Zanthan Gardens
Category: Plant Highlights

Dateline: 2005
‘Night Game’ opened its first flower on April 16th making it the first named iris to bloom this year. However, the stalk is quite short, only about 18 inches tall. The first flower opened on the bottom and is also rather small.
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Dateline: 2004

2004-04-13. Noisette rose ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’.

The cold snap that came last weekend has dropped nighttime temperatures into the 40s and ‘Madame Alfred Carriere’ is loving it. Her flowers hold their shape better in cool weather. Under normal April conditions they open and fade in an afternoon and looking, sadly, like crumpled tissues. The flowers are larger than ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ and more of a peachy pink than ‘Souvenir del Malmaison’.

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The semi-double sport of ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’ has a cinnamon-scented center. I can’t always smell it, but I did today.

Updates
Need to hunt down the dates for these photos.

Dateline: April 2, 2004
This week, the Tea rose ‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ is trying to steal the spotlight from ‘Ducher’ and ‘Souvenir de la Malmaison’. Now into her third year in the garden, she is a mass of rosebuds. The Tea roses, first bred in the mid-1800s by crossing China roses with Bourbon and Noisette roses, are popular in the south. As a rule, Teas are considered “delicate”; that is, they are not roses for cold climes. But they stand up well to Austin’s heat and humidity.

‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ is often described a “white” sport of ‘Duchesse de Brabant’, but is actually more creamy pink. Her color varies from flower to flower and season to season. The loose cabbage-shaped flowers are not individually arresting. They have weak necks an. the flowers dangle like bells. They have a casual, blowsy look that is at home in the wildflower border. On warm days (highs above 85) they open and fall quickly. But when in flower, there are always a lot of them, and they are nicely scented.

‘Madame Joseph Schwartz’ is a great landscape rose because she forms a dense shrub which is attractive even when not in flower, so dense that the thin flexible canes droop under the weight. She can get to six or seven feet tall although after three years in my garden is is only about three feet tall and wide. I’ll be glad when she reaches her full height and I can look up into her flowers, rather than kneel on the ground to see them. In my yard, she blooms best in cool weather. This is her second flush of buds this year; the first was at New Year’s. She blooms so early in my garden, that her buds are frequently nipped by frost. She also holds up well under our summer heat. She hasn’t had any problems with mildew or black spot.
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One of the bulbs I found in my garden when I moved in over ten years ago was a Narcissus tazetta cross. These narcissus (in contrast to the paperwhite narcissus) have wide strappy dark green leaves, yellow cups, bloom later, a much more pleasant scent, and thrive year after year on heavy clay soil without much attention.

So based on Scott Ogden’s description in Garden Bulbs for the South and the fact that I live in an older Austin neighborhood, I was pretty sure my N. tazetta was ‘Grand Primo’. But I had some doubts. Scott Ogden said that ‘Grand Primo’ blooms in late February and mine usually begin blooming on New Year’s Day (depending on the amount of rain in November and December). The few photos I found confused me more. My tazetta has distinctly separate, thin, pointed, petals which tend to twist back slightly, forming wind-blown stars. Other photos of ‘Grand Primo’ show overlapping petals that curve inward.

This season, with its unusually dry December and an unusually wet February, provided an answer to the mystery. I have two different tazetta crosses. The flower on the left bloomed as usual beginning in January. But then three more clumps came up much later than the rest, with slightly shorter leaves and scapes. When they began blooming a couple of weeks ago, I could see the difference.

I think that the flower on the left is Narcissus tazetta v. italicus. The one on the right could be ‘Grand Primo’ or even ‘Avalanche’.

If it ever stops raining (did I actually say that?), I’ll take some more photos.

Update: February 5, 2008

Update: December 25, 2015

Today a fourth Narcissus tazetta opened. This has been a good year because of the heavy rain on October 30 and throughout November. I find it very difficult to tell one little narcissus apart from another in photographs (especially close ups). I need a side-by-side comparison. So here is a note to my future self.

From left to right: unknown paperwhite narcissus, Narcissus ‘Grandiflora’, Narcissus tazetta x italicus, Narcissus tazetta var orientalis ‘Chinese Sacred Lily’.

Update: February 13, 2020

This year both the italicus and ‘Grand Primo’ bloomed better than ever. I was ahead of schedule weeding and feeding them. And we got good rains at the end of December and early January.

As usual, the italicus bloomed first. But the ‘Grand Primo’ was right behind so that there was a bit of overlap. In one bed in the front of the house where they got mixed in together, the dark green foliage of the ‘Grand Primo’ was distinctively different than the lighter gray foliage of the italicus. But the italicus is still larger and strappier than the typical paperwhites.

Oddly, this year, it was ‘Grandiflora’ that bloomed first (in December)…weeks before the unnamed paperwhites or the italicus.

In The Rose Bible, Rayford Clayton Reddell names the English Rose ‘Heritage’ in his list of fifty immortal roses. Delicately colored and intensely scented, the cupped flowers have all the charm of old-fashioned roses. Reddell says that ‘Heritage’ is “reasonably disease-resistant”. However, it is the only rose bush in my garden that has repeated problems with black spot.

The only other complaint I have about ‘Heritage’ is that each flower loses its petal very quicky, before they fade or brown, when they are still glossy and fresh.

However, it is a very beautiful rose and one of the most strongly scented roses I have.

Dateline: 2003-10-24

Planted some smokey bronze fennel from Renee’s Garden (500mg for $2.49) in the vegetable garden, which I use for starting seeds over the winter because it is the sunniest and warmest part of the garden by January, after all the leaves have fallen.

Notes from the seed packet.

“Striking bronze fennel has 4 to 5 plumes of filigreed coppery leaves and lacy golden flower umbels that ripen mellow anise-flavored seeds.
“These plants are stunning additions to flower or herb beds and are major nectar hosts for many butterfly species. Season seafood, salads or cooked vegetables with sprigs of the feathery copper-bronze leaves. Tea made from the aromatic leaves or sweet seeds soothes upset stomachs and calms the nerves.”

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Dateline 2003

Curious and curiouser. Last year one clump of my oxblood lilies set seed. I have managed to keep alive four little seedlings. Because I’ve obtained my bulbs from various sources over the years, I wondered if a different kind of Rhodophiala got mixed in with the normally sterile oxblood lilies. However, this year many clumps set seed. From a single bulb, usually only one stem would set, sometimes only one flower.

The Pacific Bulb Society has one of the best resources on Rhodophiala. They say that the Rhodophiala bifida of Central Texas is known for its abiity to reproduce rapidly by offsetting and it does not set seed. Other Rhodophiala bifida strains set seed, but don’t offset.

Well, whatever is in my garden does both. The bulbs that formed seeds are also forming offsets. But I do seem to have two different types. One has an elongated rather gourd-shaped bulb. I thought the bulbs were misshapen because they were growing in poor conditions originally. But after a year in the seedling bed, they are the same shape and produced many offsets also the same shape. They also have thick fleshy roots and look somewhat like this photo of Rhodophiala granatiflora. However, on my plants the flowers and leaves look just like the other oxblood lilies and the stems are an inch or two shorter…but that might just be because of their age or location.

Dateline 2002

Oxblood lilies (Rhodophiala bifida) are very easy to propagate by offsets. They multiply quickly, especially when fed and watered. They are one of those marvelous plants which can thrive on complete neglect but do even better when fed, watered, and planted in good garden soil.

About a dozen of my oxblood lilies set seed this year. Every year, after the stalks flower, little seed heads form. But most simply wither away. This year, one group brought seeds to maturity. They look exactly like rainlily seeds and so I sowed them the same way. I soaked them overnight after gathering them and then sprouted them between sheets of paper towel. To my complete amazement, most of the seeds sprouted. I have now planted them in little flats.

Scott Ogden reports that in their native Peru pink and orange Rhodophiala are grown that can only be reproduced from seed. These strains are reputedly less hardy than the oxblood lilies naturalized in Austin. Mine which set seed look just the same as the others, but produced more flowers per bulb. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if this is an improved form?

Tags: Rhodophiala bifida, oxblood lily, bulb, flower, garden.

They’re not supposed to set seeds.

I bought ‘Bangkok Yellow’ several years ago from Stokes Tropicals and planted it in the south border where it languished in the English ivy. Last fall, I decided to give it a better chance and moved it closer to the other tropical plants where it would get more sun and I’d remember to water it. Since then, it’s thrived.

As canna go, it’s fairly compact, only two to three feet tall. The leaves are pinstriped with a light yellowed white and so far it has better bug and wind resitance than the other canna nearby; so, it’s leaves remain crisp and neat. The flower is a clear yellow, with white stripes.

I grow it in ground, but I’ve read that it’s a great water canna. It goes by several other names, ‘Nirvana’ and ‘Striped Beauty’.

Zanthan Gardens History

2000-06-22
Ordered 3 canna online from Stokes Tropical plants.

A dwarf canna with foliage that is outstanding — green leaves with white striping. It’s red bud opens into a clear yellow flower with white throat. Grows very well in water. Amazing Canna that has to be seen to be believed.

2001-06-03
First flower ever on the canna which I bought in the mail. It is a clear lemon yellow. One plant is large, one small, and one died.

2003-01-21
Since the freeze froze back the canna, move it from the south border to square 2. (Both kinds. The ‘Bangkok Yellow’ and the unknown kind from the RHS seeds which hasn’t bloomed yet). Hoping that additional sun and water will improve performance. Dig in a lot of composted horse manure from the last haul from DF.

2003-05-28
First flower this year.

2004-03-29
Replanted the canna that I’d left in water in a pot all winter. They had grown a lot of roots and since I’m a little late getting them in they look a bit peaked compared with the ones I transplanted right away. Still this is a good strategy for increasing them.

2005-08-27
The sun and triple-digit temperatures make this canna unhappy when it’s not in a pond setting. My other cannas are green, but these want a lot more water than I’m prepared to give them. They’re surviving and perk up whenever it rains. However their leaves are brown. They are not thriving. They look as miserable in this heat as I do.

2006-08-26
There are two small groups of canna left. Not a single canna flowered this year. I dug up the ones that got the most sun (south of ‘French Lace’). There were only four left out of a huge bunch a couple of years ago. They have been struggling all summer. I’m not sure they’re large enough to nurse back to health. I should have done this earlier but then this miserable summer has been full of “should haves”.

2007-05-28
Cannas like Austin’s wet years better.

Canna ‘Bangkok Yellow’. 2007-05-28.

2008-05-22
First flower on the one in the west square, not the pond.

2008-06-04
Raccoons jumped on the pond netting, snapping the canna stalks just flowering and breaking one of the new clay pots that survived the storm.

2009-04-20
Fed all the pond plants including the canna that’s not in the pond yet.

2009-06-20
First flower: canna ‘Bangkok Yellow’. Now in pond.

2010-07-16
One plant in the west square which didn’t get dug up is growing well. Finally put the rest of the cannas back into the pond. I thought they were dead but they began sprouting after all of the rain earlier this month.