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Updated Feb 18th, 2010
By Robin Corwin - LCF Outlook
Cestrum Provides
Winter Color
In my weekly gardening
class, we’re encouraged to
bring in samples of what’s
blooming in our gardens.
Recently, classmate Judy Opel
brought in two gorgeous
blooms of plants that have
been garden treasures of hers
for years. In the spirited discussion
that ensued — it
always does — several people
added their praises for her
choices. But they cited one
problem, giant whitefly, which
then led to a discussion on
how best to manage this pest.
Ah, that’s the great advantage
of a gardening class or club —
discussion! It has been
through discussions of plants
with people who have grown
them that I’ve learned the most
about plants and gardening.
The first plant Opel displayed
was Cestrum
“Newellii.” She’s had three of
these big shrubs in her garden
for six or seven years. They’re
kept at 6 feet tall and sport
showy burgundy blooms on
and off year-round. The evergreen
foliage is a deep, deep
green.
Another class member
mentioned that she grows the
similar C. elegans, whose
flowers are more purple-red in
hue and bloom mostly in
spring and summer. Another
has the pink-flower variety
“Smithii.”
All of these gardeners love
their cestrums. They’re not
drought-tolerant (Opel grows
hers near her roses), but
they’re easy-care when sited in
part shade. One class member
mentioned that his have been
plagued by whitefly recently,
though most who grew cestrums
hadn’t experienced this
problem. A discussion of the
proven worth of worm castings
to deter whitefly ensued.
The consensus? Spread in a
carpet under affected plants
and left in place, not dug in,
worm castings will manage a
whitefly problem over time.
Horticultural scientists don’t
know exactly why this works,
but it does.
The other plant Opel
showed off and raved about
was Teucrium fruticans
“Azureum.” Kept clipped into
three-foot spheres to provide
structure in her garden beds,
these small silvery shrubs
sport spikes of striking lavender-
blue flowers when she
stops clipping them in fall and
allows them to bloom in winter.
Left unpruned, teucrium
will bloom year-round, but
will look rather open and
straggly. The almost neon hue
of the blossoms contrasts wonderfully
with the plant’s silvercast
gray-green foliage. Opel
grows her teucrium orbs in
front of a purple dodonaea
hedge for a further foliage
contrast.
Oh, the things you learn
when discussing plants with
other avid gardeners. I highly
recommend the practice.
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