Growing Gardens

with Julia Hancock

Second time around

Canterbury Bells

The terms annual and perennial are familiar to gardeners when we're discussing a plant's lifecycle and we know what to expect when we purchase them from the garden centre. But occasionally we encounter plants with 'biennial' written boldly on the label, which sends us into a state of confusion and often compels us to consign them to the 'too hard' basket.

The term biennial comes from the Latin biennis, which means 'two years'. In a nutshell, biennial plants are just like annual and perennial plants except that it takes them two years to complete their life cycles.

During the first growing season (which in most cases is spring), most ornamental biennials produce a rosette of leaves, which form a low-growing mound on the surface of the soil over the summer months. As cooler weather sets in over autumn and winter the plants die down and become dormant.

During the second year's growing season they form leaves and flowers, produce fruits (if applicable), go to seed, and die. So what kind of plants are classified as biennials? Canterbury bells (Campanula medium), Echium, foxglove (Digitalis purpurea), sweet William (Dianthus barbatus), Queen Anne's lace and mullein (also known as verbascum) are among the commonly grown ornamental biennials. But there are also edible species of biennial, including carrots, parsley, parsnips and globe artichoke or cardoon (Cynara cardunculus).

So why would one bother to grow biennials at all? Well, the straight answer is that in our climate we probably wouldn't knowingly do it, because many of them are routinely marketed to us as annuals. We'd therefore treat them as annuals and discard them after one season. Parsley is the one exception to this rule that we should be aware of however, as it's possible to get two years good production from each parsley plant, even in the subtropics.

Lismore Garden Club News

Ivory Curl (Buckinghamia Celcissima) is a small evergreen tree from tropical Australia. It can be seen flowering with masses of long cream racemes in our local streets at present. The bees absolutely love this beautiful native tree. It can be propagated from seed.

What to plant now: Flowers - Alyssum, Marigold, Phlox, Petunia, Zinnia, and Cosmos. Vegies - Beetroot, Chinese Cabbage, Lettuce, Parsley, Radish, Silverbeet. Be sure to plant seedlings late in the afternoon, water in with 'Seasol', provide shade for the first two days, water daily, mulch & protect from snails.

Gardening Tip: The best plant labels can be made from the slats from an old aluminium Venetian blind. Write on them with a fine point waterproof felt tip pen. They will last indefinitely.

Happy Gardening
Ron Burns