Showing posts tagged Silver plants
Cyclamen coum I’m starting to realize that many of the plants I brought back from Japan aren’t native to Japan… this little silver-leaved,  eastern mediterranean cyclamen is no exception. I like it anyway. It was new to me, and I didn’t have it in the garden, but it’s kind of stupid to be buying an eastern Mediterranean plant in eastern Asia, and then flying it half way around the world to add to an Italian garden. Oh well, it’s here now and it seems to be happy in the Galeazza woodland. I guess that’s what counts.  Look carefully: There’s a tiny bud on there already! View high resolution

Cyclamen coum

I’m starting to realize that many of the plants I brought back from Japan aren’t native to Japan… this little silver-leaved,  eastern mediterranean cyclamen is no exception. I like it anyway. It was new to me, and I didn’t have it in the garden, but it’s kind of stupid to be buying an eastern Mediterranean plant in eastern Asia, and then flying it half way around the world to add to an Italian garden. Oh well, it’s here now and it seems to be happy in the Galeazza woodland. I guess that’s what counts. 

Look carefully: There’s a tiny bud on there already!

I’ve forgotten her name… can anyone help? View high resolution

I’ve forgotten her name… can anyone help?

Baby Perovskia atriplicifolia plants, starting to grow from cuttings. Not long ago their mother was in the Galeazza Emergency Room, but all is going well. View high resolution

Baby Perovskia atriplicifolia plants, starting to grow from cuttings.

Not long ago their mother was in the Galeazza Emergency Room, but all is going well.

Ballota!

As with people, so with plants. There are some who do not impress at first sight, but who gradually worm their way into one’s affections and make themselves indispensable. Ballota is such a plant. Essentially demure, it is always a pleasant sight and one that always does its job to the best of its ability.

Mrs Desmond Underwood, Grey and Silver Plants (1971)

Just Two More Silvers, To Make 30. This little Rose campion, (or Mullein pink) runt would be in danger of getting mistaken as a weed and ripped up were he not wearing his sexy silvery 1970’s t-shirt. Lychnis Coronaria self-seeds, so it’s a bit like aquilegias - once you’ve got them, you’ve got them for good. They’re biennial or a short-lived perennial, also like aquilegias. Why do I like Lychnis coronaria? Yes, it’s silver, and… unlike many silvers, it doesn’t have fugly (one often reads the snobby and discriminatory slur “insignificant”) yellow flowers - it has really bright pink flowers, or milky white flowers if you have the white version, which I do not - by chance, not by choice. I find the flash of bright pink contrasts beautifully with the white/silver foliage much better than the not quite bright white does. Milky white is not great, but OK - but if flowers go toward a creamy-buttery yellow I really don’t like or want them here.  N.B. I said “here”. Fine in other gardens - sometimes even perfect - but not here. Thank you. View high resolution

Just Two More Silvers, To Make 30.

This little Rose campion, (or Mullein pink) runt would be in danger of getting mistaken as a weed and ripped up were he not wearing his sexy silvery 1970’s t-shirt. Lychnis Coronaria self-seeds, so it’s a bit like aquilegias - once you’ve got them, you’ve got them for good. They’re biennial or a short-lived perennial, also like aquilegias.

Why do I like Lychnis coronaria? Yes, it’s silver, and…

unlike many silvers, it doesn’t have fugly (one often reads the snobby and discriminatory slur “insignificant”) yellow flowers - it has really bright pink flowers, or milky white flowers if you have the white version, which I do not - by chance, not by choice. I find the flash of bright pink contrasts beautifully with the white/silver foliage much better than the not quite bright white does. Milky white is not great, but OK - but if flowers go toward a creamy-buttery yellow I really don’t like or want them here.  N.B. I said “here”. Fine in other gardens - sometimes even perfect - but not here. Thank you.

Just Two More Silvers, To Make 30. This is another non-native naughty boy - Eucalyptus gunnii. Why have I introduced an Australian to an Italian garden? It’s silver, firstly, but not only… This eucalyptus is supposed to be a mini thing which will not grow into grossness as some of its relatives do in the UK… but the name under which it was sold doesn’t match the description I was given or what I’ve read in the Plant Bible, the RHS Encyclopedia of Garden Plants… There I’ve read it can grow up to 25 meters tall. At any rate, the slightly harsh winers (-5° Celcius, sometimes -10) manage to kill off anything sticking above the soil, so I lop off the dead branches every spring and then in the summer it shoots up again, but remains a bit scrawny. I’m guessing it will never grow to be as large as the willow which grows only 5 or 6 metres from it. View high resolution

Just Two More Silvers, To Make 30.

This is another non-native naughty boy - Eucalyptus gunnii. Why have I introduced an Australian to an Italian garden? It’s silver, firstly, but not only…

This eucalyptus is supposed to be a mini thing which will not grow into grossness as some of its relatives do in the UK… but the name under which it was sold doesn’t match the description I was given or what I’ve read in the Plant Bible, the RHS Encyclopedia of Garden Plants… There I’ve read it can grow up to 25 meters tall.

At any rate, the slightly harsh winers (-5° Celcius, sometimes -10) manage to kill off anything sticking above the soil, so I lop off the dead branches every spring and then in the summer it shoots up again, but remains a bit scrawny. I’m guessing it will never grow to be as large as the willow which grows only 5 or 6 metres from it.

+ Six More Silvers = 28 Artemisia ludoviciana? A weedy, easy kind of Artemisia to grow in this part of Italy,  but is this really Artemisia Ludoviciana? I don’t know. It looks like an ugly spin-off of Artemisia “Silver King”. What I do know is this plant is terribly - almost disappointingly - easy to grow. A tiny challenge to overcome in gardening is a pleasure. This can survive neglect and even abuse in heavy doses. I jammed a few sticks of it in the ground over by the pond without even faking an ounce of love or concern - pure heavy crappy clay (that artemisias supposedly dislike or die in, loving “sharply drained soil” or even sandy soil…) left them without watering them, and soon enough they were up, growing like crazy. Then, being near the pond and pots of waterplants, they were soon trampelled on by curious visitors who step on shit to take a sniff of this or a photo of that or to touch things they should leave alone. Still they keep growing… So if you can’t grow whatever artemisia this is, maybe you shouldn’t be gardening. View high resolution

+ Six More Silvers = 28

Artemisia ludoviciana?

A weedy, easy kind of Artemisia to grow in this part of Italy,  but is this really Artemisia Ludoviciana? I don’t know. It looks like an ugly spin-off of Artemisia “Silver King”.

What I do know is this plant is terribly - almost disappointingly - easy to grow. A tiny challenge to overcome in gardening is a pleasure. This can survive neglect and even abuse in heavy doses. I jammed a few sticks of it in the ground over by the pond without even faking an ounce of love or concern - pure heavy crappy clay (that artemisias supposedly dislike or die in, loving “sharply drained soil” or even sandy soil…) left them without watering them, and soon enough they were up, growing like crazy. Then, being near the pond and pots of waterplants, they were soon trampelled on by curious visitors who step on shit to take a sniff of this or a photo of that or to touch things they should leave alone. Still they keep growing…

So if you can’t grow whatever artemisia this is, maybe you shouldn’t be gardening.

+ Six More Silvers = 28 Festuca glauca - Blue Fescue, The smallest blue (well, kind of silver) grass in the Galeazza Garden. View high resolution

+ Six More Silvers = 28

Festuca glauca - Blue Fescue, The smallest blue (well, kind of silver) grass in the Galeazza Garden.

+ Six More Silvers = 28  Helichrysum italicum, syn. Helichrysum angustifolium (Curry plant) is used in cooking, but normally not eaten. Just throw it in the pot of whatever you’re cooking, and pull it out before serving. It smells just like curry, but isn’t! View high resolution

+ Six More Silvers = 28 

Helichrysum italicum, syn. Helichrysum angustifolium (Curry plant) is used in cooking, but normally not eaten. Just throw it in the pot of whatever you’re cooking, and pull it out before serving. It smells just like curry, but isn’t!

+ Six More Silvers = 28  Phlomis italica. Could I find Phlomis Italica anywhere near here, in Italy? Nope; so I brought it home from a personal garden tour in the UK. This little lady will one day, I hope, bloom pink, not yellow like so many of her ugly cousins. In the meanwhile, we’ll just enjoy her fuzzy leaves. View high resolution

+ Six More Silvers = 28 

Phlomis italica. Could I find Phlomis Italica anywhere near here, in Italy? Nope; so I brought it home from a personal garden tour in the UK. This little lady will one day, I hope, bloom pink, not yellow like so many of her ugly cousins. In the meanwhile, we’ll just enjoy her fuzzy leaves.

+ Six More Silvers = 28 

Doctor Lawrence, ER Stat! Dr. Lawrence, ER!

This Perovskia atriplicifolia (Russian Sage) was rushed to the castle ER today for immediate propogation. The mother plant was leggy as hell, and in desperate need of a good chopping, I tried to make about 30 babies from 3 long branches. We’ll know in a few weeks if I managed to kill them all or save the Galeazza species. I’ve heard they’re easy, so I’m hoping I’ve heard the truth.

This looks quite a bit like a beautiful true sage I did manage to kill - Salvia leucantha. Not really my fault - the winters here are way too harsh for that plant, and it made it a few winters, but not the winter of 2009-2010 when the temperature dropped to 15 below zero (Celcius) for a few days. Bye bye Mexican Sage!

Yet More Silvers Now we are beginning to fade away from “true” silvers, but nonetheless stay near silver hues - this is a young poppy, probably a month or more from flowering. It’s naughty naughty Papaver somniferum - the kind seed catalogues cannot send to residents of West Virginia. I love really stupid laws like that! Hey West Virginians determined to burn your brains out: I can send you the names of several even more common plants (or weeds that you don’t even have to cultivate) that will screw you up just as well as this could! View high resolution

Yet More Silvers

Now we are beginning to fade away from “true” silvers, but nonetheless stay near silver hues - this is a young poppy, probably a month or more from flowering. It’s naughty naughty Papaver somniferum - the kind seed catalogues cannot send to residents of West Virginia. I love really stupid laws like that!

Hey West Virginians determined to burn your brains out: I can send you the names of several even more common plants (or weeds that you don’t even have to cultivate) that will screw you up just as well as this could!

Yet More Silvers The leaves of this “Red Cabbage” (as the Italians call it - Cavolo rosso) are definitely silver - with purple reflections. It’s perfect for mixing with the silvers in the front garden, so I’m harvesting and planting seeds now for some winter interest. It should look good in November/December when not much else does! Name soon. View high resolution

Yet More Silvers

The leaves of this “Red Cabbage” (as the Italians call it - Cavolo rosso) are definitely silver - with purple reflections. It’s perfect for mixing with the silvers in the front garden, so I’m harvesting and planting seeds now for some winter interest. It should look good in November/December when not much else does!

Name soon.

Yet More Silvers But the definition of “silver is getting blurred. I think this is a kind of Tradescantia, but the proper name will appear soon. There’s definitely silver in this leaf, anyway, but from here we’ll be going on to fuzzy grey stuff, including one of the funkiest to touch plants in the Galeazza garden - Ballota pseudodictamnus - Common Name: False dittany. View high resolution

Yet More Silvers

But the definition of “silver is getting blurred. I think this is a kind of Tradescantia, but the proper name will appear soon. There’s definitely silver in this leaf, anyway, but from here we’ll be going on to fuzzy grey stuff, including one of the funkiest to touch plants in the Galeazza garden - Ballota pseudodictamnus - Common Name: False dittany.