Sunshine Farm and Gardens: Glick Pick Archives: Phuopsis stylosa

Sunshine Farm and Gardens

Rare and Exceptional Plants for the
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Phuopsis stylosa

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Then there was that day in August a few years ago that my friends, and esteemed plantsmen from Behnkes Nursery in Beltsville, Maryland, John, Peter, Randy, and Larry were walking around my gardens on their annual pilgrimage to select plants for future propagation, when a discovery was made.

I believe that it was John Peter that first noticed what we thought at the time was a pink flowered Galium, he went nuts. Upon close examination of the feathery fronds that terminated in a globular flower in the loveliest shade of pink, we all agreed that it was a Gailium.

JP exclaimed, "I MUST have 500 for Spring sales next year". I said no problem.

So then....I'm on the phone with my friend Tom Vasale of Toms Word Horticultural Consulting in Charleston WV and was recounting the "Behnke Crew" 's visit here and the discovery that we made, when Tom says, "Do you have Nikkis book closeby"? He was referring to Perennials for American Gardens by our friend Nikki Ekstrom and Ruth Rogers Clausen (Random House 1989 ISBN 0-394-55740-9)
I said yes, he said "turn to page 432, I did, and there, lo and behold, was a picture of Phuopsis stylosa, hmmmmm, I said.

So then..........I call Nikki, because by this time the plant was not in flower and I needed a slide to have a color tag printed and Niki was kind enough to lend me the one from the book. In the book he speaks of Phopsis stylosa's tolerance for drought and in subsequent conversations with other folks that have grown this plant, find that it's a Mederiterranian, hot, dry, backing sun kinda plant. But... here it is growing exceptionally well in a rich, moist, almost full shade setting for over 10 years. Whatta range!!

Anyway.........what we have here is a plant that makes an excellent groundcover for sun or shade, dry or moist, is sprawling and quick to fill in an area, but is not invasive. What more can you ask for???

By the way, do I have to tell you that I have a million of them ready to ship, well maybe not quite a million, but plenty.

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Barry Glick, Sunshine Farm and Gardens
696 Glicks Rd, Renick, WV 24966, USA
Phone: (304) 497-2208
E-mail: barry@sunfarm.com

Last modified February 25, 2020
URL: https://www.sunfarm.com/picks/phuopsisstylosaflr-121513.phtml