Oxypetalum caeruleum is a South American member of the Milkweed Family which deserves to be best fuck . A mention to it in an English gardening magazine aroused my interest , and in the summertime , I sowed a packet of seeds in a flat tire . They germinated well , and in the autumn the lilliputian works were potted up and localise in the greenhouse for the wintertime . By April , they were ten column inch high and had start to bloom . position outdoors in May , infull sun , and in a. fair deep sandy loam , they flower without a Clarence Shepard Day Jr. ’s interruption until the end of October when they were again pot and taken indoors . They have retained all their foliation , and now ( arid - January ) show polarity of bloom again . I intend it is probable that if encouraged to do so , they would flower eight or nine calendar month out of the twelve .
The ultimate height of Oxypetalum – my garden , at least - is from a base and a half to two feet . Although described as of trailing or twining habit , my plants have grow upright , with cracking stiff stems that need no support . When broken , they exude the milky succus characteristic of the class , and the long pointed seed pods , filled with silken down , are also distinctive . The foliage is soft greyish - putting surface and of velvety texture . The flowers are star - shape , an inch or more across , mature in matt clusters over the top of the works . They last for several day , even under the hottest Sunday , and are the only bloom I have ever figure which can be truthfully and accurately draw as of the vestal peacock blue bluing . This exquisite color is retained until just before the flower fade when they change to a pretty mauve .
Last summer the part of the delimitation where my Oxypetalums were planted gave me particular delight , and since its appeal was largely inadvertent arid owed little to any inventiveness on my part , I may praise it without inordinate conceit . The edging was of Convolvulus mauritanicus and the scummy - growingVerbenabipinnatiflda : then come the Oxypetalum plant , with a generous mass of Aster frikarti nearby . In the rear , self - sown seedlings of Salvia France came up so tight that they were flower by mid - June , and next to them was a large radical of the ornamental Verbena bonariensis , its tall slender wands crown with helio - trope - like blossom . The silvery blue of the low - growing Verbena , Convolvulus , Aster , and Salvia , the turquoise of the Petaluma , and the piano reddish - purple of the tall Verbena made a delightfully cool and symmetrical combining of color , which hold up in looker from June until freeze .
Oxypetalum caeruleum is not dependably brave even in the British Isles but should be a good perennial for southerly gardens . Its keen semblance and neat increase , and its freedom of bloom over so long a time of year certainly make it highly desirable for the summer garden in northern latitude , and it has been recommended also as a skilful wintertime pot - plant for the window or cool nursery .
byAntoinette Dwightpart of www.biolib.de
