A local nursery knowing I like these things, & wanting to clear out the
remnant of last year's specialized stocks to make room for incoming spring
stuff, sold me all these little pots of dirt for $2 each & seemed to be
awfully happy I wanted them all (the cheapest I ever got a pulpit was
$7.50 and usually they're quite a lot more, so this offer struck me as
kind of exciting). There was a still-dormant jack in the pulpits in each
pot, the common American one, & the nursery dude said it is just not
possible to sell them when there's nothing to see. So I got the lot of
them (plus some equally invisible potted camas bulbs even cheaper).

I planted the pulpits this morning in & around the location of the
established pulpits twixt winding ground-hugging limbs of Yezo willow.
Gotta put a stick in the ground for each & every one or they'd for sure
get dug up in the process of adding stuff. I've not gotten the colorful
seeds on the American j-i-t-p yet, though several rarer ones produced fine
seed heads last year. Both male & female plants must be present for the
long-lasting fruit to occur, & I'm not aware of a way to sex them
beforehand, so all I can do is have enough duplication to put the odds in
my favor of both sexes present. These cheapy additions ought to insure
colorful seeds finally. The pulpit flowers are rather longlasting, but
when they're gone the whole plant is gone, but when they seed, the pods
are decorative clear to autumn. (The leaves last until autumn on some
species of pulpits, but not the American one.)

It's great to get cheapo plants so long as it's stuff I actually want.
Though I do understand the eye-candy response to buying stuff in flower,
it's hard to believe that where odd little specialty plants are concerned,
anyone interested in them at all wouldn't be just as happy to get them
while dormant. Since people buy lots of bulbs they ought to be more
amenable to what look like pots of dirt.

Got some other nothing-visible pots that look like nothin' in 'em but dirt
hence marked way down to get-rid-of-fast prices. This morning planted the
healthy roots for Aconitum larmarckii under a maple. I've lots of
monkshoods in white, blues, & steely grey, but this is the first that will
have yellow blooms. Haven't quite decided where the camas flowers should
go, would put them with the small patch already in the garden if I was
quite sure EXACTLY where it is, they don't show yet & the marker is gone.
The as yet unsprouted dogtooth lilies were also give-away priced for
clearance but they were all but one the yellow Pagoda (E. tuolumnense x
californicum) which I already have lots established. There was only ONE
pink one (E. dens-canis) so I got the pink one.

I also got a gallon Mouse Plant from another nursery. It's just wee spikes
poking from the dirt now. Planted that in the second pulpit garden. I've
never had a mouse plant before but have seen them & had been hoping to
spot them for sale, & turns out a nearby specialist in Poulsbo is growing
them to wholesale to other nurseries. I can hardly wait to see it in full
action. Its blooms will look like white-bellied brown mice with long tails
peaking out from under leaves, but as the flowers get ahead of the leaves
they should be more planely visible at first. Reputedly easier to grow
than j-in-the-p which are pretty easy, so the mice should be a cinch.

There was some other stuff brought home at clear-it-out prices such as two
very healthy looking gallon-size lewisias to add to the top of a brick
retainer wall in a sun garden with other lewisias. I also got a few
things not discounted but the one thing I wanted which I didn't get was a
golden-leaf bleeding heart. This was a whopping $24 for a gallon plant
with only a half-inch growth showing so far. It's pricy cuz it's one of
those patented things & probably it'll be half that price in a year or two
-- but maybe I'll break down & get one on some other day when I don't feel
so over extended money wise. I did get the patented "Snow & Sapphire"
Jacob's Ladder which is already half the price it was last year when the
Oregon grower either willfully or by accident produced too few for the
market's degree of interest. It's supposed to be the first variegated form
that makes it clear through summer without dying back.

While I was at it I grabbed some tansy, the frilly-leaf kind, because I
decided I wanted something that looks like ferns for a spot that gets way
too much sun for ferns. Last night I looked up everything about Tansy
which takes no special care beyond getting plenty of sun, but I found out
what I never before knew, that Tansy is derived from Thanatos, "Death," &
from ancient times right up to Victorian times it has been used in funeral
rites, & was until quite recently a graveyard standard planting. I
would've thought the name had derivation similar to Pansy; Tansy sounds
like such an upbeat word.

-paghat the ratgirl

--
"Of what are you afraid, my child?" inquired the kindly teacher.
"Oh, sir! The flowers, they are wild," replied the timid creature.
-from Peter Newell's "Wild Flowers"
See the Garden of Paghat the Ratgirl: http://www.paghat.com/

Both male & female plants must be present for the
long-lasting fruit to occur,

Are you sure? I thought in the Araceae both male & female flowers occur on the
same spadix.

Iris,
Central NY, Zone 5a, Sunset Zone 40
"If we see light at the end of the tunnel, It's the light of the oncoming
train."
Robert Lowell (1917-1977)

"paghat" wrote in message
news
I also got a gallon Mouse Plant from another nursery. It's just wee spikes
poking from the dirt now.

I had never heard of a Mouse Plant so I did some surfing and was quite taken
by this neat-o plant. Now I gotta get me one of THOSE! My balcony is about
75% shade plants so this will work nicely in one of my larger pots, maybe
the lace leaf maple, as an under planting. Just incase anyone else hadn't a
clue as to what a Mouse Plant was I'll put in a few of the better links with
pictures. One of the links has a very clear pronunciation guide to the Latin
name, I thought Iris might enjoy that ;-)

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~alan/plants/ar.../proboscideum/

http://plantsdatabase.com/go/2244/


Thanks Mzz Paghat, I have such a very limited space to garden I like to put
in things that seem to be just a bit out of the main stream to keep it more
interesting.

Val

"paghat" wrote in message
news
I also got a gallon Mouse Plant from another nursery. It's just wee spikes
poking from the dirt now.

I had never heard of a Mouse Plant so I did some surfing and was quite taken
by this neat-o plant. Now I gotta get me one of THOSE! My balcony is about
75% shade plants so this will work nicely in one of my larger pots, maybe
the lace leaf maple or winter jasmine, as an under planting. Just incase
anyone else hadn't a clue as to what a Mouse Plant was I'll put in a few of
the better links with
pictures. One of the links has a very clear pronunciation guide to the Latin
name, I thought Iris might enjoy that ;-)

http://www4.ncsu.edu/~alan/plants/ar.../proboscideum/

http://plantsdatabase.com/go/2244/


Thanks Mzz Paghat, I have such a very limited space to garden I like to put
in things that seem to be just a bit out of the main stream to keep it more
interesting.

Val

Iris Cohen wrote:

Both male & female plants must be present for the
long-lasting fruit to occur,

Are you sure? I thought in the Araceae both male & female flowers occur on the
same spadix.

You are correct - aroids can carry perfect flowers on a hermaphrodite infloresence
or separate male and female flowers in zones on a monoecious inflorescence. At any
rate, both sexes are contained on the same spadix. Big ariseama collector here -
all of mine produce copius berries.

pam - gardengal

paghat wrote:

I did get the patented "Snow & Sapphire"
Jacob's Ladder which is already half the price it was last year when the
Oregon grower either willfully or by accident produced too few for the
market's degree of interest. It's supposed to be the first variegated form
that makes it clear through summer without dying back.

Polemonium 'Brise D'Anjou' is a variegated Jacob's ladder that has been on the
market for about a dozen years. It has a very stable variegation, produces a
lot of flowers and is reliably evergreen here in the PNW. Summer dormancy of
polemoniums is typically related to climate and location - too much summer
heat will quickly push them into dormancy as a defense, but a good cool, shady
location (not essential in our climate) should keep them chugging along.

Speaking from the nurseryman's point of view, there is sometimes a lot of
money invested in those dormant "pots of soil" - specialy hostas, ariseamas
and certain other shade plants are not inexpensive plants and to sell them at
a substantial discount because they are dormant can represent a large dollar
loss. If they have the space, most larger nurseries will grow them on out of
dormancy and then offer them for sale at full price. It is indeed hard to sell
a gallon pot of dirt for a premium perennial price!

pam - gardengal

Big ariseama collector here
Pam:
The first comprehensive study since 1920 of this fascinating genus has recently
become available. The Genus Arisaema- A Monograph for Botanists and Nature
Lovers by Guy and Liliane Gusman.
ISBN 3-904144-91-X (available for less than $45 online). I'm looking forward to
finally ID'ing several of my plants.
Cheers,
Mark

paghat wrote:

In article , Pam wrote:

Iris Cohen wrote:

Both male & female plants must be present for the
long-lasting fruit to occur,

Are you sure? I thought in the Araceae both male & female flowers
occur on the
same spadix.

You are correct - aroids can carry perfect flowers on a hermaphrodite
infloresence
or separate male and female flowers in zones on a monoecious
inflorescence. At any
rate, both sexes are contained on the same spadix. Big ariseama
collector here -
all of mine produce copius berries.

pam - gardengal

A. triphyllum is not hermaphroditic in the sense you're stating. It may
produce male flowers one year, female another year, but is not
self-pollinating being one or the other at any given time. Since they can
change back & forth they're hermaphoriditic yes, but not in a given year
for this species.

Generalities: Young plants & stressed plants produce spathes containing
only male organs; older plants that have stored sufficient energy produce
female organs hence berries. This is not true of all species of
Jack-in-the-Pulpits (certainly not true of all aroids) but it is true of
this specific j-i-t-p. See Dr. Paulette Bierzychudek on A. triphyllum for
specifics of their biology.

The sex life of arisaemas is truly fascinating and typically complicated and I
was not aware that A. triphyllum (and a few other species, too) were able to
change their sex according to conditions. The native jack-in-the-pulpit is not
one that I grow, tending towards the more exotic Asian species. Thanks, it's
always good to know another interesting little horticultural tidbit.

pam - gardengal