Plants constantly spring a surprise

Plants are constantly springing surprises, some of them the result of environmental conditions. Flowering out of season is one. I’m constantly informed of apples blooming in December, even though they’ve performed as normal in May and delivered the fruit.

Who can blame them if temperature and light levels similar to that month coax a few latent fruit buds into action now! This occurs in ornamental plants too.

There are a few evergreen shrubs in this garden that flower on cue in May – June. However, one, hebe (veronica) is situated in a sheltered spot with the sun on its head and has given a repeat performance in November – December. It is currently covered in bloom. Choisya (Mexican orange blossom) has repeat flowered too.

Continuous flowering is understandable especially when we support it by constantly removing fading blooms to encourage more. Repeat flowering is not so predictable but we accept it gladly.

Another spectacle of interest is the appearance of different coloured blooms on the same stem, often with chrysanthemums.

We grew a different white cultivar this year and it’s displayed some pure pink flowers and others tinged with yellow. This is a clue to its genetic background. This is why I’m inspecting our variegated shrubs right now for green-leafed stems which are removed at source. This is the plant reverting to the species from which it emerged.

Occasionally we influence a plant’s behaviour by pruning at certain times or manipulating light and temperature to force outof-season development. My favourite things are excluding all light from rhubarb to encourage early stems, keeping bowls of bulbs in the dark to force fragrant winter blooms, and best of all, growing new potatoes in the greenhouse for Christmas Dinner!