Ooh, I have never even heard of these. I wonder if they would grow here, or if they would rot in the heat and humidity here. They're quite lovely. I love the foliage.

I started *Dierama igneum* from seeds about a year and a half ago. They're still young'uns and haven't bloomed yet. I've always considered Dieramas to be distinctive, graceful, and thus potentially good in the garden; but I hadn't tried growing any until this venture...

I've been killing Dieramas for years. (Now, there's a claim to fame.) I was inspired to grow them by a photo in (I think) one of Christopher Lloyd's books, plus my mother grew a magnificent stand of Dierama pulcherrimum in a half-barrel for years until rats got the roots.

Divisions from my mother's plants did not survive when I tried to grow them in pots. I have also managed to fail with Dierama igneum and D. pendulum album grown from seed; the plants grew and bloomed some, then just dwindled away.

Things are looking up with a start of Dierama 'Miranda' from Annie's Annuals. Now starting its third year, it looks hale and hearty and even bloomed some last year. I think previously I was growing them too lean (worrying about their reported tendency to rot). The thriving 'Miranda' is sited in the middle of some of my best rose-growing ground in well-amended soil.

Annie's Annuals lists 19 varieties (linked below), which is a lot for one genus, even for that outfit. So, maybe there is a quiet fad going on, or about to erupt.

Here is a link that might be useful: Dierama at Annie's Annuals

This post was edited by catspa on Tue, Mar 26, 13 at 19:42

Ah I am so jealous Campanula! Mine are bravely hanging on. They really hate it when the temps get into the upper 80s and beyond. What soil are you using? Someone in San Francisco is doing well with them. I begged a local grower to grow some for me along with Thalictrum. Last year I got some flowers but the plants aren't nearly what they should be. I am trying to shield them from too much water in the winter and too much sun in the summer. They get a special umbrella over them to shade them whenever it threatens to get too hot.

What I learned is that they are devilishly hard from seeds unless you get really fresh seed- then they're easy. I think I finally got the location and watering right and now I need to get the soil right. They want to reset and do nothing for a while if they get moved so I hope this bed will be good for them. I want to get a few seeds to sprout and then share plants with gardens nearer the coast where Fuchsias are happiest. I know I have a difficult climate for these but if I could get them to go I'd be soooo happy.

And this

I've been growing them for years. They seem to be more of a mild coastal weather liking plant but put on a nice display here in the spring. I don't think there is a fad thing going on in my area.

Well, if they don't like temps in the eighties, I can forget about them.

I've never heard of them - and think that I know a lot of plants! Guess it's the Sacramento heat - high 80s too much? I scoff at that low temperature!

I don't have any enthusiasm for the plants that you say the US loves, Suzy - daylillies, zinnias, echinacea - my collecting focus (other than roses) is on geraniums and salvias. Many of the true geraniums don't do well in our heat, either, but G. sangineum is especially rewarding. Grasses are big here, too. I don't want to give up much room in my garden for them, but in the Master Gardener display garden where I volunteer, they are one of the most beautiful things nearly year-round.

Another plant mania of mine is ferns, since I have some very shady spots and have found at least a dozen different ferns that grow well.
Anita

Yep, another plant I've killed.

Succulents are the big "in" thing here the past 2 or 3 years. Makes sense for our climate, not so much for Kansas or Maine.

Just interested in how trends occur (what gardening memes are in effect) and differences between geographical areas which are not directly related to climate conditions (the huge fad for big leaved tropicals which swept the UK during the 90s).
A little flick over to the annuals forum where zinnias take top billing (while we barely notice them in the UK - even though we can grow them with relative ease).
And as for hemerocallis!!!!

So, do you concur that there are fads and fashions within the world of horticulture? I know I am not immune.

I bought a beautiful clump of Dieramas with me from my garden in England. They have never flowered and the clump looks exactly the same as the day I planted it.
Boo Hoo.
Those are gorgeous photos Kittymoonbeam, but they just show me what I am missing.
Daisy

Since I love you all so much, thought you'd enjoy a giggle at my expense.

When I glanced at the title I thought it was about a diOrama, and since there was a camera next to it, I thought it was pics about Suzy's new digs (pardon the pun). ;-)

Ha! I had the same thought as Lagomorphmon! But I'm going to surprise you, Suzy. I tried to grow Dierama dracomontanum 'Fairy Wand' from seeds a couple of years ago. I got one to sprout. The last I saw it it was about 6" tall. Then it disappeared. I planted it in early spring. Maybe it should be planted here in September & grown in the winter.

As to fads like daylilies and echinacea, if a fad will grow in my garden, I will grow it, and these two fads do exceedingly well here. Must be the American heat that is lacking in British gardens that keeps them from becoming fads there. I daresay there isn't a single plant that you've ever mentioned that I can grow. How do you feel about dahlias and clematis? They're a fad in my garden along.

Sherry

Here is a link that might be useful: If only sweat were irrigation...

Same here! Having never heard of dieramas, I thought it was a typo for diorama, and that at long last we were going to see pictures.

The big trend in So. CA has been plumeria. The odd little naked branchy things are everywhere. Most people don't know how to prune them properly. Every now and then I see a good looking one. At first they were very expensive and people were having whole branches broken off in the night to be sold as pieces to root or in 1 gallon pots at the swap meet. I think plumeria fever has passed now. They are all over and people want to know if you want cuttings for free. I love the scent in the summer but the dormant plants still look like they are from mars to me.

I tried it. Winter killed it. But it looks like a beautiful graceful thing in pictures. Sigh.

Cath

Wow it's full of bells. I wish i could grow those.

I think of Daylillies more like a lifelong hobby, as roses are our hobby.
People who breed daylilies have the patience of Job. Those seeds take up to 3 months to germinate and 2 to 3 years to bloom.

Most people only plant stella d'boring around here. Grasses are the big landscape darling...

plumerias are a complete unknown to me - for sure, they would never grow in east anglia but cornwall? scilly isles? western scotland? All these celebrated gardens (Tresco, Heligan, Inverewe) - am now wondering if plumerias are grown anywhere in the UK. Would love to see (and sniff) some.
Dahlias - well Sherry, dahlias were synonymous with allotments and veggie gardening, old geezers in flat caps, or tasteless blobs of gaudiness for those who know no better.....until they were given the all-clear by Christopher Lloyd. Truly, until the 90s, they were a despised plant, largely ranked alongside bedding plants and bizzie-lizzies (impatiens). As if from nowhere, they were re-invented (especially the Bishop of Llandaff and David Howard) to sit alongside bananas, ginger-lilies and eucomis in our 'tropical'gardens). Dahlias (but not chrysanthemums) are officially trendy (but not all of them either).
In the last decade, we have watched various plants go from rare to ubiquitous (consider the rise..and rise of verbena bonariensis) eryngiums and echinacias. Am predicting geums will be another 'next big thing' although I would like to see a conifer revival (last used in the 70s and currently derided).

When we lived on Marco Island south of here, plumerias were planted in all of the roadside right-of-ways and were in constant bloom. Many people had four and five different colored blooms grafted onto one tree. They smelled lovely. Down there, they were lollipop shaped and quite attractive. Here not so much. I've tried them several times, and they become awkward stick-like things. They also were more bush-sized than small trees like they were on Marco and here they didn't bloom like they did on the island.

A few "me too" comments.

I, too, thought diOrama!

I, too, see succulents as a big trend. They will fry in the sun in Sacramento and freeze in the cold, but they are perfect for milder Bay Area (San Francisco) climates. The SF Garden Show probably had more succulents for sale than any other type of plant, had a giant succulent globe as its main feature, and many of the display gardens had them too.

Native plants are still of interest here, too, but there was much less emphasis on them at the garden show this year. A few years ago, every garden used them (sometimes in ways that were totally unsuitable).

Edibles are another craze. Not as intense a pursuit as in the UK, but gardening in all aspects is a more intense pursuit in the UK.

I have loved this thread even though it's not about roses, Suzy - it's so fun to have people from all over weigh in about their experiences. Companion plants are as interesting to me as roses - variety makes gardens so much richer.

The question of what makes plants go in and out of style is a good one. I fear that roses are out of style, other than Knockout and Iceberg, in this country.
Anita

Anita, I fear you are right but........(obvs, preaching to the choir here), the rose has and will continue to endure while other plants have their fleeting moments in the sun, only to vanish off the horticultural stage (deutzias, heathers, philadelphus, gooseberries, arabis, clarkia, stocks) - all these were everywhere in my grandparents day but are rarely grown now apart from gnarly elderly specimens - at this point, you may all start with the refutations but, I am being vague and over-generalising here - you know what I mean.
Fortunately, a secret weapon of the rose is its immense versatility - there is a rose for every climate, every taste and style, every size - it is feasible to grow a rose in an alpine scree bed (the little wichurana groundcovers), a tropical leafy glade (r.gigantea, r.clinophylla, r.watsonia) with prairie grasses (sweet briars, chinensis), in pots and containers (any number of polys and floribundas), in a potager (take your pick from the 200 species), a mixed border, a formal specimen shrub, on walls, fences, arbours, pillars - for blooms, foliage, fragrance, autumn colour (heps) bird and insect habitats.....on and on.
I challenge anyone to think of another genus which has such diversity, such utility, such a truly egalitarian plant.
So, I don't feel the rose is in any imminent danger of vanishing from our gardens.

Campanula, I wanted to prove to you that Plumeria have indeed taken hold of our area. Just in my little neighborhood in central O.C. they are on every street and sometimes it seems like every other house has one. This is just in the front! I drove around with the windows down and took these pictures. Sometimes I think the neighbors are getting ready to start a lei industry here.

I put my safari in the California gardening forum so here's the link to part one

Here is a link that might be useful: Plumeria safari part 1

The scent is strong and sweet like Gardenia or Honeysuckle. I think you can buy essential oil that captures it pretty well. As you can see, the plants are easy to grow- not like tuberrose which I like the scent of even better but keep killing them off. Any way this is just one little area under 1/2 mile in each direction if you made a square around our houses built by the same builder in 1963. If you go to areas in Orange County where there are large asian communities, there are many many more.

Link to part 2 below

Here is a link that might be useful: Safari part 2