Recent Garden Acquisitions

[Opsa]

Our state arboretum is only about a half-hour away from us, and every year they have a big plant fair on Mother's Day. Skip the brunch and corsage, I say- just take me to the arboretum!

My garden is fairly well packed, and I didn't really need anything. I just like to go and look at all the cool growing stuff and otherwise hobnob with my fellow garden spazzers. Still, I managed to stumble across something I've sought for a number of years now- a broom plant.

When I asked the vendor if it was a broom she said no, no, no... they weren't allowed to sell broom plants at the arboretum because they are considered an invasive weed. This was a Genista lydia 'Bangle'. They were reasonably priced, so we bought two.

Looking it up just now I found that it is sometimes called a dwarf broom (doesn't that sound twee?) so ha, I was right. The wild broom around here are sometimes spotted by the side of the road, but I've never seen anything that looks like an invasive colony in this region.

Anyway, it's a nice little cascading plant that bears small pea-style flowers in a bright yellow. It can tolerate drought. I think I'll try it under my dark red roses, it might brighten up that area a bit.

[Darlica]

That type of plant is fairly common here and is called "ginst" in Swedish. It is together with lilacs and  lesser periwinkle a sure signs that what now might be a open spot in the forest or a island of stones and thicket in the middle of a field once harboured a house and a garden.

Around here it only bloom during the early spring is it the same around the rest of the world?

[Opsa]

I will call mine "ginst" then, just for you.

The wild ones usually bloom around this time here, for about three weeks. This particular strain seems is said to bloom a little longer.

When I worked as a floral designer, we used pale pink genista as filler. It smelled wonderful.

Also- I was amazed to find sweet william just beginning to bloom in the garden the other day. I had tried to start this charming flower from seed nearly eighteen years ago, and had no luck. I believe the seed may have been part of a wildflower collection I sowed last year, and since sweet william is perennial it didn't bloom until this year. It's so pretty I gasped when I noticed it.

[Lindorm]

My mother has been tending a few ginst plants at our summer house for quite a few years, but for some reason, they never seem to thrive and always on the verge of dying. Imagine her face when we travelled to the scottish Highlands and found ginst growing wild, to tree-like proportions...

[Darlica]

The pink genista is really beautiful.
The pink and white kind are uncommon in gardens but are very common in flower arrangements especially together with tulips and to some extent anemones.

[Opsa]

I wonder where the pink ones do grow. I'm guessing they are more tropical.

Apparently ginst likes poor, dry soil. I'll bet your lovely Swedish soil is too rich for them. Your mother may have de-amend the soil with sand and replant them in  to get them happy again.

[Sibling DavidH]

The Plantaganet Kings of England took their name from that plant:

The name Plantagenet has origins as a nickname of Geoffrey V of Anjou derived from the name of a shrub, the common broom, known in Latin as the planta genista. It is claimed the nickname arose because Geoffrey of Anjou wore a sprig of the common broom in his hat.

I'd guess the Swedish is a Latin borrowing, corrupted.

[/boring sermon]

[Darlica]

We have all kinds of soil, it all depends on where in the country you are. Quite a lot of the land is old sea or lake bed, the Baltic sea was once a inland fresh water sea, and the minerals in the bedrock changes a lot, however generally speaking the soil is poorer in the north than in the south but there are geographical exceptions.
Around here (the valley of Lake Mälaren) we have a lot of clay and fat black soil, but also quite a lot of traces left by the ice sheet that covered this part of Europe (until rather recently geo-historically speaking) like eskers and layers of moraine.

The Plantaganet Kings of England took their name from that plant:

The name Plantagenet has origins as a nickname of Geoffrey V of Anjou derived from the name of a shrub, the common broom, known in Latin as the planta genista. It is claimed the nickname arose because Geoffrey of Anjou wore a sprig of the common broom in his hat.

I'd guess the Swedish is a Latin borrowing, corrupted.

[/boring sermon]

Oh we have borrowed a lot and corrupted some.
In Swedish Coltsfoot (Lat. Tussilago farfara) is called just Tussilago.

As for corrupting, we have a rather famous type of schnapps called Hirkum Pirkum made from grain alcohol and St John's wort -which in Latin is named Hypericum perforatum. 
And yes, the tincture is blood red, and smells and tastes horrifically and was originally used for medical purposes.

[Aggie]

As for corrupting, we have a rather famous type of schnapps called Hirkum Pirkum made from grain alcohol and St John's wort -which in Latin is named Hypericum perforatum. 

  That's pure Bork! 

[Darlica]

No Bork is:
Bork bork bork meat balls bork bork...

We wave no plants called bork nor a schnapps.




_{We have Björk (like the Icelandic singer) which means birch, but the J+Ö makes it very different from bork phonetically.} 

[Sibling DavidH]

Where can I get a bottle of Hirkum Pirkum? 

We have Björk (like the Icelandic singer) which means birch, but the J+Ö makes it very different from bork phonetically.

byerk?

[Opsa]

I love "Hirkum Pirkum". It sounds like Hocus Pocus, Hoi Polloi, and argle-bargle all rolled into one.

I set my ginst plants into the ground near my ninebarks and dark red roses, to lighten up the area a bit. They look good.

[Darlica]

I leave to Swato or Lindorm to explain Ö phonetically, I'm lousy on that sort of things...
There is no sound I can think of in English which I can use to explain the letters Ä and Ö (Å is easier it's sounds like the first A in the word always).

Opsa, you could plant tagetes under your roses. Not only will they lighten up the flowerbed as will they bloom for most of the summer, they are good for the roses as they contain a toxin that affect the type of nematodes are a common pest for roses (at least here in Europe).


I like the name "Hirkum Pirkum" too but as I said it tastes awful.

[Opsa]

Ha! I had to look up "tagetes" to figure out you meant marigolds! 

I am a big fan of French marigolds for their skill at warding off pests. I have been interested in Kilimanjaro, a white variety. I don't know whether or not it is as effective as the others.

[Darlica]

See when you say Marigolds I think Calendula officinalis.

Which BTW are very nice too but does not work as pest control...
I love the seeds they look quite alien and there isn't two that looks the same. I'd love to take macro photos of them and blow up to poster size .