大千世界:鼠尾草,你是我最好的舞伴!

Sometimes when I am weeding in the late afternoon, I hear the vibrating wings of the ruby-throated hummingbird before I see it dipping its beak into the long tubular flowers of the blue anise sage (Salvia guaranitica) called Black and Blue for its cobalt-blue petals and near-black calyxes at the base of the flowers. Hummingbirds are shy, but if I remain perfectly still, it is usually so intent on the nectar inside those deep blue trumpets that I can admire it out of the corner of my eye as it backs out of one flower and moves on to another. Then, in a flash of iridescent green and red, it is gone.

我在傍晚除草的時候，偶爾會聽到紅喉蜂鳥撲騰翅膀的聲音，緊接着，就會看到它把喙伸進瓜拉尼鼠尾草(Salvia guaranitica)的管狀花朵裏。這些花又被稱爲藍黑鼠尾草(Black and Blue)，因爲其花瓣呈鈷藍色，花朵基部的花萼則近乎黑色。蜂鳥怕人，不過如果我保持一動不動的姿勢，它通常就會專心致志從深藍色喇叭裏吸食花蜜了。這樣，我就可以用眼角看着它從一朵花飛到另一朵花上。接着，它就會在紅綠交織的絢爛色彩中一閃而過，倏而消失。

Black and Blue holds its flowers aloft on footlong spikes that lean into the landscape, contributing to its laid-back personality and to the sense of movement in the garden. This plant has grown so big, it is leaning over the little chicken-wire fence that protects my French filet bean plants from the rabbits. The bean plants are full of snow-white flowers that will soon turn into slender bean pods, given all the bumblebees crawling over the blossoms.

藍黑鼠尾草的花朵懸垂在一英尺長（約合30釐米）的穗狀花序上，穗狀花序斜倚在周圍綠色的景觀中，展露出閒適自在的意味，給花園帶來一絲靈動的生機。這株植物長得太大了，已經伸出了保護菜豆(French filet bean)不被兔子啃食的小鐵絲網。菜豆的植株上掛滿了雪白的花，有一大羣熊蜂正在花朵上忙碌，所以它們很快就會長成狹長的豆莢了。

One morning last week, I savored one of those serendipitous moments that no gardener can ever plan for: the deep blue-black salvia flowers mingling with the pure white bean blossoms. Salvias are the perfect dance partners; they make all the other plants look better.

上週的某個早晨，我體會到了任何園丁都可遇而不可求的一個時刻：深藍與黑色相間的鼠尾草花與菜豆的純白色花朵交相輝映，美不勝收。鼠尾草是最好的舞伴；它們能讓所有其它植物增色生輝。

I have a smaller, more demure salvia, S. coccinea Lady in Red rising out of the middle of a patch of cilantro, which I grow for its ferny leaves, to lend a pungent kick to guacamole. This herb shoots up to about three feet in a month and opens airy clusters of little white flowers, so you have to plant more seeds every couple of weeks. Lady in Red is blooming through the cloud of white, and waving her cherry-red lips at the hummingbirds.

我還種植了一種更小、更嬌羞的紅花鼠尾草“一串紅脣”(S. coccinea Lady in Red)，它生長在一片芫荽當中。我種芫荽是因爲它那蕨類般的葉片能爲鱷梨沙拉醬增添一絲辛辣的風味。這種草本植物在一個月內可以生長三英尺（約合0.9米）左右，並開出一叢又一叢輕飄飄的小白花。因此，你不得不每隔幾星期就種下更多的種子。“一串紅脣”就盛放於一片白色的芫荽花叢中，對着蜂鳥搖曳它們豔麗的櫻桃紅脣。

The salvia is a member of the mint family, labiatae, which accounts for its square stems and textured, often fragrant foliage, and for those flowers that look like lips. Incredibly, more than 900 species flourish around the world. They grow in many forms, from delicate rock-garden plants with slender green leaves to six-footers with textured leaves in a range of shades, from chartreuse to dark hunter green, flowering in blues, purples, reds and even yellow.

鼠尾草屬於薄荷大家族，是脣形科的一種，莖呈方形，葉片紋理獨特，往往帶有香味，花朵呈脣形。令人難以置信的是，有超過900個鼠尾草品種生長於世界各地。它們形態各異，有的生有狹長綠葉，生長在精緻的岩石花園裏；有的高達六英尺（約合1.8米），葉片帶有獨特的紋理，顏色從蓖麻酒色到墨綠色不一而足，花朵的顏色則包括藍色、紫色、紅色、甚至黃色。

Many are tropical and must be treated as annuals, but some are hardy enough to winter over, in the mid-Atlantic and tristate areas, especially in Zone 7, where winter temperatures rarely fall to zero.

許多鼠尾草屬於熱帶植物，必須當做一年生植物來種植；但也有部分鼠尾草足夠堅韌，可以撐過冬天。這些鼠尾草生長在中大西洋地區（mid-Atlantic states，美國行政區劃的十個大區之一，由七個州組成：紐約州，賓夕法尼亞州，新澤西州，馬里蘭州，西弗吉尼亞州，特拉華州和弗吉尼亞州——譯註）和三州地區（tristate，美國三州交界地區，尤指紐約州、新澤西州與康涅狄格州的交界處——譯註），尤其是第七區(Zone 7)，那裏的冬季溫度很少降到零度。

I have a garden sage, Salvia officinalis, which has survived bitter winters, my neglect and the strangling vines of honeysuckle, to sprout its pleasingly rough gray-green leaves from woody branches. (The leaves are delicious in stuffing and pork dishes.) It has grown to the size of a bushel basket and sends up three-foot stems with fat oval flower buds that are an iridescent purplish white for a few days before they open their big purple flowers. I used to grow it with tricolor garden sage, which has pebbled variegated leaves of purple and green, edged with white. The two were a pleasing combination, but the tricolor conked out during the hard winter (variegated plants are a bit weak).

我有一株庭院鼠尾草(garden sage)，別名藥用鼠尾草(Salvia officinalis)。它並未因冬季的嚴寒、我的疏於照料以及忍冬藤蔓的纏繞而死去。它的木質莖上生長出了灰綠色的葉片，紋理粗糙得喜人（這些葉片用在填料和豬肉菜餚中很可口）。它已經長到了一蒲式耳（約合36升）的籃子那麼大，抽出了三英尺長（約合0.9米）的莖，上面帶有肥大的橢圓形花苞。花苞呈現出斑斕帶紫的白顏色，再過幾天，就會開出碩大的紫色花朵。我曾把它和一株三色庭院鼠尾草種在一起，這株三色庭院鼠尾草有着卵石花紋的紫、綠雜色葉片，邊緣則爲白色。兩株鼠尾草是一個令人愉悅的組合，但是三色鼠尾草沒能熬過嚴冬（雜色植物都有點嬌弱）。

Another favorite is Mexican bush sage, Salvia leucantha, which some people call a bicolor because its white flowers are hugged by velvety light purple calyxes. It bloomed until frost, but like other tender salvias in this zone, succumbed to the snow and ice last winter.

另一株我很喜歡的植物，是墨西哥灌木鼠尾草(Mexican bush sage)，別名紫絨鼠尾草(Salvia leucantha)。有人說它是雙色花，因爲白色花朵的基部有着天鵝絨般的淡紫色花萼。它的花期一直持續到霜凍來臨，但和本地區其它柔弱的鼠尾草一樣，它也沒能熬過去年冬季的冰雪。

It is possible to take cuttings of these tender plants in the late summer and grow them in pots in a greenhouse or sunroom in the winter. You can also dig up the root ball before a hard freeze and store the potted plants in a basement or garage. John Whittlesey, who founded Canyon Creek Nursery in Northern California 20 years ago and now runs it as a design-build landscape firm, explains how in "The Plant Lover's Guide to Salvias," published this spring by Timber Press.

你可以在夏末將這些柔弱的植物剪下 ，扦插到花盆中，冬季就把花盆放到溫室或日光房裏。你還可以在嚴寒的冰凍期來臨之前，將根球挖出來，把盆栽放到地下室或車庫裏。約翰·惠特爾西(John Whittlesey)在今年春推出的新書《植物發燒友的鼠尾草種植指南》(The Plant Lover's Guide to Salvias)（Timber Press出版）中講解了具體做法。惠特爾西於20年前創立了坎寧克里克苗圃(Canyon Creek Nursery)，如今已將它作爲一家園林景觀設計與建築公司來運營了。

Of course, once we garden nuts fall in love with a plant, we want them all. Or at least all the ones we can grow in our area. So I wasn't surprised when Allen Lacy, whose garden books line my shelves, emailed me recently to mention casually that he and his wife and tireless sidekick, Hella, had planted 100 or so salvias at the Linwood Arboretum in Linwood, N.J.

當然，一旦我們這些園藝癡愛上一種植物，就會想要得到它的所有品種。就算得不到所有的，也會想要得到所有能在本地種植的品種。因此，當艾倫·雷西(Allen Lacy)——我書架上還有他的園藝書——最近在郵件中偶然提到，他和老婆以及兩人不知疲倦的密友赫拉(Hella)，已經在新澤西州林伍德(Linwood)的林伍德植物園(Linwood Arboretum)裏種植了100來種鼠尾草時，我並不感到意外。

"The smallest arboretum in the world," as Mr. Lacy calls it, was once an electrical substation cinched in by three streets. That was before Mr. Lacy got one of his green visions and helped found a public garden there five years ago. The scant acre now has 1,000 trees, shrubs, perennials and annuals, including a bog for pitcher plants.

林伍德植物園被雷西稱爲“世界上最小的植物園”，它曾是一個由三條街道圍起來的變電站。後來，雷西萌生了建設綠地的想法，並幫忙於五年前在那裏創立了一座公共花園。那一小塊地方如今已種植了1000株樹木、灌木、多年生植物和一年生植物，還有一片生長着豬籠草的池塘。

Mr. Lacy, 79, is a former garden columnist for The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, and a professor emeritus of philosophy and horticulture at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey, and he shares my loathing of those squat little red-and-blue salvias you see in all the garden centers every spring — "the torrid red annual bedding sorts that pain the eye and made me long for a black freeze in early August," he writes in "The Garden in Autumn," one of his dozen or so excellent books.

雷西現年79歲，是《紐約時報》和《華爾街日報》的前園藝專欄作家，也是新澤西理查德斯托克頓學院(Richard Stockton College of New Jersey)的哲學與園藝學榮譽教授。他跟我一樣討厭每年春天充斥在園藝商店裏的那些又矮又小、紅藍相間的鼠尾草。在他已出版的十幾本傑作之一《秋天的花園》(The Garden in Autumn)裏，雷西寫道：“我一看到這種紅得像火一樣、又矮又小的一年生品種，眼睛就痛得厲害，恨不得在四月初就迎來一段肅殺萬物的冰凍期。”

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.

這些可憐的花朵，是被植物育種者糟蹋掉的又一個犧牲品。它們本屬於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、令人驚歎的品種培育成適於商場銷售的植物。在野外環境下，一串紅是一種生命力很強的灌木，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釐米）、且只有花朵的鼠尾草看起來很奇怪（由於育種者不斷追求更大的花朵，葉片已經被犧牲掉了）。

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.

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，我跟在自己的園藝啓蒙導師後面，穿梭於木蘭和繡球花中，尋找着長勢最好的花叢。

"We're going to leave them all in the ground this winter," Mr. Lacy said. "We'll probably lose 50 percent."

“我們打算今年冬天把它們全部留在地裏，”雷西說，“我們可能會損失50%的植株。”

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.

可能雷西說的事聽起來有點怪，不過如果你的目的就是爲了檢測一下哪些品種適合你當地的土壤和氣候，那就不足爲奇了。

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; ). Plant Delights Nursery, in Raleigh, N.C., is another good source (919-772-4794; ).

儘管這些鼠尾草有一部分購自本地，但還有許多較爲稀奇的品種是購自Flowers by the Sea，這是位於加州埃爾克(Elk)的一家經營郵購業務的苗圃，可提供大約400個科屬和品種的植物。在該店的網站內，到處都是關於開花時間、搭配植物和栽培事項的信息（電話：707-877-1717；網站：）。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；網站：）。

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.

雷西挑選的植物，都是在7月底進入開花鼎盛期，花期一直持續到霜凍。但到現在，還有許多植物沒有開花，這是因爲呈洶涌波浪狀的噴流（並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，雷西的植物園裏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，有着狹長的亮紫色管狀花朵和深色花萼。

"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.

“鼠尾草專家羅蘭多·烏里(Rolando Uri)在阿根廷發現了它，他想要所有人都種植這個品種，但是英格蘭有個人也發現了它，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），生長在一座花園裏，附近生長着瓜拉尼鼠尾草和格斯納鼠尾草（Salvia gesneriflora，得名於瑞士植物學家康拉德·格斯納[Conrad Gessner]——譯註）。瓜拉尼鼠尾草是個生命力很強的品種，花朵呈靛藍色；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。

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.

友誼鼠尾草在半日照的環境下長勢最好。在雷西的植物園裏，友誼鼠尾草的旁邊還種着兩種鼠尾草，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，又稱爲pinapple sage）的葉片爲綠色，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）葉片顏色更加鮮豔，其粗糙的紋理和捲曲的形狀如此完美，就算它不再開花我也毫不在乎。

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.)

雷西保證，再過一兩週，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，生長着鮮豔耀眼的黃色葉片，它很快就會開出同樣耀眼的紅色花朵（對於這個品種，我只能說蘿蔔青菜，各有所愛吧）。

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.

一些更小巧、更嬌弱的品種生長在一條沙質窄道上，這條窄道是爲岩石花園的植物修造的，排水很好。這裏生長的鼠尾草是小葉鼠尾草(Salvia microphyla)的若干個品種，包括“烈焰紅脣”(Hot Lips)，一種深紅與白色相間的雙色花；“紫葉”(Purple Leaf)，其亮綠色葉片的內側爲紫色，花朵呈鈷藍色；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、脣瓣更大，便於蜜蜂降落。

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.

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（深藍色花）映襯在鬆散的白色圓錐繡球(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)開着淡藍色的花朵，襯托着一種煙樹(smoke tree)——“優雅”(Grace)黃櫨那呈現出熒光紅與藍綠色的葉片。粉萼鼠尾草(Salvia farinacea)生有直立莖，花朵呈暗藍色，與開放着淺灰藍色花朵的牡荊是完美搭配。

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.

在這個世界上最小的植物園裏，總有些稀有的植物品種是值得豔羨的。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着杏色與黃色斑紋。開着亮紫色花朵的友誼鼠尾草，就斜倚在上面。

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.

不過，真正的壓軸好戲還要數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裏，把它放到一條光照充足的小徑邊——只是爲了充分展示，這種鼠尾草在沒有被雜交育種者變矮的情況下，能夠發揮出多大的能量。