Contrast makes perfect sense

8:30am Friday 5th September 2008

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Keith and I have been pruning our large Bramley apple tree this weekend. By this I mean that he’s been doing all the hard work while I’ve been standing around issuing directions to all the bits he’s missed.

Summer-pruning apple trees isn’t a technically difficult job – simply a case of snipping each of this year’s new growths back to two or three leaves, letting in light to ripen the apples (there are quite a lot this year) and encouraging new fruit buds to set for next year’s crop.

But it’s a tiring job, involving the frequent re-positioning of the stepladder and much waving around at arm’s length with a long-armed pruner. So much for teamwork.

During a much needed tea-break, sitting on a bench admiring our handiwork, we fell to pondering which was the best plant in the garden this week.

Keith’s choice was the group of castor oil plants in the front garden, while mine was in the back garden, a fine plant of Echinacea purpurea ‘Magnus’.

We couldn’t have picked two more contrasting plants. The first, more correctly known as Ricinis communis ‘Impala’, is an annual, grown mostly for foliage effect; the seed was bought from Chiltern Seeds and sown in April this year, the resulting plants growing to a height of nearly five feet within a single season. The large, palmate leaves are a rich bronze-red, carried on dark red stems, complemented by clusters of creamy-yellow flowers and exotic scarlet fruits.

Castor oil plants belong to the spurge family, Euphorbiaceae, and come originally from Africa and West Asia. Although all parts of the plant, particularly the seeds, are toxic, oil from the seeds is used to make castor oil (a purgative) and products as diverse as high speed aeroplane engine oil, varnish, crayons and carbon paper.

In complete contrast, Echinacea purpurea is an herbaceous perennial from the prairies of North America. We planted our specimen in the summer of 2004, and it comes up each year a little stronger and more floriferous than the last. The flowers are long lasting; extraordinary, deep orange cones of what are technically termed disc florets, surrounded by deep purple, horizontal ray florets. Echinacea belongs to the daisy family, or Compositae, its homeopathic properties are well-known in the treatment of numerous ailments. The decorative flowers last well in cut-flower arrangements, they look great mixed with yellow and orange rudbeckias for instance.

Interestingly, though we chose two completely dissimilar plants, from opposite ends of the garden, as our current favourites, I couldn’t help thinking they would have looked wonderful planted together.

Something for next year perhaps?

Jobs for the gardener this week...

Many hardy herbs, such as rosemary, lavender and sage, will root readily from cuttings taken this month. Select shoots six to eight inches long, cut close beneath a joint, and place in a 50/50 potting compost/sand mix.

If your sweet peas are still going (some of mine have given up), continue to pick the flowers regularly to encourage more flowers. If allowed to produce seed pods, they will stop flowering.

If your garden is lacking in late summer colour, visit other gardens and nurseries for fresh ideas and new plants.