Many gardeners here in the Pacific Northwest are still tallying the plant losses from the one week storm that wreaked havoc in an otherwise benign winter. Just this last week I've discovered my 10 year old Maytenus boaria 'Green Showers' is dead, ditto for three established Callistemon (Melaleuca) 'Woodlander's Hardy Red' and why isn't my Amsonia hubrichtii (hardy to Zone 5!) coming up?
So when a plant nobody considers hardy here makes it thru the storm with zero protection, and is putting on new growth, well, that's something to get excited about. The plant is
Lomatia ferruginea, here's a photo showing the mild foliage damage it sustained.
And it's colorful new growth...
Near as I can tell I brought this little guy home from
Cistus Nursery in September of 2017. I doubt I planted it until the following spring, since I don't plant borderline hardy things in the fall. Lomatia ferruginea is thought to be hardy to the mid 20's F, my garden saw an ultimate low of 12 F last January and was below freezing for over 150 consecutive hours.
If it's not regarded as hardy here why would I have planted it at all? Well because I was encouraged to try by my friends Mark and Gaz (of
Alternative Eden fame) who had success with it
in their garden. They were here in Portland visiting and were the ones who talked me into trying it.
Funny thing, I found myself crushing on this same plant when Andrew and I walked the
Queen Elizabeth II Flower Market during our trip to Paris in January of 2018. I took a photo of the plant tag.
From Argentina and Chili it's a member of the Protea family and is related to Embothrium coccineum (the Chilean firetree) which is thriving in my garden just a couple of feet away.
It's planted at the base of my Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate'. Just to the right is a Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash' that didn't make it through the winter and nearby are various aspidistra and pyrrosia that were toasted. This is not a protected spot!
I do have a second Lomatia ferruginea, this one much larger and growing in a container. It's a plant that's been around the neighborhood, starting life with
Evan, then moving on to
Patricia, and living with me for the past few years. The foliage is ferny, and quite attractive.
This one spends all but the coldest days out on the patio.
I have considered putting it in the ground, based on the success of it's little sister. Then again I would really like to see blooms someday—neither one of my plants have bloomed—so I will protect it until that happens.
My other lomatia, L. tinctoria was zapped pretty hard with the frigid temps and wind during January's storm. I cut back several branches that were dead, others are hanging on to grey leaves...
While other branches have leaves that are green.
Back in the the years of milder winters it was a reliable bloomer, but it's been a couple of years since I've seen those flowers—mainly because I've done a lot of spring pruning to remove damaged branches.
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