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Lettuce

Lettuce prefers spring and autumn weather.

Warm season vegetables are replacing cool season vegetables about now. Technically, lettuce, Lactuca sativa, is a cool season vegetable. It grows through spring and autumn though. The last of it can continue almost until May. Within the mildest coastal climates, it can continue later. By the time it finishes there, it is almost time to plant more for autumn.

After thousands of years of cultivation and breeding, lettuce is now remarkably diverse. Most popular varieties are leaf, head or romaine types. Leaf lettuce is mostly green, but can be bronze, reddish or irregularly blotched. Most varieties develop loosely ruffly foliar texture. Romaine and head lettuce is denser but larger. Some grow a foot high and wide.

One commonality among lettuce varieties is that they tolerate neither frost nor arid heat. Some are a bit more tolerant of one or the other, which can prolong their season. Some of the larger romaine and head types need nearly four months to mature, though. Only a single phase matures within each season. Smaller types might mature in about a month.

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Hyacinth

Hyacinth is one of the earliest of spring bulbs, and is notably fragrant.

If their bulbs got into the garden early enough last autumn, Dutch hyacinth, which are hybrids of Hyacinthus orientalis, are now blooming with cartoon shades of red, blue, yellow, purple, pinkish orange, pink and white. The small, surprisingly fragrant flowers are neatly arranged on plump, bottle-brush shaped flower trusses up to eight inches tall. Their typically arching, rubbery, strap shaped leaves look like small lily-of-the-Nile leaves. Some types have more vertical foliage.

Like many bulbs and bulb like plants, hyacinth are unfortunately not reliably perennial in such mild climates. They prefer cooler winters. Consequently, they are typically grown only as annuals. However, I am aware of hyacinth that not only bloom annually, but have been multiplying nicely over the years in a few local gardens. Their flowers spikes are never as full as they were in their first season, but are appealing nonetheless. I actually prefer the less refined style of naturalized hyacinth.

French Roman or Roman hyacinth, Hyacinthus orientalis albulus, are still somewhat rare, but should be more common since they naturalize more reliably without cold winters. Each bulb produces a few flower stems with smaller and more loosely arranged pink, pale blue or white flowers.

Large hyacinth bulbs are easily forced to bloom suspended just above water by small stones in bowls, or individually in hyacinth glasses (vases that hold bulbs just above water). Forced bulbs should be kept in the dark until rooted, and can be moved out as foliage appears. They are as colorful as tulips and as fragrant as narcissus; but sadly, are not likely to survive after being forced.  

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Celery

Celery season conforms to local climate.

It could be either a warm season vegetable or a cool season vegetable. Celery, Apium graveolens variety dulce, dislikes both frost and arid heat. It is a warm season vegetable where summer is mild but winter is not. It is a cool season vegetable where winter is mild but summer is not. Where winter is cold and summer is hot, it prefers spring and autumn.

Celery is a biennial, which grows vegetatively for its first year, and blooms for its second. Because it is ready for harvest in less than half a year, bloom is not a concern. Any that mature enough to bloom are too tough to eat. Celery appreciates organically rich soil. It needs regular watering. Growth is irregular if its soil becomes too dry, even temporarily.

Celery naturally grows as densely vertical foliar rosettes, or bunches. Its distended and elongated petioles are its primary edible parts. Its disproportionately small leaflets are also edible though. Mature celery grows about a foot and a half to two feet tall. It grows well from cell packs if only a few bunches are necessary. It also grows well from seed.

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New Guinea Impatiens

New Guinea impatiens can be perennial.

Busy Lizzie had been unavailable for years because of a downy mildew epidemic. It has only recently been regaining availability and popularity. During its absence, New Guinea impatiens, Impatiens hawkeri, became more popular. Although a closely related species of the same genus, the two are actually very different. Resistance to mildew is important.

Besides that, New Guinea impatien is about as foliar as it is floral. Its bolder and slightly bigger flowers are notably less abundant than those of busy LIzzie. Also, its floral color range is limited to white, pink, red, lavender, magenta or orange. Its rich green or bronze foliage below compensates though. Many cultivars are variegated with yellow or salmon.

New Guinea impatiens are unfortunately a bit more expensive than most other annuals. The smallest that are available are in four-inch pots. They are unavailable in smaller and less expensive cell packs. They can grow about a foot wide and slightly taller if crowded. During winter, they deteriorate; but they can be tender perennials with shelter from frost.

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Arizona Cypress

Established Arizona cypress needs no irrigation.

Although not native, Arizona cypress, Hesperocyparis arizonica, behaves as if it is. It is native to deserts and chaparrals of Mexico, New Mexico and, of course, Arizona. Hence, new specimens only require irrigation until they disperse their roots. Afterwards, they are satisfied with seasonal rainfall. They are more resistant to pathogens than other cypress.

Most modern Arizona cypress cultivars are bluish gray with densely conical form. A few are yellowish, pendulous or columnar. ‘Blue Ice’ is a strikingly silvery bluish gray cultivar of smooth Arizona cypress. Most old Arizona cypress trees exhibit significant variation because they grew from seed. Some develop irregular form or more greenish drab color.

In the wild, Arizona cypress can grow taller than sixty feet. Locally, few get forty feet tall, particularly since modern trees are compact cultivars. Most stay less than twenty feet tall, and some stay about half as wide as they are tall. They work well as informal evergreen hedges. Smooth Arizona cypress exfoliates rough outer bark to expose smooth red inner bark. It is Hesperocyparis arizonica variety glabra.

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‘Citriodora’ Monterey Cypress

This cultivar is also known as lemon cypress.

            Supposedly, ‘Citriodora’ Monterey cypress, Cupressus macrocarpa ‘Citriodora’, can get more than thirty feet tall and nearly as wide. Yet, it grows slowly enough to function like small trees or large shrubs. Even if it eventually gets a bit too large, it is much more conducive to occasional pruning than typical Monterey cypress is, and can even be artfully pruned into informal hedges. (However, nonselective shearing deprives if of its naturally appealing form.)

            With its lemon yellow foliage, ‘Citriodora’ Monterey cypress resembles golden arborvitae, but is even brighter yellow and has distinctive cypress-like branch structure. Its older foliage within eventually turns darker green to add depth and enhance the structure. ‘Citriodora’ Monterey cypress looks best locally if at least partially shaded by larger trees during the afternoon.

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Blue Gum

Blue gum easily outgrows home gardens.

Almost no one adds blue gum, Eucalyptus globulus, to a landscape intentionally. Almost everyone who is familiar with it understands why. It is much too big and much too messy. Even where space is sufficient for it to mature, it is innately hazardous. It sheds big limbs from very high up. It often disperses its roots too shallowly to maintain adequate stability.

However, blue gum inhabits a few home gardens. Some were already there as gardens developed around them. Some grew from seed from nearby trees. Blue gum naturalizes in some regions. Mature trees are tall enough to share their shade, debris and seed with a few gardens. The copious debris inhibits weeds, but also inhibits desirable vegetation.

Blue gum in the wild is one of the tallest trees in the World. Naturalized trees commonly grow more than a hundred and fifty feet tall here. They stay shorter in windy situations. The tall and straight trunks constantly shed long strips of smooth tan bark. Fresher bark is tan, gray, greenish or even pinkish. The curved lanceolate leaves are quite aromatic. Ovoid juvenile leaves are bluish gray, and even more aromatic. Fuzzy staminate bloom is white.

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Chrysanthemum paludosum

Chrysanthemum paludosum goes into the garden early here.

            In cooler climates, where winters are too harsh but summers are just right, Chrysanthemum paludosum is a warm season annual. Locally though, it gets planted about now like pansies, stock and Iceland poppies.  Chrysanthemum paludosum does just fine through late winter, and does even better as the weather gets warmer in spring. It can be replaced with real warm season annuals as weather eventually gets too warm and dry (lacking humidity) in summer. In cool and damp places, it can survive through summer. Chrysanthemum paludosum develops into six inch wide mounds of rich green and finely textured foliage adorned with small white daisy flowers with yellow centers.

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Asian Taro

Asian taro leaves grow very big.

Both alocasias and colocasias are striking foliar plants. Alocasias generally develop big leaves that point upward. Colocasias generally develop even bigger leaves that hang downward. Alocasias are generally more colorful, perhaps with striking foliar patterns. Also, most tolerate more shade than colocasias. Of course, these are generalizations.

Asian taro, Alocasia odora, resembles colocasias as much as alocasias. Its big cordate leaves may point only slightly upward, and might sag downward. They can grow two feet long and a foot wide, on petioles as long as three feet. Collectively, foliage can get more than five feet tall. It is bright but monochromatic green, similar to that of Kermit the Frog.

Asian taro is only occasionally available from nurseries. Small plants are too delicate for nurseries to market too many of them for too long. Their dormant bulbs are more likely to become available with summer bulbs. They can be wider than three inches! They grow slowly though, especially while weather is cool. Foliage may not appear for two months.

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Mexican Weeping Bamboo

Mexican weeping bamboo is more appealing in abundance.

Like junipers, bamboos have gotten a bad reputation from only a few of their problematic specie. Many of the traditional running bamboos really are too aggressively invasive. However, there are many clumping bamboos that are much more adaptable to confined and refined garden areas. Even these complaisant bamboos remain uncommon though, both because of the unpopularity of bamboos, and because they are not so easily produced.

            Mexican weeping bamboo, Otatea acuminata aztecorum, is certainly one of the more interesting of these clumping bamboos. Their limber inch and half wide stems are not nearly as rigid as those of most other bamboos are, and may bend down to the ground under the weight of their abundant and remarkably finely textured foliage. The four or five inch long leaves may be only an eighth of an inch wide. Both the stems and foliage move nicely in even slight breezes.

            Established plants are somewhat resilient to neglect, but can get rather yellowish and will likely stay less than ten feet tall without regular watering. With regular watering and monthly application of nitrogen fertilizer, such as lawn fertilizer, during warm weather, they can get twice as tall. Old canes should be pruned to the ground as they begin to deteriorate. There should be plenty of fresh new stems to replace them.