Grew these ages ago for the wonderful night time scent... Just looked for
some seeds but discovered Z. ovata, Z. capensis and a few others. Anyone any
experience with the various types? Which one has the best scent? Not fussed
about habit... just looking for the best scent..

Les

For some years I had a fine clump of Z. katherinae that came from
Christine Boulby who used to post here. It makes a very pleasing
hummock of silvery, sage-green foliage smothered in those wonderful
carmine-backed, white flowers that emit an incredible fragrance at
night. I was cold hardy enough here, but eventually it succumbed to
verticillium caused by the high humidity levels here. Fabulous thing
and not at all dissimilar to Z.. oavta. Personally I can't understand
why even the annual forms aren't more widely grown. They're easy to
grow and immensely rewarding.

In article
,
Dave Poole writes
Personally I can't understand
why even the annual forms aren't more widely grown. They're easy to
grow and immensely rewarding.


I've grown the annuals several times. Chiltern seeds used to have it I
recall.
I did find the scent completely outweighed the scratty flowers, bit like
night scented stock, but the scent was well worth it.
Ovata is more of a clump than single stems.
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

On Tue, 17 May 2011 22:22:31 +0100, Janet Tweedy
wrote:

In article
,
Dave Poole writes
Personally I can't understand
why even the annual forms aren't more widely grown. They're easy to
grow and immensely rewarding.


I've grown the annuals several times. Chiltern seeds used to have it I
recall.
I did find the scent completely outweighed the scratty flowers, bit like
night scented stock, but the scent was well worth it.
Ovata is more of a clump than single stems.

I've missed a post somewhere. Is this the alpine which Carol Klein
was raving about at Malvern? How easy is it to grow from seed?

Pam in Bristol

On May 17, 10:22*pm, Janet Tweedy wrote:

I did find the scent completely outweighed the scratty flowers, bit like
night scented stock, but the scent was well worth it.
Ovata is more of a clump than single stems.

I don't grow the annual forms, but the low growing perennial species
are well worth the effort. Z. ovata and katherinae are very similar
and at a glance only distinguished by the lobed leaves of katherinae
and its lower somewhat carpet forming nature. When you see a mass of
flowers all together, I think 'scratty' is definitely not the
description to use. I think they look their best just as they are
opening so you can see the carmine red reverse of the petals
contrasted against the glistening white. They are highly attractive
plants that's for sure.

In article
,
Dave Poole writes
When you see a mass of
flowers all together, I think 'scratty' is definitely not the
description to use.


I was thinking of the annuals David. They seem to be fairly slender when
sown but the scent outweighed their visual impact. i suppose if I had
sown a lot more thickly then it might have looked good but the perennial
variety is more attractive I think.

No trouble germinating annual seeds anyway.
--
Janet Tweedy
Dalmatian Telegraph
http://www.lancedal.demon.co.uk

I have Z. ovata at home and have been growing it at work for many years (I work at a plant nursery and do all of the alpine and perennial propagation there).
I love the stuff! It's one of my favourite plants at this end of the year I mean' it looks great, it's easy to grow and propagate from softwood cuttings.
But it's that fragrance...like stephanotis and allysum mixed together, but sweeter.

We have several in small 1lt pots that we keep as houseplants to fragrance the rooms at night and they are doing a much better job than any air freshener lol!
If you keep one or two plants on rotation and swap one indoors and one outdoors every week, then they grow well, don't bolt or get too leggy and you can enjoy the fragrance indooors for around 3 months of the year!!!

The soil i use is just multi-purpose with some osmocote slow release fertiliser in it, and then I just give them a sunny windowsill and water them just enough to keep them perminantly moist....they really are very easy.

Overwintering if fine, just keep them on the dry side and in a sheltered part of the garden or prefereably a glasshouse or conservatory.

Here's a shot of one of mine.


http://i746.photobucket.com/albums/x...ers2011008.jpg