My Garden of Misfit Plants

You've heard of the Island of Misfit Toys right? Well I've realized my garden has become the Garden of Misfit Plants, or maybe I should say misshapen plants. I don’t know exactly how it happened; I don’t intentionally buy the deformed plant. I started thinking about this after purchasing the Blue Atlas Cedar I mentioned last week.

See it has a definite crook to its trunk. It’s not a deal breaker, otherwise I wouldn't have bought it, but I guess when planting I need to stake it in such a manner that it might straighten out over time.

Here’s a pretty extreme example, my Poncirus trifoliata. Just look at that curve!

When I bought it several years ago I didn’t realize it had essentially been topped, I just thought it was a great plant at a great price. The transaction was a little awkward at the counter and I’ve always wondered if they were just happy to unload a damaged plant on a clueless customer. Either way I try not to shop there anymore (for several reasons), and the plant is trying to grow out of its unfortunate disfigurement.

Here’s one I purchased realizing full well it had issues. This Arctostaphylos densiflora ‘Sentinel’ was trained as a standard, but it didn't quite live up their expectations. When I found it there were definite signs of scoliosis but I liked it anyway. I hope it isn’t doomed to breaking someday when the weight of a snow, or ice, load becomes too much for it.

Another of my Arctostaphylos, A. densiflora ‘Harmony’ is supposed to grow 5ft high by 6ft wide. Looks like it will make the 6ft wide no problem, but the 5ft high?

I bought the 'Harmony' with a slight tilt to it, hoping it would grow up to have graceful lines like this plant nearby…

Instead it looks like a blob! What a waste of a lovely plant, I need to get in there and do a little judicious pruning and training.

Here’s one that’s just a little odd, this Cotinus ‘Royal Purple' has stayed virtually the same little miniature shrub since I planted it almost 3 years ago (that’s it in the center with no leaves).

Since this plant has such a reputation for being rangy it’s odd to see one stay so compact. I've been told it’s because it likes a lot of water and I’m pretty stingy out here in the front garden in the summer. I've planted a couple of other plants nearby for height and made my peace with this one staying just a short dark foliage accent.

Next up is one of my Callistemon ‘Woodlander's Hardy Red’ it was this wee little stick when I bought it (for the amazing price of $1.98)…

At the time I thought it had a strong leader, but this is what the base looks like now.

Just a few inches tall and then it splays outward in five different directions.

It’s a lovely little plant but I just wish was taller before it split all willy-nilly!

Here's it's sister $1.98 Callistemon I bought a year later. It's looking much better!

Finally we finish with a gift plant that simply reinforces my theory that I attract misshapen plants...a lovely ginkgo that refuses to grow upright but rather takes off at a jaunty angle. This photo is from 2011 when it was given to me.

Here it is last summer, I tried to take a photo of it now to share but without its leaves it was a little hard to see.

So there you have it, my collection of happy misfits.

Callistemon viridiflorus, my favorite plant in the garden, this week…

Yes it’s true, another Callistemon! If it looks a little familiar maybe it’s because you saw bits of it when I featured Grevillea juniperina 'Molonglo’ a couple of weeks ago. Truth be told I think this is my very favorite Callistemon of the eight (Ha! What!? 8!!!) in my garden. Don’t tell the others okay?

Why Callistemon viridiflorus? Well first off all the almost white branching structure is just amazing. Whether it’s playing off the bleached coloration of the Stipa tenuissima (Mexican Feather Grass) in the front garden (above) or the tawny fall tones of Hakonechloa (Japanese Forest Grass) in the back garden…

Secondly the leaves are so perfect. Little regimented spear shapes marching up the stem…

The older of my pair bloomed last June, lovely yellow-green bottle brush blooms…

On striking red new growth...

And the red remains (for awhile) as stripes on the stems.

And of course the blooms are replaced with these fabulous little nodules…

So that’s my gushing, what do the experts have to say?

The Desert Northwest: … "From the windswept heaths of Tasmania (sounds dramatic doesn't it?) comes this outstanding bottlebrush species with many ornamental virtues: a generous show of creamy brushes in spring, a strongly upright growth habit, soft felty new growth produced from conspicuous cone-like branch buds, and peeling white bark. It adapts well to cultivation even in hot climates, and can be grown on wet or dry soil, though it does require sun. One Seattle gardener has made it into a spectacular hedge! In addition it is extremely cold-hardy, easily withstanding 5-10 °F."

Cistus: "Small and compact evergreen shrub, to 5 ft tall x 6 ft wide…arching branches carry small and glossy leaves and, in midsummer, soft, greenish yellow, bottlebrush flowers. Best in a hot, sunny position, well-drained with occasional summer water. Easily frost hardy in USDA zone 8 and very likely in zone 7 in optimum conditions."

Xera Plants: "One of our very favorite shrubs that combines unusual foliage, beautiful bark, and a great flower color. Upright growing with small scimitar shaped forest green leaves that line the wand-like stems. In cold weather this unusual shrub takes on maroon and purple tones, a great foil to the very light tan stems and trunk. In May 4" long by 1" wide chartreuse/yellow bottlebrushes protrude from the tips of the branches shoot out at every angle. In Tasmania where it is native it follows cold air drainages, proving that its requires at least some cold for good flower set…FULL sun and any soil with occasional summer water…Hardier to cold in full sun. Unusual shrub that seems to bridge the aesthetic gap between broad-leaved evergreen and conifer."

You know sometimes I think I could build a perfectly wonderful garden with only Calliestemon, Grevillea, Yucca, Opuntia and Agave. Then I start to think about the Manzanita, Schefflera, Tetrapanax, Echium, etc, etc, etc, and think how wonderful it is that I don’t have to choose!

Callistemon ‘Clemson’...my favorite plant in the garden, this week!

The garden changes so much I find myself mildly obsessed with a different plant in my garden almost every other day. All it takes is the afternoon light to hit something just right, or maybe I notice new leaf unfurling in a dramatic way and suddenly I see that plant as I never have before. My latest obsession is this Callistemon ‘Clemson’ I bet you can guess why…

It’s flowering for a second time this year and in November no less!

I bought this Callistemon from Xera Plants (via Garden Fever) as a small 1 gallon plant in the spring of 2009. Unsure if it would live through the winter (this was my first Callistemon and it seemed too exotic to live in my zone 8 garden) I celebrated its living through our fist winter storm with this picture in December of that year.

This is not the hardiest of the hardy bottlebrushes, and during our cold (nights in the teens, some days not above freezing) winters of 2009/10 and 2010/11 it did experience some branch die back. The Xera description…“Our favorite red flowered bottlebrush that appears to be as hardy to cold as Woodlander's Hardy Red', we await a very harsh freeze for a final assessment. Compact growing variety to 6' tall and as wide. Upright and spreading with very large brilliant red flowers that are borne over a very long time beginning in late spring and often continuing until a hard freeze. Flowers are the largest and most vivid of the cold hardy red flowered varieties. Blue green leaves- may be a red variety of C. pallidus. Requires a very protected location. Xera Plants Introduction”

In my experience Callistemon 'Woodlander’s Hardy Red' is more tolerant of cold temperatures, not even a single leaf on those plants (I have three) has been damaged with zero protection, where as I did wrap the ‘Clemson’ when temperatures were predicted to fall into the teens. However the larger leaves of ‘Clemson’ make it a beauty worth the extra effort.

The hard seed nodules are another favorite feature of all Callistemons and these are a little larger than others.

Here are the vital stats:

• Eventual size: size 6ft tall x 6ft wide
• Hardy in USDA Zones 8b - 10b
• Water needs are low and it likes sun! (no wonder we get along)

I hope you enjoyed taking a closer look at my current plant obsession. I plan to make “my favorite plant in the garden, this week” a reoccurring feature. It’s sometimes hard to find a new topic in my garden to post about; after all I've been at this 5 days a week for almost 4 years now. But my garden is why I started this blog so I don’t want to ever spend too much time away from it. And perhaps by highlighting a weekly fav you might be introduced to a plant you've never heard of or maybe be tempted to look at an old plant in a new light…