Today’s episode is brought to you by the letter ‘T’.
This is not Sesame Street.
Nor is this freshly painted concrete ‘T’ a monogram that designates the garden as mine. Even I am not ‘that’ vain.
It is part of a sign at the train depot. There happen to be enough of the right letters for my last name. I suppose that with a pry bar and a shovel, I could be ‘that’ vain.
There is no ‘Y’, so my first name would not work, particularly in conjunction with my last name, which would take the only ‘T’ and ‘O’ available. Am I really vain enough to be putting this much thought into this? Oh my!
For right now, I should only be concerned with keeping the vegetation clear of the sign. The amaryllis foliage above barely flops into it. The overgrown photinia hedge behind the amaryllis was just removed. The arborvitaes that will be installed to replace the photinia hedge will not likely get wide enough to ever reach the sign. They will be set several feet back. We are still trying to decide what to install between the arborvitaes, which will be far enough from each other so that they will not become a continuous hedge like the photinia were.
You would not believe how many bay trees and valley oak trees were trying to grow amongst the photinia! They ranged in size from fresh seedlings all the way up to a nearly six inch wide coppiced stump of a valley tree that was cut down a few years ago. There are still a few small oaks that must be removed nearby. We want to remove them while we are working on the site, and before they get big enough to displace the concrete letters with their roots.
Six on Saturday: After The Storm
Contrary to popular belief, we do get a bit of wintry weather here. It is neither as cold nor as snowy as weather is in most other regions, but it gets sufficiently cool and rainy to let us know it is winter. In fact, here on the western slopes of the Santa Cruz Mountains, we get the little bit of extra weather that does not quite get over the Summit into the Santa Clara Valley. Clouds must unload slightly in order to gain sufficient altitude.
There have been more storms so far this winter than there normally are, and this last week was particularly stormy. It is both a lot of fun, and a lot of work. Storms are innately wet, as well as messy. By the time we catch up from one storm, another arrives. The first few storms are something to be celebrated. The last few start to be rather bothersome.
1. Do you see the well kept shop buildings on the left and right? Neither do I. This is what I found when I got to work on Thursday morning after the electricity was put out by a wicked storm. The lights in the middle are those of a car out on the road. I managed to set up the coffee ‘machine’ to make coffee for the crew when the electricity came back on. I also put the leftover coffee that someone made late the previous night into a pitcher, so that if the electricity did not come back on in time for the crew to make fresh coffee, the first few to arrive could warm up the leftover coffee in the . . . . . . microwave. Okay, perhaps that was not such a good idea. The coffee was just swell cold.
2. Many trees fell during the last few storms. Many more trees lost significant limbs. This unfortunate coast live oak is not as bad as it looks. Once the stub of the fractured limb is removed, it should be just fine. We try to identify potentially hazardous trees, and either work with them to make them less hazardous, or remove them completely. It is nonetheless impossible to predict all hazards. I would have not considered this particular subject to be hazardous prior to the damage seen here.
3. Artificial poinsettias were removed about a month after Christmas. https://tonytomeo.com/2019/01/26/pseudodendron-falsifolia/ They are no longer seasonal. Besides, this is the stormy season here, when these artificial poinsettias would be likely to get blown about the neighborhood if left out. If they were to survive the storms, they would fade in sunnier weather of spring. But hey; why must I justify their removal? They are tacky! They will stay hanging in the barn until after next Thanksgiving.
4. Pruning scraps from zonal geraniums that needed to be pruned back earlier in winter were just too tempting. Rather than discard them, I processed them into cuttings. I tried to give most of them away, but ultimately needed to plug some back into the landscape. They get plugged this time of year so that they get soaked by the rain as they disperse roots. Many went into situations where they will be without automated irrigation. If planted too late, they would just desiccate when the rain stops. These are in a neat row along the base of a stone wall separating a few roses from the roadway, so they will get a bit of water from the roses. So far, they ALL are doing well. Propagation can be such a bad habit.
5. This was NOT my idea. I am none too keen on Japanese maples. Yet, this one works very nicely for the particular landscape it is in. I am impressed by the vibrant red color because this particular tree is somewhat sheltered and partly shaded. (Exposure to sunlight and cool wintry weather enhances color.) It looks great among the redwoods.
6. No, I do NOT grow ANY of the snowdrops, Galanthus nivalis, or any of the hybrids. ‘Snowflakes’, Leucojum vernum, are only here because they naturalized on the riverbank, likely from seed or bulbs that washed in from a garden upriver. They are spreading quite nicely, and are pleased to bloom in this unirrigated spot after soaked by a few storms. I could have gotten a picture with more flowers in it, but most are already deteriorating. I got these as a closeup instead. I know they are not really snowdrops, but I can brag about them anyway.
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/
Horridculture – Cruel and Unusual Punishment
This landscape is nothing fancy. It is out in front of a fast food establishment on Ocean Street in Santa Cruz. It is low maintenance, and starkly simple. It would be nice if the so-called ‘gardeners’ would cut back the African iris and English lavender a bit better, but they may have left them like this so that they are less likely to get trampled. The colored chips get replenished regularly, and the trash gets harvested quite efficiently. As I said, it is nothing fancy. The only remarkable feature had been this exemplary crape myrtle in the middle.
Only a few weeks ago, it was a perfect small specimen. Even though it is still quite dinky, the main stems were all at good angles, well spaced and aimed in the right directions. None of the stems were crossing over others, damaged or otherwise misshapen.
I can not explain what happened here since then. Are the so-called ‘gardeners’ trying to make more work for themselves by causing problems that will likely need their attention in the future? Do they just hate their work as much as this abuse implies? Is it possible that someone really believes that ‘this’ is somehow beneficial to the victim?
Each of the two fence stakes is sufficient to support a small tree, if such a tree needs it. If a tree, or in this case, a multi-trunked tree, does not need support, it should not be supported. Otherwise, it becomes reliant on the support. Besides that, these are fence stakes that are designed to be somewhat permanent. Now that they are there, they will probably be there forever. So-called ‘gardeners’ who do this sort of thing are not the sort to remove stakes.
The nylon straps are not flexible to accommodate the expansion of the stems they are tied around. If not removed, they will constrict, or ‘girdle’, the growing stems. What exactly are the straps doing anyway? The two closest to the bottom are tied to one stake, and pass the other to reach the respective stems that they are tied to, rather than tied between each of the two stems and the stake that it is closest to.
Someone certainly put a lot of effort into a whole lot of uselessness that will interfere with the healthy development of this formerly exemplary crape myrtle. Yet, with all this effort, no one bothered to prune it, or even so much as deadhead it. Yes, those are deteriorated floral stems from last summer.
San Lorenzo River
It may not look like much, but before all the rain started, the San Lorenzo river was shallow enough here to walk across. The water was clear and barely flowing. It is impossible to guess how deep it is now. It looks like cafe au lait, and is certainly flowing better than it had been. The watershed is less than a hundred and fifty square miles, so all this water is not coming from very far away.
The first picture above, of the San Lorenzo River flowing south to Santa Cruz and the Monterey Bay, was taken from the western of the two windows on the south side of the Felton Covered Bridge. Experts believe this to be the best of the four windows. My Mother has an old black and white picture of my older sister, my younger brother and I looking out from this window when were just little tykes. There was a railroad bridge out there a long time ago. Only concrete foundations remain.
The second picture below, of the San Lorenzo River flowing from the Santa Cruz Mountains beyond, was taken from the western of the two windows on the north side of the Felton Covered Bridge. The San Lorenzo River flows south on this side too!
It has been raining rather well here. Boulder Creek, which is at the far north end of the San Lorenzo Valley, gets more rain than most places in California, and far more than the rain shadow region on the inland side of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Local rain does nothing for the water supply of the rest of California, but is a good indication that snow is falling in the Sierra Nevada, where most of the water for much of the rest of California is stored in the snowpack.
Greenhouse Envy
If there were lawns and fences in this neighborhood, the grass would likely seem to be greener on the other side of the fence. In this situation, the greenhouse probably seemed to be more comfortable than being left out in the storm. This tall Douglas fir tree dropped in to find out. It did not go well. What remains can be seen in the middle of the picture above, just to the right of the fallen fir, and in the close up of the picture below.
Miraculously, the two coastal redwood trees that caught and guided the fir to a direct hit on the greenhouse also prevented it from destroying the associated house. Well, at least the redwood on the left did. There would have been less damage if the fir had fallen farther to the right. Regardless, a deck was crushed, an eave was destroyed, but the rear wall of the home was barely nudged. Not even the windows there were broken!
Falling debris punched a few holes in the roof, but without structural damage. The patio of the big building to the right was littered with debris that was easily removed. After limbs are removed from the damaged house, much of the carcass of the fallen fir will remain on the forest floor. It decays efficiently here.
Incidentally, this fir was about to be removed. It had been identified as too risky for the neighborhood. Although they are not visible in the pictures, there are a few other homes in the neighborhood. The cabin that I stayed in for more than a week is just beyond where the top of the fir landed. The stovepipe that is visible in the background of the second of my ‘Six on Saturday – Cabin Fever’ pictures from January 5 is the same stove pipe that is visible on the roof of the home that was nearly destroyed by the fallen fir. https://tonytomeo.com/2019/01/05/six-on-saturday-cabin-fever/
(The stove pipe circled by the yellow oval just above the center of the picture above is the same stove pipe circled by the yellow oval just right of the middle of the upper margin of the picture below.)
Six on Saturday: Untimely Death
One of the more unpleasant parts of my work is condemning elderly trees. Redwood and oaks in our region can live for centuries, but none last forever. It is sometimes my job to determine if some of the oldest of oaks have deteriorated to such an extent that they have become unsalvageably dangerous to those around them.
What is worse than that is that there are so many dangerously deteriorated oaks and other trees that collapse before they get removed, and many do so before anyone notices how dangerous they are. Some structural deficiencies and instabilities are concealed to the most thorough of arborists. That is what happened with this big coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia, with a five foot wide trunk, that fell behind Felton Presbyterian Church. I had known for some time that the healthy canopy was heavy and exposed to wind. What I did not know is that the root systems was insufficient to maintain stability when strong wind blew against the healthy canopy while the soil was saturated. The insufficiency of the root system became apparent not only because the tree destabilized, but also because the minimal root system became exposed by the destabilization. There was no evidence of decay or damage within the root system, which are what typically contributes to destabilization.
1. It is amazing that this tree stood for as long as it did with such minimal roots.
2. This is what those minimal roots supported for so long.
3. Healthy foliar growth on top of the canopy enhanced weight and wind resistance.
4. Damage was surprisingly minimal.
5. This decay within one of the main limbs was a structural deficiency that did not contribute to the destabilization.
6. (above) This is the same picture as #5. The red line is at the cross section of where a limb broke or was cut away many years or decades ago. Although the straightness of the zone suggest that it was made by a pruning cut, it is unlikely that the tree was pruned up as high as this section of limb was located, particularly so long ago. As the tree compartmentalized the wound, decay spread inward toward the center from the wound, in a typical pattern that resembles a section of a pie chart, which is marked by the yellow lines. Once it reached the center, decay radiated outward from the center, in a typical circular patter, which is marked by the blue circle. As the center of the trunk rotted and deteriorated, the necrotic zone between it at the original wound continued to rot and deteriorate. By that time this cavity developed, the exterior of the wound had already been compartmentalized by viable wood that did not decay.
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/
Horridculture – Disdain For Trees
Okay, we get it; someone really hates trees. That’s fine. Trees are not for everyone. Just cut it down. Put it out of it’s misery. Take away the useless lodgepole stake and strap along with it. Maybe those Canary Island date palms that look like the home of SpongeBob SquarePants in the background will recover from their own form of abuse to compensate for the loss of this seemingly unwanted goldenrain tree.
Apparently, it is not that simple. This goes beyond a dislike of trees, or a mere desire to kill them. This tree seems to have been tortured by someone who enjoys it WAY too much. There were others that were similarly disfigured in this same parking lot in the north of San Jose. They were not pollarded. They were not pruned. There were mutilated, but kept alive for more of the same.
What is worse is that someone was paid for this torture. Property management hired a tree service to ‘prune’ these trees, likely for clearance from lamp poles and parked cars. Was the perpetrator inexperienced, insensitive, or as hateful as the severity of the disfigurement suggests? Well, lets analyze that.
There are plenty of inexperienced people who take jobs in occupations with which they are not familiar. However when the do so, they tend to learn at least the basics about it to avoid doing their work improperly. That obviously did not happen here.
Insensitivity or a lack of concern for the work is possible. However, even someone who does not care about such work is likely to get something about it correct, even if just circumstantially. Well, that did not happen either.
These trees are kept alive because they are more lucrative to the torturer that way. As disfigured as the trees are, they will regenerate new growth that will again need to be pruned for clearance later. Someone who put that much thought into what is being done could have just as easily put forth the effort to do ‘something’ properly in regard to pruning. That is obviously not part of the agenda. The perpetrator really is as disdainful of these trees as the disfigurement indicates.
Snow?
What is this? It looks more like hail now. It was softer and squishier when it fell out of the sky only an hour or so before this picture was taken. There was a slight bit of snow up on Summit above Los Gatos. It will probably melt as quickly as the clouds clear to let the sunlight through. Snow sometimes appears on the higher peaks around the region, but is rare in lower elevations. Forty three years ago from today, on February 5 in 1976, snow fell in the Santa Clara Valley. It was about half an inch deep in some areas, an inch and a half in others, and was the last snow to fall there.
Metallic Roses
‘Sterling Silver’ and ‘Stainless Steel’ are two hybrid tea roses that were quite popular decades ago. ‘Copper’ and ‘Aluminum’ are not. However, I did happen to write a bit about the aluminum roses in the picture above on the Facebook page of Felton League on January 28, and included a link to an older article that featured a picture of copper roses. They are not at all relevant to horticulture, but are interesting nonetheless.
Felton League is an informational forum for the distinguished small group of displaced or socially outcast people and their friends in Felton, California. That is how it is described on Facebook. Those who are more directly familiar with us know us as a community group that not only advocates for the local homeless, but also provides compelling insight into homeless culture, and confronts the trend of animosity and hostility for anyone perceived to be homeless.
This is the post on Felton League from January 28:
Some of us participate in the River Cleanups here and elsewhere in Santa Cruz County. Some regularly collect trash for disposal throughout the year. One takes trash collection a step further by creating these metallic roses from some of the collected debris. They were featured in this article about garden art that was published in local newspapers between San Francisco and Beverly Hills in the summer of 2017; https://tonytomeo.com/2018/07/12/be-tactful-with-garden-art/ . (Not all of the articles used this illustration. The link is for the article as it was posted last July, about a year after it was published.) The copper roses of the original article were made from copper pipe. The newer silvery roses are made from flashing found in the San Lorenzo River. The thorny stems are made from scraps of fencing material that resembles a fine gauge of hog wire, that was found closer to Zayante Creek. The leaves are wired on with random bits of copper wire. These roses are often sold to tourists and local merchants to finance the banquets hosted by ‘Let’s Have Soup’ in Felton Covered Bridge Park.
Not My Style
There is no shortage of artistic pictures online and within the context of gardening blogs. Some really are fascinating. I particularly like those that show the weather in far away and mythical lands like Colorado, Chicago, North Carolina, Australia, Oklahoma, New Zealand, Austin, and South Africa. Then there are the cats, dogs, hens, horses, pigs, and a few others that are not so entertaining. The close ups of flowers, fruits, leaves, mushrooms and any variety of odds and ends are amusing if they are not immediately recognizable. Yet, all these pictures are not my style. I am not the artistic sort.
I will try though. This shiny chestnut brown acorn half shell just looked like something that I should get a picture of. It was just laying there on the big sycamore leaf as if it were on display. The interior is even shinier and more richly colored than the exterior, although I did not turn it over to confirm. I am just guessing from my experience with other acorns.
The sycamore that provided the leaf is a California sycamore, Platanus racemosa.
I could not identify the species of the oak that provided the acorn. I am pretty certain that it is not from a coast live oak, valley oak, black oak or tanoak; respectively, Quercus agrifolia, Quercus lobata, Quercus kelogii or (Notho)Lithocarpus densiflorus. There are not many other options. I suspect that it could be from a canyon live oak or Shreve oak; respectively, Quercus chrysolepis or Quercus parvula ‘Shrevei’. Neither produces acorns that are typically as round as this one was.
Nor could I identify the species of squirrel, rat, raccoon, crow or whatever unknown animal dropped it.
Well, perhaps this is why I am not the artistic sort. I am instead the technical sort.
