Plant Notes

WHS Plant Notes for January, 2009

Chimonanthus praecox (CALYCANTHACEAE) Fragrant Wintersweet
Grown by Barbara Worl in Menlo Park: 

	Chimonanthus praecox

This is a large, 10'-15', multi-stemmed, deciduous shrub from China. The 6" lanceolate leaves are glossy with a rough texture and turn slightly yellow in fall. Spicily fragrant, 1" flowers hang from its bare branches in December and January. They are frilly, open cups of waxy, yellowish-white petals with a maroon blotch in the center. It blooms on the previous season's growth so any hard pruning should be done just after flowering. Although it reduces the bloom, Barbara prunes hers 2 or 3 times a year to keep it at 6' x 6'. It's easy to grow in sun to light shade in any soil with decent drainage. The flowering branches are used in arrangements and the dried flowers in potpourri.

Crassula ovata 'Christmas Cheer' (CRASSULACEAE) Jade Plant
Grown by Dick Dunmire in Los Altos: 

This popular succulent is native to South Africa. It is an excellent container plant indoors or out. It's hardy into the high 20's so we "flatlanders" can use it in the landscape. It puts on a long show of clusters of starry, pink flowers during winter. Just be prepared for injury or death if we get one of our exceptional winters. Give it light shade to full sun with protection from very hot sun. While it tolerates overwatering better than most succulents, it's healthier kept on the dry side, especially during winter.

Cyclamen coum subsp. caucasicum (PRIMULACEAE) Persian Violet
Grown by Kerry Barrs in Woodside:

	Cyclamen coum subsp. caucasicum

C. coum is native to the forests and scub of the eastern Mediterranean and is one of the hardiest and easiest Cyclamen. Caucasicum has silver-dollar-sized, glossy, heart-shaped leaves with variable silver markings. The perky, little flowers are pink to magenta and bloom winter to early spring. In flower, it will be about 4"-6" H x 4"-10" W. It tolerates deep shade to full sun, but will not tolerate summer water. It's a good choice under deciduous trees. It sets an abundance of seeds with a sugary coating that entices ants to collect and plant them.

Fasciated pomegranate stem
Shown by Nancy Schramm:

The word fasciation is from Latin for "a band". In botany, it refers to an abnormal growth pattern due to the broadening or flattening of an apical meristem (a cluster of cells responsible for making new plant tissue) and is thought to be the result of hormonal disturbance. Fasciation can occur in roots, stems, flowers, or fruits and has been observed in at least a third of all plant families. We're probably most accustomed to seeing it in succulents and ferns where it's called cresting or cristation.  Some plants, like cockscomb celosia, peas, and a willow whose flattened stems are used by florists, carry a gene for fasciation. It was one of the traits Mendel followed in his peas when he laid the foundation for the science of genetics.There's a bacterium known to cause fasciation. But fasciation is usually a random occurrence and can be induced by almost anything you could imagine perturbing the meristem. Somatic mutation, insect damage, viral or fungal infection, chemical or physical damage, and zinc deficiency have been implicated along with a host of other possible agents.

Helleborus argutifolius (RANUNCULACEAE) Corsican Hellebore, Corsican Rose
Grown by Betsy Clebsch in La Honda:

This evergreen, clumping perennial is native to the scrubland of Corsica and Sardinia where it sometimes reaches 6' tall. It's usually only 2'-3' high and wide in our gardens, but still it brings bold texture and interesting color. From winter into spring, the stems carry terminal clusters of 20 to 30 apple green, cupped flowers. But the leaves are the real reason to grow this hellebore. They're large, leathery, pale blue-green, and divided into 3 sharply toothed leaflets. There are cultivars based on different shades of green, hints of blue or silver, and marbling. Give it cool sun to light shade. It's floppy in too much shade. It's drought tolerant, deer resistant, and hardy to below 0° F.
 
Hepatica acutiloba (RANUNCULACEAE) Sharp-lobed LiverleafGrown by Kerry Barrs:

	Hepatica acutiloba

This is such a charming little woodland perennial, it's hard to understand why it's so rarely seen. Each leaf and flower rises from the base on its own stem in 6" high x 10" wide clump. It blooms in winter for us with ?", slightly cupped, flowers of 6-10, white or lilac, petal-like sepals. The leaves are kidney shaped, deeply cut into 3 sharply pointed lobes, and blotched with light green. The old leaves die and new ones grow right after flowering. The clumps expand slowly by underground rhizomes. It's native to shady woods in most states east of the Mississippi and into Canada, usually on limestone. It thrives in full shade to some morning sun in heavy, slightly alkaline soil topped with leaf mold or compost. Ants disperse the seeds and receive a yummy, fatty tidbit in payment.

Lygodium palmatum (LYGODIACEAE) American Climbing Fern, Hartford Fern
Grown by Dick Dunmire in Los Altos:

This is a hardy member of the unique climbing ferns in which the frond's rhachis continues growing and producing pinnae at the tip. It is native to most eastern states, but it's rare in all but Kentucky and Tennessee where it grows in bogs and seeps at forest margins. It's pinnae are divided palmately into 3-7 lobes. The fertile, spore bearing pinnae are on the upper portion of the frond and their lobes are finely divided. These die back in winter. The sterile pinnae at the frond's bottom are a little like deeply lobed maple leaves. It can wind its way 6'-10' up any support. Its rhizomes spread underground and the fronds will root as they go. It requires moist, acidic soil in part shade. Large, vigorous Asian relatives, L. microphyllum and japonicum, are serious weeds in the southeast, especially in Florida where they smother large areas of vegetation and create a fire hazard.
 
Musella lasiocarpa (MUSACEAE) Golden Lotus Banana
Grown by Katy Wong:

This is a banana relative from Yunnan, China. First described by western botanists in 1885, it is thought to be extinct in the wild but is cultivated in China and Vietnam as an ornamental and for pig food. It's a 4'-5' tall, shrub-like, perennial. It suckers at the base and can eventually make a 15' wide clump. Broad, 1'-2' long, lanceolate, blue-green leaves grow with overlapping bases that form a stem-like structure. This stem produces an unusual, yellow, 6" wide inflorescence that resembles an unopened lotus or artichoke. It's actually a terminal panicle that blooms from the bottom up as the triangular bracts unfold to expose small, tubular flowers. It produces female flowers to about half way up the panicle and then switches to male flowers. The process can last 6 months or more, and may simply stop in winter and resume with warm weather. It makes small, oval fruit. They've never been used for food  apparently, but the inner portion of the stem is eaten. At flowering, the old leaves die. The new, smaller ones will start to look shabby and usually are removed for aesthetics, leaving the stem bare. Leaves from unbloomed suckers preserve the shrubby look. It's hardy to 0-10° F, grows in sun or shade with summer irrigation, and makes a great houseplant.
 
Pyrrosia lingua (POLYPODIACEAE) Japanese Felt Fern, Tongue Fern
Grown by Dick Dunmire:

	Pyrrosia lingua

Large, dark green, leathery, undivided fronds with beige felted undersides rise about 1?' and spread benignly by slowly creeping rhizomes. It's hardy for us and evergreen. It prefers afternoon shade, good soil, and regular irrigation but it has tolerated clay soil and some "droughtiness" for me. This Pyrrosia is native to China and Japan and many cultivars have been selected for unusually shaped and marked fronds. Dick also brought a sample of 'Cristata' with its terminal fan of sharply cut lobes.

Rosa spp. (ROSACEAE) Rose
Grown by Betsy Clebsch and Barbara Worl:

'Cecile Brunner' (1881) is a polyantha that usually blooms in May. Betsy's decided to produce its small, delicate pink pompoms around Christmas time, even through the 4 days of snow that decorated the ridge. Barbara brought 'Ballerina' (1937), a hybrid musk with fragrant, single, white-centered, pink blossoms. It produces pretty, orange hips in summer. She also brought 'Wise Portia' (1975), a richly fragrant, purple-mauve David Austin (English)

Solanum pyracanthum (SOLANACEAE) Porcupine tomato
Grown by Elaine Levine in Saratoga:

This is a 3'-5' tall perennial from Madagascar. It has narrow, deeply lobed, blue-green leaves, clusters of dark lavender flowers in summer and small, yellow fruits. There's orange fuzz on the stems and major leaf veins. Wicked, orange spines decorate the entire plant. They grow from the top and bottom of the leaves along the major veins, from the stems, and even from the sepals. Elaine bought it hoping for deer resistance only to learn that it's a tender tropical and not likely to survive if planted out in her garden.

Jackie N. Doda

References: Am. Hort. Soc. A-Z Encyclopedia, Botanica, Flora, Sunset Western Garden Book, and various websites.