GardenBanter.co.uk - Plant swap

On Sat, 24 Feb 2007 16:17:49 GMT, Janet Baraclough
wrote:

The message
from Jangchub contains these words:

Is anyone interested in swapping plants via mail?

I have Aristolochia grandiflora
http://logees.com/prodinfo.asp?number=R1066-2

I am looking for Phormium's which seem to be my new favorite plant.

Addictive aren't they :-)

I
don't know why, but they don't sell them here in Central Texas.
However, of all places, Lowe's does carry one variety, the dark, solid
colored almost eggplant colored one. I bought it. Want more colors!

Will they survive Texas summer heat and drought? They are native to
New Zealand, which is more temperate, cooler and damper. The cookianums
grow along wet ditches there and will tolerate bog, and pond sides, here
. At my last garden, phormium could barely survive the cold winters (-10
C) .It's milder here, we get occasional frosts to -2C and they grow
like mad. Although phormiums have such tough leaves, I suspect they
have a surprisingly limited range of temperature tolerance. But well
worth having if you can.

When I got the bug I bought any I saw. A few years later, I find that
many of the brightly-coloured ones are not very colour-stable and as
they age, gradually revert and become les stripey, less coloured, duller
and plainer. I find all plain dark purple ones stable, and the biggest,
tenax purpurea, comes easily from fresh seed ....about 50 % of its
babies are really good purple. Some of the seedlings are just green, and
the rest are in between, muddy. I'm currently growing a barrier hedge
round the parking space, from selected dark seedlings. The flower
spikes on the mother plant reach 10ft tall with big buds and smallish
red flowers, they look like triffids

"Tricolour" is gorgeous, very hardy, and very colour-stable here.
It's got wide droopy yellow and green striped leaves with a very narrow
red edge to each. Probably my favourite.

"Pink stripe"..not stable at all:-( It has to come out, but be warned,
phormiums are hard to get out when well established. The series with
"Maori" in the name, are not very colour-stable IME.

Alison Blackman, (browns, creams, but of red and green)
Cream delight (primrose and green)
and Evening Glow ( sunset red, very striking but a hard shade to place
in the garden)

all seem colour-stable so far.

If you like the purple one. there's a particularly good, black small
version called Platt's Black, and Bronze Baby is nice too.

Whenever I get a new coloured form one, I pull it apart straight away
and grow on the "bits " separately to build stock. (They sell very well
when we open the garden) Otherwise, it's quite hard to wrestle a
division off one growing in the garden. Last summer, I went on a
phormium-weaving day course taught by someone who had learned in NZ
from a Maori. The coloured leaf forms are fabulous for that.

Too far and complicated for posting swaps, but it might give you some
ideas for which to look out for.

Janet (Scotland)

Thanks for that very informative information. I bought a gallon pot
yesterday of a dark color. I can buy cuttings from a place I found
online. I've had it before, but that year we had a major ice storm
and the temps went below 25F for long enough that the soil started to
freeze. It was killed.

I'm going to divide this one I bought. When I buy plants I always
look to see how many I can get. I will be planting these near the
pond, and they will get afternoon shade when it is sweltering for 4
months or longer.

I gardened this week and for the first time in almost two years I felt
alive again. I fell a few times from atrophy in my limbs and found it
difficult to move around. I lose my balance a lot and trip. My
husband's worst nightmare. I am such a klutz.

I do have a greenhouse and can use some of these varieties in large
containers and move them in there for winter months. Maybe taking the
"pups" will come true to the color it originally was bred to be, but
if not, it's still a beautiful strap leaf.

thanks,
Victoria