Thursday, September 11, 2014

Discovering new plants...

As I'm sure I've said a dozen times or more, I am very lucky to live in an area rich with amazing nurseries. Just last week I decided to visit Cistus Nursery, no real purpose in mind, just the luxury of a free afternoon. I wandered and enjoyed, knowing perhaps I'd fall in love with something I had to have. Naturally I did, Leucadendron 'Jubilee Crown'...

It has a similar airy soft feel to that of Adenanthos sericeus (Coastal Woollybush) and Phylica pubescens (from Annie's Annuals, loved and lost), but it's different. The description: "handsome medium-sized South African shrub with gray-green, red-tipped rainbow foliage and very cool pink to maroon cones. Height and width to 4-6'. Prunes easily into a low hedge or border planting. Feeding promotes faster growth, but avoid phosphorous at all costs. Water well to establish; after that, extremely drought tolerant. Full sun. Well-drained soil or container. Frost hardy to USDA Zone 9."

I also picked up a Caesalpinia gilliesii, my second this year (third plant "ever" if you count the one I lost last year). I wrote more about this one yesterday, on the plant lust blog.

If there was one plant I thought I'd be coming home with it's this, Delosperma sp. 'Leea Koppie'. I spied it in passing last time I was at Cistus, just for a moment. I don't know why but ice plants just don't grab me like they should. Even this one with the electric orange flower. I stood there looking at it, knowing I should just buy it, but I didn't.

This however, Ficus afghanistanica 'Silver Lyre', I've lusted after for awhile and finally came home with. Check out the photos on plantlust.com and you'll understand why: "A Cistus introduction...yet another hardy fig. We wonder where it's been all our lives. Native from Northern India to western Iran and Afghanistan and a delicacy there with its small, dark, very sweet fruit. We have selected this form from seed for its entrancing, filigreed, silver-green leaves of about 5-7". So far, ours have been for external use only as we have not tasted the fruit. Eventually might reach 15-20' in height; can easily be kept smaller with pruning. Sun to part shade. Very drought tolerant once established. Frost hardy to the upper edge of USDA Zone 7 so far."

So that title, "discovering new plants," is really about these next three treasures which Sean Hogan pulled out of the greenhouses and handed to me. First is Dendroseris macrophylla, which I thought looked a little like Euphorbia stygiana. Instead it's a flowering plant in the Asteraceae family, from Chile. Sean says it can form rosettes two-feet across, you know what talk like that does for me! There is not much to be found about this plant online, although it is offered on the Cistus Mail Order list for Fall 2014. I think I'll be planting it in the front garden where the departed Brachyglottis greyi was growing. Love those leaves...

Perhaps this Bommeria hispida will be tucked in nearby, maybe snugged up to the Agave ovatifolia.

Native to Arizona, New Mexico and Texas (according to the USDA) the Western New Mexico University Department of Natural Sciences says "Bommeria hispida is a somewhat leafy appearing, hairy low, creeping fern. The younger fronds are dark green, but as they age they turn copper and red. The top surface of each frond is covered with short, straight hairs. The bottom surface of the fronds is very crowded with not only straight hairs, but also hairs that are curly, like wood shavings." It is a mat-forming evergreen fern which can grow to 5-ft across, collected at 6200 ft in the Peloncillo Mountains of Arizona by Sean, hardy to USDA Zone 7. So fury!

One more, Cheilanthes lindheimeri, it's a bad photo but a cool little desert fern which I am thrilled to plant and (hopefully) watch grow. From a collection made along the border between Arizona and Mexico (by Sean) it was found growing tucked up against pink boulders, and under various cactus and Agave palmeri. Also hardy to USDA Zone 7. And in case you were wondering, the ferns are also on the Fall Mail Order list. New plants, there's really nothing better...

All material © 2009-2014 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

24 comments:

  1. Seeing Silver Lyre at the Kennedy School was another special moment of the Fling, and I'm definitely making a Cistus order for that one. Nice haul on the others...Sean really has your number!

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    1. Yes! That's where I saw it recently, the sighting that finally pushed me over the edge. I couldn't remember where it was, thanks!

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  2. Some fabulous new plants there Loree, all with great foliage! Bommarea is new to me and the desert fern I find very appealing. You're so lucky to have Cistus within your easy reach, seeing it in person we're fully aware how many treasures they have there!

    The Ficus afghanistanica, that one sounds like a nice and hardy selected form. We tried one before but lost it but that form in particular is very promising with its hardiness.

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    1. Well the next time you're here maybe you'll have to get one! (a 'Silver Lyre' that is)...

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  3. Yet another rewarding trip to Cistus!! I've got to look into those desert ferns. How drought-tolerant are they? They might do really well in our backyard, which gets a lot of shade but very little water.

    Great plant choices all the way around!

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    1. I almost photographed your plants too (the ones I picked up for you) but that just seemed wrong. Still they seemed like part of my haul!

      I've got your question on drought tolerance in to Sean, I imagine they're quite d.t. but I await his answer...

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    2. So Sean says "As they are monsoonal, they grow with access to fairly deep gritty soil or cracks and with extensive root systems. They can curl up and go quite dormant but best if kept regularly watered in summer"...so there you have it!

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  4. Love your new little furry friend, and the other fern too.

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    1. And you so close to Cistus, you can zip right over and grab a couple!

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  5. Desert ferns! Echoing Gerhard, do you have information on their drought tolerance? Hairy foliage sounds promising.

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    1. I want to say they'll be quite drought tolerant but I'm checking in with Sean to be sure, don't want to mislead you or Gerhard...

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    2. Answer above. Turns out they are able to cope with drought but may not look their best.

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  6. Ohh lala...what intriguing finds! I can't believe you passed up the cute orange flowered succulent. It would look so lovely in a pot surrounding a tall spiky plant!

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    1. You're right! Why weren't you standing next to me and telling me that at the nursery?

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  7. Where will you plant the Ficus? I keep looking for that one, and it looks like I need to get out to Cistus yet again. Good job! I need to learn a thing or two from you -- you always seem to have room for yet another tree!

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    1. I'm not sure where it will go, I just knew I had to have it. I'm relying heavily on that line "can easily be kept smaller with pruning"...

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  8. I can´t keep reading this kind of posts...they make tooooo jealous, hehehe. Beautiful new plants!

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    1. Thanks Lisa, which you could have visited with me...

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    1. Indeed! Now I've just got to keep them watered and alive until I can plant...

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  10. Great haul, but especially the Bommeria, what a great plant.

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  11. Ficus afghanistanica 'Silver Lyre' is a tough plant! I got one last year, didn't get it planted and thought it was surely dead but it put out new leaves and is happily growing in the ground now! The other three are way cool too. I see a Cistus order or visit in my future! (Doesn't require much psychic ability to see that!) Thanks for fueling our plant lust!

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  12. Such cool plants. They'd all be dead by Christmas here. :( My area is NOT rich with amazing nurseries. But we do have horrendous traffic, well educated idiots, and humidity so thick you can slice it up and serve it like pie. Yay!

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