Whats Looking Good in August....

hi, Stingo, the label said 6foot and they are exactly that. Before I grew rudbeckias I hadn't realised how tall they come. :D

 

Snap :D

The person that gave them to me told me they were black eyed susans :D

Great for back of the border height though and I like them because they don't need staking.

 

A couple of climbers and a scrambler:

Clematis florida 'Pistachio'
This one flowers for much of the summer. Slightly tender, but I like the way it runs through other climbers and then peeps out with its flowers on long, pendulous stems.



Solanum wendlandii
A 'potato vine' from Costa Rica with large, leathery, tomato-plant like leaves that have thorns on their undersides. Showy, 6cm. wide 'saucers' of bright blue, ageing paler, carried on large racemes that each continue producing flowers for over a month. Very vigorous, spectacular, but rather tender and only possible against a very warm wall in the south.



Pelargonium 'Susan'
The name is almost certainly wrong, but it came to me as that and in the absence of a true identity, it can keep the name. This is scented-leaved type with very attractive flowers from March to December. It rambles about for over a metre, produces copious new shoots from root buds and seems pretty hardy here. This is its 4th. year outside.

 

Great plants, DaveP. I don't normally like solanums but that one is very pretty!
You must be warmer where you are than me, I have been trying to establsh some scented geraniums but daren't leave them out over winter.

[ 06. August 2006, 11:27 AM: Message edited by: Liz ]

 

Lovely photos as usual, DaveP. I have two Solanums, the old common crispum that scrambles everywhere and the rantonnetii which I have trained into a small tree. Do like your wendlandii but haven't seen them here. A very unusual Pelargonium also, pretty!

 

He he I thought the same, multiple perenial sunflowers, Love em. :D

 

Clematis... wow that florida is gorgeous! Straight on the wish list! I have an old rocky wall in my new garden thats really old and tatty but it raises up to 9 foot. I really want several types of clem to climb up a trelis acrss it and that one is so on the list!

 

Yes it can be spectacular when in full flower. The flower heads become progressively more massive and packed with flowers as the summer progresses. I have it against the warmest section of house wall where it is seriously baked for almost all of the day. Tying the shoots in can be painful though - the thorns on the leaf underside really tear the skin.

It's generally very mild here Liz, helped by being just a few yards from the sea in a sheltered valley. A lot of plants normally only considered to be conservatory or greenhouse subjects do very well outside. Even though last winter was the coldest here for 20+ years, clumps of Clivias in several spots in the garden came through with very little damage and flowered well in April.

I only grow a few species type Pelargoniums, but they are treated as hardy garden plants and most seed themselves about quite freely. For years I had the true species 'Ivy leaf geranium' - Pelargonium peltatum and that would crop up in borders, between cracks in paving, almost anywhere.

 

Wish I could grow that solanum Dave, it looks really impressive as do the others, but thats a bit different.
Any chance it might be do-able in a pot, cut back, and overwintered in a greenhouse?

 

Several interesting comments you make, DaveP. One, that the S. wendlandii has thorns on the underside of the leaves! I have just read up on it in my speciality article about Solanums recently published in a magazine here and it doesn't mention this at all!

I also had the New Zealand Solanum laciniatum which has finger / Aralia like leaves and orange fruits after flowering but I lost that. I contacted the NZ Botanical Society who thought it hilarious that I was concerned about the health of the plant because they consider it a weed! I shall bring more seeds back from the IoW in October as there is one in the garden there, originating from the Ventnor Botanic Gardens.

Second interesting thing you say is that the Pelargoniums seed themselves ... I did not know that either! I have one of the true species in a shocking pink.

So, I've learned two new things from you today!

 

Pete

I have a Solarnum Crispum (not sure on the correct spelling & can't be bothered to check)!! It is in a pot and survived totally unprotected outside all last winter!!!! I'll check the correct name later....

 

prob glasnevin, HB... that's the usual one, and yes, I have one too!

 

Pete, wendlandii is by far the most impressive of any of the climbing Solanums with even just a few flower bunches creating a brilliant show. It is definitely do-able in a container and can be treated in the same way as you would a Brugmansia. All flowering is on new growth so you can cut it back quite hard in winter. It grows well in a large (40cm+.) pot, but you should use a compost that is very free draining and with a reasonable loam content.

A winter minimum of around 5C and keeping the compost on the dry side will ensure the plant gets through winter OK. Just watch those thorns though - they are a series of hooks along the main ribs on the leaf undersides and can easily rip into your forearm. If you've ever got snagged by Puya alpestris, you'll know exactly what I mean.

L.O.L. I know Solanum laciniatum extremely well - seedlings usually pop up every year from a big plant I had quite a while ago. It can get huge by its second year and needs some determination to keep it in check. I can easily understand the Kiwis considering it a bit of a weed, it becomes a 3m. mound in no time at all. I got rid of it because it was becoming much too large, but must admit it was fabulous every late spring. I'm sure I can find some fruits you can have - it has semi-naturalised in the lane outside my garden where it is reasonably well controlled by the snails.

My favourite of the shrubby types is probably S. aviculare. It has lobed leaves as a seedling, but adult leaves are linear and willow-like - 1cms wide and 12cms. long. It is a wonderfully elegant plant, with drooping branches, swags of foliage and clusters of pale blue flowers, slightly smaller than those of laciniatum. It flowers more continuously than laciniatum, but is not quite so 'in your face'. I had it trained as a standard and very fine it looked too.

As everything has grown up here and the shelter increased, conditions became too shady and humid for aviculare and it eventually died out here. The increased humidiy has done wonders for other plants though and I can now grow a few species of 'air plant' - Tillandsia sp. suspended from branches.

The two most prolific Pelargonium species that seed freely that I have ATM are P. acinosum (Sorrel geranium) and P. cordatum. I have to keep dead heading them to maintain continuity of flower. 'Susan' is quite free as well, although I've not grown any of the seedlings on to see what they are like.

 

Thanks Dave I may well be trying that next year if I can find the space.
I also have laciniatum, it just manages to survive with a bit of shelter in winter here, so perhaps not such a problem. I find it likes a fair bit of moisture so could be why you lost you plant L of L. I've seen it called "kangaroo apple" dont think there's any roos in NZ

Thanks HB and Dendy

:D

[ 06. August 2006, 08:41 PM: Message edited by: pete ]

 

Due mainly to the lack of water we have difficulty with things which 'look good' in August. However there are lots of things in flower including Phlox/Crocosmia (yellow and orange/red), Cannas,Helenium and Monarda still going strong Gaura and secondary flowering of my Anthemis. The Dahlias are also good but suffering from lack of water.

Love the pics. of the Solanum and Clematis.