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Horridculture – Invasive Species

It blooms splendidly, and has stayed compact for many years, but I do not trust it.

Many exotic species that became aggressively naturalized here escaped from home gardens and landscapes before anyone who enjoyed growing them was aware of how invasive they could be. Although I am aware of this, I was not particularly concerned with it while I lived within a suburban area in town through the 1990s. If I chose to grow something there that had potential to be invasive, it had no place to escape to. I mean that, from my suburban home garden, it could not migrate into a natural ecosystem to naturalize into it. Even if seed from something managed to get into the suburban drainage system, which flows into Los Gatos Creek, it would not be the first. I mean that anything that could naturalize there had likely already done so from seed from the countless other home gardens and landscapes in town. I have not lived within that suburban neighborhood for a very long time, though. I need to be more careful with what I select to inhabit my home garden. For example, the yellow flag iris and montrebetia that I enjoy growing at work can not inhabit my home garden, from which each has potential to escape and naturalize into the wild. The montbretia seems to be sterile and noninvasive, and I have been acquainted with it since childhood, but I just do not trust it. Another variety of montbretia that has inhabited my downtown planter box since before my time, and that I have been acquainted with for many years, also seems to be sterile and even less invasive than my first variety. After all this time, it was tediously slow to migrate outwardly, and provided me with only a few spare bulbs. Nonetheless, I can only enjoy it within the confinement of the downtown planter box.

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Almond

Almonds are stone fruit without fruit.

Is the pronunciation of the “al” of almond comparable to that of “salmon” or “palm”? That is about as controversial as the pronunciation of pecan. While pecan is related to walnut, almond, Prunus dulcis, is a stone fruit. That can be controversial also. Unlike other stone fruit, its mesocarp develops as leathery hulls instead of edible flesh. It is fruitless stones.

Like other stone fruit trees, almond trees need maintenance while dormant during winter. Bare root trees that are now available should be in the ground before their spring growth. Established trees need winter pruning before warming spring weather stimulates bloom. Almonds ripen for late summer though, after plums, apricots, peaches or other stone fruit.

Almonds are not as heavy as other stone fruits, and need no gentle handling. Therefore, winter pruning of almond trees may not need to be very aggressive. Such trees can grow as small shade trees with splendid white spring bloom. It is easier to shake unreachable nuts from tall trees than to pick them anyway. A few old fashioned cultivars need compatible pollinator cultivars.

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Winter Pruning Deciduous Fruit Trees

Specialized dormant pruning improves fruit production.

Bare root season is synchronous with winter for one simple reason. Winter is when bare root stock is dormant. Dormancy similarly justifies winter pruning of deciduous fruit trees. It functions like anesthesia for surgery. While dormant, deciduous fruit trees are unaware of relocation or pruning. They resume growth for spring as if nothing stressful happened.

Winter pruning, or dormant pruning, would be inappropriate at any time other than winter. It is both very specialized for particular deciduous fruit trees, and, for most, very extreme. Some trees that benefit from it could not survive such procedures while vascularly active. Such pruning would involve the removal of most or all foliage if it were not already gone.

Winter pruning is no more unnatural than major breeding that necessitated it. Because of breeding, fruit trees produce unnaturally heavy and abundant fruit. Many can not support the weight of the fruit that they could potentially generate. Major pruning limits production and improves structural integrity of stems. It also confines production to reachable stems.

Production of unnaturally big and abundant fruit consumes substantial resources. Winter pruning concentrates resources into less excessive fruit of better quality. Since fruit is not as congested as it would otherwise be, it is more resilient to pathogens. So are its stems, foliage and precursory bloom. Fruit is easier to harvest from less congested stem growth.

Stone fruit trees and pomme fruit trees are the most common that require winter pruning. Stone fruit include cherry, apricot, plum, prune, peach, nectarine and almond. They need distinct degrees of similar pruning. Large fruit like peach necessitate aggressive pruning. Cherry and almond do not require as much. Pomme fruit include apple, pear and quince.

Deciduous fruit trees are certainly not low maintenance. Their reliance on winter pruning is undeniable. Those who would like to grow such trees should be aware of their cultural requirements. Diligent research of pruning techniques is very helpful. Annual experience is even better. It is an opportunity to observe how trees respond to all earlier procedures.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 9 Comments

Six on Saturday: Downtown Planter

While away from work and home, and tending to errands downtown, I got these pictures from my downtown planter, which inadvertently became something of a Memorial.

1. Cuphea hyssopifolia, Mexican heather is not my favorite component of the downtown planter, but remains because it was installed by someone who was here prior to my time. A uniquely confined colony of montrebia that I will discuss on Wednesday also remains.

2. Senecio cineraria, dusty miller and the stonecrop below are from the garden of a now deceased client so can only be removed if a bit of it gets established in my home garden. It and the Mexican heather above are the only two of these six which are not succulents.

3. Sedum reflexum ‘Blue Spruce’ stonecrop is being displaced by the unidentified species of Aeonium below, but is also already established in my home garden. I expected it to be displaced eventually when I put it here several years ago. It is gratifying to see remnants.

4. Aloe, as the Aeonium at the bottom of this list, is unidentified. It and both of the last six are from the garden of the deceased mother of a deceased friend who happened to be a direct descendant of Spanish explorers who were the first to arrive where Monterey is.

5. Aeonium arboreum, tree houseleek is the most striking vegetation within the planter, but is also occasionally disfigured by theft of its most sculptural stems. A darkly bronzed cultivar from the same special origin was taken piece by piece until none of it remained.

6. Aeonium is as unidentified as the Aloe above. It initially resembles the tree houseleek, also above, but remains low, dense and mounding. It is the most abundant vegetation of the planter, so was the primary culprit of the displacement of the stonecrop, also above.

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 · 14 Comments

Landslide

This is the other side of the landslide that I posted a picture of for Six on Saturday a few days ago. As I mentioned then, it looked worse from this side. I suspect that it came down immediately prior to my arrival. No one else was aware of it, and there was no indication that anyone had tried to get around it or move any of its debris. It was just past my driveway, which is where Carson, the Roadmaster, was parked. However, because there are two households beyond it, the debris needed to be removed promptly. I did not want anyone else to do it, though. I wanted to separate the stone from the soil because I can use the stone to construct low retaining walls. Also, I wanted to use the soil to fill low spots within parking spaces at the top of the driveway. Although these low spots are very close to where the soil and stone was, and it should have been very obvious that soil could have been used to fill them, I know from experience that few put much effort into performing such a tasks in an efficient manner. Actually, they often seem to put significant effort into inefficiency. For example, the mound to the far right of the picture is debris from an landslide that occurred earlier. It is directly adjacent to a low spot that remains low because no one bothered to put any debris into it. So, now, there is a high spot directly adjacent to a low spot. Large stones were pushed over the edge, where they rolled into a portion of my garden below, bashed bark from trees, and are now where I do not want them to be. I hoped to avoid such problems with this landslide.

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Eastern Redcedar

Eastern redcedar is actually a juniper.

Like the majority of cedars, Eastern redcedar, Juniperus virginiana, is not really a ‘cedar’. According to its genus name, it is a juniper. That may be why it is less common here than within its native range. Even in its native range, most grow wild rather than in cultivation. Junipers gained an unfavorable reputation after becoming overly common decades ago.

Eastern redcedar has traditionally been more utilitarian than merely aesthetic. It can be a delightful Christmas tree, either cut or potted. While old cedar closets are native incense cedar, cedar chests are Eastern redcedar. Baton Rouge derived its name from a red stick demarcation pole. Indigenous people traditionally used Eastern redcedar for such poles.

Wild Eastern redcedar trees are variable and range in height from fifteen to fifty feet high. Cultivars develop compact conical or columnar form. Some are grayish or golden green. The small evergreen foliar scales, particularly juvenile foliage, can be somewhat prickly. The rusty red to grayish brown bark can display a handsomely fibrous or shaggy texture. The ‘silicicola‘ variety of Eastern redcedar is rare.

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Potted Christmas Trees Grow Up

Dwarf Alberta spruce stays very compact.

There should be no stigma associated with cut Christmas trees. They grow on farms, not within natural ecosystems, as some believe. Like cut foliage, cut flowers and vegetables, they are an agricultural commodity. They generate no more greenwaste than an average lawn. Yet, potted Christmas trees are popular as an ‘environmentally responsible’ option.

Potted Christmas trees, however, can be more of an environmental detriment. Only those that perform for a few years consume less resources than cut Christmas trees. Almost all deteriorate too much during their first summer for a second Christmas. Therefore, they do not perform any more perpetually than cut trees. They are, however, costlier and smaller.

The expense of potted Christmas trees is proportionate to the resources which they use. Proportionately, they require more fertilizers, pesticides and infrastructure than cut trees. This is also relevant environmentally. So is their synthetic growing medium, plastic pots, and for some, mylar wrapping. Transportation is more efficient only for the smallest sorts.

Regardless, for many households, potted Christmas trees remain after Christmas. Some of the most expensive sorts are fortunately more likely to be practical sorts. They may be compact types that are conducive to confinement within big pots. If so, they may function as Christmas trees for a few years. Afterward, they might fit nicely into their home garden.

This includes a few cultivars of spruce as well as fir and even pine. Dwarf Alberta spruce is easy to accommodate in both pots and gardens. Large specimens are expensive and rare though, so few need accommodation now. Blue spruce is more practical as a potted Christmas tree, but grows larger. Eastern redcedar can stay in a large pot for a few years.

The most common potted Christmas trees are Italian stone pine and Canary Island pine. These are the small sorts with cheap ornaments and mylar wrapping. They too often lack identification or description of how large they grow. Consequently, those who plant them too often provide inadequate space. Such big trees can be very destructive as they grow.