A Hardy African Violet on Steroids???
Not quite, but when I'm waltzing visitors around the display gardens here, I always pose the same question, "Would you like to see a hardy African Violet on steroids?"
They always bite and we hurriedly stroll over to a shade bed under a 60 foot tall Betula pendula where I gleamingly point to an imposing drift of ground hugging plants. Their jaws drop. The comments usually range from "I had no idea that there was a hardy African Violet" to "I've never imagined an African Violet with foliage that huge." Inevitably, they ask if I have any for sale - no matter what they think it might be.
You're probably asking yourself about now, "What the hell is this plant?" It's Bergenia ciliata, an extremely hardy, early flowering, shade loving, sun tolerant, perennial member of the Saxifrage family. It's native to some very high peaks of the Himalayas, so you know it's going to be hardy just about anywhere. This welcome addition to any garden also happens to be very heat tolerant as I've kept several pots of it in a greenhouse that hits triple digits in the Summer heat and the foliage was as firm as if I'd watered them with Viagra.
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THANKS to my friend Todd Boland at the Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden for the use of his excellent images of Bergenia ciliata in flower. His were so much better than mine and I didn't want to wait till next Spring to share this plant with you.
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My image above is a 2 year old plant in a full one gallon pot. I've experienced leaves even LARGER than this in the ground.
If you'd love to enjoy long lasting clouds of pink and white flowers in very early Spring, and huge, dramatic, deer-proof, rabbit-proof, comment enticing, African Violet-like foliage the rest of the gardening season long, then this plant belongs in your and your customers' gardens.
And the best news is that, after turning down wholesale requests for years, I'm finally in a position to share them with you on a wholesale basis. I've selected my "Furriest" seedling and have successfully produced it in tissue culture. The image on the right is a well developed 72 cell flat. I have a limited amount of these 72 cell flats that will be ready to ship next week and I must limit each customer to one flat for now. If this offer piques your interest, shoot off an email to my personal email address - barry@sunfarm.com with your phone # and I'll call you with the details.
I look forward to sharing these unique perennials with you, and guarantee that you'll be the only kid on the block with them.
By the way, if you haven't read the story in GQ magazine about me, you can read it on line at - //sunfarm.com/images/GVQ08-2.pdf
And........... my Hellebores were featured in a 6 page article in the January issue of Southern Living magazine - //www.sunfarm.com/images/sliv10.pdf
You can also follow SF & G on TWITTER - //twitter.com/Sunfarmtweets and become a fan of SF & G on Facebook - //www.facebook.com/pages/Sunshine-Farm-Gardens/71330111595
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Happy Gardening,
Barry
Barry Glick aka Glicksterus maximus aka The Cyber-Plantsman
Sunshine Farm & Gardens
696 Glicks Rd
Renick WV 24966 USA
304-497-2208
EMAIL - barry@sunfarm.com
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