September Blooms in my Georgia Garden: Jerusalem Artichoke

The tallest perennial in our garden is the Jerusalem Artichoke. Helianthus tuberosus is a perennial sunflower native to the Eastern United States. This is a great plant for the Fall garden at the back of the border.

Also known as Sunchokes, the Jerusalem Artichoke is a perennial plant that grows from a tuber. The tuber is edible and can be used like a water chestnut in salads or stirfry.

The flower is a lovely sunflower type bloom. The golden yellow blooms attract all kinds of pollinators. The blooms are fragrant and smell like chocolate!

Our patch of Sunchokes is over 10 feet tall this year, thanks to all the rain we received early in the Summer.

Native Americans ate the tubers and traded them to other tribes. Once European settlers moved in an found out about this native tuber that could be used like a root vegetable, they began shipping the tubers back home to Europe. The tubers were truly appreciated by the French who like adding it to soups.

Contrary to what you might think, Jerusalem Artichokes have nothing to do with Jerusalem and they are not artichokes. The tubers might taste something like an artichoke. These tubers became so popular in the early 1600's that they were cultivated as a crop and shipped to other areas. They have sense naturalized and it is now impossible to know the original native range. They can be found growing from Canada and the state of Maine, as far West as North Dakota and Texas and down South into Flo

rida.

If you'd like to have a patch of Sunchokes, keep in mind that they multiply more than rabbits! Each little piece of tuber will make another plant. So once you have Sunchokes, you'll always have them. This is truly a perennial you can plant and forget.

Jerusalem Artichoke tubers are best dug in Fall or Winter, depending on your climate. Clean dry tubers will keep in the refrigerator for up to 2 months. They are good eaten raw in salads or sliced into stirfries or steamed and eaten like a potato. Sunchokes are a nutritious tuber high in protein and iron and surprisingly low in starch. Unfortunately, the tubers cause severe flatulence in some people, so you might not want to eat them before going out.

And of course, leave it to the Germans to figure out a way to make a liquor out of Jerusalem Artichokes! In Germany, the tubers are made into a type of Brandy and other types of alcoholic beverages.

Due to its wide growing range, Jerusalem Artichokes can obviously be grown all over the United States. Plant them in full sun in soil well amended with compost. Once the plants emerge, mulch them well to retain moisture and keep down weeds. Water well during periods of drought to encourage larger tubers for eating.

Four Oclock: Fragrant Blooms for the Evening Garden

If you like fragrant plants, the old-fashioned Four Oclock will be one of your favorites. Small pink blooms scent the garden with their sweet perfume every evening during summer. Mirabilis jalapa is a shrub-like multibranched perennial plant that emerges each spring from a large carrot-shaped tuber. The common name Four Oclock comes from its fascinating habit of opening its blooms around 4 oclock in the afternoon. That alone is enough to intrigue me, since I have a natural interest in plants with unusual traits. Although it's called Four Oclock, in our garden Mirabilis actually opens her blooms around 5:30 pm, perfuming the air right about the time it begins to cool off enough to sit in the shade on the patio.

Four Oclock is very easy to grow. Easy to please, four oclock can be grown in sun or shade. Our plants get morning sun and afternoon shade, but four oclock grows equally well in full shade with a reasonable amount of water. She's not a water hog, but good soil with regular water will keep the plant looking healthy and green with plenty of those fragrant blooms. Just so you'll know, plants in our shade garden get very little water, yet still bloom and multiply with profusion. Plants in the sun that receive occasional water perform just about as well as those in dry shade. The few Four Oclocks we have in dry sun are just surviving.

I can't really describe the fragrance--it's just a sweet, pleasant scent that invites me to relax outdoors. You might not notice the scent until your plant gets large with many blooms. And if you're never outdoors in the evening, well...you'll just miss out entirely.

Another important feature of the fragrant Four Oclock is that hummingbirds just adore it! The hot pink blooms are tubular and full of nectar for both butterflies and hummingbirds. You'll further enjoy sitting on the patio observing the tiny creatures flitting about around the plants.

Four Oclock dies to the ground with the onset of winter in colder zones, but re-emerges again in late spring. Hardy in USDA Zones 7-11, mirabilis can be grown anywhere in the southern half of the United States.

I must tell you also that Four Oclock is definitely a reseeder. Toward the end of summer you'll notice small black cannonballs on the plants and the ground beneath. Those are very viable seeds. If you've had no luck growing Four Oclock from seed, that's because these very hard seeds need a cold treatment to break them. It's best to plant them in fall, but most gardeners don't think about it then and seeds often are not available in the big box stores at that time of year. You'll have nearly instant gratification if you go ahead and purchase a tuber instead. Heavy black carrot-shaped tubers will send up a stem very quickly after planting in warm summer soil. Four Oclock tubers are available for summer shipping from Shady Gardens Nursery.