PAINTED TONGUE
I have a lot of horticultural “book learning”, but I think that I gain even more knowledge from hands-on gardening in my own little domain. I also try to visit other gardens as often as possible. That’s what I did last week on a trip to Cornish, New Hampshire.
Those who have studied art history know that Cornish, a little town founded in 1763, took on a new life as an artists’ colony when sculptor Augustus Saint-Gaudens established a summer home there in 1885. Saint-Gaudens wanted to get away from the distractions of New York City and his wife, Augusta, located a house in Cornish that she thought would suit the artist. He found the New Hampshire environment so conducive to both work and relaxation that he eventually moved there full-time in 1900. He continued to live and work in Cornish until his death from cancer in 1907.
An entire artistic circle coalesced around Saint-Gaudens, as his friends began buying properties in the area. The group included Impressionist painter Stephen Parrish and his artist son, Maxfield; architect and landscape designer; Charles Adams Platt; future landscape designer Ellen Biddle Shipman and Saint-Gaudens’ niece, Rose Standish Nichols, who also forged a career as a landscape designer.
I visited the Saint-Gaudens Memorial Historic Site, which is now maintained by the National Park Service. The property is home to Saint-Gaudens’ flower garden, which was designed by Ellen Biddle Shipman. It also features a cutting garden, lots of impressive hedges and a host of beautiful trees, including a graceful allée of birches.
The cutting garden, which grows on the site of Saint-Gaudens’ original vegetable garden, is full of the ornamental varieties that would have been grown in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Now the blooms are used for the arrangements that adorn “Aspet”, Saint-Gaudens’ house. I saw many beautiful annual and biennial varieties in the cutting garden, but the most beautiful of all was an old fashioned flower that I haven’t seen in a long time–Salpiglossis sinuata or “painted tongue”.
If you saw a salpiglossis and didn’t know any better you might mistake it for an oddly colored and shaped petunia. You wouldn’t be far wrong. Painted tongue and petunia are closely related, both belonging to the nightshade or Solanaceae family. Native to Chile, salpiglossis is a sun-loving annual, and can grow up to three feet tall. The leaves, like those of its petunia cousins, are soft and sticky. Each flower has five petals, which are fused to form a trumpet shape. One petal is longer than the others, which distinguishes salpiglossis from its petunia relatives.
The name salpiglossis comes from the Greek language by way of Latin. “Salpinx” means “trumpet”, as in the shape of the flowers; and “glossa” means “tongue”, probably a reference to the single elongated petal. “Painted tongue”, the common name, comes from the glorious flower color, which can be yellow, gold, pink, orange, red, purple, blue or brown with contrasting veins and markings. Various reference sources refer to the flowers’ colors as “jewel-like.” Salpiglossis was introduced into this country in 1824 and increased in popularity throughout the Victorian era, starring in colored catalog illustrations in the late 1800’s. The combination of brilliant, exotic colors and interesting patterns appealed to Victorians who filled their gardens with both. Saint-Gaudens and his artistic friends must have loved them. Stephen Parrish had a celebrated cottage garden at “Northcote”, his home in Cornish. I can’t imagine that he would have been without the eminently paintable painted tongue.
It is too late for this season, but next year I intend to have some salpiglossis of my own. There are several seed sources, though I haven’t found any vendor that offers plants. You can purchase mixtures, such as the English-bred ‘Stained Glass’ assortment or the hybrid variety ‘Casino Mixed’. Seeds for single-colored hybrid varieties including ‘Kew Blue’, ‘Casino Black’ and ‘Royale Chocolate’, are also available from catalog and online vendors.
Like old-fashioned petunias, salpiglossis dislikes rain and wet weather, which marks the flower petals and tends to turn the blossoms into sodden balls. But if you have a protected sunny spot, your salpiglossis will thrive and give you a season of vibrant flowers. Like the people at the Saint-Gaudens site, you can also cut them for the house.
Not everyone in your neighborhood will have salpiglossis next year, but you can. I guarantee that when visitors see them, they will want a few painted tongues for their own gardens.
You can buy salpiglossis seeds from Thompson & Morgan, 220 Faraday Avenue, Jackson, NJ 08527-5073, www.tmseeds.com, (800) 274-7333. Free catalog. The ‘Stained Glass’ mix is available from Renee’s Garden, 6116 Hwy 1, Felton, CA, 95018, www.reneesgarden.com, (888) 880-7228. No print catalog.