鼠尾草,你是我最好的舞伴(4)

鼠尾草,你是我最好的舞伴

These unfortunate flowers are yet another example of what happens when plant breeders take a perfectly wonderful species — in this case, Salvia splendens, a native of Brazil — and turn it into a mall plant. In the wild, S. splendens is a vigorous shrub that can grow to nine feet tall with bright green leaves and three-foot-long scarlet flower spikes. At that size, its screaming red flowers must be dramatic; squashed down to 10 inches of nothing but flowers (the leaves lost in pursuit of perpetual big blooms), they look ridiculous.

　　That said, Mr. Lacy long ago discovered many salvias that have escaped the ruin of S. splendens. So when he mentioned fooling around with 100 of them, I got in the car and drove. By the afternoon, I was following my old garden mentor around, ducking in and out of magnolias and hydrangeas, looking for the best of the bunch.

　　"We're going to leave them all in the ground this winter," Mr. Lacy said. "We'll probably lose 50 percent."

　　That sounds like an odd thing to say, but not if your goal is testing a certain genus for the species that will survive in your soil and climate.

学习啦在线学习网 　　　这些可怜的花朵，是被植物育种者糟蹋掉的又一个牺牲品。它们本属于巴西本地品种一串红(Salvia splendens)。而植物育种者总是将原本完美无缺、令人惊叹的品种培育成适于商场销售的植物。在野外环境下，一串红是一种生命力很强的灌木，可以生长到九英尺高(约合2.7米)，带有亮绿色的叶子和三英尺长(约合0.9米)的猩红色穗状花序。在那种大小的鼠尾草当中，红得耀眼的花朵看起来肯定很壮观;而缩短到10英寸(约合25厘米)、且只有花朵的鼠尾草看起来很奇怪(由于育种者不断追求更大的花朵，叶片已经被牺牲掉了)。

　　虽说如此，但是雷西在很久以前就找到了许多尚未被育种者摧残的鼠尾草品种。因此，当他提到他在倒腾100种鼠尾草时，我马上开车直奔了过去。到下午时分，我跟在自己的园艺启蒙导师后面，穿梭于木兰和绣球花中，寻找着长势最好的花丛。

　　“我们打算今年冬天把它们全部留在地里，”雷西说，“我们可能会损失50%的植株。”

学习啦在线学习网 　　可能雷西说的事听起来有点怪，不过如果你的目的就是为了检测一下哪些品种适合你当地的土壤和气候，那就不足为奇了。

　　Though some of these salvias were bought locally, many of the more unusual varieties were ordered from Flowers by the Sea, a mail-order nursery in Elk, Calif., that offers about 400 species and varieties. The website is packed with information about bloom times, companion plants and cultivation (707-877-1717; fbts.com). Plant Delights Nursery, in Raleigh, N.C., is another good source (919-772-4794; plantdelights.com).

　　Mr. Lacy chose plants that would hit their peak bloom in late July and flower until frost, but many have yet to bloom thanks to an extremely wavy jet stream bringing cold air from the Arctic to the East Coast — not really the polar vortex, as many call it — and extreme heat to the West. (Those cold nights slowed up my tomatoes, too.) Still, there was much to admire. Amistad, a hybrid salvia with long tubular flowers of bright purple and dark calyxes was impossible to miss.

　　"Rolando Uri, a salvia expert, discovered it in Argentina and wanted everyone to plant it, but someone in England came along and patented it," Mr. Lacy grumbled. Mr. Uri found this beauty, about four feet tall and six feet across, growing in a garden bed near Salvia guaranitica, a vigorous species with indigo flowers, and Salvia gesneriflora, a giant species with scarlet flowers that can grow 10 feet tall. So Amistad probably began its life as a natural cross.

　　Next to Amistad, which grows best in the semi-shade, were two other salvias not yet in flower but striking for their contrasting foliage. Salvia elegans, a pineapple sage with smooth veined green leaves was nestled against Salvia confertiflora, whose brighter green foliage was so wonderfully rough and crinkled that I didn't care if it never bloomed.

　　Mr. Lacy promised that in another week or two it would have tall spikes of orange flowers, "like Chinese firecrackers." And Golden Delicious, a pineapple sage with glowing yellow leaves, should soon be blooming the same screaming red. (Well, to each his own.)

　　A number of smaller, more delicate varieties were flourishing on a sandy berm built for rock garden plants, benefiting from the good drainage. There were many varieties of Salvia microphyla (which means little leaf), including Hot Lips, a bicolor deep red-and-white; Purple Leaf, which is named for the undersides of its bright green leaves and cobalt-blue flowers; Elk Velvet, a silvery pink-and-bright-red bicolor. These drought-resistant sages have smaller flowers with wide lower lips, which make it easy for bees to land.

　　Some of the larger salvias were complementing shrubs: Amistad, the lusty purple, and S. guaranitica, with deep blue flowers, set off the loose white trusses of a Hydrangea paniculata. The pale-blue flowers of the six-foot Salvia guaranitica Argentine Skies provided a foil for the luminescent vermilion and blue-green leaves of a smoke tree, Cotinus Grace. And Salvia farinacea, an upright plant with dusky blue flowers, was the perfect companion for a vitex covered in powder-blue flowers.

　　There is always some rarity to covet in the smallest arboretum in the world. Before I left, Mr. Lacy made sure I took a long look at the redbud tree, Cercis Rising Sun, which has apricot-and-yellow tones in its heart-shaped lime-green leaves. Salvia Amistad was leaning into it with its clear purple blooms.

　　But the pièce de résistance was Faye Chapel, a boisterous cultivar of Salvia splendens, or scarlet sage, with its dark-green satiny leaves and three-foot stems of lipstick-red flowers. Mr. Lacy had planted this sun-lover in a big pot along a bright path — just to show what the salvia can do, if the hybridizers don't turn it into a dwarf.

学习啦在线学习网 　　尽管这些鼠尾草有一部分购自本地，但还有许多较为稀奇的品种是购自Flowers by the Sea，这是位于加州埃尔克(Elk)的一家经营邮购业务的苗圃，可提供大约400个科属和品种的植物。在该店的网站内，到处都是关于开花时间、搭配植物和栽培事项的信息(电话：707-877-1717;网站：fbts.com)。北卡罗来纳州罗利(Raleigh)的Plant Delights Nursery也是一家不错的植物商店(电话：919-772-4794;网站：plantdelights.com)。

学习啦在线学习网 　　雷西挑选的植物，都是在7月底进入开花鼎盛期，花期一直持续到霜冻。但到现在，还有许多植物没有开花，这是因为呈汹涌波浪状的喷流(并非很多人所说的极地涡旋)将冷空气从北极带到了东海岸，又给西部带来酷热(那些寒冷的夜晚也延缓了我家番茄的开花时间)。不过，雷西的植物园里还是有很多值得欣赏的植物的。其中，友谊鼠尾草(Amistad，英文：friendship sage)绝对不容错过。这是一种杂交鼠尾草，有着狭长的亮紫色管状花朵和深色花萼。

　　“鼠尾草专家罗兰多·乌里(Rolando Uri)在阿根廷发现了它，他想要所有人都种植这个品种，但是英格兰有个人也发现了它，对它申请了专利，”雷西抱怨道。乌里找到这种尤物的时候，它有四英尺高(约合1.2米)、六英尺宽(约合1.8米)，生长在一座花园里，附近生长着瓜拉尼鼠尾草和格斯纳鼠尾草(Salvia gesneriflora，得名于瑞士植物学家康拉德·格斯纳[Conrad Gessner]——译注)。瓜拉尼鼠尾草是个生命力很强的品种，花朵呈靛蓝色;格斯纳鼠尾草则是一个硕大的品种，可以长到10英尺高(约合3米)，花朵呈猩红色。由此可见，友谊鼠尾草或许一开始就是天然杂交品种。

学习啦在线学习网 　　友谊鼠尾草在半日照的环境下长势最好。在雷西的植物园里，友谊鼠尾草的旁边还种着两种鼠尾草，虽然还没开花，但是它们的叶片形成了鲜明反差，看起来亦很壮观。凤梨鼠尾草(Salvia elegans，又称为pinapple sage)的叶片为绿色，表面光滑而有纹理;旁边的红色天鹅绒鼠尾草(Salvia confertiflora，英文：red velvet sage)叶片颜色更加鲜艳，其粗糙的纹理和卷曲的形状如此完美，就算它不再开花我也毫不在乎。

　　雷西保证，再过一两周，它就会开出花序很高的橙色花，“就像中国烟花一样。”凤梨鼠尾草有个叫“金冠”(Golden Delicious)的品种，生长着鲜艳耀眼的黄色叶片，它很快就会开出同样耀眼的红色花朵(对于这个品种，我只能说萝卜青菜，各有所爱吧)。

　　一些更小巧、更娇弱的品种生长在一条沙质窄道上，这条窄道是为岩石花园的植物修造的，排水很好。这里生长的鼠尾草是小叶鼠尾草(Salvia microphyla)的若干个品种，包括“烈焰红唇”(Hot Lips)，一种深红与白色相间的双色花;“紫叶”(Purple Leaf)，其亮绿色叶片的内侧为紫色，花朵呈钴蓝色;Elk Velvet，一种银粉与亮红色相间的双色花。这些耐旱鼠尾草的花朵更小、唇瓣更大，便于蜜蜂降落。

　　有些较大的鼠尾草与灌木相映成趣：友谊鼠尾草(饱满的紫色花)和瓜拉尼鼠尾草(深蓝色花)映衬在松散的白色圆锥绣球(Hydrangea Paniculata)花丛中。六英尺高(约合1.8米)的瓜拉尼鼠尾草“阿根廷天空”(Argentine Skies)开着淡蓝色的花朵，衬托着一种烟树(smoke tree)——“优雅”(Grace)黄栌那呈现出荧光红与蓝绿色的叶片。粉萼鼠尾草(Salvia farinacea)生有直立茎，花朵呈暗蓝色，与开放着浅灰蓝色花朵的牡荆是完美搭配。

　　在这个世界上最小的植物园里，总有些稀有的植物品种是值得艳羡的。临走之前，雷西让我好好瞻仰了一下某个品种的紫荆树——旭日紫荆(Cercis Rising Sun)。其石灰绿色的心形叶片上夹杂着杏色与黄色斑纹。开着亮紫色花朵的友谊鼠尾草，就斜倚在上面。

学习啦在线学习网 　　不过，真正的压轴好戏还要数Faye Chapel，这是一种生命力旺盛的一串红(英文：scarlet sage)，其叶片表面光滑，呈深绿色，三英尺(约合0.9米)高的茎上开满了口红色的红花。雷西把这株喜光植物种在了一个大花盆里，把它放到一条光照充足的小径边——只是为了充分展示，这种鼠尾草在没有被杂交育种者变矮的情况下，能够发挥出多大的能量。