The Variegated Thumb

For our six year anniversary, Christie and I went to Eureka Springs for the weekend.  It was a relaxing weekend getaway.  Here are some snapshots of different plants we saw on our trip – ones I don’t see often (or ever).

Large flowerbed of red Monarda

One plant that I have never seen before in person (that I can recall), but have seen in the plant catalogs is Monarda.  There were a lot of these in Eureka Springs.  They are really attractive when in bloom, but are tall and gangly.  They could be mistaken for a weed, if not obviously planted in a well-maintained flowerbed.

Canna at the Crescent Hotel

The canna above was growing in the gardens of the hilltop Crescent Hotel in Eureka Springs.  We toured the notoriously quirky Quigley’s Castle, known as “the Ozark’s strangest dwelling.”  I debated writing a whole post about this place, but decided to just include it in this post with other plants from the area.  This house has flowerbeds inside the house around the entire perimeter, with plants growing up against the windows two storeys high – Bougainvillea, Hibiscus, Epiphyllum, Asparagus fern and others.  The most impressive plants (by virtue of their health and attractiveness) were the African violets and relatives.  The Flame Violets (Episcia) were particularly striking.

Various blue, purple and pink African violets (Saintpaulia) and red Flame violets (Episcia) in bloom.

The house – excuse me, “castle” – is surrounded by really nice gardens with some neat plants.  One of them looked a lot like Solomon’s Seal (Polygonatum) to me, but was obviously something different.  It had some seed heads developing on it, so I had missed the flowers, unfortunately.  I posted photos of this plant on a forum and also sent pictures to a friend who lives in NW Arkansas.  They told me this plant is Uvularia grandiflora.

Uvularia grandiflora (Bellwort)

I looked at some photos online and it is really neat when in bloom.  I liked it even out of bloom for the interesting way the leaves attach to the stem.  They are called “perfoliate” leaves, which means that the leaf (or foliage) is seemingly pierced (or perforated) by the stem – perfoliate.  Perfoliate leaves are a subcategory of “sessile” leaves.  Sessile means that the leaf is attached directly to the main stem without a stalk or peduncle leading to the leaf base.

Uvularia grandiflora (Bellwort). Check out the unusual (perfoliate) way the leaves attach to the stem.

On our way home we passed through Bentonville (headquarters of Wal-Mart), following our outdated GPS directory to a once-existent location of the famous AQ Chicken House.  After finding this location was no longer opened, we headed to Springdale, the original location.  Thanks to this detour, we happened upon a nice nursery, which Christie let me enjoy, giving our bellies a little more time to get hungry for lunch since it was still early.  The blue-gray leaved plant below is now on my landscape plant wish list.  Isn’t it awesome?  I just need to find a place to plant it.  Then I need to find one for sale closer than Arkansas!

Fothergilla major Blue Shadow

At our most recent MidAmerica chapter meeting of the IAS several members were discussing hardy plants (to Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas) that have that tropical look, with large, glossy leaves.  There was a plant growing at this nursery (below) that, upon first glance, I thought was a Philodendron.  Pretty quickly I realized it was not a Philodendron, and not even a tropical.  It is Acanathus mollis ‘Oak Leaf’, commonly called Bear’s Breeches (what a weird name for a plant…).

Acanthus mollis 'Oak Leaf' aka Bear's Breeches

The nursery had these large Begonias going for $30 each.  That’s more than I want to spend for a Begonia, but they were very mature and an attractive variety – in nice pots, no less.

Begonia

And yes, I did buy a couple of small plants at the nursery – a yellow shrimp (Pachystachys lutea) and a red shrimp (Justicia brandegeana).  I’ve had both of these in the past, but lost mine.

My wife’s family owns a wedding chapel just outside of town.  For the past couple of years Christie and I have helped maintain the flowerbeds and do other projects.  This year we’ve handed the job over to some other relatives who wanted a side job, but when we were there recently I got to see some of the fruits of our labor.

Hemerocallis 'Always Afternoon'

The Daylilies we planted a couple of years ago are all in bloom.  It is nice to see some splashes of color on an otherwise green palette of grasses and other drought-hardy plants.

Peach daylilies

There are several of these peach-colored daylilies and they are also the most prolific bloomers of the bunch.

Hemerocallis 'Irving Hepner'

I don’t recall all the varieties that we ordered, but they are all doing really well, spreading and blooming more each year.  I’m wondering if any of these will naturally cross-pollinate.  Does anyone know?

Lately I have just felt so sorry for those poor people who sell orchids on eBay that I have given them all of my plant allowance.

Bepi. Femme Fatale - Notice that there is a bud spike beginning to emerge from the center!

This Bepi. (Brassoepidendrum) is really cool in bloom, and pretty neat foliage when it’s not.  The blooms have cool speckling of purple overlaying white and greenish-yellow petals.  The plant is pretty small, but it must not get very large when mature, because it is already producing buds.  This is a blooming size plant!  I’ve got a pretty good collection of miniature orchids now, which is nice, since room in my greenhouse is limited.

Dendrobium atroviolaceum with several large buds, ready to open anyday.

Sometimes I am a little disappointed with plants that arrive on my doorstep, being a little smaller than they appeared in the pictures online or being a little worse-for-wear after shipping.  One case where this definitely was not true was with the Dendrobium atroviolaceum which came in this shipment.  The ebay seller used reverse psychology on me, posting pictures of the plant in bloom but stating that the plant was no longer in bloom.  The plant I received had a couple of half-spent flowers on it and, upon closer inspection, quite a few bud spikes starting.  The plant looks really healthy and I feel good about the chance of these buds opening for me!

Dendrobium victoria-reginae

I can’t say that this Dendrobium has been on my want list for a long time, but I can say that it has been at the top of my list from as soon as it was on the list.  I know: It looks really pathetic.  But take a look at this picture and tell me I’m a fool for buying it!  (I won’t say confess how much I paid.)

Hamelwellsara June 'Indigo Sue'

My Hamelwellsara (above) was also posted as a non-blooming plant, but came to be with flowers open and many more buds ready to follow!  The color of this bloom (below) is just amazing.  It is closely related to the Zygopetalum genus, as you might have guessed.

Hamelwellsara June 'Indigo Sue'

I also purchased two small Brassovola glauca ‘Woltmon’ orchids (below).  These have really neat creamy white blooms that appear just at the top  of the cluster of leaves – not on long spikes or racemes, like many other orchids.

Brassovola glauca 'Woltmon'

The species name ‘glauca’ refers to the powdery coating on the leaves which makes them appear bluish-gray (not so obvious in my picture above).  Another plant which has the name ‘glauca’ is the blue fescue grass (Festuca glauca).

Megaclinium saurocephalum

The next orchid (above) was sold as Megaclinium saurocephalum.  I have also seen this plant with the genus name Bulbophyllum and I haven’t yet determined which is considered the current valid name.  Either the Megaclinium genus was sunk into the huge Bulbophyllum genus, or divided out.  Either way, it’s a really cool plant.

Megaclinium saurocephalum bloom spike

Don’t you just love the weirdness of this bloom spike?

Megaclinium saurocephalum spike closeup

Hopefully I’ll have some bloom photos to share soon from my Dendrobium atroviolaceum and Bepi Femme Fatale!

Since our family cruise over Thanksgiving last year left from Galveston, Texas I figured it would be a good opportunity to visit a nursery or two that has some tropical plants.  I did a little scouting ahead of time and asked for some recommendations from people that live in the area.  I ended up stopping at the Houston nursery of “Zone 9 Tropicals”, which specializes in Gingers, Passionflowers and other flowering vines.

Christie really liked the historic neighborhood and will be happy to go back there again.  She wandered the streets while I wandered around looking at the plants.

My first bloom from Passiflora 'Lady Margaret'

I purchased 5 plants in all from Zone 9, including two Passiflora.  The first is Passiflora ‘Lady Margaret’.  This is one of the more popular red(ish) Passionflowers.  It is a hybrid of P. coccinea and P. incarnata.  That first parent is more of a solid red, while the hybrid ‘Lady Margaret’ is a wine red.  You can see the influence of P. incarnata in the wavy tendrils.  Passiflora incarnata has very long, wavy tendrils.

Passiflora 'Sunburst' leaves in the signature "batwing" shape.

The second is Passiflora ‘Sunburst’. This is a hybrid of P. gilbertiana and P. jorullensis.  The small flowers have incredible colors and apparently smell like turpentine.  The leaves of this plant are also very unique.  Since mine hasn’t bloomed yet, I am just enjoying the leaves.  I need to get this one put on a trellis.  For now, it is growing in the greenhouse, kind of laying up against the bark wall, but not really attaching to anything and not getting as much light as it would probably prefer.

Underside of Passiflora 'Sunburst' leaves.

Neither of these Passifloras are hardy in my zone 7a region, so I will need to overwinter them in the greenhouse.  I’m hoping I can get my ‘Sunburst’ to bloom this summer.

For the last couple of years we have had a couple of non-hardy plants growing on trellises that we transport back and forth from the greenhouse to the back fence with the changing seasons.  This way we can enjoy some near-tropical climbing and flowering plants in the yard during the summer and keep them alive over the winter.  I mounted brackets on the back fence for reattaching the trellises each year and I have Christie help me move the potted plant, attached to the trellis back and forth.

One of our purchased trellises. Notice the Passiflora bloom. More on that later...

This year I had another plant (or two) that I wanted to add to the shuffle, but I was out of trellises.  I knew that I could buy another trellis to match the ones I have, but it would require a trip to Oklahoma City and also would cost a bit of moolah.  And we had some wood lying around…

Veritable smorgasbord of unknown projects

So I decided to just make my own trellis.  It’s a pretty simple contraption and it didn’t even need to be an exact match to look legit.  After previous unpleasant incidents with the circular saw, I had Christie on hand to help me hold the wood while I was cutting these slivers of wood.  It helps to have a supervisor nearby who reminds you not to do stupid things – like getting your fingers in the way of whirring blades that don’t notice the difference in wood and finger.

My new trellis, crafted by moi.

About fifteen minutes of work and we had a new trellis mounted on the back fence with my Flame Vine (Pyrostegia venusta) planted at the base.  (and I still had all my fingers!)