Posted on by tonytomeo

Oem Update

This is the larger of two oem pups.

Oem is beginning its third spring here. Fortunately, it has not yet grown too big to stay. That could change soon now that the weather is warming. I still do not know what to do with it as it grows. It is the largest species of banana in the World, Musa ingens. The foliage of the original pseudostem was frosted enough last winter to get trimmed away, leaving only an unsightly bare trunk. It is only beginning to replace its foliage for this season. Just as readily though, it produced two pups, which will likely grow faster than the original pseudostem did during the last two seasons. They are growing from a larger rootbase. Meanwhile, there are several other cultivars of banana growing here also. There were about fourteen last year. There are about two dozen this year! Only a few will remain compact enough to inhabit the landscapes at work, but even fewer will be appropriate there. Banana trees are not exactly comparable with the style of a redwood forest. Most, including the oem, will likely inhabit a riparian area of my home garden, which is also in a redwood forest. Goodness! I really should have planned this better.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 18 Comments

Six on Saturday: Here & Now

These six lack a theme. They are just random pictures of a few flowers that are blooming here and now.

1. Lavandula stoechas, Spanish lavender posed for this picture, which was not adequate for the gardening column, but is too pretty to delete without sharing here. It looks like it is about to fly away with those long wings. A bee posed with it for the gardening column.

2. (Hespero)Yucca whipplei, chaparral yucca is blooming again after blooming last year. This floral truss is about twelve feet tall, and still growing. Seed that it provided last year is now growing abundantly. It is the first species of Yucca that I met in the wild in 1985.

3. Scilla peruviana, Peruvian squill has been reliably perennial for about three years but has not grown much. Although the floral trusses are bigger than they were last year, they are no more numerous. Just nine remain in three groups of three, just as I planted them.

4. Rhododendron spp., like the bearded iris and cymbidium orchid, is of an unidentified cultivar. Many others are blooming now also. I refrained from posting six pictures of six different rhododendrons like I usually do though, because that can get a bit predictable.

5. Iris X germanica, bearded iris was difficult to take a good picture of at the time of day that I encountered it. Its pale color did not help. I am fond of this iris though, since I got it from Cedar Lodge at Kidder Creek, on the way to the Pacific Northwest two years ago.

6. Cymbidium spp., has been blooming very slowly. The buds appeared over winter, and have been extending since then, but only recently opened. I never liked this orchid much anyway. A white orchid that typically blooms so impressively here did nothing this year.

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

Iris fernaldii

Only four species of Iris are native here. The problem with identifying them is that three of them can be visually similar. Only Iris douglasiana is reliably and distinctively blue. Iris longipetala and Iris macrosiphon are generally pale blue, but can be as pale white with pale yellow veins as Iris fernaldii. Without keying it out, I can only guess that this particular iris is Iris fernaldii. The others seem to develop slightly larger and denser herds with slightly more upright foliage. Iris fernaldii develops relatively smaller herds and more relaxed foliage that does not stand as upright. Even what seems to be large herds are typically groups of smaller herds. Their flowers can lay almost on the ground. they shrivel too soon after cutting to work well as cut flowers. Nonetheless, they are a delightful native wildflower that is blooming as freely as it can where it grows wild. I really should relocate those that grow where they are not wanted, rather than discard them with other weeds. They might compete with weeds and other less visually appealing naturalized vegetation within areas that are not landscaped. Actually, they might be appropriate for a few areas that are casually landscaped.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Unidentified Hybrids

Camellia japonica seems to be too diverse to be a single species. Several of its countless cultivars seem to be either other distinct species or hybrids of other species. Regardless, they are all products of selection and breeding from within their single species, which is why the camellia pictured below is the only one of these six without an “X” in the middle of its name. The other five are hybrids, and three are the same hybrid species. However, one commonality of all six is that their cultivars are unidentified. I guessed a cultivar for the rose in the past. Columbine grew from a feral seed of a hybrid parent that apparently was not particularly sterile.

1. Iris X pacifica, Pacific Coast iris are hybrids of various native species, although mostly Iris douglasiana. Different cultivars can have different ancestry. These are unidentified.

2. Rosa X hybrida, rose is also an unidentified hybrid of unidentified ancestry. It seems to be a floribunda rose, with a few secondary floral buds behind each primary floral bud.

3. Iris X pacifica, Pacific Coast iris is my favorite color, but is actually not my favorite of the cultivars here. Blue, purple and burgundy red are too velvety exquisite to not prefer.

4. Aquilegia X hybrida, columbine grew in an awkward location from the seed of others that did not want to grow where planted. It stayed because it is the only columbine here.

5. Iris X pacifica, Pacific Coast iris in yellow is a bit more colorful than the white cultivar but not as richly colorful as the others. Blue, purple and burgundy red are done already.

6. Camellia japonica, camellia is as unidentifiable as the other five of these six but is not an interspecific hybrid, which is why it lacks an “X” in the middle of the botanical name.

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

Male Delivery

Flowers of all fruit need pollination for fruit to develop. Most are self pollinating. Some require pollination from another variety. Some are dioecious, so female flowers need pollination from male flowers. A few, such as figs and muscadines, are even more complicated, but they are topics for another article. For now, I am concerned with my female kiwi vine, which is growing like a weed, but would have been unable to produce any fruit without a male pollinator. It was not a planned acquisition. I grew it from cuttings from a bit of vine scrap that someone brought to dump in the debris piles here. Because it grew so well, I requested some male vine scrap from the same person who provided the female vine scrap. Obviously, since he grows the female vine in his home garden, he also grows a male vine to provide pollen. I wanted the scrap while it was dormant through winter, because that is when I prefer to start hardwood cuttings. By the end of winter, I figured that it was too late to start cuttings, and that I would need to wait to try next winter. Then, just a few days ago, the person who provided the female vine scrap brought me a small piece of the male vine, which was already foliated and growing! This presents a challenge, since I lack access to a greenhouse with bottom heat and mist. I cut the stem into five cuttings. Three have single axillary buds that are still dormant. Two are vascularly active terminal cuttings, which are merely short shoots that grew from two axillary buds that are still attached. All but the smallest leaves were removed from the terminal cuttings. So far, they seem happy under a jar. Now, I can only watch and wait.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Bearded Iris 2025

Too many iris are blooming now to document. Therefore, I limited my selection to a few bearded iris, which includes one that is not within the landscapes at work. Perhaps some of the other species can be featured next Saturday. With so much in bloom, it is difficult to be selective.

1. Of these Six, only this one does not inhabit the Iris Garden at work. It inhabits a small roadside planter in front of the totally awesome White Raven Coffee Shoppe in Felton. I believe that it is more caramel and charcoal colored than it appears to be in this picture.

2. Of these Six, only this one is likely identified. It conforms precisely to the descriptions of ‘Rosalie Figge’, including its habit of blooming sporadically throughout the year, with abundant bloom about now. Another participant of Six on Saturday identified it as such.

3. This relatively small pale yellow but nicely fragrant iris might be feral. It was found at a dumpsite for landscape debris, so could have grown from a deadheaded seed. It would likely be bigger and more colorful if it had grown from a discarded rhizome of a cultivar.

4. This big blue iris is as floppy as beagle ears, and is so heavy that its tall stems fall over if not staked. That is why its nearly horizontal stalk is obscured in its background behind it instead of visible below it. It is not actually as purplish as it seems to be in this picture.

5. Although more billowy and likely a bit bulkier, this garish iris needs no staking. Its tall and rather thin floral stems are sturdier than they seem to be. This happens to be one of my favorite bearded iris in this particular group. It was originally a gift from a neighbor.

6. Color is again deficient. This bearded iris is not as purplish as it seems to be here. It is actually a rich burgundy red. I remember the origins of all the other iris here but can not remember how this one was acquired. I do not remember ever seeing it before this year.

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

White on Wednesday

Syringa vulgaris ‘Madame LeMoine’ French hybrid lilac bloomed bright white and right on time as March became April, and is not finished yet. It was somewhat of a surprise, since it remains canned until development of the landscape that it should eventually inhabit. It does not grow much while canned, so was not expected to be so spectacular in bloom. It is so spectacular that it was temporarily placed into a prominent position within another landscape, with its can mostly obscured by other vegetation, until it finishes bloom.

However, regardless of how spectacular it is, it reminds me that white is not necessarily the best color for all flowers. White happens to be my favorite color, and lilac happens to be among my favorite early spring flowers, but to me, lilac bloom should be lilac colored. I mean, it really should be that lavender or pastel purple color of traditional and formerly common old fashioned lilacs. The only advantage to this white floral color is that it would be appropriate to situations in which white is the most desirable color, or where lavender is undesirable.

Just as many flowers are at their best in white, some are best with other colors. Southern magnolia, lily of the valley, moonflower, gardenia, Easter lily and old fashioned calla are exclusively white, and would look weird in any other color. Gladiolus, tulip, hyacinth and rose can be all sorts of colors, but happen to excel at white. A few other flowers that can be all sorts of colors happen to not excel at white, such as bougainvillea, crape myrtle, English primrose, tropical hibiscus, wisteria and, of course, lilac. Both white crape myrtle and white bougainvillea happen to have been selected specifically for landscapes here, so perhaps white lilac is not so out of place.