Acer palmatum

Monthly Top 10 Plants at Campiello Maurizio (May 2023)

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Hope you don’t mind that I’m posting these a bit late. I’ve got to catch up on this so I can get to my Top 10 list for June before it’s August and I need to complete one for July too! Oh the crush of time. A few of these plants were gifts from friends and I’m realizing more and more how special that can make something to me. Friendship means the world to me.

One: This was a little gift from Evan. Rhipsalidopsis ‘Lauren’ bloomed for me indoors in May so I took it outdoors for its closeup. I love red so these blooms brightened my day and were long-lasting too. Many smiles were had since it lifted me up each time I spotted it. That’s a funny thing about flowers. They can cost more than a cookie, but I sure don’t get as fat enjoying them.

Two: This one is sadly not our native Cardamine nuttallii, but Cardamine trifolia still performs well enough and does make a nice tight ground cover. Luckily I have the native one as well, but it’s not established enough in the garden yet for me to comment on, but I hope to post more about growing it in the future.

Three: It was a huge surprise to receive this gift from Nathan Champion of Champion Acres Nursery. Years ago we were coworkers and we’ve stayed in contact ever since… (I guess I’m not as bad as some people think lol.) To say this Fuchsia ‘Pour le Menneke’ aka Fuchsia ‘Poermenneke’ is a stunner is an understatement. The blooms last and last, and it’s been making the back garden feel special all summer long—but it started back in May! What a great gift this was and its something garden guests have all enjoyed.

Four: This tree has been posted at least once or twice on my site. Ever since I saw one in a garden, I’d wanted one, and I’ve really enjoyed watching this little one grow. Before I know it, it will be huge. Eventually it will be planted in the ground, but for now, this Acer palmatum ‘Ukigumo’ is happy in its terracotta container in the back garden. I can watch its white leaves glow back there. It really does have that white cloud look to it.

Five: Kind of embarrassing—to say the least—that it took me so long to plant my Lonicera ciliosa vine. I have another and it’s not yet in the ground. Yes, it’s crazy to procrastinate planting these native vines since they are so beautiful!! Being less problematic than our other native honeysuckle (Lonicera hispidula), this one doesn’t get mildew—at least not yet. We shall see.

But those flowers. Wow.

Six: A year or two ago my friends and I potted up a piece of this devil’s club from my family’s property near the coast. Oplopanax horridus is one of those plants I discovered as a kid by absentmindedly grabbing at it to clutch onto as I was trying to exit a creek or stream. Ouch! But it’s a brutal stunner. It’s a painful pretty. Now this one is planted and doing great in the ground in the back garden.

Seven: The fragrance of an Iris florentina is undeniably something special—at least for me. Iris plants in general often annoy me since their blooms are so ephemeral and I have to work hard to keep them healthy and happy in a greenhouse environment, but this, uh… With that hint of a pale blue-grey, this one is a favorite of mine in the garden and I’m happy to have two established patches going.

Eight: The Citrus myrtifolia has been a much loved container plant for years. Fragrant blooms, and the connection to the production of a delicious beverage called chinotto is all I need to add. Now I want some…

Nine: Whenever I see the dangling tassel bits attached to the male flowers on the Thalictrum occidentale plants I giggle. That tiny jostle, it’s so sensitive to a light breeze—oh the magic in the air! (These are wind pollinated to it actually does make sense…

Ten: Last but not least is this heirloom Iris ‘Cheer’. It was a gift from Baldassare, and is an older hybrid which is fragrant and reblooms. Since doing so though I’ve realized there are a fair number of them with a hint of a whiff of something. I guess they all kind of smell a bit like Palmolive to me. I suppose it could be worse…

So that’s it for now! Hope to get more posts rolled out soon. With lots of the garden redo underway, I hope to rest more and have time to type up my thoughts as summer engulfs us.

Monthly Top 10 Plants at Campiello Maurizio (November 2022)

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Geranium robustum in the former garden of The Practical Plant Geek.

This plant is not yet in my garden—but I have quite a few of its seeds. Evan collected them for me for several years, I sold them in my old shop, and I will grow all of the ones that I have left of it. It’s a species from South Africa with incredibly lovely silver veined leaves. We took cuttings to take to Cistus Nursery too. Let’s hope that both of our crops work out so we can get this one into cultivation around here.

Love the fall color each year on the Acer palmatum ‘Villa Taranto’. It matches the stain on the front door and makes quite a combo.

This is a small slow-growing Japanese maple for me. To be honest, I’ve had it so long now, I’m not even sure where I bought it. For a few years I thought about moving it, but each autumn it does this and I’m in love with its location all over again.

Begonia sutherlandii var. dissecta is a precious gem. I think I succeeded in making a few more, but we’ll have to wait and see.

If you didn’t know that I love begonias, then you don’t know me well. I don’t even grow that many well, but I grow a lot of them to learn more about them as a group of plants. Gesneriads and begonias are my favorites, and honestly, there are enough of each to keep me interested for the rest of my days.

This dissected variety of this African species that is hardy here for us, is just stunning. I’m not sure yet if this form is hardy as well, so I’m trying to make as many of these as I can to try them out in the ground in the garden, but it takes time.

(We can’t just plant these anywhere though and have them come back. More on that next year!)

A friend let me care for this plant for winter to keep an eye on it. Of course I will make more, but for now, I’m just going to try to grow it “well”. It’s Begonia sp. YuGu 301.

Oh look! Another begonia!

A friend bought this during a visit to Far Reaches Farm and was concerned he might kill it over the winter in his house so I offered to care for it in exchange for a propagation from it. For now, I just plan to figure out how to grow it well, and I love the fuzzy leaves. It’s one of the fuzziest I’ve seen yet.

The end of the season for this Cyclamen hederifolium.

Around here the hardy cyclamens are a tried-and-true go-to for fall blooms. They look to me like flocks of winged magical little creatures falling to the ground. Clustering around the garden in different spots, they’re always welcome and you cannot have enough of them.

An Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myersii’ I’ve had in the ground now for a year. We’ll see how it fares after this winter.

Not necessarily a hardy plant, I’m growing this in one of the most protected spots in my garden and I’m thrilled to say we’ve made it through one mild winter, so maybe we can keep it going for another year. I do NOT want to claim it’s hardy though—because it is not. Many “non hardy” plants can survive mild winters, but this does not make them hardy by any means.

On of the best Japanese maples for striking color, Acer palmatum ‘Geisha Gone Wild’.

This fun tree was found during one of our gardening friend expeditions driving around to nurseries we’d not yet visited with friends from out of town. It’s in a container and is not probably living its best life, but I planted it there so that I could see it out of the large window in my kitchen door. I love its nearly year-round color. It sparks much joy.

This is a bit of a sloppy perennial but for some reason it looks lovely at the base of my Trachycarpus. It’s a wood aster, Eurybia divaricata.

My wood aster came from Secret Garden Growers. I loved how it looked in a container with its flush of star-like blooms, but I honestly did NOT know where to plant it in my garden. (This is a habit I must break in the coming year since caring for plants in pots while I do so much away from home is just KILLING me physically. I wish there were more hours in the day.)

In a rush to go on a trip somewhere, I “rapid planted”. That’s what I do when I am in a time crunch. I just go crazy planting things without overthinking them and it’s honestly kind of fun. Maybe even therapeutic for this virgo lol.

This plant was part of a combo that really worked out. This perennial blooms for a long time, and a fluffy cloud of white at the base of my palm tree is just lovely when I look out my dining room window.

Sinningia conspicua, one of the fragrant gesneriads.

A gift from a friend who loves gesneriads, this is a fragrant and tough beauty. Not hardy in my climate, it lives in the garden for many months in its container, but then it comes back indoors to keep me company during the colder months. Most of my sinningia collection does this and I’m still calculating the best migration plan for them. Bringing them in too early led to lots of plants dying back too harshly last year. This year, I waited until later, and oddly, they’re still pretty perky. I’ve turned down the temperature as well in the Seed Studio so that may be helping too.

Alfie with this unknown Schlumbergera hybrid.

Lastly, who doesn’t love a holiday jungle cactus that’s not pink or red? Damn I love this hybrid but I have no clue what its name is…

Check back in another 4 weeks to see what’s caught my eye around here. I’m really enjoying these monthly posts. I hope you are too.