Variegated Giant Reed...A Top 10 Accent Plant

There are two scary members of the grass family in this picture: Arundo donax variegata and that huge stand of bamboo. I remember the first time that I saw the variegated Giant Reed Grass; I was passing through Luray, Virginia somewhere around 1986 and I saw a 10' circle of what looked like the most colorful corn in the world and it was at least 10' high. Wow. Spectacular. I was aware of the straight species Arundo donax, a European native escaped and naturalized in fresh and brackish waters throughout North America. In other words a scary plant that would be best kept away from. It took em a year or so to figure out what I was looking at, but over that time, I fell in love. It is a wicked plant. Having failed to locate it in the marketplace for a few years, one day after a long, hot, laborious shift of gardening, Kyle Courtney and I returned to the headhouse sweaty and weary to find the Skip March had 2 plants, propagations of his, that he was giving away. I took one and wrongly, urged the other on Kyle. She took it and planted it on the margin of an infiltration basin in the community where she lived. Luckily it somehow passed away and didn't take over the pond.

Mine, planted in the gravelly sand in Adelphi, and lovingly tended, has survived these 20 years or so and delighted me every year. The dry sterility of the soil has prevented it from becoming a nuisance; it has stabilized to a point where it produces between 10 and 20 canes per year. (The canes are used to produce reeds for various woodwinds and parts for bagpipes.) Its on the west side of the back (south) garden so that the setting sun inflames the red flowers in Autumn. The variegation, here at its best, does viridiesce (turn green in the heat of summer). There is a cultivar that is supposed to keep its color all summer, but since I enjoy the provenance of my plant I will have to forego perfection.

Can't Photograph Fragrance!

If you could photograph a fragrance, this would be easy. This week the Agarista populifolia, or Florida Leucothoe is flowering in Fern Valley and the whole collection smells like warm honey. Seriously, it does. It isn't the most delicate floral smell, it doesn't evoke citrus, or cloves or any spice for that matter, it really smells like honey. If you come to Fern Valley this week, I guarantee (excepting any olfactory issues) you will experience it.

Florida Leucothoe, I first learned it as Leucothoe populifolia, is a mounding evergreen shrub that reaches a fair size, maybe 10 feet tall with a somewhat larger diameter. It tolerates shade which makes it a plant that will grow in your shady back yard. So far as I can tell deer don't seem to bother it, nor is it as susceptible to the leaf spots that plague the "true" Leucothoes. Now I have made it sound like a perfect plant and really I have to admit that its probably just a very good plant. Because it iis native much farther south, it suffers a bit in average winters, including yellowing of the leaves, and even some branch dieback. Severe winters produce a bit more severe symptoms. The good news is two-fold: winters are really mild now and regeneration pruning is a quick and sure solution if problems do occur.

Because it will grow in shade and so many people have shade, I have used this plant for years in garden designs. I have to admit though, that I was doing this somewhat in a state of ignorance; until I came to Fern Valley I had no idea how large these plants could grow. I had seen specimans 8' tall and 6' across, but they would be dwarfed by some of the older plants in Fern Valley that are a few feet higher and fully 15' across.