Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Sunday, July 16, 2006
New, new, new
New-to-me this year is Tigridia pavonia 'Canariensis'. It just bloomed for the first time last week, and a couple more flowers opened up today. They're way bigger than I expected - about 3" in diameter - and very tropical and exotic-looking. The foliage reminds me a lot of crocosmia - a fan of pleated linear leaves when they first emerge, then later the flowering stem elongates, taking the leaves with it. The flower starts unfolding in the morning, and I think if you were patient enough, you could actually see it happening. However...the flower begins to wilt about mid-afternoon and by evening it's just a memory (or a photo). They're not winter-hardy here, so I either have to consider it an annual or dig them up and store them over the winter. Not being familiar with its growth habit, I spaced them fairly far apart in some mixed containers. Now that I see how it behaves, I'd plant several of them closer together next time, and make sure they have a sturdy mid-height neighbor to lean on. So far, I like them, and plan to get more in different colors next year.
Another newcomer is Scabiosa atropurpurea 'Blue Cockade'. It's an annual, and I started it from seed this spring. I would quibble with calling it blue - it looks lavender to me - but it seems a nice enough plant. Butterflies are supposed to like it, but I haven't seen any proof yet. No trouble with pests or diseases that I can see, and that's always a plus.
Can't remember if I've written about Zinna 'Zowie Yellow Flame', but it's a keeper too. Once the flower is fully open, each of the ray petals looks something like candy corn - yellow at the tip, shading to orange, shading to magenta in the center. The flower isn't quite open enough in this picture to see all the colors yet. No powdery mildew yet either.
And after I complained of no butterflies, a nice one came by yesterday to make a liar out of me. A fresh spicebush swallowtail. I was so pleased that I posted 3 pictures of it (1,2,3). I don't have any spicebush in the backyard, but I understand the caterpillars feed on sassafras, and my two small clumps of sassafras look like they might be big enough now to support a population.
2 Comments:
I don't know what Tigridia pavonia 'Canariensis' are, but they sure look interesting. They sort of reminded me of toad lily.
The mottled throat on the Tigridia does look something like a toad lily, but the flowers are about the size of a smallish daylily. I think they're fun - cheap enough to be an annual if I don't get around to digging them up in the fall.
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