Introducing The Stunning Coral-Trees
Unless you live where frosts are severe, investigate the stunning Coral-trees in your hunt for the spectacular. These erythrinas belong to the pea family; some of them are out this month and nurserymen in frost-free areas now carry several species. Among them is the Juno flowering Erythrina bidwilli which, in order to preserve a decent shape and produce a prodigious show of scarlet bloom, should be cut to the stump each year.
Though not extremely tender, Erythrina cristagalli, a native of Brazil, can be used as a shrub in frost-visited places, for if its tip is frozen back it is only temporarily discouraged and becomes a bush which bears a profusion of crimson-red flowers from spring until the following frost. Erythrina embriana grows quickly into a large evergreen tree, but if preferred it can be kept to shrub form by pruning. Its plentiful flowers are dark crimson. Erythrina caffra is also a tree but deciduous for a short period. The scarlet flowers, carried in terminal bunches, appear just as the leaves drop and keep on until after the new foliage appears.
Sprekelia formosissima, the Aztec, Jacobean or St. James lily, is another showy object in the June southern Californian garden. It is a bulb belonging to the amaryllis family and as it is tender it flourishes particularly well in the mild coastal areas. Though May, June and July are its main flowering months, a few flowers may be found at any time of year except in the late fall.
The evergreen, strap-shaped leaves are from 1 to 2 feet long and the rather spidery-looking flowers of turkey red measure 7 inches from top to bottom and are as broad as they are long. The top one of the widely separated petals is erect and fairly wide, the pair below it is narrower and curved, and the three lower petals are connected at the base. It needs sun and a light, well-drained soil that is not too rich, and the bulb may be given the same general treatment as amaryllis. Small bulblets ,appear at the base of the mother bulb, thus simplifying the matter of increase.
These are the recent questions people have been asking along with answers at plant-care.com:
This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 28th, 2010 at 1:25 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.