Tangled Branches: Cultivated
happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia
Sunday, August 02, 2009
Ding Ding Ding, Time's Up
I see I'm not the only one who never noticed the feathery centers of ...........
Zinnias.
The first one was 'Envy'
And the second was 'Benary's Giant Carmine Rose'
Digital photography is a marvelous thing. I probably wouldn't have "wasted" film on the center of a zinnia.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Petunia Observation
If you've been hanging on my every word reading this blog for a while, you may remember that I have been seeking a couple of lost petunias for several years. This year I think I found them.
The first petunia I loved and lost was Burpee's California Giants. I grew them from seed one year when Burpee was offering their own heirloom seeds (at least that's what they claimed). Huge ruffle-y flamboyant flowers on large vigorous plants. I bought the seeds again a year or two later, also from Burpee, but the flowers were not like the first. Then they disappeared from their listings.
I turned next to Select Seeds. They claimed to be selling 'Giants of California', but that also turned out to be something quite different from the catalog description. Different than what I expected, but a serendipitous discovery of the fragrance of old-fashioned petunias. I think I wrote it better then than I could now.
After that event, I scoured the seed catalogs for old-fashioned petunias hoping to recapture that lovely fragrance, while also searching for a replacement for California Giants. In 2007, I tried Chiltern's Giants of California. No luck. Last year, I tried Select Seeds Balcony Petunias, thinking those might have been the fragrant flowers in their Giants of California seed packet in 2006. Again, no. They were lovely satiny flowers, but not fragrant.
Then last year, I noticed that Thompson & Morgan were offering a Petunia called 'Superbissima'. The catalog description sounded right. "The largest Petunia flowers we have ever seen, bred on from those available over 100 years ago! Robust plants produce huge 10-15cm (4-6in) wide exotic looking frilly blooms, in an attractive mixture of pinks, reds and purples, each with rich veining and attractive dark eyes. An eye-catching addition to borders or containers." I bought the seeds last year and sowed them indoors this spring and you can see the results above. The flowers are pretty much what I remember from the old Burpee seeds although 4-6in is catalog hyperbole; they might measure that if you flatten them out first. However, the plants are short in comparison to the long-lost Burpee petunias. Well, a shorter plant is not so bad.
But how is it that these seeds just surfaced recently after being missing for several years? More internet searching. Ta da! I think I may have found the producer of these seeds - Cerný Seeds in Czechoslovakia. Their web page describing Petunia hybrida grandiflora superbissima nana sounds and looks just like what I'm growing this year. The plant is said to be a tetraploid, which would account for the huge flowers. And there are a few slightly double ones, as the catalog describes.So, happiness at last on this one.
If you can manage to take your gaze off the ruffled flowers in photo above, you'll see there's also a smaller pinkish-purple one. That one is from the Old-Fashioned Vining Petunia seed I bought this year from Seed Savers Exchange. The first flower that opened had the fragrance I've been missing. Happiness again. But not every plant has that fragrance. The flower in the picture, for example, has very little.
Which brings me to an observation. All the petunias have very little fragrance during the day. The magic happens in the early evening. But some petunias have a fragrance that is just unpleasant. After I photographed the tiny vase of flowers outdoors, I placed it indoors. And last evening, I noticed an odd smell. Coming from the vase. Those big ruffled flowers thought they were outside attracting insects instead of indoors repelling me.
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
Halftime
This started out to be a post about what was blooming at the end of June. Then it was going to be a post about what was blooming at the midpoint of the year. (Did you know that the first half of 2007 ended on July 2 at 1 PM?) And now? Well, Happy 4th of July to those who celebrate it!
The first few days of July have been unusually cool, which is actually OK with me. I've had the windows open the whole time - airing out the house and saving on air conditioning. But we could use some rain. Plants, both wild and cultivated, are starting to take on that dry end-of-summer look.
Enough about the weather, what was blooming at the end of June? This is one of my more inspired plant combinations. Plain old shasta daisies with a big yellow daylily whose name I do not know. I bought the original plant long ago at the late lamented Chantilly Farm Market. (That was such a great place. There's a Mattress Warehouse there now.) I don't remember whether the daylily had a label even when I bought it, but I don't think so. I like the form of these old daylilies better than many of the new ones, which are so ruffled and heavy with short fat scapes. This one, to me, says "daylily". The new ones don't talk to me very much.
But if had to choose a newer ruffled one, I like 'Apricot Petticoats'. I would call the color cantaloupe, not apricot.
The annuals started from seed are looking good now. I'm still having fun with Cupheas. The one in the background here is from the Thompson & Morgan mix called 'Summer Medley'. They say the species is C. miniata, but I've just about given up on Cuphea taxonomy. The petunia is Chiltern's 'Giants of California', but only some of these are the size, shape, and colors I remember from the now unavailable Burpee's 'Giants of California'. Those were uniformly large plants with uniformly large ruffled flowers in mostly pastel shades. A few of these new ones from Chiltern fit that description, but many are just rather ordinary-looking.
Back in the woody and perennial category, the 'Blue Satin' Rose-of-Sharon is blooming blissfully beetle-free. I still can't believe my good fortune there.
I really should try to eradicate the Passion Vine - it's such an aggressive spreader. It's now escaped to the other side of the neighbor's fence, but I don't think she knows/cares. It will greedily take every inch of territory it can get, but when it's in bloom, I don't care.
Labels: annuals, daylilies, hibiscus, in bloom, passiflora
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Country Weekend
Last weekend in the country was quiet and relaxed. The heavy-duty digging and the frantic planting are finished for now. Friday was the hottest day of the year so far, and it felt like it. We got a spectacular thunder and lightning storm on Friday night, and the rest of the weekend's weather was beautiful.
The infant shrubs and trees I planted early in the spring are growing and fairly happy and not yet eaten. I don't know if I've been lucky, or I made wise choices, or a little bit of both. My current favorite is Zenobia pulverulenta.
It's still very small - maybe 8-10 inches tall - but I really love the dusty blue foliage. I certainly wasn't expecting any flowers this year, so they're a bonus.
The potager still doesn't look like much, I know, I know. 
But cut me some slack here. A couple of months ago this was nothing but an unmowed field. The only energy consumed in the digging of the plot was mine. I intended to keep whatever vegetation was already there mowed short for the paths, but the mowing lost all its charm on the first 90 degree day. So now we're covering over the paths with newspapers and wood chips. Only the central section of that is done so far. Those green trellis-things are tomato ladders. Maybe not the most attractive way to stake tomato plants, but I don't think it's the ugliest either. I used these last year and liked them and didn't see any reason not to use them again.
In front of the house, I made a crazy-quilt bed of Coleus and Mimulus (and some bracken I dug up from the woods). I'll post a picture of the whole thing once it fills out a bit, but I wanted to show you the Mimulus.
I'm still infatuated with these flowers, even though the ones I grew last year swooned (OK, died) in the heat of midsummer. So far, this year's crop is looking very nice. They're called 'Mystic Mix' and the flowers are brighter colors and more velvety than last year's, but without the heavy splotches I liked so much then.
Even if I didn't feel like planting any flowers, I'd still have some.
The spring woodland wildflowers may have been disappointing, but the summer field flowers are making up for it. Newly blooming this week is Scutellaria integrifolia, or Hyssop Skullcap. Black-eyed Susans were just beginning to bloom, and if my spouse didn't mow them over, I should have pictures of those next week. The suspected dyers woad is no longer blooming, or I couldn't find the plant again anyway, so that's going to have to wait until next year for a positive ID.
And lastly, the hummingbirds seem to have deserted me in northern Virginia, but in central Virginia they're practically pestilential. No, I'm kidding - I love to have them around, but they're much bolder about coming close to us than I've ever experienced. I had a red shirt on, and one buzzed me - presumably investigating the color. My spouse was sitting on the deck and one came right under the patio umbrella and hovered in front of his face. (He'd been in the sun, but I don't think he was that red.) Next weekend's project is to get some nectar plants growing so the hummers stick around.
Labels: annuals, hummingbirds, potager, wildflowers
