I had a bit of a buying splurge this spring and obtained a few nice things for the garden and greenhouse. One order from Germany was initiated by a desire for perennial kales and it expanded with a few oddities, a few lavenders and a dozen mints. And I decided it was high time to ‘do’ brugmansias again so that involved another order from Germany.

But I have grown a few plants from seed too and one of the best, though I know it will not appeal to everyone, is Oxalis valdiviensis. Now I realise some people react to oxalis in t’he way that I react when I hear ‘showcase’ being used as a verb, (well probably not quite as violently as I do when I hear people showcasing’) but, provided you pick your species with care and accept that they might be a bit rough round the edges, there is a lot to be said for them.

This one was introduced to cultivation in 1994 by Plantworld Seeds and I am sure I grew it soon after that and it self seeded in a hot, sunny spot in comfortable Fenland soil. But here I am growing it again and I have dotted it around the garden. It is native to south South America and is an annual. Seed germinates easily without stratification and the tiny seedlings survived transplanting. It is a bit floppy when young – I was going to put some for sale at the gate but they can’t handle handling. Growth is bushy and the flowers are a lovely golden yellow. The flowers close at night (they have also remained closed in this ridiculous heat) and, probably, the foliage collapses too but I have not noted that. Bees like the flowers and I suppose the best thing in its favour, if you don’t like oxalis, is that it is an annual! It may self seed and I hope it does – there are worse weeds – including much worse oxalis!

I like salvias. And I particularly like the shrubby salvias. I have to confess that, great though they are for garden use, some of the herbaceous, hardy kinds leave me a bit cold. But show me a salvia that needs winter protection or has some strange feature and I am hooked. So it was that, seeing it listed among the plant offerings, my herby order had to include Salvia lanceolata.

This is a South African species, from the Northern and Western Cape where it grows among rocks in sand and limestone. The small, grey, tough leaves suggest adaptation to droughty soils. The flowers are reddish and, with a ‘backswept’ lower lip that provides little assistance to alighting bees, reveal that, in the wild, the flowers are pollinated by birds. My small plant duly bloomed and the weight of the flowers, together with the large calyces, caused the stems to flop. New growth from the base is a bit stronger. It is in the greenhouse although it is said to be hardy. If cut to the ground by frost it will produce new growth from the base, an adaptation to fire. The leaves are aromatic, although it is resinous rather than really pleasant. The flowers last for ages, perhaps due to lack of effective pollinator. I will take cuttings soon and then plant it out in sunny gravel but I don’t want to lose the main plant till I have replacements.

Earlier in the year I added Toona sinensis ‘Flamingo’ to the garden. The plant arrived in autumn and was ‘heeled in’ till spring when it was planted. It is strange that if flamingoes are added to temperate gardens it is always in bad taste. But I have not quite stooped so low as to dot plastic pink flamingoes in the borders or around the pond. I say ‘quite’ because I am pretty sure that this interesting tree is in very bad taste. Which is deliciously ironic since the plant is edible!

Toona sinensis is related to mahogany and is valued for timber and as a vegetable – the new shoots and seedlings eaten and supposedly tasting of garlic. More of that soon. It is a rapid grower and also suckers. When introduced to the West from China it was frequently confused with the tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) which is now a pest tree in many countries. Although we may see a lot more of the plain species, it is ‘Flamingo’ that usually attracts attention.

It probably arose in Australia and was introduced to New Zealand in 1930, without a name. It was grown at the nursery of Hayward Reginald Wright near Auckland who established a ‘kiwi fruit’ nursery – and after whom ‘Hayward’, the best-known cv , is named. However, the pink-leaved tree was largely ignored. Apparently a lady saw the tree, dug up suckers and passed them to a nursery in the 1950s and from there it was propagated and sold and planted all over New Zealand. It still had no formal name. Then it arrived in The Netherlands in 1976 and then it arrived at Wisley (UK) in 1982. It was only christened ‘Flamingo’ in 1981.

In theory, this is a slender but suckering tree and it has one special feature: the new growth is ridiculously pink! It seems to remain a good pink for several weeks but then, like the similarly spectacular maple ‘Brilliantissimum’ the foliage becomes yellow and rather anaemic in colour.

What I found frustrating, and it has been a frustrating year in general, is that snails adore the foliage and they munched through one of the three shoots and attacked the others. I am please to say that the new shoots, which were rather poor, are making secondary growth so it might settle in and astound the neighbours yet. It will be a while before I am munching on shoots myself.

how to grow oxalis valdiviensis, is toona edible, Oxalis valdiviensis, salvia lanceolata, toona flamingo, toona sinensis flamingo, what is toona