Manfreda virginica

Steve Marak samarak@gizmoworks.com
Thu, 28 Apr 2005 21:25:16 PDT
Manfreda virginica is native here (NW Arkansas) and one of my favorites. The 
spotting on the leaves of the local plants isn't everything you could want, 
since it seldom extends more than about halfway up the leaves, but it's very 
cute, easy to grow when sited right, and the flowers are very fragrant. Does 
look a bit odd with a 5-6 foot (1.5-1.8 meter) inflorescence on this tiny 6-8 
inch (15-20 cm.) rosette of leaves.

Locally, the biggest happiest populations are on south facing road cuts with a
few inches of soil over rock. Moist in the spring, bakes in the summer. Other
plants commonly in the same habitat (though not really geophytes) are Callirhoe
digitata, Penstemon digitalis, Asclepias verticillata. (One of the best of 
these roadcuts is unfortunately scheduled for widening soon.)

It's easy to grow from seed and happily produces a lot of seed, which can be 
full size in 2 years if you're lucky, 3 if not.

Steve

On Thu, 28 Apr 2005, Floral Architecture wrote:

> Well, I guess I was wrong about the state of my M. virginica. I was going to
> move ti to ful sun and realised there was already a flower spike forming. So,
> I am a happy camper. I'll try and take some photos this weekend of those that
> I have (3) and post them on the wiki if they are not already there.  I did
> get the M. Mocha Mocha from Plant Delights last year. It survived,
> unintentionaly wrapped in a box completely dry in my uncle's garage in OH for
> 2 months. It has completely come back with little leaf loss and looks great
> right now. I love the mottled sepia tone of the leaves. It will work in
> gardens really well with other sepia, toffee, bronze colored foliage plants,
> i.e. Carex, Phormiums, etc. I look forward to seeing what the flowers look
> like.
>  
> I will  fertilizing my virginica to increase my stock. 
>  Mine was purchased on eBay from a woman on the East coast. I no longer have
> her name (without extensive digging in paperwork) but there were not any
> listed on eBay last week when I looked. Maybe we need to start selling more
> of them. Hey, Joe, how many do you have?

-- Steve Marak
-- samarak@gizmoworks.com


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