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.

　　　這些可憐的花朵，是被植物育種者糟蹋掉的又一個犧牲品。它們本屬于巴西本地品種一串紅(Salvia splendens)。而植物育種者總是將原本完美無缺、令人驚嘆的品種培育成適于商場銷售的植物。在野外環(huán)境下，一串紅是一種生命力很強(qiáng)的灌木，可以生長到九英尺高(約合2.7米)，帶有亮綠色的葉子和三英尺長(約合0.9米)的猩紅色穗狀花序。在那種大小的鼠尾草當(dāng)中，紅得耀眼的花朵看起來肯定很壯觀;而縮短到10英寸(約合25厘米)、且只有花朵的鼠尾草看起來很奇怪(由于育種者不斷追求更大的花朵，葉片已經(jīng)被犧牲掉了)。

　　雖說如此，但是雷西在很久以前就找到了許多尚未被育種者摧殘的鼠尾草品種。因此，當(dāng)他提到他在倒騰100種鼠尾草時，我馬上開車直奔了過去。到下午時分，我跟在自己的園藝啟蒙導(dǎo)師后面，穿梭于木蘭和繡球花中，尋找著長勢最好的花叢。

　　“我們打算今年冬天把它們?nèi)苛粼诘乩铮?rdquo;雷西說，“我們可能會損失50%的植株。”

　　可能雷西說的事聽起來有點(diǎn)怪，不過如果你的目的就是為了檢測一下哪些品種適合你當(dāng)?shù)氐耐寥篮蜌夂?，那就不足為奇了?/p>

　　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.

　　盡管這些鼠尾草有一部分購自本地，但還有許多較為稀奇的品種是購自Flowers by the Sea，這是位于加州埃爾克(Elk)的一家經(jīng)營郵購業(yè)務(wù)的苗圃，可提供大約400個科屬和品種的植物。在該店的網(wǎng)站內(nèi)，到處都是關(guān)于開花時間、搭配植物和栽培事項(xiàng)的信息(電話：707-877-1717;網(wǎng)站：fbts.com)。北卡羅來納州羅利(Raleigh)的Plant Delights Nursery也是一家不錯的植物商店(電話：919-772-4794;網(wǎng)站：plantdelights.com)。

　　雷西挑選的植物，都是在7月底進(jìn)入開花鼎盛期，花期一直持續(xù)到霜凍。但到現(xiàn)在，還有許多植物沒有開花，這是因?yàn)槌蕸坝坎ɡ藸畹膰娏?并非很多人所說的極地渦旋)將冷空氣從北極帶到了東海岸，又給西部帶來酷熱(那些寒冷的夜晚也延緩了我家番茄的開花時間)。不過，雷西的植物園里還是有很多值得欣賞的植物的。其中，友誼鼠尾草(Amistad，英文：friendship sage)絕對不容錯過。這是一種雜交鼠尾草，有著狹長的亮紫色管狀花朵和深色花萼。

　　“鼠尾草專家羅蘭多·烏里(Rolando Uri)在阿根廷發(fā)現(xiàn)了它，他想要所有人都種植這個品種，但是英格蘭有個人也發(fā)現(xiàn)了它，對它申請了專利，”雷西抱怨道。烏里找到這種尤物的時候，它有四英尺高(約合1.2米)、六英尺寬(約合1.8米)，生長在一座花園里，附近生長著瓜拉尼鼠尾草和格斯納鼠尾草(Salvia gesneriflora，得名于瑞士植物學(xué)家康拉德·格斯納[Conrad Gessner]——譯注)。瓜拉尼鼠尾草是個生命力很強(qiáng)的品種，花朵呈靛藍(lán)色;格斯納鼠尾草則是一個碩大的品種，可以長到10英尺高(約合3米)，花朵呈猩紅色。由此可見，友誼鼠尾草或許一開始就是天然雜交品種。

　　友誼鼠尾草在半日照的環(huán)境下長勢最好。在雷西的植物園里，友誼鼠尾草的旁邊還種著兩種鼠尾草，雖然還沒開花，但是它們的葉片形成了鮮明反差，看起來亦很壯觀。鳳梨鼠尾草(Salvia elegans，又稱為pinapple sage)的葉片為綠色，表面光滑而有紋理;旁邊的紅色天鵝絨鼠尾草(Salvia confertiflora，英文：red velvet sage)葉片顏色更加鮮艷，其粗糙的紋理和卷曲的形狀如此完美，就算它不再開花我也毫不在乎。

　　雷西保證，再過一兩周，它就會開出花序很高的橙色花，“就像中國煙花一樣。”鳳梨鼠尾草有個叫“金冠”(Golden Delicious)的品種，生長著鮮艷耀眼的黃色葉片，它很快就會開出同樣耀眼的紅色花朵(對于這個品種，我只能說蘿卜青菜，各有所愛吧)。

　　一些更小巧、更嬌弱的品種生長在一條沙質(zhì)窄道上，這條窄道是為巖石花園的植物修造的，排水很好。這里生長的鼠尾草是小葉鼠尾草(Salvia microphyla)的若干個品種，包括“烈焰紅唇”(Hot Lips)，一種深紅與白色相間的雙色花;“紫葉”(Purple Leaf)，其亮綠色葉片的內(nèi)側(cè)為紫色，花朵呈鈷藍(lán)色;Elk Velvet，一種銀粉與亮紅色相間的雙色花。這些耐旱鼠尾草的花朵更小、唇瓣更大，便于蜜蜂降落。

　　有些較大的鼠尾草與灌木相映成趣：友誼鼠尾草(飽滿的紫色花)和瓜拉尼鼠尾草(深藍(lán)色花)映襯在松散的白色圓錐繡球(Hydrangea Paniculata)花叢中。六英尺高(約合1.8米)的瓜拉尼鼠尾草“阿根廷天空”(Argentine Skies)開著淡藍(lán)色的花朵，襯托著一種煙樹(smoke tree)——“優(yōu)雅”(Grace)黃櫨那呈現(xiàn)出熒光紅與藍(lán)綠色的葉片。粉萼鼠尾草(Salvia farinacea)生有直立莖，花朵呈暗藍(lán)色，與開放著淺灰藍(lán)色花朵的牡荊是完美搭配。

　　在這個世界上最小的植物園里，總有些稀有的植物品種是值得艷羨的。臨走之前，雷西讓我好好瞻仰了一下某個品種的紫荊樹——旭日紫荊(Cercis Rising Sun)。其石灰綠色的心形葉片上夾雜著杏色與黃色斑紋。開著亮紫色花朵的友誼鼠尾草，就斜倚在上面。

　　不過，真正的壓軸好戲還要數(shù)Faye Chapel，這是一種生命力旺盛的一串紅(英文：scarlet sage)，其葉片表面光滑，呈深綠色，三英尺(約合0.9米)高的莖上開滿了口紅色的紅花。雷西把這株喜光植物種在了一個大花盆里，把它放到一條光照充足的小徑邊——只是為了充分展示，這種鼠尾草在沒有被雜交育種者變矮的情況下，能夠發(fā)揮出多大的能量。