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Dirt on the Keys

A plant geek sweats over, swears at, and celebrates in his own gardens
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When Mine Grows Up: Paeonia lutea 'Ludlowii'

Posted by: Louis on Apr 11, 2010

Peony flowers are—even to me, a serious foliage freak—a gift from the gods. But some peonies that still do flower are even more engaging on account of their leaves. Paeonia lutea 'Ludlowii' is at the top of the list. This is a tree peony, with woody stems that live year-to-year, and a large shrubby habit. Ludlow's can get six feet tall and wide, and more. But even if it were a dwarf, or even if it only got three leaves a season not (on old plants) a hundred or two, this would still be a peony to lust over, a peony to crave, a peony that you must-have.
Here's an adolescent bush at a client's garden, probably six feet wide and almost five tall.
As you'll see from a post in early May, the leaves are large and quite ferny, giving you that lacy-foliage look but much larger than any hardy fern could provide. (Peonies are one of those blessed rare tribes that do better with cold winters and cool summers. Eat your heart out North Carolina.)
Mine is but a pip, with only a handful of short canes that will produce, oh, ten or twelve leaves this entire season.
Just you wait and see how thrilling those leaves are.


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When Mine Grows Up: Daphne 'Carol Mackie'

Posted by: Louis on Apr 10, 2010

Daphnes are essential. Early and fragrant flowers, bone-hardy (as long as they get good drainage), deer aren't interested, quick to mature, and in the cultivar 'Carol Mackie', variegated foliage. Here's my 'Carol Mackie' just coming into leaf...






































...and into bud.









































But Carol has another talent quite beyond any of these admirable but also tidy talents: In her golden years she spreads out with alarmingly appealing abandon. (Ah if only it were the same for humans.)

Here's Carol when she's a big old girl of, oh, twelve.




















Completely flopped open and sprawling—but with such defiant style! Look at how the branches at the very heart of the plant coil and writhe.




















There's a Gorgon-like intensity to them that only increases with age, as more and more of the younger branches get big enough to "Go Gorgon" on you.

Carol Mackie sure shows that the usual standards of beauty—being tight and dense, perky and colorful, in control and obedient—can sometimes be just the fancy folly of youth.


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