Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Friday, October 03, 2008

Today's Color: Red

With special emphasis on the Malvaceae family.

Three malvaceous plants - new to the garden this year - will all be invited back next year.

Hibiscus acetosella 'Red Shield' is a very vigorous foliage plant with medium-red leaves. It topped out around 6 or 7 feet in a moist soil and afternoon shade, but is a more manageable 5 feet up close to the house. And these were plants started indoors from seed this spring. It responds well to pinching and pruning, rapidly growing side shoots. I like the leaf color - it's not so dark that it makes a black hole in the landscape, but dark enough for contrast. I especially liked it next to the 'Dallas Red' Lantana' and various Cupheas, including 'David Verity' shown here.

Abutilon 'Voodoo' has such attractive flowers that I'd probably buy it again even if it doesn't prove hardy here. What's that? It might be hardy here? Good question. I bought this one locally and the plastic label said "hardy to zone 7". I assumed it was a mistake. But Plant Delights is offering it and they have some astonishing things to say about how much cold it can stand: “Not only did it continue flowering into the upper 20s, but it kept green stems and leaves down to 20 degrees F”. Very interesting. I'm going to leave it outside all winter and see what happens. I'd always thought of Abutilons as annuals or houseplants.

I've already gone on at some length about Hibiscus sabdariffa, but I wanted to brag here about the jam I made from it. I made it on Monday and by Friday I've become addicted to it. I think I'll have enough calyces to make another batch or two this season - I sure hope so anyway. Four plants is plenty, but I still want more.

Labels: abutilon, autumn, hibiscus

Friday, September 26, 2008

Flor de Jamaica

I'm not sure what motivated me to order seeds of Thai Red Roselle (Hibiscus sabdariffa). Maybe it was the description: "Beautiful 2-3’ plants with red stems, leaves, and flowers. The bright red calyxes can be used to make a "zingy" tea, sauce or jam." Hmmm, well, the leaves on my plants are green, the flowers are creamy white with a red center. The stems are more or less red. I agree that it's a beautiful plant. There's a code word in that description however, and fans of a certain popular brand of herbal teas will recognize it. I didn't. Duh.

Let's rewind to last winter. I ordered the seeds. I sowed the seeds. I tended the seedlings in the cold frame and planted them outdoors. I watched them grow. They began to bloom in July.

I watched the Japanese beetles eat the leaves. And eventually I saw the "fruit".

The red bud-like structures you see above are the calyces left behind after the flower drops off. They're small at first and grow larger as the seed capsule inside matures.

Now that the fruit is here what do I do with it? Although I found many references online telling me how to prepare beverages from the dried calyces, I only found one that told me how to prepare the calyces for drying. It was the cutting-away-the-seed-part that I didn't know about.

I harvested and dried the first batch a few weeks ago, and picked a small quantity this morning before the rain picked up again (Hooray!) (for the rain, I mean). This is what I brought in:

And this is what it looks like as you cut away the calyx from the seed, revealing the green seed capsule inside:

And this is what you end up with after you've cut and dried a large number of them:

I brewed a cup of tea this morning from it and thought it tasted similar to but much fresher and fruitier than the commercial stuff in teabags. After I read several conflicting sets of directions for preparing it, I ignored them all and put about a teaspoon of dried calyces into a mug-sized tea fiilter. After measuring it out, I crushed them with my fingers to a more tea-like consistency. I poured boiling water over it just as if I was making real tea (Camellia sinensis) but let it steep, covered, for 10 minutes. It brewed up cranberry red in color, very tart, but with an underlying fruit flavor. I'd be tempted to add sweetening to it next time, but I wanted to taste the flavor by itself first.

The plant and product are known by many different names - roselle, sorrel, jamaica, and karkady are some of the most common ones. The most attractive name, to my mind, is Flor de Jamaica. I plan to grow a lot more of these plants next year - I can envision a long hedge of them.

There are several good write-ups online if you want to know more.

The Red Tea of Egypt
Cooking with Saril (already mentioned above about preparing for drying)
Infuse Roselle for a Tropical Treat
Bottoms Up - Hibiscus

Labels: hibiscus

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.