Planted for long lasting pleasure

Press, 27 March 1981, Page 9

Planted for long lasting pleasure

Gardener’s J DIARY

Derrick Rooney

I thought it might'be interesting to make a list, as cooler weather approaches, of plants that have given pleasure at different times of the year — and that will go on giving pleasure until winter is well established. But the difficulty when I began to wander round the garden, listing names, was not finding a few qualifiers — it was deciding what to leave out Eventually I restricted myself to a few — by no means all — of the plants which are just as attractive, now that a little autumn rain has come, as they were at the start of their growing season five months ago. First on the list is Polygonatum falcatum “Variegatum/ the variegated “Solomon’s seal/ This is quite a rare plant now but must still be around in some old gardens, because my piece came from one of them. It is neither as vigorous nor as big as the common Solomon’s seals (which are- hybrids of P. multiflorum), and is slow to increase, but it is a better garden plant, I think. True, the display of pendent white bells in spring is less lavish than that of the common kinds, because the flowers tend to appear singly instead of in clusters of four or five, but it is more graceful. And the foliage hangs on better in autumn, when the commoners are beginning to look tatty. Polygonatum falcatum is readily distinguished from P. multiflorum by the smaller and more pointed leaves, the reddish tones on the stems, and the more sharply defined “wings' on the upper reaches of the stems. I rank it among my favourite variegated plants, because it is one of the few in which the variegation is more pretty than eccentric.

The basic colour of the leaf is a light lettuce green, which contrasts nicely with the ruddy flush of the stems, and the white markings are confined to the tip and edges, Like the parent species, the garden variety come originally from Japan. Veronica gentiarioides “Variegata* is another variegated plant which is noteworthy as much for its flow

ers as for its foliage. Here, too, the variegation is white, and is largely confined to the margins of the leaves, which are glossy green and. of leathery texture. There are very few variegated plants which fit comfortably in the rock garden, but this is one of them. For most of the year it consists of a clump of tight rosettes, shaped like miniature cos lettuces and only a few inches high. In late spring it breaks out into 12in spikes of the palest and most luminous blue flowers, at which time, if some hot colours are handy, it is breathtaking. Sun, and sharp drainage, are all it asks to be happy. Not for the rock garden, but an attractive year-round sight in a sunny border is the non-flowering form of the familiar “lamb’s lugs/ Stachvs lanata, or, as it should now be called, Stachys Olympics. The shy form is called “Silver Carpet/ and for its availability to our gardens we must thank, as we must for a good many fine plants, the gardens adviser to the British National Trust, Graham Stuart Thomas. It was the sharp-eyed Mr Thomas . who spotted the original plant in a nursery row at Heacham, Norfolk, about 1960, and obtained the permission of the raiser to name it “Silver Carpet/ Slightly coarser silver hairs on the leaves, dense weed-suppressing growth and a total absence of flowers differentiate it from the ordinary . “lamb's lugs. Whereas the ordinary planl rushes up to flower in raid - summer and afterwards is at its bedraggled worst for the rest of the season, ‘“Silver Carpet' throughout the year is exactly what its name says it is. It looks a bit downcast after heavy rain, but > re covers when the sun comes" out _ - - * '~

When I first acquired this plant I put it in the rock garden, but soon I learned the error of my ways, because a small plant will spread over a square metre or two in a couple of seasons. Now, it occupies patches in a couple of mixed borders, where it is indispensible as a bright silver signal among heavier textures. It is completely hardy, and will thrive anywhere, even in the dry ground underneath shrubs. Every time I look at one of my clumps I make a mental note to get a few more going on the obstinately bare patches, and one of these years I will get around to it. In the meantime, I must make a firm commitment to place a piece at the foot of a shrub with which I think its silver leaves will contrast winningly. This is Hebe “Pink Payne/ Silver and rosy pink are an irresistible combination, and there is plenty of pink in this shrub, which even has a suggestion of the colour- in its glossy green leaves, and" grows anything from three to six feet high. “Pink Payne' is apt to produce its rosy pink flowers at any season, and in a' mild year its main flowering time is winter. But though it likes cool weather, it shudders in hard frosts, and I like to. keep a cutting or two in a frame over winter, as insurance.

The parentage of “Pink Payne' is anonymous, and though it is clear that the napuka (Hebe speciosa, a mainly North Island coastal species) is somewhere in the offing, the known pink forms of Hebe speciosa are all a purplish pink, whereas “Pink Payne' is a good, solid, rosy pink, quite a remarkable colour “break' among the hebes. It is not certain that “Pink Payne/ the best-known name, is the correct one. In recent years it has appeared .under several other monickers, including “Payne’s Pink,' “Rainer's • Beauty,' “Hebe speciosa ■ Pink,' and “Gauntlettii/ Possibly it originated in Gauntlett’s Nursery, in. Southland, but this is uncertain. Incertae sedis, nomen dubium,.or whatever, though, it is a first-class shrub.