{"id":570,"date":"2012-09-10T10:40:44","date_gmt":"2012-09-10T18:40:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/?p=570"},"modified":"2015-11-24T07:32:30","modified_gmt":"2015-11-24T15:32:30","slug":"ornamental-oregano","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/ornamental-oregano\/","title":{"rendered":"Ornamental Oregano"},"content":{"rendered":"

ORNAMENTAL OREGANO<\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am always looking for non-fussy ground covers that stomp weeds and look good doing it.\u00a0 On a garden center run a few years ago I happened upon ornamental oregano, something I had read about but never tried.\u00a0 The cultivar was \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 and it was in bloom, with pinkish flowerheads that reminded me of hops.\u00a0 Invoking my usual careful, deliberative process, I snapped up the quart container and made for the cash register.<\/p>\n

The plant went right into my front strip garden, which was created after my attempts to grow grass in the area became a source of perpetual aggravation.\u00a0 The strip needed all the ground cover it could get and I figured it was a good place to experiment with something new.\u00a0 The little plant, only about six inches high, went into the sunny end, near the front of the bed.<\/p>\n

When \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 is in bloom, as mine was when it was purchased and installed, it is hard to notice the leaves, which are small, rounded and silvery.\u00a0 If you rub them, they exude the familiar oregano scent, but it is not as pronounced as the fragrance that emanates from the bottle of dried culinary oregano that every one of us has on the kitchen shelf.\u00a0\u00a0 The kitchen variety oregano, which has been used as a medicinal and culinary herb for centuries, is Origanum vulgare, native to the Old World, from Europe to Central Asia.\u00a0 \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 is a hybrid, the offspring of a cross between Origanum rotundifolium or round-leafed oregano and Origanum scabrum.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 has now survived two winters, one harsh and the other gentle, not to mention being stepped on and rifled by passing dogs.\u00a0 It has spread from its original six inch diameter to cover over a square foot and blossoms, which are actually groups of colored leaves or bracts, completely cover the plant.\u00a0 The bees and other pollinators absolutely adore it, making fools of themselves in an effort to get close to the bracts.\u00a0 Passers-by ask about it all the time.<\/p>\n

Despite the flowers\u2019 resemblance to hops, ornamental oregano is a member of the prodigious mint family.\u00a0 Hops, on the other hand, are part of the Cannabaceae family, which is also home to marijuana.\u00a0 Culinary oregano behaves like a typical mint, expanding rapidly and seeding itself all over the place.\u00a0 It has become naturalized in some parts of the United States.\u00a0 \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 and other ornamental varieties are much better mannered and while they will spread out in the garden, you will not have to pluck them out of cracks in your sidewalk or driveway.<\/p>\n

\u2018Kent Beauty\u2019, which is so laudable that it won the Royal Horticultural Society\u2019s Award of Garden Merit, was the first ornamental oregano to hit the American commercial market, but it is not the only one.\u00a0 \u2018Amethyst Falls\u2019, not to be confused with a wisteria of the same name, behaves in much the same way as \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019, but features purple and green \u201cflowerheads\u201d that cascade gracefully.<\/p>\n

Plant hybridizing is big business in Germany and the breeders there could not resist oregano.\u00a0 Two German cultivars, \u2018Herrenhausen\u2019 and \u2018Rosenkuppel\u2019, have rosy flowerheads and the same spreading ways as other ornamental varieties.\u00a0 The flowers of the German hybrids, though lush, fragrant and beautiful, look less like hops than \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019, \u2018Amethyst Falls\u2019 or the dainty \u2018Bristol Cross\u2019, which has pink and green bracts.<\/p>\n

The virtues of ornamental oregano are numerous.\u00a0 They can be grow in containers, window boxes or rock gardens and are perfect for xeric or dry landscapes.\u00a0 Deer and other varmints do not eat them, so it may be worthwhile to plant a few in areas where you also grow spring flowering bulbs.\u00a0 The bracts or flowerheads look wonderful in arrangements and varieties like \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 make excellent dried flowers as well.\u00a0 If you have an herb garden, try both culinary oregano and one of the ornamental varieties.\u00a0 Each will reward your investment in its own way.<\/p>\n

Large garden centers and nurseries sometimes carry ornamental oreganos, either in the perennial or herb sections.\u00a0 Bluestone Perennials is a good source.\u00a0 They are at 7211 Middle Ridge Rd., Madison, Ohio\u00a0 44057, (800) 852-5243; www.bluestoneperennials.com<\/a>.\u00a0 Free catalog. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Forestfarm also has an excellent selection.\u00a0 Find them at 990 Tetherow Road, Williams, Oregon 97544, (541) 846-7269; www.forestfarm.com<\/a>. Catalog $5.00<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ORNAMENTAL OREGANO \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I am always looking for non-fussy ground covers that stomp weeds and look good doing it.\u00a0 On a garden center run a few years ago I happened upon ornamental oregano, something I had read about but never tried.\u00a0 The cultivar was \u2018Kent Beauty\u2019 and it was in bloom, with pinkish flowerheads that … 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":[4,6,3],"tags":[202,222,263,342,341,343,340,344,227],"class_list":["post-570","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fall","category-general-interest","category-summer","tag-herb-gardening","tag-herbs","tag-mint-family","tag-oregano","tag-oregano-kent-beauty","tag-origanum","tag-ornamental-oregano","tag-pollinator-friendly-plants","tag-pollinators"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570","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=570"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":571,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570\/revisions\/571"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenersapprentice.com\/gardeningtips\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}