Thursday, April 11, 2013

So about finding that second Pineapple Guava…

Yesterday I mentioned it was the chance discovery of a nice little specimen Acca Sellowiana at The Gardener’s Choice that pushed me to go for it and do away with our established Pieris japonica. It wasn’t just the Pineapple Guava that caught my eye that day. For instance I’m still kind of obsessing about this Ligularia 'Osiris Cafe Noir'…

I have a springtime love affair with Eremurus ‘Cleopatra’ every year.

In my experience this is the way to plant them, when they’ve already emerged and have a nice bunch of foliage.

I’ve planted 5 or 6 tubers (corms?) and nothing ever happened.

This was the first time I recall seeing Euphorbia c. ‘Portuguese Velvet’ for sale in a nursery. Of course since then I’ve seen a couple.

Its leaves really do feel like velvet.

This was a new one too, and wow! So bright…Golden Zebra Daylily.

So when I went inside to pay for the Acca Sellowiana, that’s when things got really interesting! Because I saw this…

A Schefflera taiwaniana with HUGE leaves.

It’s not like you see one of these everyday (this is only the 4th time I’ve seen one for sale) and this one, with the big leaves, I’d never seen before. Do you suppose I bought it? Damn right!

And I managed to fit two 5-gallon shrubs in my car no problem!

Are you wondering just how much bigger those leaves are? Here’s a comparison to the plant I moved a few weeks ago

New one…

Old one…

Why the difference in a plant with the same name? I was reminded of a slide from a talk given by Dan Hinkley. The photo illustrated the extreme variance in the plants growing at Monrovia, all were grown from seed he'd collected. From this batch they selected the plants to grow on to sell. So it stands to reason they probably released the others for sale and that's why the ones on the market thus far show so much variation. At least that’s my theory. I do have one other Schefflera taiwaniana, this one from Cistus Nursery. It has dark petioles…making it different too.

So that’s the story of how I came to have 3 Schefflera taiwaniana, all different, all loved.

All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

13 comments:

  1. I actually like the old one the best. I'm a sucker for finely dissected leaves!

    I've never seen a Schefflera taiwaniana for sale down here. The second I see one, I'll snap it up.

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    1. I hope you get the opportunity to do so Gerhard!

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  2. Oh My! I saw that Ligularia mentioned in the current issue of Fine Gardening, but haven't seen it anywhere. It looks just as good as it's made to look in the article. I kind of want that daylily too. What a great find that Schefflera was.

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    1. I let my subscription to FG lapse, I'll have to track down that article to see what they've got to say!

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  3. As a matter of interest, Ligularia 'Osiris Cafe Noir' was developed by Jardin Osiris just outside of Montreal. They seem to have done a lot of hybridizing with Ligularia.

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    1. That is interesting Barry...I still hope we'll return to Montreal someday in the summertime. We visited in December and needless to say there wasn't a lot of garden/plant viewing opportunities.

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  4. Love Golden Zebra Daylilly! Got one at Valley Nursery a couple of years ago. They only have a few and I haven't seen it anywhere since so I'm glad The Gardener's Choice had it. The Velvet spruge looks really sweet and soft. You'll probably be planting one of those ligularias before too long. Good for you for getting the other Schefflera! It's beautiful! Thanks for the tip about Eremurus!

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    1. Yes no doubt you're right (about the ligularia) the pull to return and purchase it is too strong to ignore.

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  5. Fabulous haul! And I'm lusting over that gorgeous Ligularia too, a new one to me and love the colour and leaf shape! As for the Scheffleras, even though they are all taiwanianas the variance in appearance to me makes them all worth getting, so well done and lucky find!

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    1. Thanks guys! You can never have to many schefflera right?

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  6. I have eremuris foliage coming up now, but we'll see if it translates into flowers for me this year. Last year - nada!

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    1. Mine were kind of sickly last year...no doubt because I can't stand the look of the withering foliage and do away with it before I should. Bad gardener!

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  7. Don't hate me because my Eremurus grow beautifully from mail0ordered roots (or whatever those fingerlike things are called). I think I just stumbled upon a site to their liking.

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