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Autumn Foliar Color

Red maple colors nicely, but the color does not last for long.

Spray paint is no way to get good autumn color in the garden. The healthy rich green king palm out front would look ridiculous and be very embarrassed, not to mention unable to breath, if it were painted yellow, orange and red, like the sweetgum trees that will soon be getting so colorful in the neighborhood now that the weather is getting cool.

Just like every other feature in the garden, autumn foliar color takes proper planning. Most of the plants with the most impressive autumn color happen to be substantial trees, so are not as easy to accommodate in as many situations as flowering annuals are. There are a few smaller shrubby plants and perennials that provide autumn foliar color, but almost all are deciduous, so defoliate to leave bare branches through winter.

Boston ivy (which is not really ivy) is probably the most colorful of climbing vines. It is a bit too aggressive for small spaces though, and damages painted surfaces and just about anything that it gets a hold of. It is best on concrete walls, which is why it is so prominent on freeway soundwalls and overpasses. Grapevine and wisteria are only moderately colorful.

Currant, crape myrtle, pomegranate, smoke tree and redbud are a few of the shrubby plants that provide good color in autumn. Crape myrtle and Eastern redbud are actually more commonly small trees. Many of the Japanese maples with good autumn color are small trees that stay smaller than most shrubbery.

Sweetgum, Chinese pistache, flowering pear and maidenhair tree are the best trees for autumn color, though maidenhair tree turns only bright yellow without the oranges and reds that the others get. Where well exposed, Japanese persimmon is comparable to Chinese pistache. Fruiting pear, apple, apricot, plum, prune and almond trees are not quite as colorful.

Several of the North American and European maples are remarkably colorful, but do not hold their foliage as long as sweetgum does. Silver maple and box elder (maple) happen to be less colorful than the other maples. Various poplars and locusts, as well as tulip tree and black walnut can almost get as bright yellow as maidenhair tree does.

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Pollen

For urban areas, the first rain of the season is typically icky. It mixes with all the crud and filth that has accumulated since the last rinsing rain of the previous spring. Damp roads smell like a mix of automotive fluids and wet tires. Asphalt roofs smell like tar. Even urban trees can initially smell like damp dust. It takes a while and a bit of rain for the crud and filth to rinse away.

This is the second rain of the season, and in a less than urban area. It does not smell objectionable, and is not notably cruddy. However, it still flows with an abundance of pollen that had not rinsed away already. Perhaps this pollen accumulated just since the previous rain, although not much has been blooming visibly at this time of year. It is impossible to say even what species dispersed so much pollen. Nonetheless, here it is, floating in the first few puddles to accumulate. Yuck!

It is no wonder that pollen is as effective at pollination as it is. It is impressively abundant and permeating. It is also no wonder that it is such a pervasive problem for those who are allergic to it.

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Hopbush

Hopbush makes a nice informal hedge.

Its silly name is actually justifiable. The papery fruits of Hopbush, Dodonea viscosa, can be useful as a substitute for hops. Almost all hopbush are female, so produce such fruits. However, bloom and subsequent fruit production is variable. Vigorous plants are likely to produce less fruit. Also, some specimens might become male, and therefore be fruitless.

Hopbush is most popular as an informal evergreen hedge. It also works well as a formal hedge. With selective pruning, it can become a small tree with shaggy bark on sculptural trunks. It develops a narrowly upright form while young, but may eventually grow ten feet wide. It grows about twice as tall. Overgrown specimens are quite conducive to pruning.

Hopbush exhibits a uniformly fine foliar texture. Individual leaves are two or three inches long, but narrow. Foliar color is soft bronzy green. ‘Purpurea’ is more purplish bronze, but is not quite as vigorous. Roots are very complaisant, but do not disperse well if irrigation is too generous. Established hopbush is undemanding, so does not require much water. It tolerates soil of inferior quality too.

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Botanical Nomenclature Should Simplify Horticulture

“Buick” is comparable to a genus.

The language of gardening can sometimes seem confusing. That is because so much of it is Latin. Some of it is Latinized Greek, or Latinized names of botanists. As confusing as it may seem, this botanical nomenclature is quite simple. It is, furthermore, more practical than the use of regional common names. Botanical nomenclature is practically universal.

Botanical nomenclature is not actually a language. It is a standardized system of naming botanical organisms, or plants. It is so standardized that it is the same everywhere in the World, in every language. Common names are different in different regions or in different languages. In that regard, common names can be more confusing than botanical names.

Botanical nomenclature is basically binomial, which means that it uses only two names. The first name is the general or genus name. The second name is the specific or species name. The genus name is capitalized, while the species name is not. Both are italicized. A species name is often an adjective that describes a characteristic or origin of its genus.

Many botanical names include a third variety or cultivar name. Such names are in single quotes, without italicization, but with capitalization. For example, Sequoia sempervirens ‘Soquel’ is ‘Soquel’ redwood. “Sequoia” is its genus name. “sempervirens” is its species name, which also describes it as evergreen. “‘Soquel'” is the particular cultivar or variety.

Botanical nomenclature is actually quite similar to automotive nomenclature. Italicization and lack of capitalization of the species names are the primary differences. For example, Buick, Chrysler and Mercury are all like genera. Electra, Imperial and Grand Marquis are all like species of these particular genera. Buick Electra is therefore like a botanic name.

Buick Electra ‘Limited’ is like a cultivar of Electra, which is more specific than species. Its family is General Motors, which is more general than genus. Botanical nomenclature has families too, although they are rarely mentioned. Sequoia sempervirens ‘Soquel’ is in the family of “Cupressaceae”. Botanical family names lack italicization but not capitalization.

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Six on Saturday: Peeping

Autumn foliar color is scarce here, not because the weather is too mild, but because it is not such a priority within landscape design. A few species can develop such color as they do where autumn weather is cooler. Of course, some do not. Native California sycamore is a stately deciduous tree with striking form while bare through winter, but contributes minimal color.

1. Cornus florida, flowering dogwood is just beginning to exhibit foliar color for autumn. It performs surprisingly well in the Santa Cruz Mountains above the Santa Clara Valley.

2. Lagerstroemia indica, crape myrtle is also starting to exhibit foliar color for autumn. It may do so before the weather gets cool, as if it somehow knows what time of year it is.

3. Platanus racemosa, California sycamore does not know or care what time of year it is. It is more likely to yellow in response to hot and dry summer weather than to do so now.

4. Platanus X acerifolia, London plane tree is the sycamore with maple foliage. It is just beginning to yellow, but ultimately, does not do much more than that before defoliation.

5. Acer platanoides, Norway maple is the maple with sycamore foliage. This cultivar has bronze foliage through summer, so develops its yellow foliar color for autumn quite late.

6. Acer rubrum, red maple, like crape myrtle, can develop foliar color for autumn before cool weather, as if it knows what time of year this is. It defoliates relatively early though.

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/

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Canary Island Date Palm

Canary Island date palm is the biggest and boldest.

The biggest and boldest of the common palms is the Canary Island date palm, Phoenix canariensis, which can get more than sixty feet tall and nearly forty feet wide, with a full canopy of gracefully arching deep green fronds. A young tree actually spends the first many years as a shrubby plant while the base of the trunk develops. Fronds get longer and spread broader every year until the trunk gets big enough to elongate. Vertical growth then accelerates somewhat, but the canopy gets no broader.

Most trees are female, eventually producing ornately orange but messy clusters of inedible dates. Male trees eventually get a bit taller, but are not quite as graceful and bloom with unimpressive dusty tan flowers.

Old deteriorating fronds need to be pruned away close to the trunk. Petiole bases of the most recently removed fronds are often carved into ‘pineapples’ to leave a bit of support directly below the canopy. Removed fronds leave a distinctive pattern on the trunk.

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Palms

Mexican fan palm is the most prominent palm.

Only a few of the  many different palms that can be grown locally are actually common. The Canary island date palm and the Mexican fan palm, which had historically been the most common palms, have unfortunately given palms a bad reputation. Both get too large for small gardens, and need costly maintenance when they grow out of reach.

Since the late 1980s, the formerly uncommon queen palm has become the most common palm. Although it too eventually grows beyond reach, it is still more proportionate to home gardens while young. It has a relatively narrow trunk that is partially ‘self-cleaning’ (which means that old fronds, or leaves, often fall off or can be easily peeled off).

The windmill palm and the Mediterranean fan palm, although no more common now than a century ago, are two of the better palms for home gardens, since they do not get too large, and are somewhat easy to maintain. The Mediterranean fan palm has several sculptural trunks that curve out randomly from the base. Sharp teeth on their petioles make pruning a challenge, but not impossible.

The windmill palm has a straight solitary trunk that is distinctively hairy where old fronds get pruned away. It eventually grows out of reach, but takes many years to do so. By that time, many people allow beards of old fronds to accumulate on the trunks overhead instead of bothering to keep them pruned.

The desert fan palm, which is the only palm that is native to California, is very similar to the Mexican fan palm, but is about twice as stout and half as tall, with a fluffier canopy. Because it grows slower and stays smaller, it would be a better palm for urban gardens, except that it does not like to be watered regularly when mature. It really prefers warmer and drier climates.

Pindo palm and Mexican blue palm would also be great palms for urban gardens, but grow rather slowly before getting big enough to get noticed. In some climates, pindo palm produces strange and messy, but sweet and tasty fruit. Mexican blue palm is one of the most resilient palms, and blooms with really cool long floral tassels that a can drag on the ground from short trees.

‘Feather’ palms, like Canary Island date palm, queen palm and pindo palm, have pinnate (and generally compound) leaves, with small leaflets arranged on solitary midribs. Their fronds must be removed as they deteriorate.

‘Fan’ palms, like Mexican fan palm, Desert fan palm and windmill palm, have palmate leaves, centered around the distal termini of solitary petioles. These are most often pruned away, leaving distinctive patterns of petiole bases, but can alternatively be left to accumulate into thick beards of thatch.

Mexican fan palms are sometimes ‘shaven’ of their petiole bases to expose elegant lean trunks, although the procedure is intensive and expensive. Desert fan palms and some Mexican fan palms drop their own beards naturally.

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Mango Seedlings

There are a few reasons to not grow avocado trees from seed. Such trees take a few years to produce fruit. Then, their fruit may be very different from the fruit that provided the seed. It is therefore better to purchase a grafted tree, or at least to graft a seedling. However, some of the best and most productive avocado trees have grown from seed. I have been acquainted with many such trees, and have never met even one that produced inferior fruit. (The primary problem that I notice with seed grown avocado trees is that they grow so tall while young that most of their fruit is out of reach, but that is another topic for later.) Anyway, this is my justification for growing mango trees from seed. I am told that they are much more likely than seed grown avocado trees to produce inferior fruit. I suppose that I will find out now. I am willing to try grafting them if their fruit is not good. They can at least become good understock. Yet, I am also wondering why I get into these situations. I should have known better than to grow something that I know nothing about.

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Torch Lily

Torch lily might still be blooming.

Once it gets established in a garden, it will likely always thrive there. Torch lily, Kniphofia uvaria, is as reliable and resilient as lily of the Nile and African iris. It is as easy to divide for propagation too. Mature specimens can survive without any more water than they get from annual rainfall. They might appreciate some through the middle of summer, though.

Old fashioned torch lily blooms for summer or early autumn, so some are blooming now. Modern cultivars are more likely to bloom earlier. Densely conical floral trusses suspend many narrow and tubular flowers. They stand as high as five feet on otherwise bare floral stalks. Dense mounds of grassy basal foliage should grow no more than three feet high.

Flower buds are orange as they begin to bloom, and then fade with age to pastel yellow. Because floral spikes bloom upwards from the bottom, they turn yellow at the base while orange on top. They resemble candy corn. Some cultivars are paler white at the base, or more reddish orange at the tip. Others are uniformly orange, yellow or soft creamy white.