Tuesday 27 June 2017

Honesty about Honesty

Mainly about variegated honesty
Why is a biennial called Lunaria annua? Don’t ask me.

White variegated honesty
Biennials are plants which after germination build up their strength in their first year and flower, set seed and die in the second. I am not sure whether the biennial called honesty has read the text book.

Happy accident
My own experience is mainly with variegated honesty. My first love was the mauve flowered type although I think I now prefer the white flowered kind. Much to my surprise you can grow them together without much cross-pollination.

At my first Bolton Percy Open Day thirty five years ago huge drifts were a minor sensation in the cemetery garden. They have remained there by self seeding ever since - although unfortunately not in the same glory. An early memory is scattering seed over a thin layer of ivy. Such is honesty’s strong constitution they grew through it and towered above. I was lucky it was in a wet season.

I potted up spare self sown seedlings
On that first open day my potted honesty seedlings walked from the plant stall. I feel a little guilty now - would they ever have set very much seed? Or even any?

Raising honesty from seed
I will start with the easy bit and follow the text book. Collect the ripe seed in late Summer or Autumn and store in a cool dry place in a paper packet. Sown the next June.It will behave as a it is supposed to do and act as a true biennial. It will make a sturdy plant and by Autumn will have squirrelled away ample resources in a thick tuber-like root. Stimulated by the Winter cold it will bourgeon into strong spring growth and magnificent flower.

If they germinate in Winter they come up variegated.
If they germinate after April they are green

Where it gets complicated is with the variegated kind. More than other types they seem to be opportunistic germinators and self seeded they pop up all over the place in warm spells right through late Autumn and Winter They make a nice display of none flowering variegated seedlings and young plants. The question I currently struggle with is, as I write this piece in February, is to when or if these Winter seedlings will soon develop any flowers. By the time this is posted I intend to know more and if you read to the end whether they set a few seeds and died or went on to make a strong plant for next year  - as biennials are supposed to do! Don’t ask why I cannot properly answer this question having grown them for forty years!

More about the variegated honesty

As the seed head develops the leaves get even whiter - before the leaves eventually die!

I used to sell or give away variegated honesty seed on my first Open days. Sometimes people complained that they germinated as green plants. This is what we want them to do! If sown when the soil is warm this is how they grow. 
Honesty variegation is stimulated by cold. The ideal is that strong green plants from their first year’s growth get their cold in the Winter and accelerate into Spring flower when all the new flower spikes will have magnificent white variegated foliage. I do not know the botanical explanation of this type of cold-stimulated variegation. There are many different causes  of variegation and this one gets short shrift in botany textbooks.

This lavatera is another biennial that exhibits the same phenomenon. In its first year from seed this shrubby plant is dark green
The problem that arises with Winter germinated variegated honesty seed is that all new foliage is from the very beginning intensely variegated and consequently photosynthetically inefficient. Worse although variegation is stimulated by cold, the cold is usually insufficient for these  young plants to flower?

Botanical Note
All  honesty has a juvenile phase when it is incapable of flowering for its first few weeks after germination. Subsequent to this it is still incapable of flowering unless subjected to cold. Botanists call this phenomenon vernalisation - literally preparing for Spring. For honesty this cold period might need to be as long as a total of ten weeks accumulated  when temperatures fall below 5 degrees centigrade. Don’t take this too precisely - no doubt the time varies with plant variety and  cold intensity. As I write this I still don’t know if any of my Winter germinated seed will have enough time to get sufficient cold to flower and - if it does not, does it have the constitution to go on to next year?

Its all clear to me now


The variegated seedlings already illustrated started to grow green leaves and make strong plants
Not very pretty as garden plants
I am now writing in June and the discipline of writing a post has made me closely observe the progress of my Winter germinated seed.
Last year's plant and new self sown seedlings from seed dropped in the previous year
It's always a bit of a nuisance when seedlings come up in the wrong place and some were weeded away. The remaining variegated seedlings made a very pretty carpet under and alongside last years strong plants that were flowering superbly with bold variegated foliage. By May the flowering plants were starting to look untidy and some were tidied away.Others were left to make their beautiful seed heads.
The variegated seedlings were very pretty for quite a long time.They did not flower and as temperatures rose gradually started to make new healthy completely green leaves. They have made strong plants and will make a magnificent display next Spring.

Nobbled by caterpillars elsewhere in the garden this honesty in Summer looks pretty scruffy

A wonderful gardening resource
When researching this post I stumbled on Paghat the Ratgirl’s wonderful gardening website. I have in the past found it to be a very original source of reliable information by someone who has actually grown the relevant plant - unlike most reference garden websites where writers have just trawled the literature and recycle old and often wrong information.
It’s not one of her best efforts on variegated honesty and she concludes that it is not worth growing! Paghat is the only writer I found on variegated honesty who actually mentioned its green growing phase in Summer
I just love her weird website and feel inspired to soon write a post about it! It does not seem to continue beyond 2007 but contains 1600 insightful articles - and that’s just the gardening!

Other kinds of honesty

A friend gave me plants of a bronze foliage variety said to have been introduced by Rosemary Verey
I potted it up to obtain seed
Seed is well on the way
This variegated one reverted!
This perennial strain of honesty grows on the village plot
The seed came from Bolton Percy cemetery
This variegated honesty has set seed in Bolton Percy cemetery

I love my variegated honesty
...but it is perhaps best in the wild garden
...and it looks good on the plot
Hot of the press
My friend Peter Williams finds a place for honesty in his wood




My own previous effort on biennials
As a former lecturer I once felt I had mission to write ‘educational’ posts that go beyond the tat on the television. Roger, dream on  - who wants to read  - or more significantly search for - a piece that combines carrots, honesty and parsley. Perhaps someone might boost my figures that I constantly fret about by hitting this link?


Thursday 15 June 2017

Oh what a mess!

Worsbrough Cemetery May 2017
Take care of the weeds and the plants will take care of themselves
Normally when I arrive for my monthly stint at Worsbrough cemetery my spirits are uplifted by this beautiful place. Sometimes they plunge to the ground when I hear the comment above - or something similar. “What a shame” is a common variation.
The people of Barnsley are lovely kind generous folk but compliments are not on their agenda and most don’t really care for natural gardening. 
On my visit this May I was feeling nostalgic. It is a time of the year when the cemetery looks particularly lovely. My thoughts went ahead to the question as to whether it will it be ever the same?
I Informed the cemetery guardians six months ago that 2017 would be my final year. I started C1995 and have returned every single month doing my best to contain it. Three acres or so of cemetery is no mean task. I have enjoyed every minute and my efforts have been rewarded. It is by no means pristine - that is not possible without considerable labour. 

It is a long drive to Barnsley and now I have passed three quarters of a century the dream has subsided. I do hope others can take on the mantle.

Clothed with garden plants
The valerian was very popular at Chelsea four years ago
I like to cover the ground with self sown vegetation.
These are not weeds
The birch were self sown too
The only Euphorbia stigiana in Barnsley thrives here in the shade


With little help from me the poached egg plant which is annual returns every year and keeps the ground weed free 


The hellebores were already in flower in January 
It's a good time to see the aquilegias
Frothy heucherella remains a compact clump and sisyrinchium spreads by seed


Pink panther prowls
The grass paths are cut by a contractor
It might look overgrown but it is better than the original six foot high brambles


Heavy herbaceous tops might get cut back in Winter but not these


Looking back to the cemetery gate


I have not shown you the older and wilder lower half of the cemetery today


Tuesday 13 June 2017

Black boot and myrmecochory. A challenge

What is going on and what is this plant?

You can look at this two ways
Peter Williams tested me out with these pictures and I am passing the quiz on. In several weeks time I will extend this into an article. Although I will respond as usual to any comments I will not tell you if your answer is right until that time.
Please tell as much about it as you can. Your only prize will be some reader’s admiration or even their ire.

I will have egg on my face if no-one makes any suggestions

This will make things easier

Easier still - but only part of the answer
Links
I hope some of you might like to read some of my other strange postings

Dear Harry put this one on without telling me



Thursday 8 June 2017

Pictures of Edinburgh Botanic Garden

A potpourri of Peter's pictures

In my third post about our visit to Edinburgh I am showing Peter Williams’ fine pictures to tempt you to go there yourself. I will start with those taken outdoors where wonder of wonders entrance is free.

Outside



Cathi, Brenda, and Julie were very patient 

A very fine perennial variety

I have given up trying to grow blue meconopsis even though I have acid soil. I wish I could.

Not yet in flower the herbaceous border is stunning
This seed raised perennial is also admired in my own garden
Peter always has an eye for the rhododendrons


The twinflower is best seen growing as a native in Scotland
Inside
There is a modest charge of £6.50 to go inside the extraordinary greenhouses

It's only my apple - honestly











Edinburgh's water features are stunning


Water lilies are so photogenic


We had to drag Peter away
It was the same at Kew last year!





Peter found plenty of rhododendrons in the greenhouse


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