Posted: Monday 22 February 2010
by Adam Pasco
Last summer I discovered a twining, tender climber called Lophospermum, or lofos. I bought two varieties, 'Burgundy Falls' and 'Summer Cream', as plug plants from a mail-order seed company.
Last summer I discovered a twining, tender climber called Lophospermum, or lofos. I bought two varieties, 'Burgundy Falls' and 'Summer Cream' (both pictured left), as plug plants from a mail-order seed company.
I grew my lofos under cover, in 7.5-10cm pots, until late May, then placed them on my patio in a large terracotta pot, using a peat-free, multi-purpose compost.
To support the climbing stems I used silver birch stems saved from winter pruning, pushing them down into the pot to create a wigwam. New shoots caught onto the supports, twining their way to the top, and as summer progressed a succession of trumpet-shaped flowers opened on each. Although they weren't as floriferous as some bedding plants they certainly were different.
Of course, what goes up also hangs down! Lofos is equally at home in hanging baskets where it can simply be left to trail. Some stems may catch onto the chains to spiral upwards but most will just hang over the sides of the basket, perhaps reaching a length of 2-3m during the summer.
I still love patio favourites like petunia, verbena, pelargonium and fuchsia, but am always on the lookout for something new. New Guinea impatiens have become a favourite for shade, and I always choose a selection of foliage varieties of coleus, ipomoea and others. Last summer, in addition to lofos I tried Ptilotus 'Joey' last year, a new drought tolerant variety from Australia producing short well-branched plants carrying fluffy pink plumes at the end of each shoot. It was fun, and certainly different.
So what new plants shall I try for summer 2010? Well, I think I'll experiment with lantana. Several new varieties of this conservatory favourite are available, and as I've never grown it before I'll be interested to see how it performs in the months ahead.
As always, the problem is predicting what weather our summer will bring. Dry, wet, warm, scorching, dull - who knows? So by growing a range of patio plants that relish different conditions I'm hoping at least some of them will thrive.
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