Seasonal Features 2006

Camellias

Camellias have to be among the most versatile of garden shrubs and trees. They have thick, glossy leaves that create formal structure in any garden. Flowering from April through to November, they provide colour interest during the colder, grey days when there is little else putting on a glorious show.
Camellias are named after a Jesuit priest, George Josef Karmel. While a missionary in the Philippines he collected many botanical specimens and sent them back to Europe in the 17th century.
Early in winter the sasanqua types come into bloom. These have small leaves and the flowers are 6cm or less across. These varieties are used in confined spaces and often as hedge lines where areas are narrow and limited. They do well against fences and along driveways where they can be trimmed to stay 40 to50cm wide. Many new varieties of sasanqua camellias are now available that stay 50cm high and can be grown year round in containers. These make ideal patio or porch plants, especially on the cooler and shady side of the house.
The Camellia japonica has over 30,000 different varieties. Japonica (Japanese) camellias and their hybrids start to flower in early winter and as the season progresses different camellias begin to flower. With careful planning, a garden can have a selection of camellias that will flower at different times, ensuring there will always be a colourful flower blooming. Selection can be made according to flower colour, size and shape. Camellia flowers are white, pink or red but with the wide selection available there are many shades of pink and red ranging from the delicate, softest pastel pink to hot pink or coral pink. Some are a combination of shades - one may have white centre and pink edges, another red petals with white marbling effects and some are flecked through every petal with white, pink and red. As usual, there are a few exceptions. In the last few years a range of soft lemon and cream shades has been bred.
The other distinguishing features of the Camellia flowers are their size and form. Some people prefer the single or semi-double shaped flower. These have a prominent display of bright yellow stamens in the centre. A speck of pollen falling on to a velvet red petal that glows in full sunlight is a simple and glorious sight. And yet another person will see beauty in a peony form that has lots of petals and is large, showy and rounded in shape. Formal, double camellia flowers are like water lilies in shape and form a geometric design.
In the garden Camellias need little care and maintenance to develop into handsome features. Easily planted or moved in winter when the soil moisture is high, Camellias are planted from April until Labour weekend. They have fine, surface roots so add compost and fertiliser into the hole when digging over the planting site. Camellias prefer acid soil and NZ soil is naturally acidic. Do not add lime, blood and bone or mushroom compost to camellias. All of these contain calcium that leaches alkaline chemicals to the soil. As the root system is close to the surface, Camellias may need watering over summer until they have settled into the new site. Bank up with leaf mould, some lawn clippings, bark or straw for the first two years after planting to retain moisture. Camellias are native to cold and hilly places so do well inland. They will survive in gullies and damp shaded places, as they prefer humid, cool air. However, they are just as suited to the town garden where diligent gardeners can tend to their needs. The south or west side of the house and section is sometimes hard to landscape. Here, camellias will provide shelter against the cold winter winds and give the area good form and flower colour. Those facing the rising eastern sun can have their blooms damaged on frosty mornings. Planted singularly or in a hedge line, Camellias are hardy and well suited to the Manawatu landscape.
There are other Camellias species that are important in the daily diet of many people around the world.
Camellia sinensis provides us with the daily cuppa. Millions of tonnes are harvested and processed each year from this one species for export as tea. Leaves from this plant can be harvested and air -dried. Kept in an airtight container, fresh green tea can be made by infusing the leaves. And in Japan and China the seeds of several more Camellia species are processed into oil. This camellia oil is the main cooking oil in many Asian countries.

Wallflowers

Wallflowers originated in either eastern or southern Mediterranean areas. In times when towns and dwellings were fortified this plant would readily self- seed in nooks and crannies of the stone walls. Hence it was named “wall flower”.

Maude Grieve relates how it was often carried in the hand at ancient parades and ceremonies and one of the botanic names Cheiranthus comes from cherisaunce which means “hand flower”. There is confusion whether wallflowers are botanically Cheiranthus or Erysimum. Some texts and authors state they were once Cheiranthus but have since been renamed as Erysimum. Others say there are definitely two species and they are closely related. Michael Wright calls the dwarf wallflowers Cheiranthus and the alpine wallflowers Erysimum. He says though, they all should belong to the Erysimum species. Meg Gaddum of “The New Zealand Plant Finder” agrees.

There does seem to be two distinct groups. The dwarf wallflowers tend to be annuals in growth and habit. They are often available in punnets as bedding plants in late autumn. These are low growing, often no more than 25cm high. Each plant spreads out to cover 20 to 30cm diameter. The flower is typical of wallflowers with four petals. The flowers are grouped in clusters at the end of each leafy stem. Two, three or four flowers will be open at a time. As these fade and finish there will be a tight bunch of emerging buds forming, ready to take over. Flowering time lasts for about four months. These dwarf wallflowers generally set seed well and in the following autumn will germinate and cover the ground where their parent plant grew in the previous season.

The second group of wallflowers, the alpines, are taller growing. They will readily grow to one metre high and will form a shrub that can be over a metre wide. These flower for a longer time and can often still have a few fragrant flowerheads lasting into the summer months. If the spent flowerheads are cut back into the leafy stem each spring when the main flush of flowering has finished, the plant can last up to four or five years. The time span of each plant varies. Different colour forms tend to live from two to five years. It would seem the plants that have more orange or yellow in their colour are the hardier varieties.

The modern types, which have russet, orange and yellow in their flower colours, have a stronger scent. Ancient forms of wallflowers were all yellow or orange. Culpepper (1652AD) states that Galen (160AD) in his seventh book of simple medicines, says, “that the yellow wall flowers work more powerfully than any of the other kinds, and are therefore of more use in physic.” Culpepper states “It cleanses the blood, and frees the liver and veins from obstructions, stays inflammations and swellings, helps to cleanse the eyes from mistiness or films on them, and to cleanse filthy ulcers in the mouth and is a singular remedy for gout, and all aches and pains in the joints and sinews. A conserve made of the flowers is used for a remedy both for apoplexy and palsy.”
Other ancient folklore reports as it as been used as a heart remedy and suggest it was once also called ‘heartease’.
Maude Grieve (1931AD) says its alkaloid cherinine is crystalline and is useful acting on nerve centres and on the muscles. And Roger Philips and Nicky Fox (1990AD) report that a chemical compound – cheiranthin, recently isolated, has cardiotonic properties that are more active than digitalis. It is interesting to note that modern, scientific research affirms what Galen and the ancient Greek and Romans already knew.

In the garden, wallflowers have been admired and grown for their fragrance and eye appeal. They flower in winter and early spring when there is little colour or scent in the garden. They have been grown down the centuries for their pleasing form and fragrance. Thomas Tusser in his 1573 edition “500 points of Good Husbandry” includes wallflowers in a list of “Herbs, Branches and Flowers for Windows and Pots”. Rev. Samuel Gilbert listed wallflowers as being garden worthy in his 1683 book of “the Florist’s Vade Mecum”. They were popular too, a century later when the age of the florist (or hobby gardener) was in fashion. Perhaps the new forms of flower shades in wallflowers started here in the age of clubs and flower shows. These were great social occasions organized to have club dinners at local inns. Patrons would provide prizes of silver cups, spoons or punch ladles for the biggest, brightest and newest blooms that were carefully bred. The noted Victorian gardener, William Robinson includes wallflowers as being an integral part of the cottage garden scene in his book “The English Flower Garden.”

Helen Allingham was a noted painter of Victorian times. Her popular works portraying the cottages of Surrey and Sussex included the cottage gardens in fine detail. Wallflowers can be seen, painted to perfection in her works.

Modern wallflowers come in a range of colours. Purple, red, pink, brown, pale cream all mix with the original yellow and orange tones. Many varieties have flowerheads with five flowers simultaneously blooming and each flower is a different colour. Some flowers have a darker shade to the veining of the flower which adds even more tones.