{"id":3445,"date":"2019-05-23T18:10:38","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T18:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3445"},"modified":"2019-05-23T18:10:38","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T18:10:38","slug":"developing-a-chilean-garden","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/?p=3445","title":{"rendered":"Developing a Chilean Garden"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Gardening can be made interesting by implementing a thematic\nplan for part or all of the site. There are many possible themes to choose\nfrom: a favorite color or color combination; a plant genus (e.g., roses,\nirises, dahlias, etc.); a design style (e.g., desert, tropical, etc.); or\nwhatever interests you. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

My garden has beds dedicated to each of the five summer-dry\nclimate regions: Mediterranean Basin, South Africa, Australia, California, and\nChile. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The world\u2019s summer-dry regions occur within two bands: between\n30\u00b0and 45\u00b0 north, and between 30\u00b0and 45\u00b0 south. Chile is a very narrow, very\nlong country, extending from a latitude of 17\u00b0 south to Cape Horn at 56\u00b0. The\ncountry extends well beyond the summer-dry region, <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The county\u2019s flora have been described in terms of three\nzones, the desert provinces of the north, central Chile, and the humid regions\nof the south. Central Chile\u2019s summer-dry region extends from about 30\u00b0to about\n36\u00b0 south, making that region comparable in size to that of California, which\nextends from about 32\u00b0to about 42\u00b0 north. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only a little searching, a gardener can find good\nplants from the first four of these regions; finding Chilean plants can be\nchallenging. That search can be motivated by the potential of discovering\nunusual botanical treasures.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few Chilean plants are readily available in garden\ncenters. The most familiar example, perhaps, is the so-called Peruvian Lily\n(Alstromeria sp.). There are some 122 species within this South American genus,\nand only four are native to Peru, while at least thirty-three are native to central\nChile, which is the center of distribution for this genus. We\u2019re told that\nChileans take offense at having their plant called Peruvian Lily!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Other Chilean plants that are not hard to find include (in\nno particular order): Chilean Jasmine (Mandevilla laxa), Chilean Guava (Ugni\nmolinae), Chilean Puya (Puya chilensis), Shining Pink Rock Purslane (Calendrina\nspectabilis), Maiden\u2019s Wreath (Francoa sonchifolia), Hummingbird Fuchsia (Fuchsia\nmagellanica), Purpletop Vervain (Verbena bonariensis), Chilean Potato Vine\n(Solanum Crispum), and others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interested gardeners can find descriptions of these plants\nby searching the Internet for their botanical names. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A less common Chilean plant that is particularly attractive in early spring, is the Sacred Flower of the Andes (Cantua buxifolia). This is an upright shrub that produces \u201ca profusion of orange to magenta-pink flowers that have a long tube with a flaring mouth held on thin pedicels so the flowers dangle beneath\u201d (quoting San Marcos Growers). The blossoms are \u201coutrageous,\u201d but the plant sprawls in a way that calls for staking. The older stems can be pruned to improve the plant\u2019s overall form, but because blossoms are produced on the previous season\u2019s growth, pruning should be done only after flowering. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chilean
Blossom of Cantua buxifolia (Sacred Flower of the Incas)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Chilean
An unruly shrub: Cantua buxifolia <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

My continuing quest for interesting these plants focuses\ncurrently on the Chilean Bellflower (Lapageria rosea), a beautiful flowering\nvine that is Chile\u2019s national flower. A few nurseries list this plant on their\nwebsites, but it\u2019s generally out of stock. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Persistence should produce results! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adopting a theme of your choice could provide an alternative\nto the usual spontaneous approach to gardening in favor of the satisfaction of\ndesign coherence and the appeal of an ongoing hunt for botanical treasures. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gardening can be made interesting by implementing a thematic plan for part or all of the site. There are many possible themes to choose from: a favorite color or color combination; a plant genus (e.g., roses, irises, dahlias, etc.); a … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3445","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2WCVL-Tz","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3445"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3448,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3445\/revisions\/3448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3445"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3445"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ongardening.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3445"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}