Friday, April 19, 2024

It shouldn't be, but it is...


Many gardeners here in the Pacific Northwest are still tallying the plant losses from the one week storm that wreaked havoc in an otherwise benign winter. Just this last week I've discovered my 10 year old Maytenus boaria 'Green Showers' is dead, ditto for three established Callistemon (Melaleuca) 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' and why isn't my Amsonia hubrichtii (hardy to Zone 5!) coming up?

So when a plant nobody considers hardy here makes it thru the storm with zero protection, and is putting on new growth, well, that's something to get excited about. The plant is Lomatia ferruginea, here's a photo showing the mild foliage damage it sustained.

And it's colorful new growth...

Near as I can tell I brought this little guy home from Cistus Nursery in September of 2017. I doubt I planted it until the following spring, since I don't plant borderline hardy things in the fall. Lomatia ferruginea is thought to be hardy to the mid 20's F, my garden saw an ultimate low of 12 F last January and was below freezing for over 150 consecutive hours.

If it's not regarded as hardy here why would I have planted it at all? Well because I was encouraged to try by my friends Mark and Gaz (of Alternative Eden fame) who had success with it in their garden. They were here in Portland visiting and were the ones who talked me into trying it.

Funny thing, I found myself crushing on this same plant when Andrew and I walked the Queen Elizabeth II Flower Market during our trip to Paris in January of 2018. I took a photo of the plant tag.

From Argentina and Chili it's a member of the Protea family and is related to Embothrium coccineum (the Chilean firetree) which is thriving in my garden just a couple of feet away. 

It's planted at the base of my Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate'. Just to the right is a Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' that didn't make it through the winter and nearby are various aspidistra and pyrrosia that were toasted. This is not a protected spot!

I do have a second Lomatia ferruginea, this one much larger and growing in a container. It's a plant that's been around the neighborhood, starting life with Evan, then moving on to Patricia, and living with me for the past few years. The foliage is ferny, and quite attractive.

This one spends all but the coldest days out on the patio.

I have considered putting it in the ground, based on the success of it's little sister. Then again I would really like to see blooms someday—neither one of my plants have bloomed—so I will protect it until that happens.

My other lomatia, L. tinctoria was zapped pretty hard with the frigid temps and wind during January's storm. I cut back several branches that were dead, others are hanging on to grey leaves...

While other branches have leaves that are green.

Back in the the years of milder winters it was a reliable bloomer, but it's been a couple of years since I've seen those flowers—mainly because I've done a lot of spring pruning to remove damaged branches.
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 All material © 2009-2024 by Loree L Bohl. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

21 comments:

  1. I'd love to see that Lomatia bloom too! Mother Nature must pride herself on being utterly unpredictable. In any case, I'm glad you have a win after that rotten winter storm. I hope you discover other surprises as the year progresses.

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    1. Ha, excellent point about Mother Nature.

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  2. Jeanne DeBenedetti KeyesApril 19, 2024

    Wow, Loree! That lomatia is amazing! Love those flowers. Yeah, it is odd on what survived and what didn't. Both of my Callistemon 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' are toast too. And they were in the hottest, sunniest place in my garden, with the house behind them. My 20ft. tall Pittosporum 'Tall and Tough' (z7a) appears to be toast. It is right next to a 20ft tall Metapanax (Nothopanax) delavayi (7b) which is pushing out new leaves. Go figure.

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    1. The randomness of it all makes it so hard to know what to plant for the future.

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  3. Pretty sure there's a lomatia at the Wonder Garden, will have to double check this weekend. Can't remember any blooms tho...Much as we carefully check available info on geography, climate zones, there are inscrutable forces at work that make or break a plant's chances. Glad you got a win!

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    1. Lomatia at the Wonder Garden rings a bell. Please do report back on which one it is.

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  4. That’s great news! When a plant exceeds hardiness expectations it’s about the same feeling when you first buy it. And they are absolutely beautiful!
    Jim N Tabor

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    1. I hope I didn't curse it now by calling attention to it.

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  5. Your microclimate must resemble the Chilean conditions Lomatia ferruginea craves. And the fun story of the wandering Lomoatia, from one plant enthusiast to next... it will be very rewarding when it blooms.
    BTW, in the 'At Home in the NW' section of Sunday's Seattle times, I stared at a familiar Agave ovatifolia. Another photo inside the article confirmed that indeed it's an Agave I've seen before: yours! Plus, there is a notice of your speaking engagement in September in the Bellevue Botanical Garden! Yay.
    Chavli

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    1. Glad you saw the story and hope to see you in September!

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  6. Building the case for zone 9, sample size of 1...
    I just found another hardy plant today that had budded out and then subsequently collapsed, I assume some delayed death from the cold. The early optimism makes the pain so much worse and I'm feeling bitter!

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    1. Ha, definitely not Zone 9... but maybe a case of Lomatia ferruginea being hardier than realized? I am sorry to learn of your plant collapse. I almost posted about this lomatia a few weeks ago but decided to wait. Now I hope I haven't cursed it.

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  7. What a fun bloom the Lomatia has! I hope your plants will eventually sprout them again!

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    1. I look forward to seeing them, someday...

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  8. Wow, the Lomatia bloom is a gorgeous one. I can't believe you're still getting bad news on things from that ridiculous storm. Glad you got a win here!

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  9. I've been surprised by my very new Embothrium. I bought a plant from Roger Gossler and planted it 11/29/23 in a very exposed position (because that's where the best soil/watering regime for Embothrium was in my garden). It held all of the foliage it had when planted, survived the Arctic Blast (14.9F, 150 hours <freezing), an ice storm that wrecked a lot of my BLE's, 27.5F on April 5th after the flower buds had emerged, 30F on April 17th after the flower buds had become big and plump, and now it is covered with new foliage and extending new branches, along with the expanding flower buds...amazing.

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    1. Yay! I noticed yesterday that mine is leafing out (it looses its foliage most winters) but no blooms yet. I usually only noticed the blooms when I hear the hummingbirds going after them.

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  10. Very nice, pleasant surprise. May it live long and prosper. I hope we didn't jinx it! There are things I don't talk about either, until they become reality.

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  11. This is a pretty important post, I think. It means that a) cold hardiness ratings are often just a guess, b) it pays to experiment, and c) there's hope that plants deemed dead may actually not be dead.

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