Dear Helen: The front garden of a property near mine is covered with tiny flowering cyclamen plants that bloom twice each year. They look like wildflowers. I鈥檇 love to have them in my garden, but I can鈥檛 find them in garden centres.
L.V.
There are no native cyclamen species here that I know of or can find listed among native plants, but ivy-leaved cyclamen (Cyclamen hederifolium, C. neapolitanum), after a few years in a garden, does tend to naturalize through self-sowing to make a听beautiful ground cover of ornamental foliage through the听winter and early spring. The听foliage dies down with warm spring weather and little pink or white flowers appear in late summer to听bloom from August to听October.
I don鈥檛 know of a cyclamen that flowers two times each year, but this one does give two ornamental display periods -- one of flowers, another foliage. The leaves of C. hederifolium are large and ivy-shaped, with silver marbling over dark green.
Another commonly grown hardy cyclamen is C. coum, which flowers in late winter to early spring. It has rounded leaves in dark green and silver.
Small potted plants of both species of hardy cyclamen are often to be found at Seedy Saturday events early in the year. A mail order source is Fraser鈥檚 Thimble Farms on Salt Spring Island. thimblefarms.com.
听
Dear Helen: My roses have been covered with tiny white flies this autumn. Weak solutions of neither Defender nor soapy water have brought any control. S.W.
Defender is a sulphur-based fungicide designed to prevent powdery mildew, black spot, and rust 鈥� common diseases of numerous plant, including roses. It is not a recommended control for insect pests.
I have noticed more whiteflies than usual in late summer of this year, especially on various patio plants like potted cherry tomatoes. Adult whiteflies look like tiny, powdery white moths. They usually rest on the undersides of leaves at the top parts of plants. They fly upward when disturbed. This habit suggests one control that works for many people, as odd as it seems: Tap the plant while holding a hand vacuum overhead to suck the flies out of听the air.
That leaves their infants, which are tiny, scale-like creatures on the undersides of leaves lower down on the plant. Target them with insecticidal soap, several times at weekly intervals in the case of heavy infestations. There are many overlapping generations in a growing season. Early controls, starting as the first flies are noticed, are most useful. Populations allowed to proliferate into severe infestations can weaken plants as the larvae suck plant sap and discolour foliage.
听
Dear Helen: I have a tall shrub rose that blooms well, but the plant has gone bare in its lower parts. is there anything to e done about this condition? R.F.
Several steps can be taken to听create a more attractive look听in and around your rose bush.
I have just one tall shrub rose in my garden. It鈥檚 actually a climber that is adaptable to growing as a tall shrub. I鈥檝e found that pruning the canes hard in February, as buds show the first signs of swelling, together with fertilizing and applying a nourishing mulch layer, encourages the production of leafy young canes from the plant鈥檚 base. My plant is several decades old, and still this maneuver works. In a season it will grow to between 180 and 240 cm. I cut it back in late winter by as听much as half.
Consider also planting at the base of your rose a billowing, bushy perennial that dies down in winter. I have a Clematis recta, a sprawling, multi-stemmed, 120-cm plant that I听direct into the rose, where it produces a mass of tiny white flowers in early summer.
An upright baby鈥檚 breath (Gypsophila paniculata) would fill a similar role. Choose a double-flowered form such as Bistol Fairy.
听
GARDEN EVENT
Plant Identification and Culture. The听Horticulture Centre of the Pacific, 505 Quayle Rd. in Saanich, is hosting the next session in this ongoing, monthly course (can be joined at any time) on Saturday, Dec. 3, 1 to 4 p.m. In听each session Diane Pierce introduces 25 new plants, with their descriptions, preferred growing conditions, landscape uses and maintenance. Cost to members per session is $35, others $45. Cost听for 12 sessions: members $350, others $450. To register call 250-479-6162. hcp.ca.
