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Monthly Archives: October 2012
Lofty Lofos
A friend kindly gave me a tiny self-sown plant in August and told me to ‘have a go’ with it, which usually means it is going to be difficult. Not this one! Lofos, or more accurately Lophospermum erubescens (meaning reddening or blushing), was formerly called Asarina and, confusingly, is sometimes also called Maurandia erubescens.
Creeping Gloxina
It has the common names of either Climbing Foxglove, Creeping Gloxinia or Twining Snapdragon depending on which part of the world you come from. Originating from Mexico, but now also common across the Mediterranean, it is a beautiful climber with felty heart shaped leaves and mid-pink flowers like foxgloves, which appear from July to October. I believe this is the species form but there are creamy white and dark red cultivars too which may be hybrids. I have read that they work well in hanging baskets as they fall as well as climb. I have been amazed at it’s rate of growth. From a nondescript 9cm pot plant it has shot up to the top of a 5′ cane in just a few weeks and two flowers opened today! I can’t believe it will keep up this phenomenal growth much longer and with the nights drawing in and getting colder it will surely stop soon.
Species: Asarina erubenscens Family: Scrophulariaceae Image No. 1 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
In summer, this vine will climb to about 10′ using its leaf stems to attach, and does well in full sun or part shade. It needs a moist soil though, so it mustn’t dry out. It is a half hardy perennial and apparently forms a tuber, which can be dried off and stored over winter, but judging from the number of self-sown seedlings in my friend’s greenhouse, it is also very easy from seed! It should be happy to grow as a houseplant over the winter if you have the room, or in a heated conservatory. I haven’t got either so it will have to take it’s chances in the greenhouse cuddled up to the cannas and dahlias!
‘Allo ‘Allo! Allouise
Just in case you were wondering, the new header picture for my blog is Chrysanthemum ‘Orange Allouise’ bought as a plug plant from Sarah Raven in April 2011 and propagated into 5 further new plants this March from basal cuttings. It is utterly gorgeous, like dripping creamy butter, and I hope to keep it going for many years to come. The header picture has been cropped a little so here is the full shot with water droplets after a shower of rain.
Lily Landini
Lilium ‘Landini’
This Asiatic Lily is quite simply stunning. Photographs don’t do it justice. It is fully a metre tall with dark green glossy leaves and what are variously described as dark red, chocolate red, or burgundy red flowers. In differing light levels and aspects they can vary from a shade of very dark red to almost black. To me, they look good enough to eat, like dark bitter chocolate!
Two stems of Lily ‘Landini’
Unfortunately, like a lot of the most beautiful lilies, there is no scent to add to it’s credentials but it’s colour is enough to warrant inclusion alongside white and yellow forms to provide contrast and drama.
‘Landini’
I have to admit that I bought the bulbs at Hampton Court Palace Flower Show hoping that they would flower at the same time as the huge flowered white and pink Oriental Lilium longiflorum trumpet lily ‘Triumphator’ which I planted on the same day but, as is often the way with gardening, timing is everything and mine was off! Anyway, it will give another excuse for a separate post when the buds finally open next week. They are still in the greenhouse along with two pots of promising looking Turks Cap lilies, but colder nights may mean disappointing results. We’ll have to wait and see.
Another Fruitful Day
One of the many joys of gardening for me is picking our own soft fruit. We have strawberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries and autumn raspberries. Also, and new for this year, three blackberry bushes including ‘Bedford Giant’ which has put on 12 feet of growth in it’s first year! I have just tied in the thorny canes to a frame I made and have the scars to prove it! Judging from the little buds sitting in every leaf axil, there should be a bumper crop next year. 
Sadly, due to the cold wet weather in April and May, the apple blossom was not pollinated by bees and other insects and so we had just two apples this year off our little tree compared to our usual haul of at least 20 kilos plus the windfalls.
However, the stars of the show at the moment are the autumn raspberries. I started with just 12 bare roots of Autumn raspberry ‘Brice’ two years ago which I planted 600mm apart in a single row but now it is a ‘patch’ 8m long and 1.2m wide in which there must be at least 100 canes all cropping prolifically right now! This year I followed advice from the RHS and sprayed with Magnesium Sulphate (Epsom Salts) because the leaves were yellowing and streaky due to a local deficiency of Magnesium. The fruits are a dark red and taste divine.
At the peak of fruit production, usually weeks 3 to 6 in the cycle, we pick approx 2 kilos every other day and slightly less in the 2 weeks before and 2 weeks after. In total, fruit picking usually goes on for about 9 weeks from late August until the leaves eventually turn yellow and the fruits begin to lose their taste and then stop ripening at the end of October. Cropping started a bit later this year due to the lack of sunshine and warmth but they are certainly making up for it now.
Autumn Raspberry ‘Brice’
There are far too many for the two of us to eat but we have found they actually taste even better after they have been frozen and so most of them end up in our spare freezer in the garage. We have found the best method is to firstly immerse them in a bowl of cold water; this is not to wash them but any insects and grubs will float to the surface and can be easily removed. The water possibly reduces the flavour slightly but, unfortunately, the Raspberry Beetle lays it’s eggs on the flowers enabling the subsequent tiny caterpillar-like larvae to feed off the fruit. We are not totally organic, I just don’t use chemical insect sprays so we put up with it and deal with any we find. They are probably harmless but we don’t like the idea of eating them!
After freezing
- Then comes the fiddly bit. After an hour or so, we drain them and leave them to dry upturned on a clean tea towel or kitchen paper. After another hour or so, we place them on plastic trays and freeze them flat in the top compartment of the freezer overnight. That way they don’t stick together.
Before vacuum sealing
They are then either popped into freezer bags, zip-lock bags or we use our new toy, a vacuum sealer, which removes all the air. They store better and take up less room but don’t try to vacuum seal fresh fruit, you will just end up with mush!
Vacuum sealed
The other advantage of freezing is that you can bag them up in just the right quantities so they should last even longer. They will keep for several months in the freezer and there is nothing quite like the taste of your own raspberries at Christmas or in the depths of a cold winter. In my opinion, freezing them seems to intensify the flavour as well. When they are defrosted, they are slightly softer but usually keep their shape well. And if not, there is always raspberry coulis!
Davids Garden Diary 