Plant Notes

March 2007 Plant Notes

Akebia quinata (Lardizabalaceae).
Akebia quinata, "Five-leaved Akebia", is a twining vine native to eastern Asia.
The compound leaves have five oval leaflets palmately arranged. Leaflets vary from 1 to 1-1/2 in. and each is notched at the tip. This is a graceful and decorative vine, especially when viewed against a wall or twining on a wire fence. The inflorescence is composed of separate male and female flowers, one or two larger, deeper-colored female flowers subtended by several smaller males. Because it is self sterile, a single vine will seldom bear fruit, but when it does occur, the fleshy fruit is sausage-shaped, about 4-in. long and edible. I have found them them to be bland and uninteresting but I may not have had a ripe one for one member reports that they are eaten when they split open, revealing the seeds, and taste and feel like tapioca (don't eat the seeds). Usually the flowers are purple but Nancy Schramm also showed the white form, A. q. alba, that she thinks is the more fragrant. It was very much in evidence at this year's Landscape-Garden Show, appearing in several exhibits. This vine can be aggressively invasive if not controlled. It will climb 30 ft. into trees and swarm over and through fences and shrubs and along the ground. I am personally currently engaged in all out warfare with my rampant vine and so far the Akebia is winning.

Grevillea "April Showers" (Proteaceae).
Paula Lion showed another plant that has outgrown its allotted space, Grevillea "April Showers". In her garden it fills a space 10 X15 ft. and 6 ft. high and is busy devouring all its neighbors. While it is a carefree plant, asking little in the way of soil and water, pest-free and hardy, it is not a plant that is easy to live with. Its stiff, needle-sharp leaves make it unapproachable for pruning or thinning. It is very lovely at the moment, its branches lavishly covered with hundreds of white flowers, but this, alas, is its swan song for its days are numbered.

Bulbine frutescens (Liliaceae), Eschscholzia californica (Papaveraceae), Euphorbia characias (Euphorbiaceae)
These plants made up a tasteful bouquet in shades of orange, yellow and chartreuse from Liz Calhoon's garden. Bulbine is a clump-forming cormous perennial with slender, succulent, onion-like leaves. The tubular yellow flowers are held in tapering spikes atop foot-high stems. Very easy to grow, tough and adaptable, it will naturalize if given half a chance. The euphorbia is especially handsome at this time of year with its dramatic blue-green foliage and chartreuse domes. What a large and useful role euphorbias fill in the garden with their large shapely form and unique color, so easy to grow, adaptable and reliable! It is hard to think what could ever take its place.

Veltheimia bracteata (Liliaceae)
Katie Wong's veltheimia, though still very small, was a significant horticultural success for she grew it from seed and brought it to bloom in three years. Veltheimias are bulbous perennials from South Africa that produce rosettes of broad, wavy margined glossy strap-shaped leaves. A sturdy scape bearing a spike of tubular pink flowers that resemble a red-hot-poker arises from the center of the rosette. Bloom is in late winter and early spring, after which the plant goes into a short dormancy when water should be reduced. They are quite hardy to cold, requiring only minimal shelter most years. Katy regaled us with tales of the veltheimias grown by her nurseryman son in Hawaii. There the clumps became huge and the flowering stems massive. The bulbs may be 4 to 5 in. in diameter.

Camellia japonica "Lotus".
Dick Dunmire has been growing this handsome semi-double white camellia for many years and though he has found it a very satifactory variety it seems to have disappeared from the trade.

Berberis "Golden Abundance" (Berberidaceae).
Betsy Clebsch tells us that Mahonia is now included in Berberis but you will find this plant still carried in the trade as Mahonia. This is one of the best cultivars with large glossy green leaves and profuse heads of golden yellow, saucer-shaped flowers. It will grow 6 to 8 ft. tall, 3 to 4 ft. wide and will spread by underground runners to make a sizeable clump. Flowering is in spring and is followed by large crops of blue-black berries. In general, barberries do best in partial shade in California and some summer water is advisable.

Viburnum carlesii (Caprifoliaceae).
"Korean Spice Viburnum" is a large open bushy shrub, 4 to 8 ft. tall and as wide. The 2 to 3 in. toothed leaves are dull grayish green, downy beneath. Pink buds in spring open to domed clusters of intensely fragrant white flowers, followed by red berry-like fruit that turns black with age.

Viburnum "Cayuga" (V. carlesii X V. carlcephalon) is a smaller (to 5 ft..), more compact hybrid cultivar with smaller leaves. In spring 3 in. cymes of pink buds open successively, the white flowers and pink buds mixed together making a beautiful combination that is sweetly fragrant.

Rosa minutifolia (Rosaceae).
This was Kerry Barr's miniature of the month, a native of Baja California. In the wild it is a low bushy shrub that can reach 3 to 4 ft., with hairy stems set with large red-brown spines that are sometimes longer than the leaves. The leaves are pinnate, the closely incised and toothed leaflets even smaller, 3/16 in. The single flowers may be white, as Kerry's were, or purple. It made an exquisite specimen in a container.

Primula pruhonciana, Brodiaea ixiodes "Starlight", Ceanothus "Dark Star"
Among several treasures from Judy Wong's remarkable garden was this very dwarf primula with tiny leaves and an umbel of red-purple flowers. Primula pruhonciana is the result of a series of crosses between several species in the polyanthus group. It seems to me that we used to call Judy's plant Primula juliae, but those were simpler times.

Brodiaea ixiodes "Starlight", is a small brodiaea bearing an umbel of clear yellow flowers atop an upright scape. A tuft of linear, grass-like leaves grow from a corm and, like other Californian wild flowers, goes into complete summer dormancy once flowering is finished. It is now listed as Triteleia ixiodes.

Ceanothus "Dark Star" is very handsome with clusters of deep cobalt-blue flowers and small dark green revolute leaves. It can get 6 ft. tall by 12 ft. wide it has proved to be reliable as a landscape plant. I bought it because it was reputed to be deer proof and that proved to be true of the foliage but not of the flowers, which were what I was after.

E.C.G.