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Montanoa grandiflora- Pom Pom Bush


Eric in Orlando

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Here is Montanoa grandiflora, Pom Pom Bush. It is a large shrub and a showy bloomer. This is an Asteraceae from Honduras.

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Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Nice! Is the double form fragrant, like the single form? Do the flowers drop when faded, or do you have to deadhead? Does it bloom only after days shorten?

I used to grow the single M. grandiflora and M. leucantha (small white flowers in big terminal clusters) back in CA.

The only ones I've seen here are two low, small flowering species. One is fairly stiff and upright; it looks somewhat like a small-leafed and small-flowered M. arborescens:

Montanoa_BlackOliveEast.jpg

The other is a scrambling ground-cover type with flowers about 2.5" across:

Montanoa_Durko.jpg

Any idea on the names of these two?

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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The second picture is Montanoa schotii. It can scramble on the ground or climb up a tree. Here in South Pasadena, California it blooms around New Years. It's a great vine to supply floral interest at a time of year when there's not much blooming. It's still very hard to find. I'm unsure why it's not more popular. I obtained mine quite a few years ago from Steve Brigham at Buena Creek gardens in San Marcos.

This vine does not respond well to heavy pruning as do the shrub montanoas. I severly cut back a mature plant to old wood and lost the whole plant. Tip cuttings seem to root easily in the spring.

Ken

Ken

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Ken--

Thanks for the name. I never saw it when I lived in CA. Here in FL it seems to bloom in at least Spring and Summer (maybe longer), so apparently it's not dependent on shortening daylength. Maybe it needs accumulated heat to set buds?

Most Montanoas in CA do bloom in Winter months, presumably in response to shortening daylength.

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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The 2 species we grow both flower in winter/early spring. The M. grandiflora is early this year. This is the other we have, M. atriplicifolia. It is a sprawling shrub.

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Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Hi Eric. I think I may have given you some wrong information. The montanoa in your previous picture is the one that I have. I went to the Kartuz site http://www.kartuz.com/ and noticed that M. schotii and M. atriplicifolia are names for the same plant, with atriplicifolia being the newest name. The other thing that is different is that they call the pom pom type Montanoa bipinnatifida while M. grandiflora is a large flowering single.

Throughout the years I have grown most types that you have mentioned, but removed quite a few since I got tired of cutting them back. They grow so fast and are not a tidy plant in general. Before you know it , it takes over your yard. Montanoa guatemalensis remains my favorite since it grows into a nicely shaped tree and doesn't send up an overabundance of suckers. My oldest one has been in the ground for at least 20 years, if not longer. I originally purchased it from Samuel Ayres who was known as the flowering tree man in Southern California. It also blooms around the first of the year.

I also have a small tree that looks much like a Montanoa, but it has bright yellow daisy blooms from about Oct. through Feb. It is called Oyeadea verbesinoides. It is a little rangy, but provides a lot of color in the winter. I obtained it from the Huntington Botanical Gardens some years ago. I gave some cuttings to Kartuz, but I guess they were not easy to root. I haven't seen it offered on their website.

Ken

Ken

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Hi Eric. I think I may have given you some wrong information. The montanoa in your previous picture is the one that I have. I went to the Kartuz site http://www.kartuz.com/ and noticed that M. schotii and M. atriplicifolia are names for the same plant, with atriplicifolia being the newest name. The other thing that is different is that they call the pom pom type Montanoa bipinnatifida while M. grandiflora is a large flowering single.

Throughout the years I have grown most types that you have mentioned, but removed quite a few since I got tired of cutting them back. They grow so fast and are not a tidy plant in general. Before you know it , it takes over your yard. Montanoa guatemalensis remains my favorite since it grows into a nicely shaped tree and doesn't send up an overabundance of suckers. My oldest one has been in the ground for at least 20 years, if not longer. I originally purchased it from Samuel Ayres who was known as the flowering tree man in Southern California. It also blooms around the first of the year.

I also have a small tree that looks much like a Montanoa, but it has bright yellow daisy blooms from about Oct. through Feb. It is called Oyeadea verbesinoides. It is a little rangy, but provides a lot of color in the winter. I obtained it from the Huntington Botanical Gardens some years ago. I gave some cuttings to Kartuz, but I guess they were not easy to root. I haven't seen it offered on their website.

Ken

Ken

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Ken--

Thanks for your input on this genus. I met (the late, I assume) Samuel Ayres only once, many years ago. He was responsible for helping generate an interest in unusual plants when I lived in SoCal. (A Markhamia I purchased from him is still growing at my parents old house in Laguna Hills after almost 30 years on rainfall alone).

Is the plant you refer to as M. guatemalensis the same as the one pictured here as M. arborescens at the Ayers place, or is it different? I only saw this plant one other time (in Leucadia as a street tree) and I could never get cuttings of it to root.

Montanoa_arb.jpg

Also, is the spelling of Oyeadea correct? I tried to Google it, but to no avail. It sounds like a tree I saw in North Long Beach once, with foliage very much like Montanoa hibiscifolia, but with yellow-orange flowers. We have a plant that may be the same here in FL that I though was some species of Tithonia. Do you have pics?

Thanks--

Ken.

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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There is a good collection of Montanoa species at the San Francisco(Strybing) Botanic Garden, and most species there in our climate are only coming into bud right now.  I have M. grandiflora in my own garden, and it is about 18 feet tall and in full bud, usually this blooms abit earlier than the tree dahlias, and doesn't typically last the whole winter here because the heavy winter rains make it look a bit bedraggled by the time January comes around.  The seed pods without the petals are also showy in their own right, and extend the show.  That double flowered specimen is one I haven't seen here locally, and looks quite attractive.

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(Tropicalken @ Oct. 22 2007,21:31)

QUOTE
I also have a small tree that looks much like a Montanoa, but it has bright yellow daisy blooms from about Oct. through Feb. It is called Oyeadea verbesinoides. It is a little rangy, but provides a lot of color in the winter. I obtained it from the Huntington Botanical Gardens some years ago.

Is this the plant you are referring to? I shot it at Mounts BG in West Palm Beach; it grows at least as far north as Orlando. I assumed it is a Tithonia, but I'm not sure.

PHTO0014-3.jpg

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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That looks like Tithonia diversifolia, Sunflower Tree. It is a fast grower, ours is around 15 ft. tall and was planted earlier in spring and was about 3ft then.

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Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Sorry for my delayed response. I've been away visiting my mother in Palm Springs for several days.

Yes, Montanoa arborescens is the same as M. guatemalensis. They changed the name a few years ago. Kartuz has it for sale on their website. I gave them cuttings a few years ago.

The pictures you posted do seem to be another form of a Tithonia. My yellow daisy tree does not look like it. The only places I have ever seen it were at the U.C.L.A. Botanic Gardens and at the Huntington. I was enamored with it , and many years ago when I did volunteer work there, I asked if I could root some for the spring sale. I then purchased one that I had rooted. I haven't been very successful in rooting one at home though and apparently Kartuz had problems also, or it would be in their catalog. The plant is just starting to come into bloom, so I'll try to get a picture of it for you. I'm not good at posting pictures, so we shall see.

Ken

Ken

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Thanks Eric and Ken--

The yellow one at Mounts is the same as Eric's, though you wouldn't think so with the crappy pics my camera takes...

It's been a few years since I saw what I thought was the yellow Montanoa in North Long Beach; I can't remember exactly what its foliage looks like, but its habit was definitely more tree-like, with perhaps a 10-12" DBH single trunk. The more I see the Tithonia here in FL, which never seems to really form a real trunk, the more I think the CA tree was something else. I think I too tried to root it once to no avail and never retried it.

I don't think I ever saw Tithonia diversifolia in CA, though I don't see why it shouldn't grow there. It probably has the same uses and limitations as M. grandiflora.

Ken, if you can send pics to my email address as attachments, I can resize and post here for you; it took a little practice, but I finally got the posting thing down here...

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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That Tithonia almost always wants to grow multistemmed and wide spreading. It can make a huge sprawling specimen if left unmaintained.

Eric

Orlando, FL

zone 9b/10a

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Ken,

I took a picture of the Oyeadea, but it only had a few blooms and the picture turned out fuzzy. I'm going to be in Mexico from the 29th through Nov. 8, so perhaps the tree will have some more blooms to take pictures of when I return. I had the tree severly pruned last spring, which may be the reason the blooms are so sparse. Usually it is quite showy by now, but not this year. I'll send whatever pictures I can to you at that tiime.

Ken in South Pasadena

Ken

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(Tropicalken @ Oct. 28 2007,23:45)

QUOTE
Ken,

I took a picture of the Oyeadea, but it only had a few blooms and the picture turned out fuzzy. I'm going to be in Mexico from the 29th through Nov. 8, so perhaps the tree will have some more blooms to take pictures of when I return. I had the tree severly pruned last spring, which may be the reason the blooms are so sparse. Usually it is quite showy by now, but not this year. I'll send whatever pictures I can to you at that tiime.

Ken in South Pasadena

Sounds good Ken--

Have a good time down South...

Ken.

SoCal and SoFla; zone varies by location.

'Home is where the heart suitcase is'...

_____

"If, as they say, there truly is no rest for the wicked, how can the Devil's workshop be filled with idle hands?"

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