Charting Color in Your Garden

 

     This chart is an idea that I saw years ago in a gardening magazine that printed tips from its subscribers. I later made one for a demonstration, and I've mentioned it in several of the classes that I teach here. All you need is graph paper and some inexpensive colored pencils or markers that you can purchase at the dollar store. The purpose of this chart is to help you remember when plants bloom in your yard and what colors they are. Trust me, many people tell me they can't remember what they buy!

 

    Here are a few ideas of blue or purple plants (annuals and perennials) for spring and summer bloom. Veronicas 'Georgia Blue' and "Royal Candles', Verbena 'Homestead Purple', Salvias 'May Night' and guaranitica, baptisia, German and Siberian iris, Scabiosa 'Butterfly Blue', Virginia blue bells, purple daylilies, and Phlox 'Blue Paradise' and 'Nicky' are all reliable perennials. For blue vines try Clematis 'Will Goodwin' and the always popular 'Jackmanii'. Don't dismiss colorful pansies for garden impact that lasts until the end of May. If you can still locate the bulbs for grape hyacinths and scillas I'd grab those, too. Some of you may wonder why I'd include annuals in this chart, but many become "instant classics" for you and you couldn't imagine a long summer season with out them. I always select Torenia 'Summer Wave Blue', trailing verbenas, Cape Plumbago and Salvia 'Victoria Blue'. 

     In closing I wanted to mention a new white annual that proved to be winner in my garden this year, and also in our water-starved display gardens. Sterile 'Snow Princess' alyssum really lived up to its trade magazine hype. In fact, it gave up the ghost in my garden about three weeks ago. Now that's a long bloomer! Perhaps you'd like to add that one to your list of plants to research over the next month or two. And get thinking about existing plants in your garden that can be "graphed".

Ann Weber          

Fruit Loops, Faux Forsythia and Mr. Fortune

     If you have managed to read this far, I know the title of this article must have piqued your interest.  In recognition of the "least gardening-friendly" month of the year, I thought I would write about two plants that can often be seen flowering in January.  Their odd bloom time is not the only thing they have in common; they were both discovered and brought to the Western world by the same plant explorer.

Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima)

 

     Let's talk about the plants first.  Most people are surprised when they first encounter Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima), primarily because it is unlike any other Honeysuckle they have seen.  It looks nothing like the rampant, white-flowering vine everyone is so familiar with.  In fact it is not a vine at all.  Winter Honeysuckle is a large deciduous shrub reaching 6-10' tall and wide.  Most of the year it is fairly non-descript, blending in easily with other shrubs, gladly allowing more showy plants to have their moment in the spotlight.   However, come January and into February, when most other shrubs are dormant, this plant comes into full bloom.  The small creamy white flowers will not be what you notice first.  Your head will turn when you get the first whiff of their sweet lemony fragrance, which to me smells exactly like a bowl of Fruit Loops.  Winter Honeysuckle rivals Daphne and Gardenia in its delicious fragrance, and it may even make you forget what time of year it is.  This plant prefers full sun to light shade in moist well-drained soil.  Though it is not the showiest of shrubs, plant it near the house or driveway where you can enjoy its aroma as you come and go.

Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum)

     The next plant is a member of the Jasmine family, a family which is famous for fragrant flowers.  However, Winter Jasmine (Jasminum nudiflorum) is not one of those fragrant flowers.  As much as you notice the previously mentioned Winter Honeysuckle with your nose, it will be your eyes that respond to Winter Jasmine.  At the first breath of warmer air during a January thaw, this plant comes into bloom with intensely bright yellow flowers, and it will continue blooming, often into March.  At this time of year, I often get calls from people claiming to have seen the first Forsythia bloom (a much loved harbinger of spring), but it is usually Winter Jasmine they are seeing.  Other than blooming earlier than Forsythia, this plant can be distinguished by it green (even in winter) stems, its sprawling hay-stack-like habit and its lower stature.  Winter Jasmine only reaches 3-4' tall, but can get 4-7' wide.  It can grow in full sun or shade, and it also does well in poor soil, as long as it is not too soggy.

Robert Fortune

     The person who first introduced these two winter gems to the West was Robert Fortune (1812-1880), a Scottish botanist who worked for the Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh and later the Horticulture Society of London.  Fortune's greatest work occurred in China which had recently established designated trading ports with the West.  Foreigners were not allowed to travel more than a few miles out of the designated areas, but Fortune learned Chinese and would often disguise himself as a Mandarin merchant.  Under this ruse he travelled in many areas forbidden to Westerners and was able to make numerous plant collections.  Many of his finds were sent back to England in the newly invented Wardian case.  These cases were terrarium-like, portable structures

Wardian Case

that kept the plants viable on the long trip back to England.  Fortune is most famous (or infamous to the Chinese) for smuggling 20,000 tea plants (Camellia sinensis) out of China into India in an attempt to break the Chinese tea monopoly.  Fortune was also responsible for introducing scores of plants that are familiar to many gardeners today, and he was one of the most prolific plant explorers of the 19^th century.  I take off my warm hat to Fortune for brightening our cold January gardens with Winter Honeysuckle and Winter Jasemine.