El Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos is merely the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel, which is a more proportionate name that does not trivialize its Memorial status. I prefer it to seem grander than it is. Also, I maintain a strict standard for its minimal landscape. All of its flowers bloom exclusively white. However, most of its flowers have been rather pekid because of aggressive invasion of consumptive redwood roots into irrigated areas. Because I can not stop the encroachment, I removed the soil from four primary planters. Within the front pair of planters, I suspended customized planter boxes. Within the rear pair of planters, I suspended a few nursery cans that contain new plants. Redwood roots can not reach into these planters or cans. The recycled vegetation still looks shabby, but should perform better than ever for this summer.

1. Chlorophytum comosum, spider plant, with Begonia X semperflorens–cultorum, wax begonia, are icky through winter, but should perform better than ever by spring without aggressive redwood roots. Their planter within their planter is visible at the front corner.

2. Picea glauca var. albertiana ‘Conica’, dwarf Alberta spruce, and Buxus sempervirens, English boxwood, are within #15 cans within their planters. Crocosmia X crocosmiiflora are in 4″ pots. It is trashy, but is for their own protection from aggressive redwood roots.

3. Pelargonium X hortorum, zonal geranium, within a #5 can that is obscured to the far right of the items described above, is merely cuttings from what was here prior. They, as well as several more within the cans of the other items, should grow to obscure the cans.

4. Pelargonium X hortorum, zonal geranium, that was here prior to this renovation was abundant enough to provide many more cuttings that we could utilize. These few should obscure these bare bases of a pair of lemon cypress, Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’.

5. Collectively, it should look sharp for summer. The Crocosmia X crocosmiiflora is just temporary until the zonal geranium grows to replace it. I do not want their bright orange bloom within this exclusively white garden. Everything in this new landscape is recycled.

6. It only looks puny from across the road because the stone wall is so big and ominous. It will be prettier as the zonal geranium and wax begonia begin to bloom for late spring. The cypress may not conform to a white garden, but their color is foliar instead of floral.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

17 thoughts on “Six on Saturday: el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos II”

    1. Thank you. All of the vegetation is recycled in one way or another. The boxwood were already there, but got dug up and canned to go back into this new situation. The spruce came from another landscape. The cypress came from Los Angeles, where they were purchased for a landscape, but not used. The begonias were annuals that decided to be a bit more than annuals. The spider plant was an overgrown houseplant that a former tenant left with us. The montbretia came from my downtown planter box, where I removed them from the edge of a slowly but surely expanding colony. It all looks recycled now, but should improve by spring.

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    1. I would like another pair of planter boxes for the pair of planters in back, like those in front, but I do not want to contend with the depth and weight of such boxes. Those in front are relatively shallow for bedding plants. Redwoods are not quite as aggressive as some riparian plants, such as willows, but are impressively persistent.

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  3. That is a great idea, tree roots can be a nuisance, I’ve had them growing into compost areas where they just suck all the goodness and water out – not the best for making good compost! Lovely white scheme, I bet it looks wonderful. More photos in summer please.

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    1. It looks wonderful only in concept so far. I hope it is more florific this summer. Although I like the cypress, I am not so certain if I am keen on its yellow foliar color. I would like Italian cypress, but that would be cheating (by not recycling).

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  4. I commented and then my comment disappeared, please forgive me if I repeat myself.

    What a great idea for avoiding the tree root. I once had a problem with tree roots growing into a composting area, sucking out all the goodness and water – no good for making good compost. The tree wasn’t going anywhere, so the compost had to! Lovely idea for an all white scheme, I bet it looks wonderful in the summer. More photos then please!

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    1. Thank you. I am not quite so keen on the yellow new growth of the lemon cypress. We only put them there because they happened to be in need of a good home at the time. I would prefer common ‘Emerald Green’ arborvitae, but such a purchase would annoy me more than utilizing what is already here. Besides, to those who are not as uptight about conformity as i am probably find the cypress to be prettier than arborvitae.

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  8. The planters look neat and tidy and ready to start growing… good idea to put them in the planters in pots. I do the same for Pelargoniums in summer and it helps retain moisture. Hope you will post pictures of these in summer for comparison.😃

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    1. I am hopeful. Although I know that encroaching roots of the redwoods are the worst of the problems there, I am also aware that shade from the redwoods is a problem. The big Douglas fir that extends a lower limb across the right half of the top of the last picture really should be removed, which would allow more sunlight through, but that is unlikely to happen anytime soon.

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