{"id":255,"date":"2011-05-09T05:58:24","date_gmt":"2011-05-09T13:58:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/garden\/?p=255"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:34","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:34","slug":"poor-mans-orchid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/poor-mans-orchid\/","title":{"rendered":"Poor Man’s Orchid"},"content":{"rendered":"

POOR MAN’S ORCHID
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\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>I have spent most of my gardening career planting and promoting perennials.\u00a0 The benefits are obvious; they return every year and frequently grow large enough to divide, thereby increasing supplies at no extra cost.\u00a0 What’s more, they make a political and social statement, telling the world that I am not one of those people who fills my beds with 1960’s style displays of annual petunias, red salvia and blue ageratums.\u00a0 Of course, there is nothing wrong with those people.\u00a0 My father, who was a wonderful gardener, grew impressive peonies and roses, but also had a large bed of red salvia, bright enough to be seen from an aircraft at three thousand feet.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 It doesn’t take a psychologist to figure out that my preference for perennials is also a predictable form of generational rebellion.\u00a0 I can appreciate that now because I am watching that process from a different vantage point.\u00a0 My twenty-three year old daughter is completely besotted with colorful annuals.\u00a0 We have every available variety of geraniums”\u201cold fashioned big-headed bedding types, regals, ivy-leafed and fancy-leafed varieties.\u00a0 We have also had newfangled ‘Million Bells’ calibrachoa–which are really small-flowered petunias–not to mention gerbera daisies and various snapdragons.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Our latest acquisition is Schizanthus Treasure Trove ‘Deep Rose Bicolor,’ a cultivar of a plant that is sometimes called “poor man’s orchid.”\u009d\u00a0 Like many popular annuals, it is native to South America, in this case Chile.\u00a0 It is a member of the Solanaceae or nightshade family, which is also home to common petunias, tomatoes and potatoes.\u00a0 Our new plant is about 12 inches tall, with leaves so deeply dissected and toothed that they appear fern-like.\u00a0 The 1.5 inch flowers, however, are the real stars of the show and bear a definite resemblance to butterflies or certain varieties of orchids.\u00a0 Appearing in clusters at the ends of the branches, the six petals of each flower are fused into a tube at the base and flare out like open butterfly wings. Each blossom has a lower lip-like petal that is somewhat crinkled and almost entirely pink-purple in color.\u00a0 The flowers’ upper petals are white, rimmed with the same pink-purple.\u00a0 A speckled yellow blotch jumps out from the middle of each bloom. \u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 ‘Deep Rose Bicolor’ is one of a series of four Schizanthus marketed under Proven Winners’ “Proven Selections”\u009d label.\u00a0 The others are ‘Lilac Bicolor,’ ‘Pure Scarlet Shades’ and ‘Rose Bicolor.’\u00a0 I suspect the plants are hybrids of Schizanthus pinnatus, originally a much taller flowering plant with similarly configured flowers.\u00a0 The smaller stature of the Treasure Trove series is in keeping with the trend for plants that are suitable in small garden plots and containers.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Author Denise Wiles Adams, in her book Restoring America’s Gardens<\/em>, mentions that in earlier times white and marbled Schizanthus forms were available.\u00a0 I recently spotted another species, Schizanthus candidus, in a catalog of unusual annuals.\u00a0 The flowers on the candidus species look less like butterflies and more like tiny egrets.\u00a0 This may be the white form that Adams refers to.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The genus name, “Schizanthus,”\u009d come from the Latin word for “divided,”\u009d which also gave rise to the term “schizophrenic,”\u009d a now out-of-date word for an individual with a “split personality.”\u009d \u00a0According to Adams, schizanthus was introduced in this country in 1822.\u00a0 It caught on as a bedding or container plant shortly thereafter and seems to be making a comeback now, having undergone cosmetic surgery at the hands of breeders and marketers.\u00a0 Annie’s Annuals, vendor of unusual annual plants, carries three species: candidus, grahamii and hookeri.\u00a0 Schizanthus hookeri ‘Little Mountain Butterfly,’ looks a lot like my Schizanthus, but with thinner petals and a taller growth habit.\u00a0 The grahamii species features flowers that are entirely purple-pink, with the exception of the middle lobe of the upper petal, which is yellow.\u00a0 The plants are at least two feet tall, making them larger than our petit Treasure Trove hybrid.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We put our Schizanthus in a decorative terra cotta pot and placed it in a sunny, protected spot in the garden, where it seems quite happy.\u00a0 It is in full sun right now, but the label information suggests that it may need a bit of light shade when real summer hits.\u00a0 With water and a little plant food, I hope it will produce blossoms up until the first frost.\u00a0
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Fashions in gardening and in most things always come back around.\u00a0 The Victorians loved colorful annuals, variegated leaves and lots of exotic flowers.\u00a0 Add in vegetable gardening and you have captured today’s horticultural zeitgeist.\u00a0 The only certainty is that the fashion wheel will turn again.\u00a0 Someday I hope to have a grandchild and when I do, I am sure he or she will rebel against my daughter’s passions and start buying perennial plants.
\n\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 You can find the Schizanthus Treasure Trove series in most large garden centers that sell the Proven Winners plant line.\u00a0 For the other species mentioned above, go to Annie’s Annuals, 740 Market Avenue, Richmond, CA 94801; 888-266-4370; <\/font><\/font>www.anniesannuals.com<\/font><\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog.<\/font><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

POOR MAN’S ORCHID \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I have spent most of my gardening career planting and promoting perennials.\u00a0 The benefits are obvious; they return every year and frequently grow large enough to divide, thereby increasing supplies at no extra cost.\u00a0 What’s more, they make a political and social statement, telling the world that I am not one … 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-255","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\/255","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=255"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1536,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/255\/revisions\/1536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}