PUSHING THE BORDERS

I've grown the plain green form of this statuesque umbel for many, many years but only in the past couple started growing the subsp. glauca. I planted 3 x 9cm liners in my new rubble bed and, now in their third season, the new growth looks like it is gaining some momentum. But what a colour! The purple fades to glaucous grey but on a sunny spring day it ws a picture!

Awesome!

I wonder if it would cope with Cornish damp?

Chad

I don't know Chad, it is a denizen of the Mediterranean. That said, Bleddyn WJ reports on his website it is easily grown and north Wales isn't renowned for it's hot, dry summers. :lol: Probably worth a go - there seem to be several retailers.

I don't if it differs much in it's requirements compared to the green form, but the green form I've grown here in Paignton for 15 odd years puts up with the rain and wind pretty well. Coming into flower at the moment. It's kept going in the same two or three spots I put the original in, generally one or other flowers each year, but they show little sign of popping up elsewhere.

Are all Ferula communis glauca that red in new growth, or is it only the purple stem form?

Special plants sells both the green and the purple as seed in season.

Chad

I don't know. I bought 3 small plants, not any kind of special selection, they all have coloured new growth to some extent but the one I pictured is more vividly coloured than the other 2. If they come true from seed I'd say it is worth aiming for the purple stem one. Especially if it keeps the purple stem into maturity as the website picture would indicate.

I’ve grown a glaucus form in the past, but it didn’t ever present such dark new foliage here in the San Francisco Bay Area. I’m enjoying the process of the inflorescences unfurling, still a few days from full color.

The dark on is pushing up a flower stalk - lovely colour on the stem.

Are you going to let it flower this year?

The straight species tends to be monocarpic if it flowers when it only has one growth point.

If it does flower, may I start a queue for some fresh seed this autumn?

Chad

Yes, I will let it flower. This is its 3rd year in the ground - it is more vigorous then its two compadres - so hopefully it has enough oomph to be perennial. I've grown the 'regular' one for many years and that came back after its first flowering. So, yes, hopefully it will set a good crop of seed and, hopefully, the colour will be passed on.

A lot of hopefullys there, Chad. :lol: