Just hanging around - the variegated spider plant

Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum'

I suspect that virtually everyone who has ever grown houseplants has grown Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum', the variegated spider plant.  It's so easy to grow and propagate indoors that it's become the ultimate pass along plant.  Simply detach one of the freely produced offsets - they come ready rooted - pop it in some compost and you have a new plant.  No wonder that every school or village fete has an abundance of these for sale.  As a biology teacher I used to propagate them by the dozen for the summer fair - and they all sold.  Not surprising, given their well deserved reputation for toughness.  Even the brownest thumbed gardeners find them difficult to kill.  Under and over watering, lack of light, dry air; they somehow struggle on, only to revive rapidly if good times come again.

They're almost hardy, quite capable of taking a couple of degrees of frost, so it always surprises me that they're not commonly used as bedding during the warmer months.  Even a couple of rooted offsets will soon mature and produce their own daughter, even granddaughter, plantlets at the ends of the thin, fleshy rhizomes.  A dense patch of pretty green and silver striped leaves is an attractive sight in the light shade preferred by these plants.

Having said that, the commonest method of growth is in a hanging basket.  Earlier this year I put a trio of offsets into a spare basket and hung it by my little shade house.  By today (early October) it had produced a goodly number of daughter plants and even a few granddaughter plants, their collective weight bowing the flexible rhizomes to produce the characteristic cascade effect that makes this plant so desirable when allowed to grow freely.

Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum' - one summer's growth outside

Even though the summer has been pretty awful - cool, even cold, and very wet - the spider plant has grown well, virtually lacking the dry, brown tips to the leaves so characteristic of plants grown in dry air indoors. 

It will soon be time to move it to winter quarters.  Cool, frost free and light is all that is required.  So, undercover in my little shade house unless we get a really cold snap when it can sit out the freeze in the house.  And next year the daughter plants will produce their own offspring and the cascade will lengthen and thicken.  Hopefully to the stage of the one below, photographed a couple of years back in an Italian property.

Chlorophytum comosum 'Vittatum' - a mature plant photographed in Italy

Mind you, I'll pot up a couple of offsets before it gets cold.  Just in case.  After all, I wouldn't want to wait for the summer fetes to renew my stock.

Schizostylis - bright autumn blooms

I have a soft spot for bright autumn flowers, those that begin their display as all else is winding down.  They defy the gathering gloom as nights draw in and the days become shorter.  The Kaffir lily, Schizostylis coccinea, is a great example.  Hardy, reliable, showy and often capable of flowering till Christmas and even beyond once established it's become a firm favourite in the garden.  I've always had the bright red S.coccinea 'Major' but in recent years I've begun to collect a few other varieties to provide bright spots of colour from this South African iris relative.  And now they've begun their display.

Schizostylis coccinea 'Major'

They don't ask for much.  A sunny site, decent, humus rich soil and moisture.  In the wild they grow by the side of streams and ponds.  In cultivation they will thrive in slightly drier - but not drought ridden - conditions in the open border.  The more summer moisture they have the earlier they tend to flower though there is some natural variation among the different cultivars.

Colours range from deep red, through varying shades of coral and pink to almost white.  I say almost.  I used to grow a small flowered variety, S.c.'Alba' which was pure white.  It was also rather miffy and refused to flourish.  I no longer have it.  I now have another variety, also labelled as 'Alba' which has rather larger flowers and is more likely to be a sport of one of the larger flowered garden varieties than a white flowered variant of the species.  At a distance it is white but moving closer reveals a delicate hint of pink.  Thankfully it seems a lot more robust than it's long lost cousin.

Schizostylis coccinea 'Alba'

Mind you, if it's pure unadulterated pink you want you can't go wrong with 'Mrs Hegarty'.  This one really shines in the softer light of September and October.  Equally as vigorous, like the others the 4cm flowers open in sun and close again when cloud or darkness rolls in.

Schizostylis coccinea 'Mrs Hegarty'

Those three all produce good clumps of thin, rushy leaves, flaunting their flowers at about the 45cm / 18in level on stout stalks with a terminal set of buds that open progressively as the season develops.  In a well established clump during a mild autumn new flower stalks will be thrown up to replace those that have faded, prolonging the season very effectively.

I'm hoping I get the same vigour from another variety I've recently acquired.  'Fenland Daybreak' is a subtler coral shade than the blatant pink of 'Mrs Hegarty' or the bright red of 'Major' but, to my eyes, it's equally attractive and fits in well with the other tones of autumn.

Schizostylis coccinea 'Fenland Daybreak'

Hardiness is certainly not a problem down here in Plymouth - even when we get a poor winter.  I've seen the plants advocated for USDA Zone 7 and above, capable of resisting -15C, a temperature that even typing makes me shiver. If we ever get that low the glaciers will be heading down from Dartmoor.  So no problem for most areas of the UK and similar climates elsewhere.  They're not bulbs though, so no lifting and drying out for winter storage.  Protect them in situ or grow in containers that can be moved under cover and they will do fine even if your winters are significantly colder than mine.

I've a few more to collect before I'm finished.  There's a nice rose-pink, 'Sunrise', another good pink in the shape of 'Viscountess Byng' and some interesting looking paler forms that could well find a place in the garden.  Though I might have to remove some other plants to fit them in.

One final word.  They are now called Hesperantha coccinea after a botanical reclassification of that section of the Iris family.  Nurseries take time to catch up with re-naming which is why I've used the old botanical name throughout the post.

Overbecks - The Movie

I've just bought a new camera.  Well, new body.  A Canon 600D, four generations of development on from my trusty 400D.  It's not the latest or best DSLR that Canon make but, having now been superceded by a later model it was available at a very affordable price.  I've had to buy SD cards and a spare battery - these differ from those used in my 400D - but these are comparatively cheap.  First impressions are good, 18Mpx of resolution allows more detail on shots and - if I need it - more latitude for cropping.

One thing that was new to me was HD video.  Purely for the sake of experimenting I strapped my Tokina 12-24mm wide angle zoom to the front and went off to Overbecks, near Salcombe in South Devon to see how effectively I could capture the essence of this lovely exotic garden. The 10 minute video I've embedded below is the result.  I should say that my skills in both shooting and editing are rudimentary.  Hopefully I'll improve with time and practice.

It's been reduced in size for easier playback but still qualifies as High Definition with a 720 x 1280px resolution.  In other words it should be OK viewed full screen.  I hope you enjoy it.