Posted on by tonytomeo · 21 Comments

Lineup

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The usual suspects.

There is significant traffic right outside. It is one of the three busiest roads around. No one here really minds, because we are mostly too busy with something else while we are here. We are accustomed to it as part of the ‘scenery’. The noise sometimes makes it necessary to shout to each other, or take a telephone call somewhere else, but is not too much of a bother otherwise.

However, the scenery that those in the traffic see from the road might be slightly less than appealing. Industrial buildings surrounded by pavement, building materials, work vehicles and all sorts of associated items are all that are in here. Next door, there is a herd of dumpsters! It is a view worth obscuring. Bay trees and box elders that used to screen the view are too tall now.

I should have planted these five Arizona cypress in a row along the road last autumn. If I were to plant them now, I will need to water them occasionally until next autumn, not that I would mind. After their first winter, they would be happy on their own. They would start to obscure the view within only a few years, and unlike box elders, would stay evergreen through winter.

They really should have been planted a long time ago. They have been in the same cans for so long that the medium within has decomposed and collapsed. Without staking, their lean trunks became disfigured in confinement. They really would not have needed to be staked if they had been planted sooner and been able to grow more vigorously. Fortunately, they should recover.

A Monterey cypress will be planted at the low end of the row next Saturday, even if these Arizona cypress are not planted until autumn. I will explain later.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 15 Comments

Wheat

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It is not as bad as it looks.

No, this is not wheat. It is the larger of the two Mexican fan palms that I dug and canned more than a week ago. ‘Wheat’ refers to the unpleasant phase that it is now going through. It is a long and awkward story about how it became known as the ‘wheat’ phase. All that anyone should know is that it refers to the color of the fading foliage. It fades from green to golden brown, just like ‘wheat’.

I say that the explanation is awkward because it involves an old skit by an offensive comedian on HBO in 1986, when the renowned landscape designer, Brent Green, was my college roommate.

Yes, we will just leave it at that.

Anyway, this is not at all unexpected. It is a normal process. I just wish it could be avoided. Every time I dig and can a palm, I hope that it will not happen; and I actually engage the associated palm as if it will somehow be different from the rest, and maintain all of its healthy green foliage. Some get through it more efficiently. Some start to produce new foliage before their old foliage dies off.

I actually relocated a mature windmill palm that somehow maintained the upper half of its canopy until it started to produce new foliage. That was all the fronds that were above a right angle to the trunk! I was impressed by that one. It was very different though. Most of the roots had already been damaged prior to relocation. Also, it was relocated in autumn, so had all winter to start recovery.

This unfortunate palm was dug not very long ago, just as the cool and rainy weather of winter was ending. Now that the weather is suddenly warming to around 80 degrees, the foliage is resuming vascular activity that the severed roots can not sustain. To compensate, it will shed this foliage that is now browning, while diverting resources into new foliage and roots. It knows what it is doing.

The new fronds that are still folded up in the middle are just fine. They will unfold into healthy new fronds as the palm recovers through summer. The first few fronds might be a bit stunted, but that is just part of the process. Newly relocated palms tend to accelerate foliar growth during such recovery, so, in just a few months, this cute little palm may look as good as it did when I canned it here.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 22 Comments

Six on Saturday: Blank Slate (& Asphalt)

 

While unable to work at my second most time consuming job, I developed a bit of unused space into a vegetable garden. I would not have done so if I had known how much work it would be, or how much of what seemed to be usable space was just trash, brambles and a shallow bit of soil on top of pavement. Alternatively, I should have had the main unpaved area bulldozed first.

Now that it is halfway through spring, this new vegetable garden is finally started!

1. Four decades of junk mixed with wicked brambles was removed to expose less than four hundred square feet of cruddy slope. Rain draining from the deck eroded a gully in the middle.P00425-1

2. To the right, disfigured juniper should be temporarily obscured by cucumber vines expected to grow from seed sown just above a ditch. Indeterminate tomato vines will be added soon.P00425-2

3. Across the road, more junk, weeds and brambles were removed from between a curb and fence, only to find that the area is paved to the fence! Pole beans will be pleased with the fence.P00425-3

4. Posts supporting the deck had too much potential to ignore. Dragon fruit plants can climb them to the top and cascade downward. The posts are pressure treated, so will be painted first.P00425-4

5. ‘Kadota’ fig can grow as a hedge where the outer surface gets sunlight under the downhill edge of the deck. The area behind it is too shaded to be useful. The area in front is for vegetables.P00425-5

6. There are plenty of radish greens growing wild outside of the garden; but a few radish roots would be nice too. These are developing splendidly, and should be ready before anything else.P00425-6

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/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 8 Comments

Natal Plum

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Lush foliage hides oddly branched thorns.

The very glossy and richly deep green foliage seem to be so soft and luxuriant. Simple bright white flowers enhance the appeal. However, closer examination of Natal plum, Carissa macrocarpa, reveals impressively nasty thorn structures that are doubly branched into pairs of paired rigid and sharp thorns. That is four thorns each!

To make matters worse, all parts of Natal plum that are not fruit are toxic. But hey, they all work together to be visually appealing, even if really unfriendly. The one or two inch long evergreen leaves are quite round and stiff. The star shaped flowers that bloom as long as the weather is warm are somewhat fragrant in the evening.

Some varieties of Natal plum can reach the eaves, but most stay lower. They do not need much water, and can tolerate a bit of shade. The rosy red fruit would be delightfully colorful if it were not so rare. Manual pollination, preferably with a different pollinator, produces more of the two inch long berries that are something like mildly flavored cranberries.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 8 Comments

Roses Have Thorns And Thorns Have Roses

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Roses certainly look innocent enough.

Thorns, spines and prickles are not often considered to be assets. The weirdly stout prickles on the distended trunks of floss silk tree are more of an oddity than an ornamental attribute. The striking spinose foliage of agaves and yuccas can be more trouble than it is worth. After all, thorns, spines and prickles are intended to repel grazing animals.

They all work the same way, but are physiologically quite different. Thorns are modified stems, like those of bougainvillea. Spines are modified leaves, like those of cacti. Prickles are modified epidermis, like those of roses. Then there are all sorts of plants with spinose leaf margins, like English holly. Such defenses can be a nuisance to those of us who must work with them.

However, they can be useful deterrents. Natal plum that seem to be so innocent can be grown as low hedges that no one would go through more than once. Firethorn (Pyracantha) makes a larger and comparably impenetrable hedge. Their potentially dangerous thorns are almost always adequately effective with their first few pokes, before they cause too much injury.

Some plants are so dangerously thorny that they should be kept at a safe distance. Cacti, agaves and some yuccas can be strategically placed near the perimeters of large landscapes to deter trespassers. They are scary enough to be visually deterrent remotely. Mediterranean fan palm looks friendlier, but is just as mean up close.

Japanese barberry, roses and the spinose foliage of English holly are relatively safe deterrents to inhibit traffic in smaller spaces. They will keep people away from windows without necessarily blocking either access for washing the windows, or views from within. In case of fire, they are not too dangerous to escape through; although roses should not be allowed to get overgrown.

Because thorns, spines, prickles and spinose foliage are unpleasant to handle, the plants outfitted with them often get less maintenance than then should. When they get overgrown from a lack of pruning, they are even more difficult to handle. It is probably better to put nasty debris into greenwaste instead of compost. Thorns and spines are hard, so linger as foliage decays.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 7 Comments

Horridculture – Jumpin’ Juniper!

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This is the backside of some of the better junipers!

Junipers have a bad reputation. They earned it at a time when they were too common. Too many were installed into situations that they were not appropriate for. As they grew, they were unpleasant to handle. If not handled enough, they became overgrown and shabby. Once that happened, there were nearly impossible to prune back into confinement without being ruined.

I was never one to completely subscribe to that bad reputation. There were just too many junipers that I really liked, particularly the Hollywood juniper and the Hetz blue juniper. There were a few that I disliked, and I still loath the common tam juniper, but they were in the minority, and happen to be the same sort that are becoming more scarce.

For landscape situations that they happen to conform to, there really is no reason for junipers to be any less appropriate than any other genus is. They are happy with local climates and soil types. Once established, they do not need much water at all, and many need no supplemental irrigation. They last for a very long time. Best of all, they need only minimal maintenance.

However, even some of the best junipers are not perfect. I know. I just needed to work with some that were installed in 1980, and, except for getting pruned back around the edges, were completely ignored. After days of trying to tame them, I can not longer deny that some of what I have not wanted to believe about them is very true.

Besides all the trash and road debris that had been dumped into them during the past four decades, they were thickly infested with Himalayan blackberry. Removing the bramble was not only wickedly unpleasant, but it exposed bare spots where juniper foliage had been shaded out. Removal of a few junipers that had been overwhelmed and died left even more bare spots.

Well, I could not just leave all the dead twiggy growth under the bars spots, so tried to remove some of that too. That only exposed more of what what under and behind it, and caused the well foliated stems above to sag into the whole mess. In the end, the junipers are an unsightly mess, and I know that they will stay that way for a very long time.

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Removal of all the bramble and dead junipers exposes a lot of bare branches.
Posted on by tonytomeo · 1 Comment

Pacific Coast Iris

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Bigger and bolder Pacific Coast iris.

Various species of iris that are native to exposed coastal hillsides are uncommon in nurseries. Even nurseries that specialize in native species grow only a few. Iris douglasiana was probably the most popular of these years ago. Its slender flowers are various shades of steely blue, like faded denim. Nowadays, most Pacific Coast iris are hybrids of various native and a few exotic species.

The color range of these modern hybrids is impressive. Many bloom with rich shades of blue, purple, burgundy, rusty red, orange, gold, yellow or rosy pink. Softer and pastel shades include coral pink, lavender, creamy white and bright white. There is even sky blue that is almost comparable to the color of well faded denim. Flowers are more substantial than those of their ancestors though.

Bloom is sometimes significantly early, or as late as May. Otherwise, it should happen about now. Each floral stalk supports about two or three flowers that bloom in succession. Floral stalks tend to lean outward from the center of mature plants, and curve to hold their bloom upright. Bloom typically stands less than two feet high. Their slender and arching dark green leaves stay even lower.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Gravitropism Gets Germinating Seeds Oriented

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Toward the light. Away from gravity.

Germinating seedlings know which way is up. Perhaps they just know which way is down. They can not see, hear, taste, smell or feel anything like we can. Nonetheless, they know which direction to extend their first root and stem. One thing that they can perceive is gravity. Gravitropism, which was formerly known as geotropism, is how they respond to gravity, or the Earth that generates it.

Positive gravitropism is why the first root to emerge from a seed extends downward toward gravity. Negative gravitropism is why the first stem to emerge from a seed extends upward away from gravity. Positive is toward. Negative is away. Roots and stems that develop after the first, disperse in other directions in response to other stimuli, but never really forget where gravity comes from.

Once a primary stem of a seedling emerges from the soil, it immediately responds to sunlight. Just as it exhibits negative gravitropism to grow away from gravity, it exhibits positive phototropism to grow toward sunlight. Since sunlight comes from above, positive phototropism is compliant to negative gravitropism. Branches will later disperse laterally to avoid the shade of other branches.

While branches are finding their way in the World, roots are doing the same. All of them can not always reach for the center of the Earth. They branch and disperse laterally as they sense that they are sufficiently deep in the soil. Those that venture too deeply sense an inhibition of gas exchange. Those that are too shallow sense if they get too warm or dry. There are a few types of tropisms.

Roots respond to moisture, nutrients, chemicals, temperature and mechanical stimulation within the soil. Branches and foliage respond to humidity, wind, temperature variations and air pollution. In order to function within their dynamic situations, plants somehow coordinate their responses to all of the many stimuli they experience. They are impressively perceptive, as well as responsive.

Even celery, green onions and leafy tops of carrot in a refrigerator can reach upward away from gravity.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 20 Comments

Tradition

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Lunaria annua is known more for coin shaped seed pods than bloom.

Money plant, Lunaria annua, which some may know as ‘honesty’, is honestly not a wildflower here. It is neither native nor naturalized. Yet, it seems to grow wild on roadsides, in drainage ditches, and around the perimeters of some of the landscapes. It certainly produces enough seed to naturalize. It just would not have done so in this climate without a bit of intervention.

Many years ago, someone who maintained the landscapes here started sowing seed for money plant. I do not know if he was the first to sow the seed, or if he collected it from plants that someone else grew. He collected seed annually to disperse randomly by simply tossing it out wherever he though it might happily grow into more money plant.

Since money plant wants a bit more water than it gets from annual rainfall here, it was happiest where it is most often seen now, in roadside drainage ditches and on the perimeters of irrigated landscapes. It somehow competes effectively with other seemingly more aggressive vegetation. In the more favorable situations, it self sows, but can not perpetuate indefinitely.

The horticulturist who dispersed the seed for so many years retired a few years ago. Consequently, there has been a bit less money plant annually since then. It certainly tries to naturalize, but was rather scarce last year.

We could not allow it to go extinct just yet. We collected some of the seed from the plants that bloomed last year. I dispersed a few where I thought they would be happy without being obtrusive in the landscapes. I gave most of the seed to a neighbor who happens to enjoy tossing random seed into random (but hopefully suitable) spots where wildflowers would be nice.

It is such a delightful tradition that is worth continuing.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 14 Comments

When It Rains, It Pours

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Mudslide!

The only reason we developed a small vegetable garden here this year is that we have been unable to go to work for about a month. Without my second most time consuming employment, I had time to clear a small unused space (which was not nearly as simple as that sounds) and sow seed for vegetables. It was a late start a month ago, but not too late.

In fact, there was still time to do it before the last storm to go through. I know that sounds trivial, but as a Californian who is accustomed to gardening in a chaparral climate, and sometimes where there is no water available, planting prior to a storm ‘seems’ to be rather important. I know it is not. Water is available here. Otherwise, I would not grow vegetables.

Not only was there a storm, but there was a second storm later! Of course, it is not really that simple. The first light duty storm was nice, and soaked things sufficiently. Then the weather stayed strangely cool for this time of year. Nothing germinated. Then the second storm was brief but torrential enough to erode all of the recently sown seed right out of the new garden!

It was too comical for me to be too annoyed by it. I only needed to see what survived the erosion so that I could replace what did not. I almost replaced everything anyway, just because I was that certain that nothing survived.

Well, as it turned out, not much was missing! The garden got a slow start, and was delayed again by cool weather, but somehow seems to be recovering nicely. Even some of the very old seed that I did not expect to be viable has germinated.

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A late batch of radish somehow survived.

Now, I must go work in the garden.

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Late but ready to go.