My friend Anne Marie Senior can grow anything.\u00a0 She can also cook anything and make it taste good.\u00a0 On top of that, she is a natural decorator.\u00a0 With the help of her husband, Kenton, she transformed a cinder block garage in suburban New Jersey into a summerhouse reminiscent of country houses in her native Jamaica.\u00a0 When you sit with Anne Marie in her brightly painted summerhouse, you can hear Bob Marley’s voice–even when the CD player is turned off.<\/p>\n
The dazzling garden\u00a0surrounding the small building is filled with an array of tropical plants.\u00a0 Caladium spring from the beds, joining elephant ears, birds of paradise, lion’s ears, passion vines, cannas, hibiscus and at least one banana tree.\u00a0 You cannot possibly leave uninspired.\u00a0 Like many avid gardeners, Anne Marie is extremely generous with seeds, cuttings and divisions, so it is equally impossible to leave empty-handed.\u00a0 Last time I visited, my gift was a division of Neomarica gracilis, most commonly known as walking iris.<\/p>\n
My new plant has the long, strap-like leaves that are typical of the Iridaceae or iris family. \u00a0There were no flowers on the mother plant, but with luck my N. gracilis will eventually sprout, three-inch flowers from the ends of long leaf-like stems.\u00a0 The blooms will be reminiscent of other iris, and each will have white outer petals, curled blue central petals and brownish-red centers.<\/p>\n
Lasting only\u00a0one day apiece, Neomarica flowers quickly give way to air roots that develop at the ends of the arching stems.\u00a0 You can either detach the rooted stem and plant it in a small pot immediately, or let the roots develop in a glass of water, and pot up after a week or so. \u00a0Mature potted plants can reach sixteen inches in height.<\/p>\n
Neomarica gracilis and other Neomarica species have acquired several picturesque nicknames over time, including “apostle’s iris,”\u009d “toad cups,”\u009d and “twelve apostles.”\u009d\u00a0 Given the flowers’ small size, any toad taking up residence in one would have to be pretty small.\u00a0 “Twelve apostles”\u009d probably refers to the plant’s reputation for not flowering until it has at least twelve leaves.\u00a0 The “walking”\u009d nickname has to do with the air roots that form after flowering.\u00a0 When grown outdoors in conditions that mimic those of its native habitat in southern Mexico, Central and South America, Neomarica’s stems arch downward, allowing the roots at the stem ends to anchor themselves in the soil.\u00a0 By increasing in this way, the plants gradually “walk”\u009d across an ever-expanding area.\u00a0 Neomarica also spreads by underground rhizomes, like more familiar iris genera.\u00a0 The “gracilis”\u009d of the species name refers to the graceful arching qualities of the leaves and stems.\u00a0 Graceful probably also defined Marica, a nymph celebrated in Italic mythology, for whom the genus is named.<\/p>\n
In addition to N. gracilis, other common Neomarica species include: N. caerulea, which is a bit larger, and has blue flowers; and N. longifolia, with somewhat longer leaves and yellow flowers spotted with brown.<\/p>\n
Of course Neomarica is not the only plant that reproduces by “walking.”\u009d\u00a0 Strawberries do it by sending out runners.\u00a0 Ajuga reptans or bugleweed does the same thing.\u00a0 In my yard the latter has not only walked but galloped its way over many square feet.\u00a0 I suspect that Neomarica might have similar tendencies when grown in gardens in frost-free areas of the country.\u00a0 This ease of culture has also made it a favorite “pass along”\u009d plant.\u00a0 Anne Marie passed walking iris along to me, and I plan to give the offspring of mine to plant-loving friends.<\/p>\n
So my Neomarica gracilis is now potted-up and residing on the south-facing window seat in my dining room.\u00a0 When it goes outside next spring I will keep it in the partial shade that it prefers.\u00a0 My tendency to be lazy about repotting will serve me well, because twelve apostles in a pot-bound condition will bless the plant owner with blossoms sooner rather than later.\u00a0 When that happens, I’ll be especially thankful for Anne Marie’s generosity.\u00a0 I may even be able to hear the faint sounds of Bob Marley singing his most famous lyrics, “One love.\u00a0 One heart.\u00a0 Let’s get together and feel all right.”\u009d<\/p>\n
If you don’t have a friend or neighbor to walk a Neomarica gracilis over to your house, you can purchase one from Logee’s Greenhouses,<\/p>\n
141 North Street, Danielson, CT 06239<\/p>\n
, Phone (888) 330-8038 or www.logees.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Catalog $4.95 or free via bulk mail.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" My friend Anne Marie Senior can grow anything.\u00a0 She can also cook anything and make it taste good.\u00a0 On top of that, she is a natural decorator.\u00a0 With the help of her husband, Kenton, she transformed a cinder block garage in suburban New Jersey into a summerhouse reminiscent of country houses in her native Jamaica.\u00a0 … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-winter"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}