Stepping out for grey power - Carvajal Spain

28 SUR IN ENGLISH OCTOBER 2ND TO 8TH 2009
Lifestyle
Gardening
Howdoesyourgardengrow?
Autumn scarlet
SIMON HILL
‘Season of mists and mellow
fruitfulness’ - not quite right
here, but we have had some rain
and the garden is starting to
grow again! In my old life I
would have been picking apples,
here the climate is mostly too
warm for these to grow well, so
I make do with Pomegranates
(Punica granatum). What interesting
garden plants the various
forms of this species are, from
large fruit bearing trees to dwarf
shrubs for miniature hedges?
Flowers range from simple scarlet
tubes to various double
forms, elaborate and frilly confections
of cream and scarlet.
Fruit varies in colour from
greenish bronze to scarlet and
crimson.
Origins
The pomegranate has its centre
of origin in Iran, where there
are upwards of 700 recorded
fruiting varieties. The English
name derives from the Latin for
‘apple with seeds’. The Latin
name means ‘seeded Phoenician
apple’. These names reflect the
fact that the species, which had
spread from Persia to the E.
Mediterranean by the end of the
Neolithic, was brought to the W.
Mediterranean by the
Phoenicians.
Pomegranates are propagated
by seed or cuttings. If you want
to have edible fruit you need to
buy a good named variety. Seedgrown
plants generally have
worthless fruit, although they
make good hedging. Once established,
they are tolerant of water
stress and alkaline soils, but
if you want good fruit, fertiliser
and irrigation are essential. Neither
can the garden varieties
with showy flowers be grown
from seed. Most are sterile and
all need to be propagated from
cuttings.
The commonest ornamental
variety is a dwarf form, good for
Sponsored by
POMEGRANATE. BROUGHT TO THE WEST MEDITERRANEAN BY THE PHOENICIANS.
In Iran there are
around 700 recorded
fruiting varieties
of pomegranate
small hedges or growing in containers
and bears a succession
of small scarlet flowers followed
by miniature fruit. The larger
ornamental varieties are grown
for their showy flowers as
shrubs or small trees.
In my inland garden the
pomegranates are winter deciduous
but they can remain evergreen
in warmer spots on the
coast. Bronze young leaves turn
light green in summer and clear
yellow in autumn before leaf
The larger ornamental
varieties are grown
for their showy
flowers as shrubs
fall. Fruiting trees bloom scarlet
in spring, followed by developing
fruits. Scarlet and shiny,
these are ready to pick around
now - before the fruit rats get
them! The sterile-flowered ornamentals
bloom for a much longer
period.
Added advantages of pomegranate
as a hedging plant are
that it will tolerate savage clipping
- and it’s prickly enough to
put off even the most determined
predator!
Readers’ photos
COLOUR. LIZ’S PLANTS IN HER MANILVA GARDEN. / LIZ BOVINGDON
Morning Glory and Lantana
Liz Bovingdon, from Manilva,
regularly sends in her photographs
of her carefully tended
garden to the Readers’ Photos
section on www.surineng-
CLOSE-UP. A BUTTERFLY AT PALOMA PARK. / PHIL ROBINSON
Butterflies
This was one of several photographs
sent to the Gardens
section on the SUR in English
website in September by Phil
lish.com. At the beginning of
this month, she sent in this
photo of her Morning Glory
and Lantana growing together
in a planter.
Robinson. He took the photograph
at Benalmádena’s
Paloma Park, which is famous
for its abundant wildlife.