Viewing comments posted by jmorth

Pieris is a broad leaved evergreen shrub native to mountainous areas of southern Asia, eastern North America, and Cuba. The leather-textured leaves are spirally arranged and change color as the season changes, starting out red to bronze and finally attaining a glossy, dark-green color. It can attain a height of 5 to 19 feet with a spread of 3 to 10 feet. Zonal range is from 5 to 9 with some species (mountainous) Zone 4 to 6. It is used as a foundation planting, an ornamental, and as a food source for deer and some butterflies.
Pieris is best grown in a shady spot in acidic soil with a ph value between 5 and 6. Mulch is beneficial. Shelter from wind is appreciated. If you can grow Azaleas and Camellias, you can grow Pieris.
The flowers are bell shaped, between a quarter-inch to a half-inch in size. They are pendulous, forming a raceme that looks like long, graceful tassels. Flower color is white, pink, or red. Flower buds start to develop in late fall, eventually covering the plant, and then burst open come spring, blooming for a couple of weeks. The fruit becomes a woody capsule that splits into 5 sections, releasing lots of seed.
Propagation can be accomplished by seed or cuttings.
If pruning is desired, it is best to do so immediately after flowering.
The name Pieris comes from a locale in Greece where the muses were said to dwell.

This is one very weird, strange, and bizarre plant. Plants are born without leaves. although the flower and resultant single, glossy, red-berried fruit appear to grow out of the middle of an evergreen leaf. That's not a leaf it's growing out of, however, but flattened stems known as cladocles. These cladocles look like stiff, spine-tipped leaves. Usually they are shaped like a lance and about 2.5 inches long. The true leaf manifests itself as a small, even minute, scale-like appendage; these real leaves are not photosynthetic.

The spring flowers are small, either white or white with a purple center. Flowers are usually either male or female, though there is a hermaphroditic cultivar available. Berries are only produced by female flowering plants a/o the plants bearing both sexed flowers on the same plant. The berries appear in late summer to fall, are conspicuous (over a half inch), and can remain on the plant through the winter. Birds eating the berries are one of the chief modes of seed dispersal. Plants also spread by underground rhizomes. Though slow, the spread can be fairly extensive. Insect pollinated.

The plant is considered an evergreen shrub (or, in some cases a sub-shrub) that can be utilized as an effective barrier due to its thick, stiff "leaves" that terminate in a needle-like point. As such, it can be a deer deterrent. The shortest cultivar at 15 inches is used as a ground cover. New shoots can be consumed like asparagus. The roots have been used as a coffee substitute and in homeopathic medicines for a variety of ills (use with caution). Its uniqueness, ornamental value (red berries), and use as a cut flower filler prompt home garden use. It was once used by butchers to sweep their blocks (hence, its most recognized common name: "Butcher's Broom").
Another common name, Knee High, comes from its ability to grow to knee height.

It grows best in moist but well-drained soils that include a fairly large span of soil ph parameters from acidic to alkaline. Partial shade is optimal, though it can grow fairly well in complete shade. In the wild it grows in woodlands, the outskirts of dry woods, and moist uncultivated areas. It is native to western and southern Europe, east to the Caucasus Mountains.

Common name is Sausage Tree, so named because the 3 to 24 inch fruits look like dangling sausages. The fruit can weigh in at 15 pounds, so care should be primary when selecting a site. Falling fruit can injure humans. Tree can attain 45-foot height. It has attractive, bell-shaped flowers, pollinated primarily by bats. Fruit is consumed by hippos, baboons, giraffes, elephants, and porcupines.

Used by native herbalists as a cure for a lot of ailments, from snake bites to tornadoes. An alcoholic drink, similar to beer, is made from the fresh fruit. Fermentation removes toxicity from the fruit. The timber is used to make yokes and oars. Also used as an ornamental tree.

This tree has several common names, one of which is Broken Bones Tree. The leaf stalks fall and collect at the base of the tree and look like a pile of broken bones. Another name is Tree of Damocles, alluding to a Greek tale in which a man changes places with a king . When the man was sitting on the throne, above his head was a sword held there by a single horse hair. The man wanted to resume his former status as the sword above him wrought fear. This tree's long dangling seed pods (well over a foot long) hang down like a sword.
This tree can attain 50 to 80 feet in height. It's a night bloomer (beautiful bloom) and is pollinated by bats. The leaves and stem are edible; also used as fodder, in folk medicine, and as an ornamental tree. It's native to the southeast Asia area.

Brent and Becky's Bulbs description -
Wisley - nicely formed, showy flower with terrific garden potential; elegant and strong; 10"-12"; early-mid spring.

Large bulb.

Recipient of the 'Most Unusual Aroid' award .at the International Aroid Society Show.

Can be grown as a houseplant in a partially sunlit window. Ease of care is legendary. Its growth habit, stems emerging at different times, gives it a tiered, bushy look. Height is 14 inches.

State grass of Illinois.

The infamous plant Socrates ingested in 399 BC that caused his death.

Description from Brent and Becky's Bullbs:
'An American bred Mitsch hybrid, Surfside - (6 Y-W) reminds me of a creamy billowing surf with short stocky strength; the expanded large ruffled cup opens creamy and turns to white; clear white perianth flows back like a wave; very strong; mid spring; 10"-12".'

It is one of the best cultivars I've ever forced.

Awarded daffodil's greatest recognition by RHS - Award of Garden Merit (1988).

A white-flowering, twining, aggressive legume that resembles soybeans to some extent, Rongai is used as a forage crop in Australia, Brazil, and Texas and as a food crop in central Africa. It is a Nitrogen fixer useful in crop rotation plans with an indeterminate growth habit. The seeds are buff or pale brown w/ a conspicuous white hilum.

Agapanthus, commonly known as "Lily of the Nile," has nothing to do with the River Nile. It is also known as "Lily of the Freeway," especially in California, where masses of them have been planted along state highways and in median strips.
It originated in Cape Province of South Africa. Its Latin name is derived from the Greek root word for love "agape."
Flowers are borne as globular clusters arising on bare stems over strap-shaped foliage. They mostly flower in blue or white during the summer. Many do well in containers, especially dwarf varieties. Those in containers can be grown indoors. Usually trouble free.

This cultivar bears the same name as two others. The weird thing is that two of these same-name daffodils were bred by the same breeder, R H Bath, Ltd. in England, 3 years apart. One is a division-2, large-cupped daffodil (registered in 1926), and this one is a division-3, small-cupped daffodil (registered in 1923).
Perhaps the breeding was done and assigned a name by a couple of breeders who worked for the same company, as the Ltd. suffix might represent a company. R H Bath himself was a reknowned and well respected hybridizer in his own right.

The RHS (rhs.org.uk) - 'Declared not to be a clonal cultivar and may show some variation within the parameters of the cultivar. Falls botanically within {N}. x {litigiosus}' regarding the Eira Group. (12/15/2008).
This award winning cultivar from Wales won an Award of Merit in 2008 and a Preliminary Consideration (PC) in 2001, same year registered.

This cultivar was grown from seed sent to Australian Lawrence Trevanion by Bill Welsh from California.
One of the first jonquilla daffodils (div. 7) to flower in the spring.

Dynamo from the Netherlands was classified as a division 2 (Large Cupped) until 1935, when it was reclassified as a division 3 (Small cupped) daffodil.

RHS changed Duke of Albany from division 8 (Tazetta) to division 12 (Miscellaneous) in November 2007, at the same time that the Duchess of Albany was reclassified; both were bred pre-1869 by the Englishman Wm Backhouse.

RHS changed this very old cultivar, Duchess of Albany from division 8 (Tazetta) to division 12 (Miscellaneous) in November of 2007.
Same time the Duke of Albany was reclassified; both were bred pre 1869 by the Englishman Wm Backhouse.

This, if I remember correctly, is only the second daffodil I've reviewed that is green flowered (reviewed maybe half of the 26000 listed). It was bred by a famous Australian breeder, W Michael Spry, around 1975 from 'Judy Davidson' and a seedling from Fairbairn (another moderately famous hybridizer). Spry describes 'Dorothy Simmons' as: "Early, large, frilly decorative, remarkable luminous lemon green color" (from Spry's typed cultivar list).

Brent and Becky's describe Delibes thusly -
'a terrific perennializer, and an old standby, buttercup yellow, rounded, overlapping petals and a pale yellow/orange cup with a broad, bright orange rim that looks like it's been kissed; 12"-16"; early- mid spring; 1950; 14+ cm.'

Dawnglow came from Australian breeder Crawford E. Radcliff and was registered with the RHS by 1935. Dawnglow is both seed and pollen fertile and has been utilized in a multitude of breeding programs since its introduction. It has served as a seed parent 13 times and as a pollen parent 72 times, resulting in 85 crosses, of which 73 ended up as named cultivars, and the other 12 as recorded seedlings. Its history of use in breeding programs peaked around the middle of the last century in Australia. Australia is the home of most of Dawnglow's descendants. A couple came out of New Zealand and 1 from the USA.