MOCK ORANGE<\/b><\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Plant breeders and merchandisers are working hard to create the perfect garden plant and I am sure someday they will do it.\u00a0 This paragon of horticultural virtue will be easy to care for, pest and disease resistant, adaptable to a wide range of conditions and perform equally well in sun and partial shade.\u00a0 Both decorative and useful, the plant will captivate buyers with beautiful, fragrant flowers, edible fruit, attractive foliage, compact shape and even winter interest in the form of exfoliating bark or eye-catching seedheads.\u00a0 It will never need pruning and will look good even after exposure to a 30-minute hailstorm with golf ball-size ice chunks.\u00a0 Wildlife will thrive on the fruits and pollinators will flock to the flowers.\u00a0 Planted en masse, the roots, which contain a substance that cures cancer and filters heavy metals out of ground water, will also control erosion on steep slopes.\u00a0 Commercial growers will enthuse over the plant because it will be easy to propagate, grow quickly and increase handily over time. Its vigor will be tempered with extreme good manners and it will never be invasive under any circumstances anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n
Clearly mock orange\u2014Philadelphus species\u2014do not resemble that plant. The mock oranges, as a group, are tough, hardy shrubs and the fragrant flowers that adorn them are gorgeous. They are fairly easily to grow and propagate.\u00a0 Still, like its spring-flowering fellow-travelers, forsythia and deutzia, mock orange is often damned with faint praise.\u00a0 After two weeks of heavenly-scented glory, the blooms fade and the shrubs don\u2019t do much, except wait patiently for pruning.\u00a0 Their deciduous nature means that winter interest is limited, except in species with exfoliating bark.<\/p>\n
Still, mock orange has inspired devotion in many people, including Victor Lemoine\u20141823-1911–one of the most celebrated plant breeders of the nineteenth century and patriarch of a plant-breeding family.\u00a0 Lemoine had a soft spot for flowering plants that led him to work extensively with lilac, deutzia and a host of other species. He created compact, floriferous mock orange hybrids by crossing native American species like littleleaf mock orange–Philadelphus microphyllus\u2014with Mexican mock orange\u2014Philadelphus mexicanus\u2014and common mock orange\u2014Philadelphus coronarius.\u00a0 The end result was a series of hybrids, like \u2018Belle Etoile\u2019, that are relatively compact, with an arching, upright habit and abundant clusters of fragrant flowers.\u00a0 Today, if you buy a hybrid mock orange with a French name, it is probably one of Lemoine\u2019s.<\/p>\n
Mock orange is a member of the hydrangea or Hydrangeaceae family and the resemblance is clear if you look closely at the flowers.\u00a0 Each features four rounded petals and resembles a larger version of the individual florets produced by hydrangeas. \u00a0The flowers are always white, though some species and varieties, like the Lemoine hybrids, boast rose or purple shading at the base of each petal.\u00a0 Every flower is also adorned with a prominent cluster of golden stamens in the center.\u00a0 Like many hydrangeas, mock oranges generally bloom on old wood, meaning that this year\u2019s new growth produces next year\u2019s flowers.\u00a0 Plants that bloom on old wood should always be pruned after flowering.\u00a0 If you encounter a neglected mock orange that has grown tall, gangly and less floriferous, prune it back to the ground right after flowering.\u00a0 It will spring forth with new resolve thereafter.<\/p>\n
Mock oranges make excellent specimen plants or deciduous hedges.\u00a0 Planted in mixed annual-perennial-shrub borders, they can be paired with evergreens to add coveted year-round interest.\u00a0 Large varieties include Lemoine\u2019s \u2018Belle Etoile\u2019, which grows five to 6 feet tall and up to 4 feet wide, with single blooms. If your area is drought-prone, pick littleleaf mock orange\u2014Philadelphus microphyllus\u2014which is native to the American southwest. The plants grow four to six feet tall, with pleasing small leaves, large fragrant summer flowers and reddish-brown exfoliating bark.\u00a0 Thanks to the rigors of its native environment, littleleaf mock orange long ago got into the habit of sipping, rather than guzzling, water.<\/p>\n
Modern gardeners must often cope with severe space limitations or create gardens in containers of various sizes.\u00a0 People in those situations need not forget about mock orange.\u00a0 Small-size varieties are available, including \u2018Miniature Snowflake\u2019 and \u2018Snow Dwarf\u2019, both of which top out at about three feet tall and wide. This is a good size for either a large container or a modest garden plot.\u00a0 In addition to their desirable daintiness, these little mock oranges have the added bonus of fragrant double flowers.<\/p>\n
If you are looking for double flowers on a larger shrub, try \u2018Virginal\u2019, which will grow to nine feet tall if left to its own devices, but can be pruned to keep it within more reasonable bounds.<\/p>\n
Some helpful relative long ago told me that mock orange got its common name from the flowers\u2019 fragrance, which was likened to that of orange blossoms.\u00a0 Multiple authoritative sources maintain that it is really the orange blossom-like appearance of the flowers that gives rise to the name.\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0So much for relying on relatives for definitive answers.\u00a0 Fortunately my relatives never muddied the waters about the origins of the generic name, Philadelphus.\u00a0 That comes from an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, Ptolemy II Philadelphus, of the Macedonian Ptolomy line.\u00a0 Ptolemy II Philadelphus lived in the second century BCE and reputedly maintained a splendid court.\u00a0 It must have been that splendor that inspired Linnaeus to name the genus in his honor.<\/p>\n
Mock orange is thoroughly memorable, despite its lack of perfection.\u00a0 But really, perfection is significantly overrated, whereas mock orange is somewhat underappreciated.\u00a0 Find a selection of these lovely shrubs at ForestFarm, 14643 Watergap Rd.,Williams, OR 97544-9599 (541), 846-7269, www.forestfarm.com<\/a>. Free catalog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" MOCK ORANGE \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Plant breeders and merchandisers are working hard to create the perfect garden plant and I am sure someday they will do it.\u00a0 This paragon of horticultural virtue will be easy to care for, pest and disease resistant, adaptable to a wide range of conditions and perform equally well in sun and partial … 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":[4,6,2,3],"tags":[274,491,1078,1138,1139,1140,1136,1137,827],"class_list":["post-1295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-container-gardening","tag-flowering-shrubs","tag-fragrant-shrubs","tag-hydrangea-family","tag-lemoine-hybrids","tag-littleleaf-mock-orange","tag-mock-orange","tag-philadelphus","tag-pollinator-plants"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295","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=1295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1296,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1295\/revisions\/1296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}