Friday, November 08, 2013

Favourite Plant of the Week - Amicia zygomeris

Every time I wander down the garden this week I keep catching a glimpse of this plant and on closer inspection today I thought, wow, it has done really well this year...


Amicia zygomeris

Despite being razed down to nothing by flames last summer.



It has proven itself to be a very resilient, tough, and rewarding plant for us and deserves to be highlighted this week! It is a hardy, herbaceous perennial in our location, dying back down to the ground in the winter and comes back vigorously by late spring and rockets upward all through summer. Had if not it was burnt down a few months ago it would have been much taller than it is now.

But still it has performed well after that. 



Prefers full sun to partial shade, and does even better when sited in a rich, well fertilised area that gets generous moisture in the growing season. It is easily propagated by cuttings and potted specimens can be overwintered evergreen under heated glass.

Hardy in our garden, down to perhaps -10C

We join Loree of Danger Garden in celebrating our favourite plant of the week!

Mark :-)

22 comments :

  1. I think I've seen this at Cistus, I love those leaves and what a trooper coming back with that much growth since the fire, impressive! So glad you guys participated this week as I know your garden is chock full of drool-worthy plants.

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    1. A pleasure Loree! I've assumed you've always had one somewhere in your garden.and you ought to have one me thinks :)

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  2. Such cool leaves. Looks like the new growth has a touch of magenta too. So glad that so many of your plants survived the fire.

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    1. It's a great foliage plant Alison and you're right about the hint of magenta. And on previous years it rewards you with yellow flowers in the autumn too.

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  3. Great leaf shape. I like how the new growth emerges. It certainly deserves kudos of overcoming fire!

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  4. Hurray for another "plant of the week" feature. I love learning about new-to-me plants, and this is definitely one of them. Needless to say this one wouldn't do well in our Mediterranean-going-on-desert climate where water is getting ever scarcer, so I'll enjoy it vicariously.

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    1. Thanks Gerhard! It's not as watering sensitive as I perhaps made it sound and could be worth a try in your area. It will love your heat and sun at least :)

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  5. Wow, guys, this plant is well worth highlighting - thanks! I'll do more research on it to find ultimate height and spread, etc, but it deserves it star status for surviving both extremes of temperature. I wonder if it enjoyed nutrients from the ash in the soil after the fire? Love the leaves and the red stems, gorgeous!

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    1. Thanks Caro! It possibly has and looking forward to how it will behave next year if it will show extra vigour. It's pretty well restrained spread wise, a good one of for the middle or even back of a border as long as its sunny enough still.

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  6. It's still surprising to me how plants recover and come back better than ever after fires. This one apparently did extremely well.
    Cher Sunray Gardens

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    1. Indeed Cher, it has proven its resilience from both hot and cold :)

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  7. Mark, Amicia zygomeris is a truly lovely plant that I had never heard of before you featured it on your blog. I really like the unusual leave shape and the saturated lush green color of the leaves. Thanks for writing about this beauty!
    Christina

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    1. A pleasure Christina! It could possibly do well in your area too, worth a try!

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  8. The leaves look a lot like Vancouveria, a native growing in great swathes in our woodland.

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  9. Does yours ever flower? In Cornwall we expect it to give an autumn show of yellow pea flowers as big, but unscented, as sweet peas.

    Chad

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    1. It did last year and the year before Chad, fortunately we manage to see them just before the string of frosty nights arrive to mush them all down to dormancy.

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  10. Beautiful foliage, and obviously a tough plant to recover so well from the fire. Good choice!

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  11. And it's pretty, too, with such interesting leaves! Hooray for resilient plants!

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    1. It's a lovely foliage plant Holley! Hooray indeed :)

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