Digging » Plant trial

July 28, 2010

Senorita Rosalita cleome mystery

Filed under: 2nd garden--2010, Plant trial, Xeric plants — Pam/Digging @ 10:10 pm

I’ve been touting the delights of ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome since trialing two in my back garden last year. Through terrible drought and heat, those cleomes grew bushy and full and bloomed nonstop until fall. Last winter killed them off, but naturally I bought two replacements this spring when I found them at Natural Gardener.

Sadly, one began to decline right away, and I ended up pulling it out in case it was diseased. By then I couldn’t find a replacement anywhere, but Daphne Richards came to the rescue and gave me two that she didn’t have room for, both from Home Depot. I planted one next to the survivor from Natural Gardener; the other went into the afternoon-sun bed I’d just created in the front yard. Since then, both the N.G. and the H.D. ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome in the back garden have failed to live up to last year’s plants. They are thin, straggly, and small—not at all what I fell in love with last year.

But the H.D. plant out front? Well, just look at it. It’s as full and flowery as the two I grew last year. I don’t know how to account for it. It’s obviously not a nursery issue. It’s not a placement issue because the two poor plants are growing where last year’s plants thrived. The only variable that I can think of is the weather. Last year it was brutally hot and dry. This year it’s been hot, but we’ve had some rain.

At any rate, when ‘Senorita Rosalita’ is good, she’s very, very good, and if you bought one on my recommendation, I certainly hope she looks fluffy and flowery. Because when she is bad, she’s horrid.

If you’re growing ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome in the Austin area, I’d love to hear your experience with it, for comparison’s sake.

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April 2, 2010

Cattle panel plant support for Senorita Rosalita cleome

Filed under: 2nd garden--2010, How I did it, Plant trial, Tools, Xeric plants — Pam/Digging @ 6:19 am

If recent tweets among Austin garden bloggers are any indication, we’ve snapped up pot after pot of ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome at the Natural Gardener and at Home Depots all over town this spring, and I made sure to grab two for myself in the buying frenzy. Last year I trialed this Proven Winners annual (perennial in zones 8-10, but it didn’t survive our hard freezes), and it performed spectacularly through record heat and drought, growing big and bushy in part sun and flowering spring through fall. You couldn’t find ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome in area nurseries or garden centers last season, but this year, to my delight, it’s available. It’s also offered online at White Flower Farm.

It’s a great plant. The only problem I’ve documented with it is splitting after a heavy rain. One of last year’s cleomes split right in half, leaving a gaping hole in the mass of foliage. So this time I’m giving the Senoritas some support.

I saw this idea at the Wildflower Center last winter (above) and decided to try it at home. I cut a long section of cattle-panel wire to a width of 3 squares, and on each end I snipped the cross pieces off to a length of 2 squares, creating staking legs. Holding the wire upright and then bowing it away from me, I stood on one end of it and bent the wire into a U-shape. Centering it over the cleome, I pushed the staking legs into the ground.

I considered painting the wire a fun color, as Lindy McGinnis did with cattle-panel trellises I saw in her garden on tour. But since I have a galvanized-silver thing going with all my stock tanks, I opted to leave the wire as-is and let it blend into the background.

I made another support for my ‘Ava’ agastache, which is also prone to splitting, according to High Country Gardens owner David Salman (see his comment on my agastache post, linked above). Cattle panel is a sturdy wire, and as the cleomes and agastache grow up through the holes, their top-heavy stems will be supported.

Cattle panel is a fantastic material for gardening projects like trellises, screens, and fencing. It comes in 10-ft. lengths and can be purchased at Callahan’s General Store in Austin, which is also where I buy my stock tanks. You need to use bolt cutters and arm muscle to snip it, and it’s a good idea to wear gloves when handling it, as the cut edges are sharp.

In my former garden I used a full piece of cattle panel to construct a trellis screen to divide my garden. Click for my how-to. When I moved, I disassembled that screen and brought the wire panel with me, which I used to make my plant supports. That’s the other great thing about cattle panel: it’s easily repurposed for the next project.

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November 23, 2009

King Tut papyrus & other November sparklers

Filed under: 2nd garden--2009, Bugs, Plant trial, Stock tanks, Water gardening — Pam/Digging @ 7:03 am

When Proven Winners asked me last spring if I’d trial some of their plants, I requested they send me only xeric plants, explaining that I am not a zealous waterer. So imagine my surprise when, among a nice selection of drought-tolerant plants, this ‘King Tut’ papyrus arrived. What am I going to do with a bog plant in my dry garden, I wondered?

Oh well, it was free, so I plunked it in a shady spot just downhill from a sprinkler head and made a well of mulch around it, to better capture any stray moisture. And then our summer drought from hell set in, and I watered ‘King Tut’ exactly as much as the other new plants in my garden, which, by mid-summer, amounted to the city-legislated once per week.

To my great surprise, ‘King Tut’ lives. It did suffer a bit during the heat of the summer, as a few big, sparkler-shaped heads turned brown, but it rebounded nicely with the cooler, wetter fall weather.

‘King Tut’ grows quite large (probably larger if watered regularly); Proven Winners’ website says 48-72″ tall. Mine is about 4 1/2 feet tall. It’s considered an annual where temperatures reach freezing, so I’m waiting to see whether it will return next spring. We didn’t have a hard freeze last winter, but we usually do get at least a couple.

The dwarf papyrus in my stock-tank pond displays that same beautiful sparkler flower head, made even more lovely at this time of year by turning golden yellow.

‘Black Marble’ taro still looks lovely in the pond too, even though it’s been knocked off its perch twice lately by something, probably a raccoon after the fish. The pond is deep enough at 2 feet, and has steep sides with no sloping entry, so that it has foiled the raccoon attacks so far.

Cousin Itt, my potted Texas nolina, looks more and more like a fountain or waterfall as it ages. This native evergreen relative of the yucca is perfect for containers in sun or shade, but watch out—it does get large. This one is probably 5 feet in diameter. It wouldn’t work on a front porch.

After a summer of singing in the oaks, the katydids are coming down to ground level, where I’m noticing them with regularity. I spotted this one on the deck table this afternoon and took a photo of it for ESP, who is interested in bugs. Actually, so am I. The katydid does have wings but is said to be a clumsy or even incapable flier. They prefer to crawl, and that’s what this one was doing when I leaned in for a close-up.

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November 3, 2009

Summer into fall flowers

Filed under: 2nd garden--2009, Plant trial, Xeric plants — Pam/Digging @ 2:24 pm

I can’t say enough good things about orange narrowleaf zinnia (Zinnia angustifolia). It bloomed dependably all summer and is still holding its own, adding a pop of orange amid the silver and blue-green foliage of xeric plants in a sunny bed.

Likewise, ‘Senorita Rosalita’ cleome, one of the Proven Winners plants I trialed this season, is still flowery. It did suffer from splitting damage this summer when a couple of brief rain showers weighed down its brittle stems. But even without a late-summer trim it’s still blooming and driving the bees crazy.

‘Ava’ agastache continues her reign as my favorite of the agastache collection from High Country Gardens. Her regal bearing and deep-rose flowers enthrall me—and this is only her first season. Check out Bev’s Colorado Garden for beautiful pics of a more-established ‘Ava’ and Bev’s experience with this lovely plant.

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