Huntington Garden’s Plant Sale Flourishes
Succulents that grow in the shade, ground covers to plant under camellias, the hibiscus used to make herb tea--these are a few of the 1,000 or so useful and unusual plants that will be at the Huntington Botanical Garden’s plant sale next Sunday, May 17, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Among avid gardeners, the Huntington’s sales are legend. Spot something really unusual in their garden and they will probably tell you, “I got it at the Huntington.”
“From Our Garden to Yours” is this year’s theme and each of the dozen sections of the garden has contributed to the sale tables.
From the Desert Garden come three succulents that will grow in the most difficult of garden situations, what is called “dry shade”--those shady parts of the garden that get little water. Curator John Trager particularly likes Senecio mandraliascae, which has glaucous blue leaves that light up these darker areas of the garden.
The Palm Garden has grown a number of rare palms, most offered as small seedlings but all considered easy to grow to maturity. Trachycarpus martianus , from the Himalayas, is a graceful fan palm with a slender, bare trunk.
Heliconia scheeana is a cold hardy heliconia with big leaves and handsome flowers from the Huntington’s Jungle Garden. There will also be several gingers from this garden at the sale, including a version of the shell ginger, Alpinia zerumbet, that was discovered growing on the grounds. Its flower stalk does not droop like others, but is upright.
From the Sub-Tropical Hill Garden comes an unusual perennial, the Canary Island Bellflower. It blooms in winter, with peach to red flowers, then goes dormant in summer. The Huntington has collected and introduced many dazzling salvias from South America and Salvia cacaliaefolia has some of the brightest, true-blue flowers of the group. They bloom all summer on a medium-sized shrubby plant.
From the herb garden come six kinds of basil including ‘Spicy Globe,’ which makes a beautiful little edging, with plenty of leaves for pesto. Hibiscus tea is not made from the leaves but from the calices (part of the flower) of Hibiscus sabdariffa . When these are simmered they produce a ruby liquid with a flavor reminiscent of currant and raspberry, says curator Shirley Kerins.
The Rose Garden has contributed two of the vigorous, disease-resistant rugosa roses, one a yellow named ‘Topaz Jewel’ and the other a red named ‘Linda Campbell.’ Southern Californians are just discovering the tough rugosa roses and curator Clair Martin thinks these are two of the best, blooming off and on all spring and summer.
The Shakespeare Garden is where the Huntington grows most of its perennials and the plant sales has always been noted for unusual perennials. This year they have no less than six different foxgloves, some of them true perennials and several perennial lobelias, including the red-leaved ‘Queen Victoria.’
From Curator Ann Richardson of the Japanese and Camellia gardens come some ground covering violas that grow well under camellias. Viola hederacea has lavender and while flowers much of the year and makes a fairly dense and very tough cover.
From the Australian and the newly planted New Zealand gardens, come a number of the small “mallee” eucalyptus. One, with the dreadful name of E. foecunda grows to only 15 feet but it has all the airy grace of the larger “gums.” The adventurer might like to try a new ground cover discovered by curator Kathy Musial, Selliera radicans , that only grows 4 inches tall and prefers some shade.
The conifer collection has provided a few rare evergreens including Cupressus cahmeriana , an “extraordinarily handsome” tree to 60 feet with weeping blue-gray foliage, and Chamaecyparis ‘Filifera Aurea’, which makes a feathery mound of gold-tipped foliage.
From the growing daylily collection comes ‘Botticelli,’ a hot, melon-pink lily and ‘Siloam Bo Peep’, an “aggressive grower” with pale pink and mauve flowers.
The bamboo garden has sprouted a number of the giant tropical bamboo Dendrocalamus asper for those who want to live in a bamboo grove and they have plants of the handsome Mexican weeping bamboo that grows to a height of 20 feet, looking like a large green fountain.
