Sunday Best – Mothra
Six on Saturday: NIMBY
Flowers in the gardens of others remind me that I should be more adventurous in regard to trying new things. These six are not completely unfamiliar, but happen to be different from the cultivars that inhabit our landscapes. All are Not In My Back Yard.
1. Salvia chamaedryoides ‘Marine Blue’ sage, like other species here that are more often grown as common annuals, has performed reliably as a perennial for at least a few years. Like other sages, it is very popular with hummingbirds. It stays small, but gets attention.
2. Leptospermum scoparium ‘Ruby Glow’ New Zealand tea tree is deprived of its natural form by frequent shearing, but somehow manages to bloom with a few sporadic flowers. Bees are grateful. Its tiny leaves are very dark green, but perhaps technically not bronze.
3. Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Tuscan Blue’ rosemary is shrubbier with more upright growth than the sprawling ground cover cultivars that I am more familiar with. I still remember this cultivar as ‘Tucson Blue’ because that is how we said it in school prior to about 1990.
4. Primula X elatior ‘Pacific Hybrids’ English primrose can bloom yellow, white, purple, lavender, blue, maroon, red, orange, or, like this specimen, pink; all with yellow centers. They look like the flowers that Mickey Mouse picked for Minnie Mouse, from her porch.
5. Anemone coronaria ‘Mr. Fokker’ windflower has been impressively perennial here for a few years, like the ‘Marine Blue’ sage. Although it technically should be this perennial, it rarely is here. It might prefer cooler winter weather than it typically experiences here.
6. Osteospermum ecklonis ‘Flower Power Compact Purple’ African daisy is notably more compact than its extensive name is. Its purple floral color seems to be more purple than any within the landscapes at work. Perhaps I should grow a copy, but without that snail.
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/
Not Steel Magnolias
Aspidistra elatior, cast iron plant, is a foliar perennial. In other words, it is grown more for its lush and famously resilient evergreen foliage than for its bloom. The resiliency of its foliage accounts for its common name. Its bloom does not account for much. In fact, it is rarely seen. This is not because it is rare, but because it is not much to see. Such bloom is typically obscured by the lush evergreen foliage. Even if exposed, as in these pictures, it is not prominent. Individual flowers are tiny and dark, and do not extend much above grade. They seem to be designed for pollination by ants or other insects that might walk over them on the ground. In the picture above, one flower is blooming to the far left, another is beginning to bloom to the far right, and a third floral bud seems to be developing below that which is is beginning to bloom to the far right. Even the closeup of the far left bloom below is more weird than visually appealing. The floral form, texture and color suggest that they are intended to attract flies. I did not notice if the floral fragrance was consistent with that assumption, nor do I want to. I know what sort of fragrances flowers disperse to attract flies. However, I suspect that if such floral fragrance were notably objectionable, cast iron plant would be known for sometimes producing it, or not be quite as popular as it is.
Sunday Best – Feral Plum
Six on Saturday: Color of Profusion
Tulip is the only single flower of these Six this Saturday. The other five are dinky flowers that are colorful in their natural profusion. Even tulip is more colorful with at least a few friends, as it bloomed in its landscape. Flowering quince shows only three flowers in this closeup picture, but it actually blooms more comparably to forsythia or spirea.
1. Tulipa X hybrida, tulip is of an assorted batch, but seems to be the same color as all of the others. Such batches typically contain a preponderance of varieties that happen to be overly abundant when they are mixed, but are not likely to be completely homogeneous.
2. Spirea prunifolia, bridal wreath spirea could have bloomed more fluffily if it had been in a sunnier situation. This specimen has been in partial shade in the storage nursery for too long as it waits for reassignment to a real landscape. I remember it only as it blooms.
3. Ceanothus thyrsiflorus, California lilac is the same that I posted a picture of here two weeks ago, but neglected to remember until now. It is the only of these six that is native. It could have been installed intentionally into its landscape, but it more likely grew wild.
4. Chaenomeles speciosa ‘Orange Storm’ or ‘Double Take Orange’ flowering quince has a pair of cultivar names, which is two more than I can identify for the other five of my six. I can not determine if one is more correct than the other. It is pretty, but a bit overrated.
5. Forsythia X intermedia, forsythia was with the bridal wreath spirea and ‘Double Take Orange’ flowering quince in the storage nursery for a long time before assignment to the landscape that it now inhabits only last winter. It has not grown much, but blooms well.
6. Loropetalum chinense, Chinese fringe flower is pretty enough to be an illustration for the gardening column. I may feature it next week or the week after. If I do so, it must be within its bloom season. When it became a fad several years ago, I was not so keen on it.
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 – Bad Pollarding
Actually, this does not even qualify as pollarding. It looks as if this tree, which was one of a few similarly damaged Acacia melanoxylon, black acacia trees, was in the process of being removed when the crew who was removing it left for the day. It would not have been so bad if they had returned to remove it and the others completely. They did not. This was the finished product. It and the others were almost twenty feet tall in this condition. They were about twice as tall prior. This sort of hack job is what gives pollarding a very bad reputation. It also demonstrates why proper pollarding should not be so vilified that arborists do not learn how to do it. Very obviously, this is not proper. Because they could not be salvaged, all of these trees were cut down a few days after I got this picture.
Pollarding can be done for a variety of reasons, and has been done for centuries in various cultures. It is still respected technique in many or most cultures. It stimulates vigorous growth that can be fodder for some types of livestock, including silkworms who consume the vigorous foliage of pollarded white mulberry trees. It can prevent some trees from producing troublesome pollen or fruit, such as old orchard olive trees that were retained as homes and their respective gardens were constructed around them. It can enhance autumn foliar color for some types of deciduous trees, such as the old Schwedler maples that were formerly common as street trees in San Jose. It stimulates growth of vigorous cane stems that are useful for basketry, fences, trellises or kindling. Locally though, it is considered to be as egregious as the technique pictured above, which is why no one here learns about it.
Sunday Best – Ranunculus
Six on Saturday: Eucalyptus
Eucalyptus has a bad reputation. Regardless, the worst of the genus and its only cultivar that I am aware of inhabit my gardens. Four less offensive species inhabit a landscape at work. Actually, several species of Eucalyptus are not only appropriate for home gardens, but are also naturally very well adapted to local chaparral climates. Their bad reputation is an unfortunate result of the bad behavior of merely one of hundreds of species, which happens to be the second of these Six. Eucalyptus camaldulensis, red gum allegedly also contributed to that reputation, but more so in Southern California than here, as it is rare locally. Half of these six show sessile juvenile foliage, rather than petiolate adult foliage. Pictures of high foliage were taken from significant distances.
1. Eucalyptus globulus ‘Compacta’, bushy blue gum is my least favorite eucalyptus, since it is a contrarily runty cultivar of an otherwise grand species, but here it is in my garden.
2. Eucalyptus globulus, blue gum is too grand for my garden, though, so can not develop a natural form. It is pollarded for its aromatic juvenile foliage, but has a few adult leaves.
3. Eucalyptus cinerea, silver dollar tree, which is not the same as silver dollar gum, may be confused with silver mountain gum, since their botanical names are interchangeable.
4. Eucalyptus pulverulenta, silver mountain gum is very distinct from silver dollar tree. I find their confusion to be annoying. Botanical nomenclature is designed for simplicity.
5. Eucalyptus sideroxylon, red ironbark grew from a small root sucker with merely a few roots. I got it from a stump in another landscape, and am impressed by its performance.
6. Eucalyptus citriodora, lemon gum is delightfully aromatic, and, as its name suggests, is rather lemony. Its foliage will soon be too high on lanky bare trunks to reach, 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/
More Sticks
Horticulture involves many sticks. Almost all are pruning scrap. Very few become scions for grafting, like the stick of ‘Beurre d’Anjou’ pear that I wrote about last week. A few more become cuttings, like these white zonal geraniums, Pelargonium X hortorum. These cuttings were processed from scrap of the same that formerly inhabited their same pair of big pots. The original specimens performed well within their pots for a few years, but were about to become overgrown if they had been left to grow for another season. They could have been pruned back and left to regenerate. However, because small specimens of lemon cypress, Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Goldcrest’ were added to their large pots, it was easier and neater to simply remove them completely and replace them with eight cuttings in each of their two pots. These cuttings should grow nicely and perform well for a few more years. Then, they can either be cut back to regenerate, or replaced with cuttings processed from their own scrap after their removal. Such processes cost no more than a bit of time and effort. I have been doing the same with a weedier bright pink zonal geranium that I have been growing since I was in junior high school in about 1979. I acquired the original sticks from a neighborhood garden debris dump, and have been growing them ever since then. I brought them with me to every home that I lived in through college, and then brought them back here when I returned. I acquired a similarly weedy but orangish red zonal geranium in about 1993, and have been growing it since then also. Zonal geraniums are underappreciated for their simplicity, practicality and, most of all, their sustainability. Once they inhabit a garden, there is no need for them to ever leave.
Sunday Best – Almond Blossom
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Tony Tomeo 