Wednesday, August 15, 2007

Guest Photo by Fernymoss: Red Celosia Sport

Following up on last night's post about Celosia garden sports, here's a really odd, yet attractive one that Fernymoss was attracted to because of its "joined hands" near the bottom of the bloom. It's obviously a cross between one of the common red plumosa varieties available (often referred to as 'Castle Red or Yellow') and a relatively recent cultivar called 'New Look,' which features brilliant red plumes carried on compact (6-8 inch) plants with reddish foliage and stems. You can see the parentage in the leaves where the reddish hue and veining is somewhat pronounced in this specimen. Unfortunately this detail doesn't show the top of the bloom, which is a bit more like a smaller cristata (cockscomb) variety. (Though Fernymoss did take some shots of the top, none of them turned out well enough to use here, so you'll have to wait a bit to get a peek at that, but my first impression was that it looked like a lobster waving, while the "hands" are "joined" lower down.)
Ok, so why plant Celosia? Whether you choose the Cristata varieties, with its large "brainy" headed flowers often 5-6 inches across, or the smaller varieties, it's guaranteed fire in the garden during the hottest months of summer! They positively thrive in conditions when everything else is looking a bit "burned out" and grow well in full sun whether you have average, poor, to even clay soil in the garden. They're not picky and once you've got them established (you should give them regular waterings while they're settling in) they're incredibly drought and heat tolerant. Once they start blooming they're incredibly long lasting flowers, which if you just leave them alone, will eventually fade and drop their seed after frost, virtually guaranteeing you'll see more of them the following spring. I should note that as long as the seed stays in the ground over the winter, it will generally germinate, however don't look for them until later in the spring, because they tend to come up only when the ground has warmed sufficiently and all danger of frost is past.

The larger 'Cockscomb' variety is a great plant to dry for arrangements and will last a couple of years if dried properly. You merely need to cut the whole plant down (or just pull it up) late in the fall (or while it's at its maximum depth of colour), hang it upside down in a dry place (preferably a dry basement or somewhere out of direct light) and wait for it to dry out completely. It's also best to remove all leaves and just retain the stalk with the bloom intact. Of course, should you choose to do so just keep in mind that once fully dried it will drop its seeds (and they're tiny ones!), so you might want to place something underneath it to catch them. As long as the plant has matured sufficiently over the season, you should be able to store these seeds and plant them the following spring ... or better yet, just broadcast them (in the fall after the first hard frost) in an area of the garden where you'd like to see them the next year. Though they might not all come up, they have a very high germination rate, so you'll probably be forced to thin the seedlings out at some point to ensure the biggest specimens possible.

We've found that while the large Cristata argentea variety tends to come back 'true' to the parent plant, all bets are off when it concerns the smaller varieties, such as those seen in these past few posts. But that's one of the really fun things about Celosia ... if you're not expecting exactly what you planted the previous year, you may be rewarded with the odd sports and mutants, thanks to the many bees, butterflies and other insects who tend to congregate on these flowers.

48 comments:

olivia said...

G'morning IVG and Fernymoss ... yep, this one is fantastic. I love the colour and the shapes, and yep the hands ... what a great photo ... :D

Family Man said...

Morning IVG and Fernymoss.

I agree with Olivia. The color and shapes are great.

I sort of got turned off from dried flowers when my x had a bunch of cattails with some. One exploded and the cottony stuff was all over the living room. It took forever to clean up that stuff. :)

Nancy P said...

It's a dancer at the Lobster Ball.

Larry Kollar said...

Heh, floral lobsters. Watch out when you go to clip some, they might clip back....

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Howdy all! These lil guys take on some bizarro shapes and textures, which is why we always look forward to see what they've got to offer.

I guess lobsters win out for now ... and nope FAR we won't be cutting these. The smaller varieties aren't really worth drying, just the big ones we didn't plant this year.

FM, still chuckling at exploded cattails... I did that once myself and learned the lesson! Now I just admire them from afar in the ditches and remember that episode.

This weekend I'll get out and see if we've got any other mutants hiding out there in the weeds ... they've gotten so bad now that we've had this extended hot/humid spell... as I write it is still 80 here with a dew point of 77. If you need to sweat something out, all you have to do is go outside. The pups and humans are sure glad the AC is working again!!

dada said...

kansas' comment re: dancer at the lobster ball lead me to this: deus ex machina...always easier to ask for forgiveness, than for permission.

Peace

Iowa Victory Gardener said...

Hey D! Your comment actually worked, I think you just thought it was on a different post... glad to see ya here! And the pic you did was really cool! Wondered why you had given it that title, lol.

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