Friday, September 13, 1

991 - North Shore News - 15

A Toad Lily by any other name...

EVER WONDER where
common names for the
plant world come from?

I mean, who came up with
Aaron’s Beard? There is nothing
whatsoever beard-like about
Aypericium —calycinum. Just as
there is nothing angelical about
the painfully thorny, evasive devil
plant aralia elata.

Sure, there are a few that ap-
pear to make some sense, the
Snowball viburnum, the
Sunflower, and even Skunk Cab-
bage, but what does the eriflium
have to do with Waking Robins?
And where on earth did names
like Viper’s Bugloss, Bladder Sen-
na, Furze and Gorse come from;
there is nothing common about
them ir. my book.

This may help you understand
why I am continually harping on
the proper use of botanical names.
Namely, so that most people who
know anything about plants wilt
have some chance at figuring out
what you are talking about.

Casc in poiat, the Toad Lily.
My father-in-law is big on order-
ing seed through the catalogues
and whenever he does, he likes to
add one or two surprises in his
order. Once tenipted by an aitrac-
tive picture or fascinating descrip-
tion in the catalogue he will not
hesitate in giving them a try; I like
that.

Hence the order for the Japa-
nese Toad Lily, which, according
to the seed catalogue will produce
“Handsome clumps of gracefully
arching, three-foot stems, clad in
pointed leaves. Exotic, orchid-tike

Geoff
Tobiasson

a

cer a

OVER THE GARDEN GATE

flowers of white and rosy lavender
cover the entire stem in fall.’" No
wonder Dick couldn’: resist it.

Try as we might, we could find
no listings of ‘*Toad Lilies’’ in his
garden books, Japanese or other-
wise. It was only after I got home
that I managed to track down its
botanical name, tricyrtis hirta,
and with that its preferred grow-
ing conditions.

This might be an opportune
time to register my further com-
plaint with the seed companies. In
addition to supplying the proper
name, it would be convenient if
they could include the general care
for the subject plant.

As it turns out, this is a very in-
teresting little plant. When not in
flower it looks a little like its
cousin, our native smilacina

1S OV OUR CUSTOMERS

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trifolia, those of you “ho con-
tinue 10 require inaccurate, com-
mon names, will know it as
Solomon Seal.

Both lend a Jush, tropical quali-
ly to the garden with their jong,
arching stems and alternating oval
leaves, producing a look similar to
that produced by ferns and palms.
1 find them especially attractive
when arcing over a water feature
or out of a woodland groundcover
such as Sweet Woodruff (galium
odoratum).

The rather strange flowers
emerge any time between late
August and early October in
clusters along the entire length of
the two to three-foot stems. The
individual flowers are three-petall-
ed and generally of a purplish
color, the background being a
very light mauve while the
foreground is speckled and spot-
ted with much darker hues of
purple or mauve.

The seed companies offer
hybrids of this species listed as
tricyrtis hirta ‘Miyazaki Selec-
tion’? as well as a newly offered
variety species of Formosan Toad
Lily called ¢. formosana ‘‘Ame-
thystina."’ This new form is
touted as having ‘‘bloomed every
year from three months, starting
in July. Amethyst blue, one-inch

‘anes f

44 And where on earth did
names like Viper’s Bugloss,
Bladder Senna, Furze and
Gorse come from; there is
nothing common about
them in my book. 99

flowers with a white throat
speckled by dark red, are con-
tinually produced in chaining
clusters.’? Yum yum.

In general, the tricyrtis species
prefer the partial shade of a
woodland setting. Soil preferences
are for a well-drained, slightly
acid loam similar to that which
would be found along woodland
streams.

They are Sisted as a zone six
plant which means that they are
considered as being hardy for this
area (zone seven bordering on
zone eight). Even so, it wouldn’t

UNIVERSAL

hurt to take a few extra precau-
tions with newly planted
specimens. This can easily be ac-
complished with a few inches of
compost or leaves as a protective
taulch over the winter months.

If your Toad Lilies are to be
Started from seed, they are best
started in late winter so the young
seedlings can be planted out in
mid spring. If you are lucky
enough to have a source of estab-
lished plants in the ground, they
can be divided and transplanted in
late fall before hard frosts.

: eT :
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