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Western Red Cedar

Western red cedar makes nice garland.

This coniferous evergreen is more appealing as seasonal foliar decor than it is practical. Western red cedar, Thuja plicata, is the most common component of Christmas garlands. Also, it is very popular for wreaths of mixed evergreens. It is the same genus as common arborvitaes. However, this particular species is notably rare among local home gardens.

Western red cedar is native to the Pacific Northwest. Its range extends south to the north coast of California, and east to western Montana. It therefore does not adapt efficiently to the arid warmth of local chaparral climates. Even with generous irrigation, its foliage can be vulnerable to desiccation. The healthiest specimens here are within coastal climates.

Like some other trees within its native range, western red cedar typically grows very big. It can easily reach a hundred and fifty feet tall, and can grow taller than two hundred feet. Although it does not grow as fast as redwood, it eventually needs about as much space. Western red cedar, here, is appropriate only for large landscapes within coastal climates. It is too obtrusive for compact home gardens.

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Semperflorens Begonia

Some of us learned this as fibrous begonia.

From spring until autumn, semperflorens begonia, which is also known as fibrous, bedding or wax, begonia, is a warm season annual. They actually start to deteriorate as the weather gets cool this time of year. However, they do not necessarily need to be pulled out as their season ends. In sheltered locations or with protection from frost, they actually survive through winter as perennials. They are so easy to propagate by cuttings or division of overgrown plants that tired older plants can replace themselves with their own babies before they get too ugly.

The small flowers of semperflorens begonia can be white, red, or various shades of pink in between. Foliage is more often green or bronze, but can be reddish or variegated. The largest plants get only a foot tall. Denser dwarf types are half as tall. Semperflorens begonia likes rich soil and regular watering (when it is not raining). They prefer partial shade, but will take full sun if mixed with other plants that keep things cool and humid.

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Blue Palo Verde

“Palo verde” translates to “green stick”.

If “verde” translates to “green”, then what color is blue palo verde, Parkinsonia florida? It is simply a bit more bluish green than other species that are a bit more yellowish. Its bark contains chlorophyll to photosynthesize without foliage. Blue palo verde is deciduous so defoliates for winter. Then, it defoliates in response to dryness through much of summer.

Blue palo verde in the wild may develop and retain foliage only during early spring. With landscape irrigation, it can retain some foliage through summer. It can also produce a bit more prior to late autumn defoliation. However, frequent irrigation promotes vigorous but structurally deficient growth. Few blue palo verdes thrive for a century within landscapes.

Blue palo verde can grow almost forty feet tall, but typically grows only about half as tall. It naturally grows as large shrubbery. Removal of lower growth exposes sculptural trunks for small tree form. With staking, trees can develop single trunks. Light yellow flowers are tiny but profuse during spring bloom. Blue palo verde is the Official State Tree of Arizona.

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Strawflower

Strawflower retains its color and form, although not foliage, as it dries.

Just like cosmos, zinnias and other related flowers, strawflower, Helichrysum bracteatum, seems to be at its best as its bloom season ends. Bloom started in summer and should finish now that weather is getting cooler. The two and a half inch wide flowers last in the garden until they get ruined by rain. They are excellent cut flowers, and even better dried flowers.  

Strawflower can be white, pink, red, orange or yellow. Their seed should be sown directly where they are wanted in spring. Mature plants are about two and half feet tall and a foot wide, with three or four inch long and somewhat narrow leaves. Dwarf varieties are not as good for dried flowers, but are fuller and look better in the garden. 

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Toyon

Native toyon berries appeal to birds.

Hooray for Hollywood! It was formerly Hollywoodland because of the California holly that still grows wild there. California holly is not actually holly, though. It formerly classified as hawthorn and two different photinia. It then became two other species of the genus that it is now. Ultimately, but perhaps just temporarily, it became toyon, Heteromeles arbutifolia.

Toyon is native to all but a few counties of California. It is therefore quite happy within the chaparral climates here. Once established, it needs no more water than it gets from rain. Occasional irrigation enhances foliar color and vegetative growth. Excessive or frequent irrigation can cause roots to rot. Fire blight can sometimes become a significant problem.

Toyon is unlikely to grow more than twelve feet tall with sunny and warm exposure. It can grow more than twice as tall if it competes for sunlight with larger vegetation. The simple evergreen leaves are narrow and somewhat serrate. Billowy trusses of tiny white flowers bloom for early summer. Trusses of bright red berries feed birds through autumn.

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Western Cottonwood

Western cottonwood is better in the wild than within refined gardens.

The brilliantly clear yellow autumn color of Western cottonwood, Populus fremontii, is best in the higher elevations and inland areas of its extensive range, which spreads from the coast of California to the Rocky Mountains and as far south as Mexico. Although it thrives in local riparian areas, particularly Coyote Creek and Guadalupe River, mild temperatures in both summer and winter do not allow it to get as colorful as it does in Nevada. It is almost never planted intentionally, but has a sneaky way of sometimes growing from seed in well watered gardens.

The bad news is that Western cottonwood grows big, fast and aggressively. The shallow roots displace pavement, compete with other desirable plants and damage septic and drainage systems. Large trees produce an abundance of annoyingly fuzzy seeds that adhere to anything. After causing so much damage, Western cottonwoods survive only a few decades, leaving big deteriorating carcasses that need to be removed before collapsing. Consequently, Western cottonwood is really suitable only for large open areas or in the wild.

Mature trees can be more than fifty feet tall and more than half as broad. Their somewhat thick leaves are almost triangular, with paired angular lobes on the sides and blunt tips. ‘Nevada’ is a male cultivar that does not produce fuzzy seeds.

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Japanese Honeysuckle

Honeysuckle is more fragrant than colorful.

Bloom should be most abundant during late spring and summer. Within this mild climate though, it often continues sporadically through autumn. Japanese honeysuckle, Lonicera japonica, is presently blooming nicely in some areas. Its trusses of ribbony creamy white flowers fade to pale yellow. Although unimpressively colorful, they are alluringly fragrant.

Japanese honeysuckle here is almost exclusively Hall’s Japanese honeysuckle. It might be recognizable by a cultivar name of either ‘Hall’s Prolific’ or ‘Halliana’. Some botanists consider halliana to be a variety rather than a cultivar. (Variety names are neither quoted nor capitalized like cultivar names.) ‘Purpurea’, with dark but not purplish foliage, is rare.

Japanese honeysuckle, like star jasmine, is a vine that can be a ground cover. As a vine, It can climb more than thirty feet high. Unfortunately, it sometimes overwhelms shrubbery and small trees. Its twining stems can constrict the stems of other vegetation that it wraps around. As ground cover, it can get three feet deep. Leaves are two or three inches long.

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Elderberry

Blue elderberry is native here.

Although almost never planted intentionally, elderberries occasionally appear in strange places, wherever their seeds get dropped by the birds or rodents who eat their berries. The blue elderberry, Sambucus mexicana / caerulea, is native and most common between California, British Columbia and the Rockies. The American elderberry, Sambucus canadensis, is more common elsewhere, and also appears in the west where it had historically been imported for berry production. Some modern cultivars (cultivated varieties) with gold, bronze, or lacy foliage are actually related to European elderberries.

Except for compact cultivars, elderberries grow rampantly to about fifteen feet tall and wide. Aggressive pruning in winter keeps them looking fuller and more densely foliated. Overgrown plants can be rejuvenated by getting cut to the ground. The big leaves are divided into seven leaflets that are two to six inches long. Blue elderberry foliage is softly serrate and a bit more variable, with five to nine leaflets that may be as short as one inch.

Wide flat trusses of pale white flowers that bloom in late spring or early summer produce small but potentially abundant and richly flavored berries. Blue elderberries are dark blue dusted with white powder on trusses to about six inches wide. American elderberries are darker and more purplish on trusses that can be wider than eight inches. (Red elderberries are toxic!)

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Chinese Elm

Chinese elm is sculptural and textural.

Dutch elm disease became a serious problem for American elms in the 1930s. However, it did not reach California until half a century or so later. Chinese elm, Ulmus parvifolia, is not very susceptible to the disease, but is a vector. In other words, it can survive infection to share it with other species of elm. Consequently, it became unavailable by the 1980s.

Some mature specimens of formerly common Chinese elm still inhabit older landscapes. Younger specimens in newer landscapes are mostly ‘Drake’ Chinese elm. They are a bit more upright, with more symmetrical form. More importantly, they are not vectors of Dutch elm disease. Other cultivars that are also resistant are rarely available at local nurseries.

Classic and formerly common Chinese elm can eventually grow more than fifty feet high. Some can grow thirty feet wide to shade an entire urban front lawn. Some cultivars might grow nearly as high, but are generally not quite as broad. Their blotchy gray and tan bark adorns curvaceous limbs. Their small deciduous leaves are not very colorful for autumn. They can be copious, messy and quite tedious to rake.

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Sweet William

Sweet William can grow as a short term perennial.

Because they do not like warm weather through summer much, sweet William, Dianthus barbatus, is appreciated more as a cool season annual from autumn into winter and even into spring. They can also be planted early in spring for color before summer warmth. They can sometimes survive as perennials in sheltered areas, particularly if mixed and hidden amongst other perennials and annuals. Deadheading (removal of deteriorating flowers) prolongs bloom.

New plants are easy to propagate from division, cuttings or layering of tired older plants. (Layering involves rooting prostrate stems by burying them slightly and them separating them when they have developed roots.) By the time the old plants become too deteriorated to salvage, the new cuttings or layers should be ready to replace them. New plants like to start out in rich and well drained soil, but not watered too much since they can be susceptible to rust and fusarium wilt.  

The white, pink, rosy pink, red, somewhat purplish or bicolored half inch wide flowers form rather flat dense trusses on top of short stems. Minute but abundant green bracts fill the spaces between the individual flowers. The rich green leaves below are about an inch to two and a half inches long. Mature plants of the more common varieties are typically less than a foot tall and wide. More compact and larger varieties are available as seed.