{"id":254,"date":"2011-05-02T03:41:58","date_gmt":"2011-05-02T11:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=254"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:34","slug":"dangerous-andromeda","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/dangerous-andromeda\/","title":{"rendered":"Dangerous Andromeda"},"content":{"rendered":"

DANGEROUS ANDROMEDA
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have fallen in love with a beautiful and dangerous plant.\u00a0 It is not dangerous in the literal sense, like the deadly castor bean or monkshood.\u00a0 It is dangerous because it is finicky and can be hard to grow.\u00a0 If grown badly it will either die or, more likely, languish forever in ugly defiance of my best efforts.\u00a0 Either way, the potential for regret is high.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 This new acquisition is Andromeda polifolia, sometimes known as bog rosemary.\u00a0 It is a low shrub that will never be taller than about one foot high.\u00a0 In the unlikely event that it is happy on my property, it may spread to about two feet wide.\u00a0 The evergreen foliage is almost blue and reminiscent of rosemary.\u00a0 The flowers are bell-shaped and resemble those of its relatives pieris, heather and arbutus.\u00a0 The tiny individual bells are a winsome shade of pale pink.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I first met ‘Blue Ice’–its varietal name–several years ago at a garden center.\u00a0 I was very taken with the plant, plump and healthy in its two-gallon nursery pot.\u00a0 However, for some reason I didn’t bring it home.\u00a0 I have been sorry ever since because I haven’t seen it in stores or catalogs again.\u00a0 It had been so long that in my mind, Andromeda polifolia was in danger of becoming “the plant that got away.”\u009d
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Then last week I saw it in a garden center display and snapped it up immediately.\u00a0 I congratulated myself all the way home, but reality set in when I checked the plant on the Internet.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 As the common name, “bog rosemary”\u009d suggests, Andromeda polifolia is native to swamps and boggy areas.\u00a0 It must have acid soil, constant moisture and perfect drainage.\u00a0 My garden is chock full of acid soil; the challenge lies in providing the constant moisture and perfect drainage.\u00a0 I live in a climate that can be simultaneously hot, humid and rain free in summer for days on end.\u00a0 The acid soil is also heavy clay, a definite impediment to perfect drainage.\u00a0 Clearly the bog rosemary will need special treatment.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Since I made a commitment to the plant, I will give it a try.\u00a0 Before installing it in my garden, I will take a trip to the local big box store and buy a bag of sand to mix with the soil.\u00a0 Homemade compost will help the drainage as well. \u00a0I will put down a soaker hose around it to cater to its thirsty nature.\u00a0 My andromeda will also live in partial shade, so it will not suffer unduly during the hot summers.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gardeners who post frequently on major gardening chat sites have a lot to say about Andromeda polifolia and most of it is not encouraging.\u00a0 Even when all its requirements are met, the plant sometimes gets ugly, turning brown in the middle while remaining green around the edges.\u00a0 One poster quoted a noted expert, who said that the only time these specimens look good is while they are in pots in the nursery yard.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am an optimist, so I try to ignore all of that, believing that my yard will have some magic that the others lack.\u00a0 I support a dwarf blueberry bush in fine style and it is part of the same Ericaceae or heather family.\u00a0 Some of the iris require constant moisture and they survive and flourish.\u00a0 I even have plants for which I have gone to great trouble to provide perfect drainage.\u00a0 I will hope for the best.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The genus name, “Andromeda,”\u009d is confusing.\u00a0 In the1763, the great plant taxonomist, Linnaeus included the swamp rosemary in a genus he called “Andromeda,”\u009d where it still resides.\u00a0 Also included in the Linnaean genus was the much larger shrub, pieris, which was split off into its own genus in the 1830’s.\u00a0 Confusion enters the picture because pieris is commonly called “Andromeda.”\u009d\u00a0 Since relatively few people are familiar with bog rosemary, chances are those who talk about “Andromeda”\u009d are referring to the larger, more popular plant.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I wish I had one of those as well, but space in my garden is tight and it is just so difficult to appropriate parts of your neighbors’ properties without causing problems.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Swamp rosemary is going to be an experiment.\u00a0 Mine has an abundance of flowers on it now and with luck, they will return next spring.\u00a0 In the meantime, I will tend to its needs like a nursemaid.\u00a0 Thank God for plants like ajuga, which can be neglected, derided and even walked upon with no problem at all. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DANGEROUS ANDROMEDA \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have fallen in love with a beautiful and dangerous plant.\u00a0 It is not dangerous in the literal sense, like the deadly castor bean or monkshood.\u00a0 It is dangerous because it is finicky and can be hard to grow.\u00a0 If grown badly it will either die or, more likely, languish forever in … 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":[6,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general-interest","category-spring"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254","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=254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1537,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/254\/revisions\/1537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}