Eggs of the flowering kind (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Eggs of the flowering kind

8:50am Friday 3rd September 2010 in

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HOW do you like your eggs in the morning? The flowering kind I mean, of course.

‘Egg plants’ or aubergines are hot-house growers whose shiny, black skinned fruits feature in many a mediterranean meal, while ‘poached egg plants’ are the low growing hardy annual much loved by hoverflies. It is, however, the ‘fried egg flower’ that is my favourite.

This tough, perennial poppy has huge, wide open flowers of broad, papery white petals surrounding a big central boss of rich yellow stamens. They are a showy sight in late summer on top of six feet stems clothed with jagged, leathery grey foliage.

Originally from California, Romneya coulteri, as it is more correctly known, thrives in the hottest, driest, barrenest conditions, sustained by a deep, searching root system. There is good and bad news here though. It can be easily and conveniently propagated by short sections of these roots, which will in time spontaneously sprout new shoots. However, these same roots can also be determined travellers and unwelcome guests. A plant outside our back door pushed through two-feet stone walls to send an exploratory root inside. But that is nothing to the reports we heard of them popping out inquisitively from between the floorboards of a first floor bathroom!

Chris Crowder is head gardener at Levens Hall chris.crowder@me.com

Jobs to do this week:

If you have any potatoes left in the ground, dig them up now before the slugs get to them.

Clean out cold frames and greenhouses so they are ready for action in the autumn.

As light levels drop, start to reduce watering of houseplants.