Sure bets for a blooming great garden!

Africa’s greatest annual horseracing event, the Vodacom Durban July, will take place at Greyville on 31 July 2010. The theme of this year's race is 'A Blooming Great Day' and, as the media partner for this sparkling social occasion, The Gardener has decided to compile a betting list and betting tips, but with a difference … ours is a list of great old favourites, a few rank outsiders and some brand new plant releases, all guaranteed to use every ounce of energy in their sprint to ensure blooming victory.

 

ABLE ABELIA

All Abelia garden hybrids are great performers, so you can never go wrong when choosing and planting them. To the delight of gardeners the newly released, ABELIA x grandiflora ‘Kaleidoscope’ changes colour like a true chameleon, depending on the season. In spring the foliage is bright yellow with light green centres. In summer it changes to golden yellow and deep green. In autumn you can expect the combination to change again, going from bright orange to fiery red in deep winter. The plant is a dainty grower, approximately 70 cm x 90 cm.

 

BOUNTIFUL BOUGIE

In a previous article our learned colleague, Gerald Schofield, told us that BOUGAINVILLEA ‘Ada’s Joy’, with its beautiful light pink bracts, is a garden sport of two other bougainvillea hybrids. It is, however, a stable plant of great beauty and sustained flower power, and a handy climber to use if you are fond of gardening in soft pastel colours.

 

BRIGHT BOTTLEBRUSH

Callistemons (or bottlebrushes) are gentle on a gardener. They are easy to grow, tough as old riding boots, happy in most climates, use very little water, and flower spectacularly from spring to summer. Birds and butterflies adore them. A new arrival is CALLISTEMON subulatus ‘Brongo Overflo’, a graceful shrub that grows up to 3 m high, with attractive narrow foliage and red flower spikes in summer.

 

FASHION GRASS

CAREX brunnea ‘Jenneke’ is marketed under the Proven Winners label, a sure bet that this is a quality plant. The narrow, dark green leaves are edged in golden-yellow and light up sunny and shady spots. The mature size of this lovely ornamental grass is 40 cm x 20 cm.

 

MIRROR, MIRROR ON THE WALL

Two new Coprosma (mirror bushes) that you should put your money on are COPROSMA ‘Pacific Night’ and COPROSMA acerosa ‘Autumn Haze’.

• ‘Pacific Night’ is a bushy foliage shrub with shiny purple leaves. At a mature size of only 1,5 m x 1,2 m it is ideal for small gardens and pots.
• 'Autumn Haze’ is a prostrate grower with even more colourful leaves – they are small and glossy and variegated in cream and green, with soft peach to apricot tones in autumn and winter. 'Autumn Haze' is a dwarf at 20 cm x 1,5 m.

 

HOT PINK 

Cordylines are old stalwarts in the garden, but in some places they seem to have relinquished the limelight somewhat. But, if you make the acquaintance of the relatively new CORDYLINE australis ‘Sunrise’, it's a cert that you will fall hopelessly in love. The striking and vibrant narrow leaves have a reddish-pink midrib with pink edges. Its size, 2 m x 1 m, makes it great for the garden and for bigger pots.

 

DO DURANTA

You can do lots of things in the garden with Duranta species. They are good for hedges, useful as filler foliage shrubs in large beds and lovely when cut into neat topiary shapes in pots. The one that steals many hearts, and which is always a good choice, is DURANTA ‘Sapphire Showers’. In addition to the pretty foliage, it bears softly-fragranced, deep purple-blue ruffled flowers with a narrow white edge. Lovely!

 

SAUCY SUCCULENCE

When you Google the name 'echeveria', you are faced with a dazzling array of the most gorgeous hybrids. As you drool at the images on the screen you discover heartbreak too, as many have been bred outside our borders and have not come to race in SA. The very dramatic ECHEVERIA shaviana x affinis ‘Black Prince’, did make the journey and is now gracing the shelves of nurseries countrywide, and its form is superb! The fleshy leaves, arranged in a tight rosette, are chocolate brown to nearly black. Long sprays of bright red flowers appear in the dead of winter. It is well worth running an extra furlong to stable this Prince in your garden.

 

A REAL DIAMOND

The dull-green leaves of EUPHORBIA hypericifolia ‘Diamond Frost’ are seldom visible because this little plant covers itself with clouds of fairy white flowers throughout the year. It is drought resistant, evergreen and grows in full sun to semi-shade. We saw lots of them planted in elegant urns at the Chelsea Flower Show earlier this year. This is another Proven Winner plant.

 

PRETTY IN PINK

It's out with the rust-prone spotty leaves and bare-legged look of the old Hebes and in with the new, disease-resistant, bushy varieties like HEBE ‘Pretty 'n Pink’. It has amazingly rich, glossy foliage, with deep amethyst-coloured growing tips, offset by smatterings of pale pink flowers throughout summer and autumn. At 30 cm high and 80 cm wide, this is a dainty little flowering filly.

 

LITTLE GEM

Fragrant and wax-like, the flowers of the Magnolia are simply exquisite, but the trees become so huge that it is sometimes impossible to see and enjoy the blooms close up. MAGNOLIA grandiflora ‘Little Gem’ is a daintier tree and thus suitable for small gardens. It not only flowers from a young stage, but also keeps the blooms coming throughout the year (and they are just as pretty as those borne by the 'Shire horses' of the family). The dark green leathery leaves have a brown reverse and keep the tree attractive during any times that it takes a short flowering siesta.

 

ROJO CONGO
 

 

Big odds, a donkey-like attitude, or a horse that is all het up at the starting gates can sometimes fool the punter into overlooking a sure bet. The same happens with gardeners, which is perhaps the reason that PHILODENDRON ‘Rojo Congo’ has not yet attained the fame it deserves. Why on earth would we not want to plant a fast-growing, tropical, medium to large shrub with broad glossy leaves? Do not forget that the new growth of this attractive plant is red-brown, and gently matures to deep green with a red blush. The leaf stalks are bright red. ‘Rojo Congo’is evergreen and suited to deep shade.

 

STARS COME OUT

Every October, the ordinary star jasmine that we all know and love covers itself in deeply fragrant star-like flowers, becoming a beautiful sight for sore eyes. This handy climber has a much fancier family member, TRACHELOSPERMUM jasminoides ‘Chameleon’ var. Variegata, which definitely deserves a place at the starting gates. This compact groundcover, which also looks great in a wide pot, has bright green, white and pink leaves. It also flowers in summer, is evergreen and hardy, and loves to grow in light to deep shade. It grows to 50 cm x 50 cm.

 

NATIONAL VELVET

There is no more regal and beautiful Agapanthus than AGAPANTHUS praecox subsp. Orientalis ‘Blue Velvet, with its masses of dark violet blue, soccer ball-sized flowers on one metre long stems. Every garden should have a patch of these lush perennials of South African origin.
Those in the know say that we can expect (as soon as October 2010) another thoroughbred from the Agapanthus stable, this time the very decorative A. orientalis ‘Queen Mum’. This elegant plant has beautiful flowers: the petals are bi-colour blue and white on the outside and pure white on the inside and held on flower spikes of no less than 1,2m high. We are told the plant needs full sun to bring out the full intensity of the blue colouration. It sounds like it's definitely worth waiting for!

 

Get set to bet

We borrowed a few hints and tips on how to bet and how to spot a winner from the Vodacom Durban July website. Here they are, adapted for gardeners:

• “Read the history from a race card” – read the label that is attached to the plant – it will tell you all about it and where to plant it to allow it to perform at its best.
• “Use the advice from tipsters in newspapers” – in this case, replace the newspapers with your favourite gardening mag.
• “Ask a friend who knows” – again, ask your favourite gardening mag.
• “Pick a name or number” – if you are still unsure, but the name of the plant appeals to you, then take a bet on it anyway. A name is sometimes a promise of good things to come.

Plant (and horse) spotting

There is apparently an old racing saying that goes “The horse which walks well, will gallop well”. The same can be applied to many a 'sure bet' plant: if it starts growing lustily without fuss, you can expect a galloping flower flush.
Also look for

• Maturity and good build (bushy)
• Plenty of gleaming muscle (leaves!)
• Good breeding (great hybrids)
• Right temperament (no signs of stress or disease)
• If it's not love at first sight, then something is amiss – a good tip for plants and horses! 

Visit www.vodacomdurbanjuly.co.za for more on the Vodacom Durban July.