{"id":3948,"date":"2023-05-01T05:38:44","date_gmt":"2023-05-01T13:38:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2023-05-01T06:30:44","modified_gmt":"2023-05-01T14:30:44","slug":"avens-adventure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/avens-adventure\/","title":{"rendered":"Avens Adventure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Geum\"<\/a>Every year I vow to try new plants in the garden\u2014not necessarily flashy new trademarked hybrids, but species that I haven\u2019t grown before.\u00a0 This year, my first new species comes courtesy of my daughter, who has no garden of her own, but is always on the lookout for plants for me.\u00a0 This year she found an alluring perennial geum variety, \u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019.<\/p>\n

The name, with its aristocratic connotation appeals to my inner garden snob.\u00a0 The flowers\u2014rose-like, with fluffy golden-yellow petals, surrounding rings of plentiful yellow stamens and green centers\u2014appeal to my not-so-inner lover of all things rose-like.\u00a0 Some sources identify \u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019 as a variety of the species Geum chiloense, but most list it as simply Geum \u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019 is a perfect example of the eighteenth and nineteenth century practice of selecting a choice variety of a newly discovered plant species from another continent and naming it after a member of the British or European gentry.\u00a0 In this case, the real Lady Stratheden was Mary Elizabeth Scarlett, First Baroness Stratheden, a Scottish noblewoman who lived from 1795 to 1860.\u00a0 She was elevated to the British peerage, allegedly, as compensation for the fact that her husband was passed over twice for a lofty judicial job, \u201cMaster of the Rolls\u201d.\u00a0 Apparently there is still a Baron Stratheden who is one of Lady Stratheden\u2019s descendants.<\/p>\n

And, of course, the Baroness\u2019s namesake flowering plant lives on as well. The chiloense variety came from Chile originally, and was undoubtedly collected in that country by some intrepid plant hunter who brought it back to the British Isles.<\/p>\n

Geums are sometimes known as \u201cavens\u201d or even \u201cGrecian rose\u201d, and there is much more to the genus than one yellow-flowered plant.\u00a0 In fact, sources list between 40 and 50 species of geum, native to various temperate parts of the world, including the Americas, as well as areas in Asia, Africa and Europe.\u00a0 A few, like the bright red-orange Geum coccineum, pink-purple Geum rivale, and \u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019s progenitor, Geum chiloense, have been widely used for hybridizing.\u00a0 Most of the popular modern varieties are hybrids.<\/p>\n

Geums come by their rose-like blossoms honestly, as they are members of the large and far-flung rose or Rosaceae family.\u00a0 The flower structure is similar to that of species roses, with five petals per flower.\u00a0 Double-flowered hybrids abound, and now seem to be more common in commerce than their single-flowered relations.\u00a0 The domestic geums are mid-border plants, sprouting from a basal leaf cluster and rising between nine and 24 inches, depending on species or variety.\u00a0 The foliage is sometimes described as \u201cstrawberry-like\u201d, made up of divided, toothed leaves.\u00a0 Species and hybrid flower colors include white, pink, and maroon, as well as brilliant shades of red, orange and yellow.\u00a0 \u2018Lady Stratheden\u2019s less aristocratic sibling, \u2018Mrs. Bradshaw\u2019 is bright red.<\/p>\n

Sunny to lightly shaded spaces are a must for geums.\u00a0 If your soil, like mine, is heavy clay, amend it with organic material when you install the plants.\u00a0 Deadheading will give the plants an incentive to produce new flowers and division each year will increase your supplies.\u00a0 For better or for worse\u2014probably for better\u2014deer will not do the deadheading for you, because they tend to avoid geums.<\/p>\n

I suspect that if the deer avoid my new geums, they will spend their time chomping down the burgeoning asters, which is sometimes helpful in preventing the asters from reaching six feet tall by September.<\/p>\n

Geum varieties and hybrids are plentiful in the marketplace.\u00a0 As with other popular perennial plants, many are part of named series.\u00a0 For something flamboyant, try \u2018Alabama Slammer\u2019, with semi-double orange and gold petals.\u00a0 It is one of the trademarked and undoubtedly intoxicating Cocktails series, which also includes the pinky-apricot \u2018Mai Tai\u2019, yellow \u2018Banana Daiquiri\u2019, rose and white, \u2018Cosmopolitan\u2019, and creamy pink \u2018Tequila Sunrise\u2019. You may also see the Tempo series with ruffled flowers in orange, yellow, rose or peach. Equally ruffled, but somewhat more compact\u2014only 10 inches tall–are the plants in the Pretticoats series, including the much publicized Pretticoats \u2018Peach\u2019.<\/p>\n

Geums generally bloom in mid-spring to early summer, depending on species, variety and climate conditions.\u00a0 They are appearing on nursery pallets now, but are also available from online vendors.\u00a0 Try Plant Detectives, 45 Route 206, Chester, NJ 07930; (908) 879-6577<\/a>; www.plantdetectives.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Every year I vow to try new plants in the garden\u2014not necessarily flashy new trademarked hybrids, but species that I haven\u2019t grown before.\u00a0 This year, my first new species comes courtesy of my daughter, who has no garden of her own, but is always on the lookout for plants for me.\u00a0 This year she found … 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":[2865,2866,2868,1182,2864,2869,2867,488,551],"class_list":["post-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-spring","category-summer","tag-lady-stratheden","tag-avens","tag-cocktails-series","tag-flowering-perennials","tag-geum","tag-geum-chiloense","tag-grecian-rose","tag-rose-family","tag-spring-perennials"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948","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=3948"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3954,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions\/3954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}