GARDENING:
Winter’s great favourites that shine through summer, too
FORGIVE me harping back to chillier times, but for Christmas I was given a potted hibiscus with glossy dark-green leaves and huge scarlet flowers. The Festive Fair variety makes a brilliant alternative to garish poinsettias. The pot, it turned out, contained three rooted cuttings. In spring I potted those individually and moved two outside. Ever since, they’ve carried a succession of large flowers.
Tender shrubs such as those can make a huge contribution to summer gardens. They bring a wonderfully exotic feel and the best flower almost constantly.
Most are easily grown, but all must be kept frost-free in winter. It’s easy with a conservatory, but some tender shrubs grow with minimal protection.
Fast-growing varieties will mature in a single summer. So September-rooted cuttings can be small enough to overwinter in a greenhouse or on a windowsill. But they will grow to an impressive size outdoors in late spring and summer.
A TROPICAL TOUCH
THE degree of tenderness matters. Near-hardy flowers such as oleanders will survive a moderate winter — especially if you protect their roots.
Though it’s always wise to root cuttings indoors, just in case.
You’ll find popular tender shrubs in most good garden centres.
An interesting nursery I’ve spotted online is Devonbased Hill House Nursery hillhousenursery.com.
If you haven’t a conservatory, some of the finest near-hardy shrubs are abutilons. The most widely grown, Abutilon megapotamicum, is a gangling shrub whose hanging blooms have canary yellow petals with vivid red calyces.
Fast-growing A. Ashford Red has scarlet crinoline-shaped flowers. A. Canary Bird is similar with yellow petals. These often survive a mild winter, if trained on a south-facing wall.
August-rooted cuttings will develop into decent plants by late May, when it’s safe to move them outside. Australian hibiscus, Aleogyne
huegelii, is closely related to the abutilons. The shrub has a floppy habit, but the huge mauve-blue flowers are spectacular. Fibrex nurseries (fibrex.
co.uk) also offer a named variety, Santa Cruz. Other fast-growing tender shrubs include shrubby solanums, lantanas, iochromas and tibouchinas. Iochroma australe has pendent, lavender-blue flowers. Tibouchina urvilleana has velvety leaves and large purple-blue flowers all summer.
Though not winter hardy, they all grow quickly from cuttings.
MONSTER EXOTICS
PLANTS mentioned so far grow readily in general purpose potting compost. Many can be hard-pruned in autumn. Be sure to have young plants coming on, particularly if your mature shrubs are likely to be at risk.
The ultimate tropical beauties are brugmansias — also known as ‘tree daturas’. Related to potatoes and native to South America, they’re prized for their huge trumpet blossoms.
They’re gorgeously exotic, but huge and only tolerate temperatures at or above 7c. That rules them out unless you can overwinter yours in a conservatory.
Bougainvilleas are big, too — but easy to contain. You can keep them in containers, restrict their growth and still enjoy plenty of colour.
If kept short of water during winter, they will flower more profusely every summer, but do prune each plant regularly.