Gone Gardenin’: The landscape drama queen

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 28/05/2015 (3811 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Although there is no questioning the beauty of sweeping borders of colourful annuals, large flower beds packed with a variety of colourful perennials, and intriguing compositions in stunning containers, every landscape needs a couple of unique features that create drama. What I mean by drama is that the feature will be a focal point, a “wow” factor that stands out in the landscape against a backdrop of the garden’s inherent beauty.

We have heard a person referred to as a “drama queen” and such a feature will be just that; our attention will be drawn to it by its sheer size and appearance. Unlike the human drama queen, however, such a landscape feature should not be so “loud” as to completely overwhelm its surroundings — just flamboyant enough to attract instant attention before we go back to enjoying the beauty of the rest of the garden.

One such dramatic feature is a large and unusual plant — and one of the best plants to use for this purpose is the common castor bean. This plant is not that exotic and not that expensive (it is an annual grown from seed), but it will serve the purpose of being a show stopper in the garden wherever it is situated.

A versatile plant, the castor bean can either be grown in a large container or it can be planted right into the soil, allowing a gardener to use it in a variety of locations in the landscape. It is a sun-loving plant, however, and must be located in full sun.

Besides lots of sun, a castor bean plant demands adequate moisture, rich soil, and lots of heat it is native to Ethiopia and other regions of tropical east Africa. It is not cold tolerant and should not be planted outdoors until temperatures have warmed up for good.

The seeds of castor bean are extremely poisonous and must be kept out of the reach of children and pets. The seeds are beautifully mottled and no two are exactly the same — which makes them attractive to young folk.

Each shiny seed has a flattened appearance, is shiny and has a spongy structure on its end, called a caruncle, which facilitates the seed’s ability to take up water when it is planted. Some people say the seeds look like wood ticks that are engorged with blood, but I shudder at this comparison because I think the seeds are quite beautiful but I cannot say that I feel the same way about blood-filled ticks!

Castor bean seeds contain oil (did anyone ever have to take castor oil as a child?) and this oil was used centuries ago — as far back as in ancient Egypt. The seeds are produced in pods that form after the spiny red fruits have dried and matured.

The flowers and fruits are produced near the tops of the plants so they are not that accessible to small children — and the fruits are quite spiny so are unlikely to be touched. The fruits can be cut off the plant as they develop if there is a real concern about their poisonous nature.

The features that make the castor bean such a dramatic plant are its size and its very striking foliage. A castor bean plant can grow from 2-5 meters tall, depending on the length of the growing season and how early the seeds were started indoors.

This winter I saw an immense specimen in Mesa, Arizona that was all of five meters tall and was like a tree. In such warm climates, castor beans will live for several years and get quite large.

The foliage is composed of large palmately lobed leaves with each leaflet having a sharp point. The best comparison is that the leaf shape is like that of aralia leaves. Each leaf is big, possibly reaching a diameter of 50 cm.

The leaf color adds to the drama created by the plants as the leaves can be several vibrant colors, sometimes appearing metallic. Leaf colors include black-purple, dark red-metallic, bronze-green, maroon, and plain dark green.

The leaves, particularly newer ones, are quite shiny and each leaf is produced on a stem which tends to face outwards which causes the surfaces of the leaves to face outward from the stem, allowing their beauty to be appreciated up close or from afar.

Castor beans are large plants and will occupy a fair bit of space in the back of a bed or border — although they can be under-planted with shorter plants as the bottom leaves tend to drop off as the plants mature, leaving the lower stems bare. One grown in a container would also look best if the bare lower stem was hidden by an under-planting of other plants.

If a castor bean is grown in a container, the container would have to be a substantial size. This is a large plant that has a vigorous growth habit that will require a large container to make it stable and to provide the necessary anchorage, as well as to be able to offer enough nutrients and water to sustain the plant.

It is a little late to plant castor bean seeds now, but if you see a plant that that already has a head start in a garden centre, you might consider buying it and trying this intriguing plant in your landscape. Add a little drama to your garden!

Albert Parsons lives, writes, and gardens in Minnedosa.

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