South American Plants
Our second range of special plants is an expanding collection from South America generally and from Chile in particular. Chile has a large number of endemics - plants that grow only there - and we have many fine specimens of shrubs and trees from that country, among them the Chilean hazel, Gevuina avellana, the conifer Podocarpus salignis andEmbothrium coccineum, the well-known Chilean firebush. Apart from the established specimens in the garden many young plants are coming on to join their older compatriots.
We grow many fine South American herbaceous perennials too. Alstroemeria, with their brightly coloured flowers, Libertia, species narrow iris-like foliage setting off the spikes of white or blue flowers and Calceolaria, the slipper flower with those small, pouched, yellow or white blooms. Just about the largest herbaceous perennials that can be grown outside here are those giant rhubarb look-alikes, Gunnera manicata and Gunnera tinctoria, natives of Brazil and Chile respectively.
One of the most requested plants in the garden is that rampant Chilean delight,Tropaeolum speciosum, the so-called Scotch Flame Flower. Scrambling over everything, red flowers from ground level to the tops of shrubs in summer, it's really a weed here but tolerated because of its beauty and the fact that it's just about impossible to eradicate anyway!
Other Chilean plants that grow well here include sub shrubs such as the ceriseAsteranthera ovata and the orange Mitraria coccinea which grow in the moss on rocks and stumps and clamber up the mossy tree trunks as if they were home in the Valdivian rainforest. Very different in appearance is that spiky relative of the pineapple, Fascicularia bicolor, growing terrestrially here but hanging in huge clusters from the trees in its native home.
Temperate South America has many native ferns, of which we already grow several and hope to try more. Blechnum chilense is a tough evergreen which needs full light here and grows rampantly. Young specimens of an unusual tree-fern, Dicksonia sellowiana, are among others of the genus growing in our Fern Gully and the pride and joy of our fern family, Lophosoria quadripinnata, is mentioned on the 'Ferns' page.
Climbers too we do - the previously mentioned Berberidopsis corallina (Other Trees and Shrubs page), Ercilla volubilis, Cissis striata and Elytropus chilensis are examples.
We grow many fine South American herbaceous perennials too. Alstroemeria, with their brightly coloured flowers, Libertia, species narrow iris-like foliage setting off the spikes of white or blue flowers and Calceolaria, the slipper flower with those small, pouched, yellow or white blooms. Just about the largest herbaceous perennials that can be grown outside here are those giant rhubarb look-alikes, Gunnera manicata and Gunnera tinctoria, natives of Brazil and Chile respectively.
One of the most requested plants in the garden is that rampant Chilean delight,Tropaeolum speciosum, the so-called Scotch Flame Flower. Scrambling over everything, red flowers from ground level to the tops of shrubs in summer, it's really a weed here but tolerated because of its beauty and the fact that it's just about impossible to eradicate anyway!
Other Chilean plants that grow well here include sub shrubs such as the ceriseAsteranthera ovata and the orange Mitraria coccinea which grow in the moss on rocks and stumps and clamber up the mossy tree trunks as if they were home in the Valdivian rainforest. Very different in appearance is that spiky relative of the pineapple, Fascicularia bicolor, growing terrestrially here but hanging in huge clusters from the trees in its native home.
Temperate South America has many native ferns, of which we already grow several and hope to try more. Blechnum chilense is a tough evergreen which needs full light here and grows rampantly. Young specimens of an unusual tree-fern, Dicksonia sellowiana, are among others of the genus growing in our Fern Gully and the pride and joy of our fern family, Lophosoria quadripinnata, is mentioned on the 'Ferns' page.
Climbers too we do - the previously mentioned Berberidopsis corallina (Other Trees and Shrubs page), Ercilla volubilis, Cissis striata and Elytropus chilensis are examples.
