This feature will appear in the blog throughout the year. Many plants have fallen out of favor over the years, but for the sake of biodiversity and landscape interest they deserve to be resurrected. Today’s featured plant is:
Tamarix ramosissus, commonly known as tamarix.
Growing to a height of ten to fifteen feet, the foliage of the tamarix resembles that of the juniper. Pink flowers are borne on one-inch racemes on three-foot long upright panicles in June to July, with a flowering period of about three weeks. The flowers are very showy, resembling those of astilbe.
The Tamarix species has historically been used as a specialty plant, most useful in a maritime environment due to its extraordinary tolerance to salty soils and climate conditions. Often used as a dune protector, reducing the erosion of sandy soils along coast lines, it is also used along break walls to soften the outline of walls and rocks.
For this reason, its use in the United States has been largely limited to the east coast, from Maine to South Carolina and it is rarely used in either commercial or residential landscapes. Its strengths warrant wider consideration. It can work well in herbaceous borders when used as a backdrop to groups of buddleias or planted sporadically with groups of taller ornamental grasses. Planting tamarix against a garden wall and allowing it to scramble over the wall provides a pleasant dimension to the landscape.
Appropriate cultural practices should be adhered to so that tamarix will perform adequately. The plant can develop a loose, ragged appearance. Its appearance will be tighter in low fertility conditions, which will make it more desirable. It has a sparse, wiry root system with few fibrous roots, so it will respond to a yearly application of superphosphate. Pruning the plant back as soon as the blooms fade in summer will tidy the plant up. Cutting back by one-half should be adequate, but if it is loose or ragged, it may be necessary to cut back a little harder. Otherwise, prune in late winter or early spring as it flowers on current year’s growth. It can be cut back fairly hard.