This summer I have been assembling and training a collection of about 25 upright fuchsia selections, some historical, others just curious, which I am training to be either standards ( topiary) or bush uprights, a method of growing fuchsias once popular in conservatory displays at botanic gardens and private estates were gardeners trained fuchsias for summer displays in greenhouses or on the porches of grand, summer cottages in Newport and Connecticut. If you are looking for true coral colored flowers, long, delicate clouds of bee-sized blossoms in shades of lavender-grey or peachy pink, with little skirts or magenta and raspberry looking more like those engravings from a nineteenth century fairy tale book than a floral display, than maybe these old-timey fuchsias are for you.

Upright fuchsia varieties have all types of blossoms. Some are very small, others quite large, but they all hang.

There are many reasons why good plants can’t become commercial, and certainly, height is one of them – just try to find a perennial taller than 16 inches at a home center or big box store nursery – the reasons are more practical than one might think – they just don’t fit on the shelves, so merchandising is out of the question. One is most likely to find small fuchsias, in bloom and in 4 inch pots for window boxes (treated with growth regulators) than any interesting species or selections known for their amazing floral color or display.  All this aside from those horrid hanging basket fuchsias (nothing wrong with them, ecxept that I find them revolting).

 Me? I just find upright fuchsias so much more interesting than weeping varieties often found at garden centers. Tall canes with a single stem trained upright, carefully pinched and trimmed until a woody stem  is formed, and then a bushy flower chandelier with pendant blossoms, some lifted to eye level where one can appreciate them more.

My Fuchsia’s this year are just starting to bloom, here are some of my best trained varieties:

Click below for more!

I know, another crazy Matt project – as if I don’t have enough to do. But hey, these all keep my life interesting as I become bored easily. I suppose if I had gardeners, or a staff, I would drive them crazy with more intensive projects, but until I win the lottery (if I played it!), the only gardener is me. And I think I can only handle about 30 fuchsias, which will winter over in the cold greenhouse and hopefully become more beautiful next summer, as these are plants which will need to build some woody age to them before they reach their potential. This year, I am lucky to have just a few blossoms to share with you. Above, are some of the varieties I have so far in the collection.

I love some of the coral tints that fuchsia can have. This one is called Machu Picchu’.

The World Dog Show held in Helsinki Finland this year, just ended, and our Weasley ( Irish Terrier) competed. It was a pretty fancy affair – many liken it to Europe’s Westminster.

The World Dog Show is enormous, and with 38 Irish Terriers from many countries, we were not disappointed. It was a well organized affair, and no expense was spared.

I stayed home this week and a half because Joe and Weasley our Irish Terrier went to Helsinki, Finland where Weasley was entered into the World Dog Show. He did quite well, even for an American bred terrier with a docked tail ( Europe does not allow docked tails, but in this show, it’s OK). He placed third in his class.

Weasley, or ‘Red Devil Kennel’s Lucifer’s Fire’ placed well at his first World Dog Show this weekend in Helsinki, Finland, where he and Joe have been for a week. Their absence gave me some free time to get some house work done. It’s hard to believe that this little guy is the same one who digs holes in the cabbage patch, and pees on our tomatoes.

I painted the back porch this week during my vacation as Joe was with Weasley at the World Dog Show in Helsinki ( Weasley came in 3rd in his class/breed, so that’s not so bad. They are flying home tonight. Fergus here is enjoying not having the youngsters running around, as he is getting old. Nothing like a nap on a rainy afternoon.

The rest of the dogs needed a baby sitter, which comes down to me. I actually loved the time off, as it gave me some time to catch up, or sort-of catch up with chores and garden projects. Work still kept me busy as we have presentations coming up, but between computer time, photographing etc, I was able to clean off the back porch and paint it – even the floor. I also was able to sow 60 more species of Lithops for that collection, and catch up on weeding, repotting cyclamen and other random garden projects. Of course, I feel as if I got nothing accomplished, and yes – that is probably an illness many of us share!

Joe said that the opening ceremonies were like the Olympics. I suppose these are the Doggy Olympics. Here is some typical Euro weirdness or modernity, depending on your style. I sort of like it.

Maybe next year I will go the the World Dog Show because it is being held in Milan ( ahem, hey – if I have to go, I will force my self to tolerate it!). In a couple of weeks I will be traveling to the North American Rock Garden Society annual meeting in Sante Fe, New Mexico, so I am looking forward to that. More about that later.

Happy High Summer!

Now my fuchsia collection doesn’t seem so crazy. Most of the other plants are not blooming year, so they are still outside on the deck display. Maybe they will bloom more heavily in September – if so, I will post an update. All of my fuchsia cutting came from THE EARTHWORKS nursery, at Fuchsias.net

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 The African Foxglove, Ceratothica triloba, may not be a true ‘Foxglove” (Digitalis) but does offer worthy color and structure in the early autumn border. The best thing is, no one will know what it is!

There are a handful of rarely grown annuals from the Southern Hemisphere worth trying, but Ceratotheca is perhaps the finest.

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I think I have finally mastered growing Sinningia tubiflora, one of the many new ‘hardier’ gesneriads, those plants in the African Violet family, which are getting more and more collectable by those in-the-know. This week, my gravel container garden has been overcome by a magnificent specimen, which, I have to admit, was an accident. This Sinningia tubiflora  is growing in a deep terra cotta pot, and its become essentially, a giant lemon scented air freshener, yes, its evening fragrance lingers across the garden in our hot, humid summer weather.

Thanks to fellow blogger, reader and friend, Brian Morely, who shared this plant with me last year. He had send me a few tubers in the mail, wrapped in newspaper. Thanks Brian!  I’ve tried Sinningia tubiflora twice before, with little luck. Apparantly, I am not alone in finding this species difficult to bloom. Lots of foliage, ( which often spotted and became sloppy) and when flower stems finally did appear, they flopped over before blooming, leaving them twisted and deformed. Last year, I only had three stems with a few flowers.

This year, it’s a whole other story. I can only guess that a few changes in how I treat my plants may have helped, I can say, that I have not fussed with the plant, if anything, I have ignored it. First, I didn’t divide the tuberous mass of potato-like tubers, instead, I dragged the overgrown pot into the greenhouse on a cold, frost-threatening day in October last year. Yes, it says ‘hardy’ but it is not deep-freeze hardy here in New England. I grow Sinningia tubiflora in containers. Once in the greenhouse for the winter, the plant stumbled along at near freezing temps. Once in mid-winter, I had decided to toss the plant, but I decided not to since Joe would see the rootball on the snow ( he hates that, and I am too lazy to drag my butt out to the compost pile. Once I unpotted the mass of tubers, I was impressed, and a little overwhelmed, so I like any guy who is lazy, I shoved the mass under a bench and forgot about it. There it spent the entire winter, never looking worse for the wear.

In spring, I noticed that the giant ball of tubers and roots, was sprouting all over, and I briefly thought about separating it into a few dozen tubers, to share, plant and maybe to sell on eBay. But I never got to it. So one day in May, I just decided to try potting the entire mass of shoots and tubers. It was so big, that it only fit in one giant 14 inch clay pot, so in it went, and I set it on the hot gravel bed in full sun.

Here is what I think happened. First, the mass of tubers probably preferred not to be separated, hence, the mass of sprouts evolved into growth, and the stems are stronger, holding each other up. Then, the ratty foliage never appeared, which I feel is the result of the hot gravel below the plant, which dries the foliage off early in the morning, and the good air circulation keeps the foliage dry. Third, the full sun helps keep the plant strong and dense. Fourth, the cold winter in the greenhouse probably helped the plant vernalize more, or whatever. I have found many notes online that colder winter temps have resulted in more flowers, not sure if this is true or not.

Regardless, I now have an incredibly stunning specimen plant as a container plant, and it’s fragrance fills the entire side yard, drifting over the garden even giving the lilies a run for their money. You can find this plant at Plant Delights Nursery, or, you can find friends who will share tubers with you. Plant Delights states in their catalog that the plant is a hummingbird magnet, but I have yet to see one on it, even though the Hummers visit this garden every few minutes. I see them on the Agapanthus next to it, on the Nepeta sibirica, and on the  Humminbird feeders, but never on the Sinningia. I imagine that their beaks are too short for the totally tubular blossoms, but in other areas of the country where there are  more species of Hummingbirds, such as Arizona, this might work well as a Hummingbird plant.

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In the world of Primrose culture, the name Barnhaven carries as much cache as the name Gucci or Versace does in Fashion. Or, more accurately, when one grows primroses from Barnhaven seed, or obtains Barnhaven plants, it’ the same thing as buying an outfit at a couture Milan Fashion house. So today, I am remembering the heyday of Primrose mania, in the United States during the 1930’s and 40’s, inspired by my Barnhaven seedlings.

Simply said, Barnhaven equals provenance, for the breeding lines can be traced back to 1935 when the tiny nursery founded by Florence Bellis in rural Oregon  during the depression.  Last Year, when the current owners of Barnhaven visited our gardens during the American Primrose Society National Show, they shared some seed with us from their specialized collections of Polyanthus primroses. Today, anyone can order these most exclusive of primroses, but only from the source, Barnhaven Primroses. My seedlings are starting to bloom, and are very choice and beautiful, but the back story of this famous line is even better.

A vintage Barnhaven print ad from a 1940’s American Primrose Society Journal

My seedlings blooming below apple trees.

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This rare Pelargonium ( Greenhouse Geranium ) also known as the ‘Butterfly Pelargonium is a hard t o find, yet easy to grow Plant in a highly collectable and growable genus, Pelargonium. These South African plants can be divided generally into three types, those which are summer dormant, those which are winter dormant, and those which grow year round. Pelargoniums are perhaps the most familiar of house and window box plants ( think – the common red geranium and swiss balcony geraniums), and one can see the similarities when you zoom in close to the blossoms on many species, but this one is particularly nice.

It is a new addition to my collection, and the first time it has bloomed for me. Available from Geraniaceae.com, this plant hasn’t turned out to look anything like it’s original description, since the flowers are smaller than I imagined ( it was described as having large butterfly-like blossoms with two large petals. Up close, I get it, from a foot away? They are the size of a fingernail, or a small, pantry moth. Still, the entire inflorescence is lovely, and it stands out in the greenhouse.). In the wild, in it’s native environment, this is a Pelargonium which does not like full sun, but prefers shady, stream banks called Kloofs.

I expect this Pelargonium to perform well all summer in a container out doors, perhaps planted with other species forms. At first glance, it looks like one of the peppermint scented Pelargoniums ( geranium), with large 4 inch fuszzy leaves, and a branching habit. Described as having a fragrance, or as being scented, the one aspect they left out of the description is that the scent is exactly that of a musty sponge left in the kitchen sink. I hereby rename this, the Moldy Scrunge® Scented Geranium ( or the Panty Moth Pelargonium). Still, very pretty, isn’t it?

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In the fine Timber Press book PRIMULAS, the monster monograph on the genus primula by John Richards, one can discover that the lovely florist flower we sometimes find in better greenhouses on these short day-length winter days Primula malacoides was considered a lowly weed. According to turn-of-the-Century plant explorer George Forrest, ” P. malacoides is clearly an abundant field weed in these localities of Dali, Lichang, Tengyueh and Yunnansen” . Yet, as abundant this “weed” apparently was in 1900, today, modern cultivation methods may have rendered this man-dependant species very rare in the wild.

First flowered in cultivation from seed collected by Forrest in 1908, the species of P. malacoides was quickly adopted by commercial seed growers in England, and within a decade, became a fragrant,colorful strain sold in the cold greenhouses of Europe and the United States. Many named strains were introduced in the early 20th Century, and suddenly, Primula malacoides became one of the most popular pot plants for conservatory culture, especially since it is primarily a winter grower, and, profitable for commercial growers, since it’s roots of once being a weed in the rice fields of China, meant that it was indeed and annual, so new crops would need to be grown each year, to fill the plant windows and conservatories in the winter.

Today, the species is less common, being short-lived in our hot, dry modern home climates, and this species, along with it’s companion species which shares the same growing season, Primula obconica, shares the trait of having primulin, a chemical in all primula species, but particularly irritable in these two species to a few people who are allergic to it. For some simply touching the hairs on the leaves of these two species, may cause a dermatitis or an itchy sensation not unlike poison ivy, but can cause a severe rash headaches or nausea. This has been somewhat bred out of newer hybrids, and relatively few people have a severe reaction.

Primula malacoides is an annual that blooms in the short days of winter, so seed must be sown in the greenhouse in June or July, if one wants plants for January. Most growers today use a peat based soiless mix, but many experts prefer a loam based soil. This is a plant that should never be allowed to dry out, and it prefers a buoyant, moist cool atmosphere. If you happen to find a plant of this Primrose, it may be best to pot it up into a larger clay pot, for the 4 inch plastic pots that commercial growers use are unsuitably small, and dry out in a day or two. I repot store bought or nursery bought plants into 6 inch clay pots, and let them sit in water once or twice a week.

Primula malacoides grows in Burma, and Sichuan at 5000 ft in meadows and damp fields, so take a lesson from it’s native haunts, since it grows wild around the mounds and shores of rice paddy’s. There are related species which have completely fallen out of favor in commercial horticulture, P. forbesii which was introduced by Vilmorin of Paris in 1891. Reportedly, this species was common in spectacular winter conservatory displays in Paris around 1900, with pink blossoms virtually covering the plants in massive plantings underglass. Today, I have yet to find it.

This weekend I found some P. malacoides at a local garden center, and I grabbed one of each color. We hosted a meeting of the New England Primula Society on Saturday for a luncheon, and I needed some Primroses since this year I did not grow any. These potted plants are so fragrant, that it felt like spring as soon as you walked into the greenhouse. I’ve been looking for my favorite, but rarely grown florist primrose, Primula obconica, but could not find them again, anywhere. But the nursery where I bought these, had seen some at the Boston Flower Market, and promised to buy a case for me, for next weekend, I cannot wait.

Last year, while in Japan during February, I saw incredible cultivars of both P. malacoides and P. obconica, both distributed by Sakata Seed, but not available here, in the US.

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As fall sweeps in with 45 degree F temps last night, I start to notice berries in the yard more than flowers. Two native North American wild plants are in full glory, and they are both not that unrelated. The spooky white berries of Actaea pachypoda ( there is also a red-berried form, both native to Eastern North America. Commonly known as Dolls Eyes, this plant is a transplanted clump. a self-seeded plant, removed from growing behind our chicken coops.The berries are poisonous. I prefer the blossoms of this plant in April, more than the berries, but most folks prefer the silly name, and the obvious reference.

Aralia racemosa, or American Spikenhard ( great name), disp[ays it’s berries for the first time, after being planted two years ago, Purchased at the Framingham, MA Garden In The Woods, a spectacular wild flower garden near us in central Massachusetts run by the Massachusetts Wild Flower Society, this plant is finally starting to reach its magnificent promise of being a massive plant, almost tropical in appearance. The berries are a nice bonus, but grow this plant in your shade garden for its foliage. American Spikenard’s large roots are aromatic and spicy, they were once used as one of the ingredients in root beer and as a remedy for respiratory ailments in man and domesticated animals. The berries are not considered edible.

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According to the collector of the seed, “there are three main groups of Nerine. – winter-growing, summer-growing and evergreen species. Although some are very common and others extremely rare, none are too difficult in cultivation givent that you have an alpine house, or greenhouse, for none can freeze. The main key cultural point is to allow for their correct time of growth and dormancy.

A relative of N. laticoma this is horticulturally very distinct with upright light green leaves below huge spherical umbels of strongly recurved, large, bright-pink flowers each borne on a 25cm long peduncle.

The flower stalk is topped off by, what else but long peduncles and when topped off with the large brightly coloured flowerhead, is rather is show-stopping.
Culture is not too challenging, again, if you can provide exactly what it needs. I suppose, if you live in San Diego or southern California, you may grow this outdoors, if you can find one. I grow my plant in a large, long tom pot, which is filled with granite rock chips and sand, so it is extremely fast draining, and, extremely heavy. I really never expected this plant to bloom, for I have have the bulb for about 8 years now. Last week while watering the summer growing bulbs on the gravel bed, I saw this bud emerging, so this was a surprise.
The bulb of Nerine falcata is large and it needs a good sized pot or a free root run to do itself justice. They like high, even very high, summer temperatures which is rather odd for Nerine species, but unlike N. sarniensis, or N. bowdenii, this species demands a completely dry winter period.

I fertilize rather heavily during the summer, early in the summer with 10-10-10-, then in late July, 0-6-6. Flowers are borne from the current season’s growth, in autumn, so it is up to your horticultural skills if they flower or not. This bulb is 9 years old, and this is the first year it has bloomed. I wonder if last year’s hot temperatures helped the bulb form a flower bud deep inside. The pot usualy sits on scalding hot granite, and I allow it to dry out between waterings, after all, it is planted practically in rock and sand, but it seems to relish this treatment, and of course, this year, I am very pleased for the treat.

A lucky honey bee treats himself to some Nerine nectar.

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