Transatlantic Plantsman

Golden bamboo by a Kentucky freeway

Roaring back to the Louisville airport after the AHS Garden School, a flash of gold caught my eye by the roadside. The cab booked by the hotel had not arrived (thank you YellowCab of Louisville) so one of the hotel staff drove me to the airport – he spoke little English and had never been to the airport before! So when I spotted a grove of golden stems by the side of the freeway, trying to make him understand that I wanted him to stop to take a look didn’t seem an option – and, anyway, by then I was late for my plane.

When I got home I checked on the USDA Plants Database which gives distribution maps for both native and non-native plants and it looks as if the familiar Golden Bamboo, Phyllostachys aurea, grows nowhere in KY or nearby while the Yellow Grove Bamboo, P. aureosulcata, grows in a couple of KY counties, but not near Jefferson County, where I saw it alongside I-71. What's more, only the ‘Aureocaulis’ form of P. aureosulcata has stems which are completely yellow, and they are more a yellow color than the golden orange of P. aurea. Perhaps it was P. aureosulcata ‘Aureocaulis’? I’m not sure.

So… is this a new sighting? Whichever species it was there was quite a lot of it but flashing by in a rush to the airport with trucks spoiling the view it was impossible to be sure what it was. Any thoughts, anyone?

An unusual alien plant + more bears

On the way back from visiting new friends at WJFF Radio, the only hydro-powered radio station in the world, I think – they’re across the Delaware River in the Catskills in New York State - I came across two interesting things.

Firstly, especially after I crossed the river north into New York, the non-native Multiflora rose Rosa multiflora was everywhere. To be honest, it looks really lovely: attractive, rounded bushes, with close sprays of fragrant white flowers. If it was a native it would be a universal favorite – but it’s from Asia, and spreads quickly, so it’s an invasive, so it must be bad.

Then as as I drove through the torrential rain, I spotted a pink-flowered bush. I stopped as safely as possible in the downpour – and then the rain eased off a little as I walked back for the obligatory picture (and a piece torn from the root, which may even survive in the garden here.). The picture shows the pink one I spotted from the road (pretty, isn’t it - of course it may be a hybrid with a garden rose) there were also a few blushed white seedlings around as well.

Finally, just as I was pulling into our driveway – there were the bears again: mum and just two cubs. They were just lounging around, rooting about, scratching tree trunks - that sort of thing. I rolled down the window, took a couple of snaps, and left them to it. But the pictures, on an old camera and leaning across out of the passsenger-side window, are terrible! Sorry.

English and Spanish bluebells

First, I apologise for the recent “break in transmission”. I’ve been away for a long weekend at a family wedding where I stayed in what must be the only decent hotel in England with absolutely no internet access of any kind (except for the front desk)! Then a day dashing about, flight back the US, my wife judy’s birthday… Anyway, normal service is now resumed.

Just before leaving our English home for the wedding I visited what may well be England’s finest bluebell wood, Short Wood in Northamptonshire. Voted England’s most popular wildflower in poll a couple of years ago, the bluebell, Hyacinthoides non-scripta, spreads to form wide rolling oceans of colour in many deciduous woods and even along hedges and roadsides. Over half world’s population grows in Britain, and I understand that nowhere else do they spread so prolifically. The bulbs were once used to make glue for book binding.

Studying natives and invasives

After sounding off about the plant police yesterday, I’m struck by the contrast between this attitude and a note I came across on the website of the Botanical Society of the British Isles (BSBI). Here, they list six non-native plants and remark that they seem to be “turning up more frequently than expected”. But they don’t get in a panic and warn us to rip them out in case they take over.

The BSBI has a scheme in which expert plant recorders, professional and amateur, regularly send in plant records from observations in the wild all over the British Isles. These are plotted on maps which are updated weekly, one map for each plant, native and non-native, and they’re free available online.

This scheme has been running for over 50 years and the database now contains 3.2 million records! In conjunction with earlier less comprehensive recording going back centuries, it provides an impressively accurate picture of the way in which plants increase their range and decline. That staggeringly impressive book, The New Atlas of the British and Irish Flora, was based on these records. You can access distribution maps for individual plants at the BSBI Maps Scheme website.

The plant police are on patrol

Spring is upon us (well, most of us: here in PA winter’s back, 20F last night)  and in the plant police as well as in the maples and oaks the sap is rising. There’s been a spring outbreak of outrage amongst the plant police against Time magazine who, in a familiar excess of trivialization, recently published 51 Things We Can Do to Save the Environment. And of course it has to be 51… only 49 or 50 and we’re doomed.

Number 26 “Plant a bamboo fence” recommends exactly that, planting bamboo. “Most homeowners have to restrict its growth, lest it get out of control,” we’re told. “Do this, however, and you reduce bamboo's capacity as a carbon sink. Only large-scale plantings, which absorb CO2 faster than they release it, can favorably tip the scales. How big is your yard?”

Roadside apple trees

Driving around southern England visiting family and friends over the recent holidays, we’ve seen some intriguing plants growing alongside the motorways.

The most surprising, perhaps, were mature apple trees, well laden with ripe fruit. Two trees with bright yellow apples were spotted growing by the side of the A303 (one of the main routes from London towards the south west of England). There were just one or two green apples on the half dozen trees I spotted last year by the M25 (the huge ring road around London). And on the A14 in Cambridgeshire I noticed three trees in fruit – and only here was it possible to stop and take a closer look at one of them.

The A14, by the way, has an interesting history. It connects England’s two main north-south routes, the A1 and the M1, from east to west and it was first built to enhance the effectiveness of the nuclear deterrent. The American Air Force had a batch of nuclear-armed cruise missiles housed at RAF Molesworth, an air force base without a decent road that could accommodate their mobile launchers for twenty miles. So this major new road was built to allow the missiles out into the wider world. It was opened in the 1980s, but RAF Molesworth is now largely an intelligence gathering site. Bob Hope entertained at the base in 1943 and the base has the unique distinction of more of its American servicemen marrying English women than servicemen from any other American base in England.

Anyway, those apples… I also managed to pick a fruit safely. After scrubbing it well I found that it tastes rather like a soft and squidgy ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ (Britain’s favourite apple). A friend, having also tasted a slice, suggests it would be ideal for an apple fool.

The question is, where did these trees come from? Some, I’m sure, are the result of travellers struck in traffic munching an apple, eating their picnic before they got to the seaside, and wearily throwing the core out of the window. The trees on the M25 are sited at a stretch notorious for jams. But in recent years many trees have been planted alongside new and improved roads when construction is complete and these are mainly native species. So it has also been suggested that unscrupulous nurseries may have supplied surplus stock of culinary or fruiting apples instead of wild crab apples.

Either way, they're intriguing additions to our roadside flora.

Italian arums – fantastic late foliage

Invasive man’s excellent Invasive Plants in Arlington blog (that’s Virginia, near Washington DC, for you Brits) recently highlighted a plant that may well prove a problem in his area. Italian arum, Arum italicum, is a delightful foliage and fruiting plant which he notes has appeared in the park at the Long Branch Nature Center and he’s worried about it becoming invasive. He may be right to be concerned, it could well prove to be a problem there, but his observation also highlights the fact that citing a plant as invasive is, well, not cut-and-dried.

Both in my garden in Northamptonshire, England, and up here in north east Pennsylvania I’ve been growing a number of cultivars of Arum italicum – indeed this is quite a hot plant with new introductions appearing in mail order nursery lists every year. Seneca Hill Perennials, from where a number of mine came, has an especially good range. They’re invaluable tuberous-rooted perennials, with beautifully patterned foliage in fall and winter followed by fat spikes of sparkling red berries. ‘White Winter’ is a firm favorite in Britain and growing in popularity in North America too.

Arum italicum is a rare British native and, in gardens, the brightly white-veined, arrowhead-shaped foliage is a feature all winter. It’s also escaped from gardens outside its native range on the British south coast but is never a problem. Here in Pennsylvania in zone 5, many forms seem to be hardy in the garden which is perhaps a surprise for a plant centered on a Mediterranean distribution; Britain, in zone 8, is at the northern edge of its range.

But a recent dramatic overnight temperature drop to 0F/-18C has separated the men amongst the cultivars from the boys here in PA. Most looked pretty sad on that chilly morning with their foliage flat on the ground but have perked up well. ‘McLement’s Form’, photographed yesterday, is especially well marked with black spots as well as bold white veins and has recovered well. ‘Gold Rush’ features additional yellow markings on large leaves and still stands out. ‘Jet Black Wonder’, from Plant Delights, however, has never recovered and most of its foliage remains collapsed even after yesterday’s 50F/10C . Not exactly a star here at this time of year.

So these varieties which carry appealing foliage color into winter are invaluable. But will they prove invasive here in PA, where they overwinter but are not vigorous? I doubt it. And in colder areas? Highly unlikely. So when we cite a plant as invasive, we need to qualify our remark by saying where. And when we come across an introduced plant in the wild, let’s not instantly assume it’s going to blot out the native vegetation everywhere – “it’s not native so it must be invasive,” as I’ve heard said, is simply preposterous.

A non-native may prove troublesome, in which case we must take steps to deal with the problem. But if it simply settles down, becomes naturalized and behaves itself – so what? Invasive Man says he’s out with his weed whacker to wipe out the arums and as the plant is said to be “all over the place in one wetland in Rock Creek National Park” (which is nearby) maybe he’s right. But if a seedling turns up along the roadside outside my garden then I’m not going to whack it. I’ll just keep an eye on it.

I’m simply going to admire the unexpected cold-hardiness of many forms of these Italian arums and value their presence in the garden at a time of year when some interesting foliage color is so valuable.