised her with seven new plants, a couple which are in flower today. I don't know much about them, for example: what's the difference between C. coum 'Christmas Tree Group' and C. purpurescens 'Christmas Tree'? Previously we had purchased starts of the patented (ugh!), tissue-culture-produced C. coum 'Something Magic'. We grew and sold them for two years, then inexplicably the producer discontinued it...perhaps because his other customers thought they had died when they went dormant. It's a company that brags about their hundreds of introductions, but they stick with very few of them. The business model is apparently “out with the old (not so very old) and in with the new,” and take them or leave them. Well, we currently buy nothing from this fellow Oregon company. Enough of their slick-magazine, color enhanced, hyped ephemeral product!

Acer saccharum 'Monumentale'

Acer saccharum 'Monumentale'

The pillar in the above scape is the improbable Acer saccharum 'Monumentale', the most narrowly columnar of all maples, and the photo was taken at the garden of the late Ed Rezek. Indeed, this monumental plantsman generously gave me a start of this cultivar back when it was very rare in the trade. Actually, it is still quite rare because I and others find it difficult to propagate, but any time I list one for sale – even at a high price – it is quickly snapped up. Besides the difficulty in propagation, in Oregon the needle-spire, unlike at Rezek's place, tends to boink out with lateral shoots which must be pruned back to maintain its columnar integrity. In the Flora Wonder Arboretum our specimens are above ladder size to maintain, and the project requires equipment-rental or a costly tree-service-company to perform. Of course, none of the upkeep sounds like any of the “flora fun” that I am highlighting...until you find it brilliantly aglow in a late October evening, and where the gardener receives just a minute of breathtaking glory before all fades into the dark of night.

Acer platanoides 'Rezek'

Acer platanoides 'Rezek'

Acer platanoides 'Rezek'

The same Mr. Rezek – who, sadly, I never got to know really well – also gave me a curious seedling of the “Norway maple,” Acer platanoides. It was also columnar but it possessed peculiarly crinkled leaves. The seedling arose in his garden, but in his neighborhood he could not source the mother tree. Prior to his gift to me, he had given others to certain plantsmen, and I think the cultivar of 'Curly Lamp Post' originated from the Rezek garden. While I temporarily named my individual seedling as Acer platanoides 'Rezek', I realized that the name was not nomenclaturally sound. Nevertheless I sold some as such and so the name is with us today. A few years later I employed a woman who previously worked at Carlton Nursery in Oregon, a company that grew thousands of shade trees, in particular cultivars of “Norway maple.” She pulled out a similarly twist-leaved individual that resembled the 'Curly Lamp Post' and my 'Rezek', which proves that the species can get weird at times. I named it 'Carlton' but did you follow all of that? The above cultivars are difficult to propagate, at least for me, but they are examples of where the plantsman can have a bit of perverse fun with his trees.

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Gold Rush'

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Gold Rush'

My wife opened the front door a few days ago to let the dog out, and she gasped when noticing that the Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Gold Rush' was in bloom. So surprising since it is still February (though not for long). For the entire time of our marriage I landscape using certain plants with her primarily in mind. I court her constantly with flora that I suppose will arouse her, just as the bowerbird builds a structure and decorates it with sticks and brightly colored objects in an attempt to attract his mate. Well, I guess I have already captured Haruko, but I still like to ornament the kitchen window with blossoms from the nursery, and I sneak them there when she will discover them later on her own, preferably when I am not around.

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Akabana'

The Edgeworthia genus name honors Irishman Michael Markenham Edgeworth (1812-1881), an amateur botanist who worked for the East India Company, and for his sister, the writer Maria Edgeworth. In Japan the name is mitsu (three) mata (crotch), and if you examine a plant it actually does branch into three stems. The specific epithet of chrysantha is form Greek chrysos meaning “golden” and anthos for “flower.” Edgeworthia is native to the woodlands of the Himalaya and in China, and it is commonly named the “Chinese paperbush.” It is cultivated in Japan as a daphne-like ornamental and for the manufacture of high-class paper for currency.

Edgeworthia chrysantha 'Akabana'

Edgeworthia papyrifera 'Red Dragon'

The Hillier Manual of Trees and Shrubs describes Edgeworthia as a small genus with four species, but only lists chrysantha and doesn't mention the other three, implying that papyrifera is but a synonym for chrysantha. Roger Gossler in The Gossler Guide to the Best Hardy Shrubs, after describing E. chrysantha's flowers as “slightly scented” [I would call them highly scented] says of E. papyrifera, “The stems and foliage are small and golden yellow, but sadly they have no fragrance.” I grow the cultivar 'Red Dragon' and I list it as a papyrifera since I got my start from Gossler. I also grow the very similar 'Akabana' which came to me as a chrysantha. In fact, when I first acquired it the name was 'Akebono' which means “dawn” in Japanese, but the correct name is 'Akabana' which means “red flower.” A mistake I made earlier in my career was to graft 'Red Dragon' and 'Akabana' onto E. chrysantha, but the rootstock will sucker until the end of time. Maybe that's not so bad though, as the colors red and yellow go nicely together.

Camellia williamsii 'Water Lily'

Camellia japonica 'Nuccio's Pearl'

Great floral fun can be found in GH23 with a variety of Camellias in bloom. At home I planted C. williamsii 'Water Lily' and C. japonica 'Nuccio's Pearl' on the north side of the house. My thinking was that we could walk out on the upper deck and look down upon them...and then eventually the bushes would grow up to eye level. In my greenhouse 'Waterlily' blooms before 'Nuccio's Pearl', but outside, at least this year, the 'Pearl' went first. They're both in full flower now, but as far as walking out on the deck, we don't because it's too damn cold.

Rhododendron 'Pink Snowflakes'

Rhododendron 'Pink Snowflakes'

In the same greenhouse is a group of Rhododendron 'Pink Snowflakes' blooming their hearts out. The photo was taken yesterday, but I'm saddened that most are yet to be shipped, and if the customers don't get with it they'll likely have to hold them over until next year. That's the problem with flowering plants like some magnolias and witch hazels, that our cold-area customers – which most are – are still in the midst of winter with no customers of their own yet. Back to the 'Pink Snowflakes', I cannot think of any Rhododendron more cute, and when in flower one person called it an “absolute chick plant,” meaning that all women would fall for it. The hybrid is a cross between two Chinese species (racemosum x moupinense) but unfortunately is only hardy to 0 F, USDA zone 7.

Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph'

Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph'

Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph'

We have been enjoying the stunning yellow foliage of Pinus contorta 'Chief Joseph', a pine discovered in the Wallowa Mountains of northeast Oregon by the late Doug Will. The contorta species is not native to my area; a subspecies grows along the Oregon Coast and another in the Cascade Mountains and further east to the Wallowas. I can and do grow green cultivars of the mountain group, but 'Chief Joseph's' yellow needles develop a crud by the end of February, and a month from now they'll look even worse. We grow it anyway, even with only about 50% success at propagation, because it is in high demand. I constantly remind my grafter to not worry about the low rate – she usually achieves 90% success on other two-needle pines – because not many other nurseries bother with it and we are able to get a very good price for ours.

Pinus cembroides 'Pina Nevada'

Pinus cembroides 'Pina Nevada'

Another pine that is stunning in winter is Pinus cembroides 'Pina Nevada', but it's a non-event the rest of the year. My original two starts are growing in the arboretum, gifted to me about 20 years ago by the late director of the North Carolina State Arboretum, J.C. Raulston. I walk past my specimens a couple times per week and always pause a few moments to marvel at the gorgeous variegation. Visitors wonder where my rows of hundreds are kept, but I don't grow many because there's no perfect rootstock for the Mexican “stone” pine. The originals are grafted onto Pinus strobus and we have also used Pinus strobiformis, but less than half will live past their fifth year. Besides, you have to leave a portion of unsightly rootstock on the grafts for a few years or else you'll lose them all. Hillier describes the species with “Leaves normally in 3s, but varying from 2-5 on some trees.” After reading that I just got the idea that maybe I should try a 2-needle rootstock like Pinus mugo.

Pinus cembroides 'Pina Nevada'

Hillier doesn't mention 'Pina Nevada', but it is listed in the recent RHS Encyclopedia of Conifers by Auders and Spicer. Unfortunately the photo is from a distance and taken of my tree in May so there's no apparent variegation. Hillier describes the cembroides species as having cones 6 cm (2.36 in) long, containing large, edible seeds. My trees produce plenty of first-year cones but I've never seen them develop beyond that. Hmm – maybe I should go out and look more closely. Ok, I did find one older cone, but it is only a round one-inch size. Cute though.

After nearly 500 blogs, I sometimes find that I repeat repeat myself, and I wondered if I have ever used the blog title of Flora Fun before. I used the search bar at the blog beginning and discovered one blog entitled Loads of Fun. Click here if you're still having trouble getting to sleep.