A Suitable Plant for Memorial Day : Vinca

 The word ‘Vinca’ can be derived from the Italian verb ‘Vincere’,

which refers to success by winning or conquering,
whether I, you, he or she.

The Vincas are a seriously reliable and handsome Genus of plants,
so it is easy to think of them being referred to as lauded ‘winners’.

Some sources find derivations for Vinca’s name in the Latin ‘vincio’,
to bind or to band, the reference perhaps derived from the use of myrtle strands
wreathed together to make crowns,
worn in honor of a success or an occasion.

So my blended thoughts of Vinca went to those who honorably
won over the world for all the right reasons
and deserve every wreath of gratitude we can provide.

Crowns for our American Veterans,
who by persevering
have given us the world as we know it.

 The Best of the Vincas

Vinca minor alba ‘Gertrude Jekyll’

In my view, perhaps the most beautiful and useful of Myrtles is Vinca minor alba ‘Gertrude Jekyll’. This favoritism has developed because her glossy evergreen leaves are smaller than those of most Vincas, and so the overall texture made by the colony is finer and neater than other kinds. Spreading and mounding at just 8” high, her gracefully entwined foliage makes a neat, all year, low maintenance floor. This kind of Vinca grows by rooting along her leafy strands, and so she is easy to increase, but that habit means you will have to blow or hand clean, not rake, the beds she lives in. If you over sprinkle a top dressing of composty loam once a year or so, and tuck in Gertrude’s outreaching strands, you will soon have a respectable colony.

Growing in part shade as they often do, Gertrude’s white flowers brighten the woodland margin in late April through mid-May. Miss Jekyll herself even used this plant under hedges. She can also thrive in a sunny location when plenty of water is provided.

The evergreen V. m. Gertrude Jekyll provides a fine textured shiny background for the many prior and subsequent picture events that will overlay the floor blanket her colonies make. Within the bounds of each shining colony other, more deeply rooted kinds of perennial plants and bulbs can appear and disappear, Jack in the Box style.

If you would worry that you might miss the typical blue flowers of the myrtle clan, it would be easy to have plenty of flattering blues nearby using various Pulmonarias, Fragrant Dutch  Hyacinths or the little blue grape Hyacinths that bloom around the same time in similar habitats.

Vinca minor argenteovariegata

For variegated green and white leaves, the only attractive and reliable Myrtle I have found is Vinca minor argenteovariegata. It has a pronounced white outline and its offshoots do not typically revert to green. The foliage will light up a shady place and give you blue flowers in May. Like Gertrude, this form has a root-as-you-go habit, making a strong colony. It earned an award of garden merit from the Royal Horticultural Society.

Vinca minor Ralph Shugert

For bicolor leaves Vinca minor Ralph Shugert is handsome, but it’s more of a clumping than a running kind of Myrtle, and increases more slowly than the two kinds above. Though often referred to as white, the outline of its green leaves is more of a parchment yellow color to my eye.

While this plant  looks great in the nursery pot, and is thus very popular in the trade, many offshoots of this variety disappointingly revert to all green leaves as you can see in the above photo, so I don’t use Ralph much.

The Myrtle Clan

Vincas have almost no pests and even the deer don’t favor them as edibles, but they may not be a good solution if you have sizeable dogs. As their paws wander around innocently, they tend to pull up Vinca’s shallowly rooted stems.

The larger leaved all green forms of Vinca minor can be used very successfully as groundcover in a large landscape, but maintenance shearing is recommended to help keep the colonies looking neat and fresh.

The post Best Evergreen Floor Plants appeared first on A Reasoned Landscape.

Viridescent = Iridescent Green
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Etymology: Latin viridis green + iridescent

Originated Circa 1847

An iridescent surface is one that appears to change color

as the angle of view or the angle of illumination changes.

 “It is hard to photograph sparkle”

Isaac Mizrahi, 2009

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When you see a prefix of  Ver- or Vir-,

you can suspect the word may refer to greenness of some kind.

Viridity
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Viridity is a noun denoting the quality or state of being Green, either in reference to color, or to the alternate meaning of youth or naive immaturity, described by the French, middle English or Latin root origins of the prefixes Vir- and Ver-.

Pluralised, this becomes Viridities = Many green qualities.
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Some other nice green words are:

Viridis = general green of any shade

Viridiflorus, viridiflora and viridiflorum = green flowered

Viridifolia = green leaved

Vireo = refers to a family of small, typically greenish birds

Veridian = a chrome green pigment between green and cyan on the color wheel.

Verdancy = noun referring to greenness.

Verdant = an adjective describing the greenness in hue, generally of growing things. It has a lush sort of connotation to it.

Verdure = greenery, green growing things.

Verdigris  = the greenish patina color of oxidised copper, from the French ‘vert de grice’, literally, the green of Greece.

You may also find the Vir- inside a word, as with

Atrovirens = dark green

or Flavovirens = yellowish green.
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And then there is this very lovely word referring to the

greenness of the soul -

Viriditas
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In the 12th century, this word began to be used to describe the inspiring “greening power of God”,
referring to the animating life-forces within all creation. (Hildegard of Bingen)

 
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In February and later, nicely shaped cut branches of  Forsythia
brought inside to a vase with lots of water
will flower gracefully within 2 weeks.

Yes, it really is as simple as that. Just keep the water refreshed, nearly to the top of the container.

If you cut some pieces just as February begins, you should have flowering by Valentine’s Day. If you cut some a little before Feb. 1st and some a little after, you can be sure to have plenty whose flowering time is just right.
If you take groups of Forsythia cuttings at interval cycles of a couple of weeks, you can have fresh flowering branches from now through the time this shrub flowers outside.

I have a friend who keeps her bunches in an unused bathtub. She likes fresh armloads of it around in February, March and April.
Personally, I just pop some shapely stems into the intended vases right after cutting them and enjoy watching the buds swell and then flower. I swap out these branches for fresh ones, cut at a later date, when I want another round of sunny yellow.

If, instead, you nonchalantly leave the branches in the vase after the flowers have dropped, and you keep the water refreshed, the stems will soon have fresh leaves. These can be pretty too. You would just have to be willing to pick up the fallen flowers, and to be patient waiting for the foliage.

The photo includes purchased Anemones and Daffodils, but the Forsythia and the sword shaped Arum leaves are straight from my garden in February.
Unless covered with snow, the nearly evergreen Arum italicum pictum is an amazing perennial whose foliage can be cut  for one’s vases throughout every winter.
I will be writing about this plant and other evergreen perennials very soon. 

You will have to find a Forsythia to trim, but our ecotome is full of them and most would benefit from some annual pruning. This is a multi-purpose time to do some of it. Each shrub has so very many flowers that a few stems from considerate places will never be missed.

If you haven’t got one of these rambling reliables, you can ask a neighbor or friend, or respectfully diminish a shrub that is encroaching on a public way.
If, by mistake or on purpose, you prune stems from some other kind of rambunctious shrub instead, don’t worry. It may give you lovely leaves for your vase. Surprises can be sweet. You might have to wait quite a while though. Some shrubs and trees are difficult to bring into leaf or flower indoors. You can try. The grace of the branches alone can be satisfying, but if any of your experimental stems displeases you, just subtract it.

Another Good Candidate

Salix hakuro nishiki is a beautiful willow with variegated leaves in summer. If you take in these slender red stems in February or March and treat them the same as Forsythia branches, you may get charming tiny catkins along their length. It has been widely planted in recent years, so you might find a good gardener who could spare some modest branches.
This Salix is a great treasure, and I rarely make a landscape without one somewhere, but it is a fast grower can be hard to keep up with if you are trying to keep it small. Luckily, that same enthusiasm lets you prune it quite alot, just about any time of year, and it will be right back.
Through the warm seasons their delicate green and white leaves make these useful in arrangements.

 Some Other Considerations

Considerate winter pruning for decorative branches of Forsythia would be to take each stem nicely back to any growing point. These shrubs typically grow several feet a year, so trimming off  branches 2 or 3 feet long will just give you back a few feet for that individual to grow into for next year. There will still be innumerable quantities of flowers on any well grown specimen.
Just don’t shear Forsythia back in summer or fall since this unnatural technique removes many of the buds and makes unnatural stubs. You would lose the possibility of graceful branches of indoor and outdoor flowers that year.

As a shrub, Forsythia is perhaps most attractive in a fountainesque form. The correct general pruning technique to accomplish this would be to cut some of the oldest and woodiest of  its stems all the way to the base of the shrub, and take away crossover branches that interfere with the fountain shape. This will rejuvenate the overall plant. Other needed pruning is best accomplished soon after flowering so as not to cut off branches when they are preparing flower buds for the following year. Forsythia is forgiving. Whatever you do, these plants will recover.

While not a favored plant for a small landscape because of its overenthusiasm and taking ways, it announces spring wherever it resides, and having one tucked into a corner somewhere can be precious in giving you free winter flowers forever.

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For Valentine’s Season
I want to refer you to this beautiful
Film of  Free Hugs Day
from Milan, Italy

Since the Idea of Free Hugs began in 2004, such events have taken place
all over the world.
Films have been made of these special days
in myriad individual cities.

The First Saturday after June 30th is the appointed day each year, Worldwide.
In 2013 that will be July 6th.

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Some More Things They Never Tell You.

Save the final blowing and cleaning of your diverse planted beds until after the ground is cold hardened.

• For the thorough cleaning of beds in which perennial and self sowing plants reside, it is safer for those inhabitants if you wait until frosts solidify the ground.
  Necessary walking in the beds and the directed winds of the finish blowing then happen after the hard ground closes and protects the subterranean tenants.
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• I will imagine that you have been lightly cleaning the leafage throughout the fall, now you can safely finish up. For earlier raking, I find that a soft fingered rubber rake is the only tool gentle enough to leave the perennial crowns and soft earth undisturbed.
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• Where shallow rooted plants and self sowers you treasure reside, you may want to keep the blower away altogether and just work on those areas by hand.
  Where the parent plants or I have sown seed I may set a croquet hoop or a ten penny nail in the ground to remind me to be thoughtful in that place, both for the present and then in the spring cleanup.

Don’t let your Trees and Shrubs go Dry into winter weather.

• It is very important for your plant materials to have moisture at their roots before the hard winter sets in. Nature usually provides this end of season water, but you will want to be watchful.
  If nature does not provide at this important time, it will be valuable if you can bucket or otherwise provide some water to any trees and shrubs you have planted within the last few years.
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• Full settlement time for your recent plantings is estimated as at least a year per inch of  girth.

Anti Dessicant Sprays

• If your plant residents are in the path of extreme drying winds through winter, this can have a damaging effect. Many kinds of evergreens can benefit from an anti dessicant (= anti-drying) spray, which can provide a protective coating on their leaves or needles that helps them hold on to moisture within their sylvan selves.…….

Winter Work for your Buildings and Grounds
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• For construction, repair or painting projects on structures and buildings lying behind the planted beds, the safest time of year will be now and soon, or just pre-spring, before the first bulb thinks about coming up.
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• When the ground is frozen solid you can walk everywhere with impunity,  so this is a good time to transport needed things across your planted land if doing so might cause damage to your soft grounds at other times of the year.
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• With a durable hard freeze, you might even get a bobcat in if you needed one.
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• Or move a building across a lake or pond.
  In long ago times, before elaborate trucks came along to help us, this was a typical practice, requiring alot of patience, alot of man and beast power and perfect timing. Where it was the shortest distance between two points, buildings that needed to do so crossed the water with specialised boats, or on sled contructs over ice.
  …..
• Overland night trucking is probably the go-to solution now, especially since some bodies of water in our region used to freeze most years, and now almost never do. Also, we have no oxen and few horses to help.
  In places that still have a thick hard freeze transport over ice is still done, but trucks usually do the pulling.

Arrange Your Winter Views

• In winter much of the essence of the landscape is expressed through its embedded shapes. Every element in the built and structured landspace reveals the form of its true self when the white overlay of snow arrives to outline all its details.
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• If you arrange all the objects in your landscape thoughtfully; sorting, stacking, coiling and otherwise neatening before snow comes, you can make your landscape appearance more sculpturally satisfying for the whole winter. Try to take care of these things before the ground hardens and the buckets and such freeze solid.
  In our climate, the good effect of your end of season attentions will last for several months.
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• Evergreens and architecturally fortunate trees and shrubs, wonderful stone, wood and iron elements are set off at their personal best. You can count on them. If you have placed them nicely, your work will spring freshly to life with the upcoming brushstroke outlines of snow.
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• The wheelbarrow  photograph was taken next door to one of my favorite nurseries, the Conifer Connection in Pembroke, Massachusetts.
  
  

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