Winter Solstice Flowers II

Polyspora (Gordonia) flower and
young Polyspora tree.

Not many trees flower in mid-winter, so the few that do are especially well worth planting. One of these is the tree still being sold in New Zealand garden centres as Gordonia, although it now appears that the Asian species are properly called Polyspora.


(This is good, because when one does a web search on 'Gordonia spp' what comes up first is a gram-positive coryneform bacterium with twelve distinct species, four of which are capable of causing rather nasty diseases in humans. I was somewhat spooked on learning this, since I am currently trying to make sense of the recent outbreak of fatal E.coli cases in Europe. It seems that all my reading now leads to bad bugs, whether I intend it to or not!)

 So let's leave the name Gordonia for the bugs, and call this beautiful tree Polyspora. The genus is mostly from the mountains of East Asia, although there is one North American and one South American species. The one pictured above (planted three months ago) came from the garden centre with a label saying that it was an as yet unidentified species from South Vietnam.  The species P. axillaris, which comes from the hill and mountain forests of southern China and northern Vietnam, is the one most commonly planted and seen in New Zealand. It is a notable tree of the Napier Botanic Gardens, and I have seen it used as a street tree and flowering happily beside the road at the Grey Lynn end of Great North Rd in Auckland. It also does well in Sydney, where the name 'fried egg plant' is used because the flowers have big yellow centres and white surrounds, like fried eggs. Polyspora are in the Theacae (tea) family of trees, which also includes camellias and stewartias. They all like acid soil, and lots of water.

Some camellias also flower in mid-winter, and are well worth planting for the colour they can add to the garden at this time. I have lost the name of the red camellia in the photo below, but it has flowered reliably in June for the past three years. The white camellia is 'Yoimachi'. I also have other white camellias (all unnamed as I got them from a nursery sale) which are coming into flower at present.

The ruffled pink flowers in the photo are from an evergreen azalea, and the bright pink ones are from the gum tree Eucalyptus leucoxylon 'Rosea'. This is a fantastic tree for two reasons. Firstly it covers itself in bright pink flowers in winter, and secondly those flowers are full of nectar which is much appreciated by bellbirds. Like most gum trees it is not fussy about where it grows, but since it can get to be quite big it is best to plant it on a southern boundary, where it can also provide good shelter.

Moving back to Asian winter flower sources, where would the New Zealand winter garden be without wintersweet, Chimonanthes praecox? The flowers are unremarkable (the variety in the photograph below is 'Lutea', which has clear yellow flowers all the way through and no purple centre like the species), but they smell so good they are well worth the room. I have planted several, dotted around the garden among other shrubs, so as be able to catch the fragrance several times on a garden stroll, and also to have spare branches for picking for the house. They are very slow-growing, but eventually get to two metres or more, and their leaves go a nice butter yellow in autumn.

Also deliciously scented are most members of the Daphne genus. White-flowered Daphne bholua, in the photo below, begins flowering in May and goes through winter, while deep pink Daphne odora has its flowers almost ready to open.
I think these are very early this year, as we have had a most unusual June so far, which looks set to be the warmest one on record - around two degrees above average. I do what I can to create the right soil to grow these winter treasures, but everyone needs to urgently put in a lot more effort to save the climate they need to grow in. Check out 350 Aotearoa for what is being done in New Zealand right now, and how to get involved in it.

Winter Solstice Flowers I

 

Four vases of winter solstice flowers from (and in) the Eco-Garden

Some of the most beautiful (and scented) flowers wait until winter to share their glories with us, and they are all the more welcome for having so little other floral company. My garden does not have as many flowers by number in winter as it does in summer, but when it comes to variety it does almost as well. I went out today and picked everything that was in bloom which should have been in bloom at this time of year, and it came to four vases of delightful flowers.

In the vase pictured above are the flowers of Luculia gratissima, a rhododendron (probably 'Christmas Cheer'), pineapple sage (Salvia elegans) and Stachyurus praecox, plus the hips of Rosa 'Sparrieshoop' and the 'silver dollar' seed heads of honesty (Lunaria bienni). I am not sure about the rhodo because it came with the garden, but the fact that it looks like the photos I have seen of 'Christmas Cheer' and it is out in June (the opposite of when it would bloom in England, where it was hybridised in the nineteenth century) makes me 99% certain that this is what it is. Even if it isn't, it is a great winter-flowering shrub, providing pretty trusses of blooms for picking for over a month, when there is little else that looks so good (and big) around.  

I am also not 100% sure about the Luculia being gratissima, as it is more white than pink, but there are white and pale pink hybrids, and I think I have one of those. Mary Robertson has useful information about luculias, and to me they are one of the best flowering shrubs, both for their looks and their scent. They come from the mountain forests of Asia, from the Himalayas to Yunnan, and they don't care for frost or hot sun, but if you can provide the right spot they will cover themselves in flowers.

  

Pineapple sage is also a mountain plant, but from the mountains of Mexico. It flowers when the days start to shorten, and if not cut down by frost it will flower through winter and into spring. The flowers are small, but a very bright red, and they are prolific on the tall (up to two metre) stems of the plant, so pineapple sage provides an easy-to-grow highlight in the winter garden - great for growing among shrubs.

Stachyurus praecox is a shrub from Japan, which covers itself in pale yellow-green flowers that droop gracefully. I didn't think such small flowers would provide much tucker for native birds at this hungry time of year, but I have seen bellbirds sipping on them, so perhaps they do. 

The vase above has the droopy purple flowers of the winter rose (Helleborus orientalis), the stiff pinky-purple brush-like flowers of a hebe (I have no idea which one – it self-sowed), the red flowers of Chaenomeles japonica, bright yellow pot marigold (Calendula officinalis) flowers, the white flowers and metallic blue berries of lauristinus (Vibrunum tinus), and the hips of Rosa 'Sea Foam'. 

 

Lauristinus is one of my favourite winter shrubs because it has so many flower and berry colours to tone with its evergreen leaves. The white flowers are backed with red, when the petals drop the baby berries are red, and then when fully-grown they are that very unusual blue. Japonica and hellebores are true winter flowers which last on into spring, but the calendula makes it just by being able to flower in every month of the year. That's the origin of its name, from the Latin kalendae, meaning the first day of the month. You can be pretty sure to find a pot marigold in bloom on the first day of most months. Just as well too, since the petals have many culinary and medicinal uses.

More winter solstice flowers tomorrow...

Horehound and Aniseed Tea - relief for colds and catarrh

 Horehound leaves, horehound and aniseed tea, and honey to sweeten it.

I am still suffering from the upper respiratory lurgy from hell, and have turned to the garden for help. Specifically, to the large and healthy plant of horehound (Marrubium vulgare) which sowed itself in the vege garden in summer. I didn't weed it out, because I thought I might have a use for it sometime – and how right I was.

When I started reading my herbals to see what was good for coughs and catarrh (the proper term for excessive snot) I found that everything else in the garden that could have helped (such as elderflowers and goldenrod) was now out of season, so I was lucky that the horehound was still going strong.

I made a tea by infusing the horehound leaves and some aniseed (to improve the taste, and because it is also an expectorant) according to the recipe below, and have been taking 150ml after meals for the past day and a half. It is bitter even with honey in it, but bearable, and it does seem to be helping to shift that snot.

Horehound is a weed (sometimes a noxious one) of dry and over-grazed pastures in New Zealand and Australia, but is not a problem for organic gardeners and farmers who don't over-stress their productive ecosystem, and well deserves a place in the herb garden.

If you want to try this tea for yourself, please check that you do not have any contraindications (e.g. pregnancy, high blood pressure, other medications) and use it in moderation. Read what The Phytopath has to say on horehound and its uses here.

The (somewhat depleted) horehound plant in my vege garden.

Horehound and Aniseed Tea

Ingredients

30 g fresh or dried horehound leaves

1 T aniseed

600 ml boiling water

Method

Put the horehound leaves and aniseed in a large teapot, add boiling water, put the lid on the pot and leave the tea to infuse for 15-20 minutes.

Strain the liquid off the leaves and store in a glass jar or bottle.

Dosage

150-200 ml lukewarm tea 3-4 times per day.

Sweeten each dose with 1 t honey; dilute with extra warm water if desired.

Eco Garden at the epicentre no exaggeration...

A view of 'The Temple' from the west window of my study today - 

still looking the same despite being at the centre of a 3.2 quake.

There were a couple of sharp, short jolts right under my study chair on two occasions this morning. They were at the margins of what gets recorded on the GeoNet site (the first one was only 2.9), but the second one, which was 3.2, felt stronger to me because I was indeed right on top of it.

The GeoNet record is

# Reference Number: 3530294
# NZST: Thu, Jun 16 2011 9:14 am
# Magnitude: 3.2
# Depth: 10 km
# Details: 10 km south-east of Lyttelton

and you can see the exact spot on the map there, or (with a bit of fiddling of the arrows and sizes) on the satellite photo 'map' at christchurchquakemap
What the spot looks like from my study window you can see in the photo above, while in the photo below you can see the Eco Forester deliberately continuing the demolition of the kitchen chimney - which was started accidentally by the 6.3 quake on Monday June 13.

I am cheesed off about losing our cheap water and space heating (and emergency cooking stove) for this winter, but I am nevertheless looking on the bright side about the possibilities of recycling the chimney pots as rather special plant containers in my planned Japanese-style garden, and some of the bricks in my (also in the planning stages) Dutch garden. So good gardens may yet come from bad earthquakes!

The Eco Garden at the Epicentre

 Sunset view from the shaky Eco Garden

The Eco Garden does not have a scratch on it, even though it seems that there is an active fault running underneath it, judging by the locations given for yesterday's series of aftershocks on the GeoNet site (see listing below – 20 km south-east of Christchurch is the Port Levy area). Our old (109 years) house is also intact, although after the 6.3 quake on June 13 the kitchen chimney is no longer safe to use.

I have not been well enough to garden for the past week, but hope to get back to it next week when my health (and the earth) are both less shaky. Meanwhile I continue my new sideline of experiential earthquake studies. I'd rather be gardening...

Aftershocks list on GeoNet 15 June 2011

    * Reference Number: 3530081
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 10:16 pm
    * Magnitude: 3.8
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3530078
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 10:07 pm
    * Magnitude: 3.9
    * Depth: 5 km
    * Details: 10 km south-east of Christchurch

# Reference Number: 3529946
# NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 4:15 pm
# Magnitude: 3.6
# Depth: 8 km
# Details: 10 km south-east of Lyttelton

    * Reference Number: 3529888
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 2:27 pm
    * Magnitude: 4.2
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Lyttelton

    * Reference Number: 3529866
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 1:29 pm
    * Magnitude: 4.1
    * Depth: 8 km
    * Details: 10 km east of Lyttelton

    * Reference Number: 3529867
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 1:11 pm
    * Magnitude: 3.2
    * Depth: 5 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529858
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 1:03 pm
    * Magnitude: 4.6
    * Depth: 5 km
    * Details: 10 km south-east of Lyttelton

    * Reference Number: 3529849
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 12:40 pm
    * Magnitude: 3.1
    * Depth: 8 km
    * Details: 10 km east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529774
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 9:41 am
    * Magnitude: 3.8
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529751
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 8:44 am
    * Magnitude: 3.7
    * Depth: 8 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529728
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 7:29 am
    * Magnitude: 3.1
    * Depth: 4 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529703
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 6:32 am
    * Magnitude: 4.2
    * Depth: 5 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529702
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 6:27 am
    * Magnitude: 5.0
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 20 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529690
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 5:48 am
    * Magnitude: 3.4
    * Depth: 8 km
    * Details: 10 km south-east of Christchurch

    * Reference Number: 3529589
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 0:28 am
    * Magnitude: 3.6
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 10 km east of Lyttelton

    * Reference Number: 3529586
    * NZST: Wed, Jun 15 2011 0:17 am
    * Magnitude: 3.3
    * Depth: 6 km
    * Details: 10 km north of Diamond Harbour

Seasonal Sweets - Thyme & Aniseed Cough Drops

Cough drop ingredients; drying cough drops (on the tea towel); drops being rolled in icing sugar; and drops stored in jars.

 
I haven't been doing much gardening (or blogging) lately because I have been suffering from a seasonal lurgy. Ten days ago I started a cold which didn't block my nose too much but gave me a terribly itchy throat for several days. It was impossible not to cough – and then my head hurt something dreadful.

I consulted my copy of the fantastic resource book Grow your own drugs: A Year With James Wong (full of delicious as well as healing ways of using edible plants) for phytotherapies that might help, and discovered that I was several months too late to put together any involving elderberries, hollyhock flowers, honeysuckle or jasmine, and that as I had neglected to grow any echinacea plants I was out of luck there as well. I did have sage leaves and marigold (calendula) petals, which were half of the ingredients required to make a sage and marigold gargle for sore throats. Alas, a major ingredient for this is vodka, which I did not have on hand, and also this is a recipe which takes 10-14 days to make, for the herbs have to marinate in the vodka.

I made them into a tea instead, steeping them for ten minutes in a china pot, and found that it was a very soothing sip – and went surprisingly well with the heavy-duty garlic toast which I ate for breakfast and morning tea. (Garlic toast = 1 slice of toast, 1 tsp butter or olive oil, and as much garlic as you care to crush into the butter or oil before spreading it on the toast. The more the better – and leave the crushed garlic to 'mellow' for at least ten minutes before eating it as it needs this time to develop all its good properties.)

The other ingredient which I had grown myself (from seed last year) which was plentiful was thyme, so I had a go at making Thyme and Aniseed Cough Drops. It wasn't too difficult, and they make a nice change from commercial cough drops. They don't taste anything like them, and they seem to work on the throat at least as well. I have not yet mastered the art of making even-sized drops, or working fast enough to get all the mixture out of the pot before it passes the toffee stage, but even so I got some forty usable drops from the recipe below – plenty for me and for a friend who is also coughing her head off.

Thyme and Aniseed Cough Drops

(thanks to James Wong)

Ingredients

6-8 T fresh thyme leaves

4 t aniseeds (the small seeds, not star anise)

400 ml cold water

400 g sugar

icing sugar

Method

Put the thyme leaves and aniseeds in a pot with the water.

Bring to the boil, take it off the heat, and leave for 15 minutes to infuse.

Strain the liquid off the herbs into a clean pot, and add the sugar.

Bring it to the boil, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, then boil until the mixture is thick enough to leave a thread coming off the spoon. (Take care, as molten sugar is very hot and can inflict bad burns.)

Put a pan of cold water (I used a roasting pan) beside the stove and, working quickly, drop teaspoons of the hot sugar mix into the pan. They will set into small, flat discs. Take them out immediately, and leave them to dry on a clean, dry tea towel.

When dry, roll them in sifted icing sugar, and store them in a tightly sealed container.