I have gardened all my life but never saw this until I got to Oregon! It was here before us. Big bulbs, as much as 6" diameter, though can bloom when smaller. Rosettes of straplike green leaves, blooms like an umbel (shaped like upside-down funnel). Hardy through Oregon coast winters but dies back in summer. Spreads readily by offsets, and also self-sows. Nobody seems to recognize it. I will attempt to attach a pic. PLEASE help me find out its botanical name! Somewhat resembles agapanthus, except for very regular shape of bloom head, as described above. Can't get pic to post - oh well!
Scilla peruviana. Native to Spain, not Peru - it was named after a ship called the 'Peru' on board which the plants were sent to Linnaeus.
Thank you, Michael! It is a wonderful, flexible plant - will grow in sun or shade and is nearly "unkillable!" Why, do you think, is it so little known? I have never seen it in a garden catalog. Does it have drawbacks I haven't yet seen? I do know it's a slug magnet.
Thank you, Michael! I have always been an Anglophile (probably due to growing up on Agatha Christie, and then loving Douglas Addams) and have an ambition to turn our little half-acre into an "English country cottage." So I'm delighted to hear that you folks in Britain use these. I do have a question about the language of plants there, as disctinct from US "English." Can you tell me what kind of plant goes by the name "cherry-pie plant?" I think it may be a vine? And are "vegetable marrows" what we call "summer squash?" Like zucchini?
In Britain Heliotrope is called Cherry pie plant. http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/plants/plant_finder/plant_pages/12797.shtml
I would call Zucchini a courgette. If allowed to grow past the tiny stage and get huge I would then call it a Marrow. Same plant... just depends how young you pick them. http://www.jungleseeds.com/images/CourgetteGreen.JPG http://images.google.com/imgres?img...n-gb:IE-SearchBox&rlz=1I7SUNA_en-GB&sa=N&um=1 I should add that in Britain the difference in the name of swede and turnips depends on which part of the country you live. It can cause no end of confusion!
Yes indeed! And do you really put turnips, or swedes, in your curry, as alledged by Terry Pratchett? Or is he just having fun at the expense of his own country's cuisine? (By the way, when Zucchini get that big I find they are best used as clubs, as they don't seem to be edible.) Thanks for your reply! And anything you can tell me about the "typical" English gardens will be much appreciated. I'm looking for (and actually carrying out) a scheme which is a little like a cross between a mini "great estate" and the bit of garden which would grow around that estate's gardener's personal cottage. Since I also spent some years in Japan there are areas of that too, but then The English were great importers of what they found and liked, as are we here in the US. The Oregon coast can, I believe, support many of the typical plants. My "English" roses thrive here - when the deer aren't busy pinching the buds!
Scilla peruviana is not rare here either. Not ubiquitous in local plantings, but certainly far from unknown.
Scilla peruviana is native here in the south of Portugal. In my experience, it always grows with a bit of shade, perhaps at the base of a hedgerow or bank. However it is growing in places where there will be little or no rain for perhaps 3 months in the summer and temperatures will reach more than 30'C (86'F in old money). So a fairly tough plant - and very attractive. Enjoy! Brian
Yes, it is, even when not in bloom. And so prolific! I could supply the whole neighborood! It makes a nice border too; just plant a few, and it will fill in between all on its own.
