The Variegated Thumb

This week my wife and I announced some very exciting news to all of our family and friends: We are adopting our first child from Ethiopia!  We’re 3 months into an 18-month process.  Lots of waiting ahead.

In the meantime, we have been learning a lot about parenting, about adoptive parenting and about Ethiopian culture.  As you might imagine, I couldn’t pass up the chance to learn about (and purchase) some new plants.  The wonderful Bustani Plant Farm, which I discovered last Spring, has a great selection of rare plants from Africa.  Before going to Bustani this year, I did some research on several plants that were labeled “East African” in their catalog.  I discovered that at least three different plants they had for sale grow natively in Ethiopia.  Is it important that my children grow up around plants from their home country?  Probably not.  But I like them!

Barleria eranthemoides

Barleria eranthemoides

The owners of Bustani collected this plant in coastal Kenya in 2002.  It has bracts of salmon-orange blooms.  The bracts look similar to my Justicia shrimp plants before the blooms emerge.  The foliage is dark and very attractive.  The stems are covered in spines that are quite prickly but not very noticeable to the eye.  I forgot about these when I was repotting it and grabbed the plant in a way that I would not have if I had remembered about the spines.

Ecbolium viride

Ecbolium viride

This plant was also collected in coastal Kenya in 2002 and has blooming bracts that look similar to my Justicia shrimp plants.  Indeed, both of these plants are in the same family (Acanthaceae).  The blooms of these plants have the most awesome color.  I tried to photograph them at Bustani and just got frustrated because they came out white!  They are a really cool teal that glows.  It is the same color as the Jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys), if you’ve ever seen one of those in bloom.  If you haven’t, finish reading this blog post and then go and do a google search on “Jade vine.”  The blooms of this plant have the same teal color.

Leonotis leonurus, commonly called Lion’s Ears or Lion’s Tail

Leonotis leonurus

This is really the only plant with a common name, since the others aren’t grown very often in the horticultural world.  [I mean, it's the only one that has a real common name.  I don't consider Green Ecbolium to really be different from Ecbolium viride.]  It’s not surprising that this plant has been used in gardens for some time.  The blooms are very unique, bright orange and fuzzy.  Apparently this plant has some medicinal and “recreational” properties and is used for treating a variety of ailments in southern Africa.  What I mean by “recreational” is that wikipedia says some people smoke the leaves when there’s not any marijuana around.  It is also found in California, Hawaii and Australia – though I don’t believe it is native to all of those places.

These three plants will all have to be moved into the greenhouse over the winter, as they are only hardy to zones 9 and 10.

What do you think of my little Ethiopian collection?

I bought my first Helleborus this year.  In fact, it was the first one that I have seen in person.  They are all the talk on plant blogs in the early Spring, it seems.  But I had yet to see one in anyone’s garden in Oklahoma.

Helleborus

I really like the blooms, which remind me of those from a Dogwood tree.

Helleborus bloom

And the foliage is awesome!  Red stems lead to serrate dark green leaves with a really nice pattern on the top.

Helleborus leaf pattern

I have placed this Helleborus on the side of the house in a new part-shade garden that is slowly taking form.  The only other plant I have for this garden right now is a Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum).  I would also like to add some Mouse Tails (Arisarum proboscideum), which will almost certainly be Christie’s favorite plant ever if I can get them to bloom.

I received a Ficus bonsai a couple of years ago as a gift from my sister.  But I didn’t know much about Bonsai and just let it do it’s own thing.  The tree grew pretty well, but also went through some periods of dropping leaves.

My bonsai Ficus before the haircut

Recently I decided to put my recent Bonsai education to work and see what happens.  So I hacked my tall and lanky stems back, hoping to thicken my tree with 2 or 3 new shoots from each one of these cuts.  I probably should have cut it back even further, but I’m starting slow.  I didn’t want to accidentally kill the tree!

My bonsai Ficus after the haircut

I’ll try to remember to give an update in a couple of months, when the new growth is popping out.