Having lived through the 1970s, I can honestly say that it was great fun, but a pretty tacky decade as far as style was concerned – which is why we don’t see green shag carpet, Ford Pintos and three-inch high-heel boots for men anymore, although I have to admit that I didn’t mind being a few inches taller back in the day.
Plants are much the same: they go in and out of style with the flavour of the week landscape designs, such as English cottage, Alba garden and formal modern. But, occasionally, a shrub can miss the boat altogether and never really enjoy the fickle favour of the gardening public, languishing instead on the fringes of botanical gardens or being used occasionally in adventurous home landscapes.
I think Mountain Laurel or Kalmia latifolia is one such notable shrub, and the reason I believe that many people avoid it is because it is absolutely spectacular in bloom, and some gardeners have assumed that such beauty is either tender or difficult to grow. Nothing could be further from the truth.
This member of the Ericaceae family likes the same growing conditions as rhododendrons and is hardy to Zone 5, meaning that it can thrive in the coldest parts of the Fraser Valley. It is native to eastern North America and is often recommended for partial shade exposures, although I have seen it produce spectacular flower displays in full sun parking strips, such as the one behind our local Red Robin restaurant, where I photographed the ‘Olympic Fire’ Kalmia shown above.
The other growing necessity is acidic soil with even moisture. Given these basic requirements, Kalmias will produce abundant late spring to summer bloom clusters worthy of any garden.
Personally, I would even grow this evergreen shrub just for the flower buds, as these are cone-shaped and highly ribbed with many being bicolored, giving them a bonbon-like appearance. The buds open to pink, white or rose coloured flowers, some with eye-catching maroon spotting or banding, such as ‘Bullseye’ and ‘Carousel’. Young plants can a little brittle (so keep the Golden Retrievers at bay) and take a few years to establish, but are usually flowering well in their third or fourth year. While the native species can reach heights of three metres, most Kalmia cultivars are about 1.5 to 1.75 m high after 10 years. The glossy dark green leaves are lance-shaped and often slightly twisted, reaching about 13 cm in length – although dwarf cultivars have smaller scale foliage.
Quite a few dwarf or miniature varieties are available and a few common choices include ‘Little Linda’ (0.6-0.9m high/red buds with pink flowers), ‘Elf’ (0.6-0.9m high/white flowers) and ‘Minuet’ (0.9m high/white flowers with a contrasting burgundy-red band). These can be easily trained into informal flowering hedges that have the additional benefit of being reliably evergreen.
Larger specimens work well as solitary features and are happy in the company of other acid-loving plants, such as Rhododendron, Pieris and Camellia.
‘Peppermint’ is one of the better new introductions with highly textured pale pink buds that open to pure white flowers with a fireworks-like burst of dark burgundy accenting the center and it is well worth looking for.
As for the rest, you can try visiting your local garden centre to see what they have in stock or preview Mountain Laurel varieties on my plant selection website (www.mikesgardentop5plants.wordpress.com).
Mike Lascelle is a local nursery manager and gardening author (hebe_acer@hotmail.com).
