The MGS Forum
Plants for mediterranean gardens => Trees and Shrubs => Topic started by: MikeHardman on October 10, 2011, 01:40:54 PM
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Fleur, Thank you for mentioning this silvery shrub Teucrium fruticans in TMG No.66 (p.8); specifically 'Azureum'.
It had not been in my plant list, but it is there now!
I'm starting this topic to glean folks' experiences.
Some photos & info:
- flower and foliage close-up - http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1543 (http://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=1543)
- hedge (not in flower) - http://www.nzplantpics.com/pics_hedges/teucrium_fruticans_hedge_small_01.jpg (http://www.nzplantpics.com/pics_hedges/teucrium_fruticans_hedge_small_01.jpg)
- specimen in flower - http://www.pepinieres-montimas.com/sites/montimas/pages/medias/ACTU/boule-copie.jpg (http://www.pepinieres-montimas.com/sites/montimas/pages/medias/ACTU/boule-copie.jpg)
I note your comment, Fleur:
...Thus a rosemary would get near perfect scoring on both heat resistance and appearance as would Pistacia lentiscus and Cneorum tricoccon, whereas Teucrium fruticans and Medicago arborea would get just as high marks for drought tolerance but would be noted as adapting to heat by the leaves drying up and dropping. I think that the medick looks great in summer – see below in the evening sunlight - while the teucrium is just OK. The fact the Patrick thinks the opposite demonstrates my point that the aesthetic judgement would have been better kept aside.
and in TMG, you write about T. f. 'Azureum', if I may quote you:
It is usefully flexible, growing in sun or part shade, with or without irrigation, and it is softer and more compact than the species while having the most vivid blue flowers over a long period.
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Mine only lasted a couple of years, but then it only got morning and evening sun. :-\
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Teucriums are splendidly versatile mediterraneans. Many attractive species are Mediterranean-basin natives, perfectly happy with long dry summers and cool wet winters. Teucrium brevifolium is a charmer – at least in the growing season (in summer it sheds its leaves and aestivates as a bundle of twigs). Others to note might include Teucrium alpestre, T. aureum, pink-flowered T. divaricatum, T. lusitanicum, T. luteum, T. marum and T. microphyllum, and there are plenty more for the enthusiast to track down. By far the best known are T. fruticans and T. chamaedrys. These, particularly the very variable T. fruticans which is now available in quite a wide range of cultivars, are really useful as single shrubs, as ground cover or as hedging, either informal or (as quite common in older Mediterranean gardens) clipped to strict formal shape.
Teucrium fruticans grows quickly to establish a dense mass twiggy generously glad in green, grey-green or blue-green foliage, excellent protection for nesting birds. If a bush gets out of hand you can cut it back to the ground and it will regrow without complaint. Very unkeen on topiary ourselves, we attacked a bush of ours a few years ago in a half-joking attempt to produce some sort of globe, but as you can see our skill with the shears wasn’t quite sufficient! So that bush, later cut to the ground, is now a much more modest size.
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Most interesting.
There's quite a lot of talk of clipping Teucriums. Do folks use trimmings as cuttings?, and if so, what's the best time and method?
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A good time for T. fruticans in the Mediterranean is in the spring when side shoots are about 7 to 10cm long, not fully ripe - before the summer really heats up. If you have good early autumn growth so that side shoots that sort of size are half-ripe, that's even better.
Take these cuttings with a heel and root in your usual cuttings mix. Autumn cuttings should have rooted by the end of winter. Spring cuttings will have to be kept in a cool shady place through the summer.
The less shrubby sorts can be propagated by shorter shoot tips.
Carole or Fleur may have some more suggestions.
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Cuttings of Teucrium fruticans 'Azureum'. I take cuttings in the autumn/early winter period - any twig that is stiff enough not to wilt. Push them in round the edge of a big pot with a 40/60 mix of potting compost and perlite. They will have rooted by Easter for potting on and some will survive the summer neglect in the nursery to be planted out in the autumn. I brought one mother plant back from Antalya which has slightly bigger flowers than the one I have from Sparoza. I think T fruticans looks better if you start pruning it from an early age so that it keeps a solid appearance. In the summer when the bush aestivates the solid shape (whatever it is) continues to look attractive.
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The SC did some work comparing perlite v vermiculite plus peat composts with a range of mediterranean plant cuttings including Teucrium. In these tirals the vermiculite composts were always superior to the perlite composts. I know it is not always possible to buy these products especially in small quantities. Best thing is to mix up a large amount of compost and store in a plastic dustbin for later use.
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Sorry David, I should have acknowledged that I use vermiculite/perlite (the former is very hard to find) because I read your trials results. I will in my article for TMG!
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Fleur, I`m glad that someone reads our results
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Here in the UK T. fruticans is relatively tender though this weekend I saw a really healthy three year old with no damage from last winter despite being in a very cold area. It doesn't aestivate here and remains more or less evergreen.
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Just would like to report on Teucriums which have just come through 40-60 cms of snow for 2 weeks, they look fine and have already started to shoot and produce buds for flowering.. Proof I think that they are perfectly hardy.
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My experience accords with Janice's and Filippi gives hardiness for Teurcrium fruticans down to -10 degrees C. That tenderness in the UK may have more to do with roots sitting in waterlogged soil rather than the cold.
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This Teucrium fruticans seems to have suffered during severely icy nights; temperature went down to minus 8 Celsius in my Languedoc garden in February. The apex parts of each branch are burnt by the frost.
Will the plant survive?
In comparison, another member of the same family, T. flavum seems to have weathered the frost much better; is it because it grows in a more secluded and protected area of my garden?
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For Alice's photos of Teucrium brevifolium, a compact low-growing shrub from the warmest and driest areas of the eastern Mediterranean, click here (http://www.mgsforum.org/smf/index.php?topic=949).
It is completely drought-hardy, and also - at least in the wild - completely summer-dormant, shedding its leaves then to become a tough and wiry framework of rather sharp twigs. Lovely when in growth, in the winter and spring.
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I have grown 3-4 Teucrium flavum from seed and transplanted them in the garden as quite young seedlings. So far I have been surprised by how well they have coped in our exceptionally dry local climate. It remains to be seen if they have survived this summer.
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Teucrium flavum is incredibly tough. Mine has seeded into the gravel path and so grows without water or soil. It's not really a shrub though but one of those useful in between shrub and ground cover sorts of plants.
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Good to know Teucrium flavum is so tough, Fleur. Those "between shrub and ground cover sorts of plants" can be quite useful to have around.