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Soil Saturation Kills

Use irrigation responsibly.

London plane tree is trendy not because it is all that excellent, but because it is so reliable. It is actually a rather trashy and messy tree that is susceptible to anthracnose and powdery mildew. Landscapers and gardeners like it so much only because the various maples, oaks and other better trees are more sensitive to soil saturation while they get established.

The truth is that most landscapers and gardeners do not want to put any effort into proper watering. While many of us let our lawns die to conserve a bit of water, they waste enough water on lawns and landscapes to sustain rice paddies! This keeps lawns and landscapes superficially green, but eventually causes problems.

Powdery mildew, anthracnose, molds, blights, rots and all sorts of diseases proliferate in damp conditions. Of course, gardeners are happy to apply fungicides and other chemicals to help control diseases; for a price. Also for a price, they are there to replace plants that succumb to any of the many diseases associated with excessive moisture.

Like London plane, several other trees and plants can survive excessive moisture, but only by adapting. If lower soil is regularly saturated, roots are confined to upper soil. This is not a problem for lily-of-the-Nile and many other perennials that can sneak their roots unnoticed into to the upper few inches of soil. However, trees can not get away with this habit for long; since their shallow and buttressing roots eventually expand to displace pavement, other plants and anything else that gets in their way.

Mature and old trees do not adapt. Their deep roots are already set in their ways, so will only rot if they get significantly more water than they are accustomed to. Oaks are particularly susceptible.

Unfortunately, there is no exact formula for determining how much water lawns and gardens should get. There are simply too many variables, such as soil type, drainage, exposure, weather and demand for moisture. Lawns need frequent watering without much volume. Trees prefer more generous watering, but less frequently.

Lawns and trees and everything else in between all need air within the root zone. Watering should therefore not keep soil constantly saturated, but instead allow for adequate drainage and aeration of the soil between watering, without complete desiccation. New plants will of course need more attention until they disperse their roots, but will be happier and healthier with proper watering.

Posted on by tonytomeo

More White Trash

White is my favorite color. It is not the best color for all flowers, but it is the only color that I allow within the White Garden, which is really just the meager landscape of the Mount Hermon Memorial Chapel. Creamy white, such as white nasturtium and white canna, are not white enough. I am adamant about this. After replacing a few blue lily of the Nile with a white hydrangea, I needed to remove the hydrangea as it began to bloom with a slight pinkish blush. About that time, two winters ago, we added a white climbing rose. It was a perfect fit, and produced a straight cane that extended from the top of an original cane to the eave during its first summer. Because it was still young and small, it bloomed mildly but sufficiently. More importantly, it bloomed white. It got pruned over winter. Now that it is a bit larger, it is blooming a bit more fuller. However, it no longer seems to be blooming pure white! Young flowers unfurl with a creamy pale yellow blush before fading to white. It is too pretty to remove, especially without a replacement. This could become a major dilemma!

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Deodar Cedar

Deodar cedar develops casual conical form.

“Cedar” is a common name of a few species of a few genera that are not actually cedars. Western red cedar is an arborvitae. Eastern red cedar is a juniper. Deodar cedar, Cedrus deodara, happens to be one of only three real cedars. Atlas cedar and cedar of Lebanon are the other two. Cultivars of Atlas cedar are uncommon. Cedar of Lebanon is very rare.

Although too big for compact gardens, deodar cedar is one of the more popular conifers. It performs splendidly within local climates and soils, as if it is right at home. Mature trees can survive without irrigation. Roots are generally complaisant, and disperse too deeply to displace pavement. However, deodar cedar can grow fifty feet tall and thirty feet wide.

Deodar cedar mostly develop casually conical form. Some develop multiple trunks or big limbs that eventually curve upward like trunks. Otherwise, limbs tend to droop somewhat at their tips. Glaucous grayish needle leaves are about an inch or two long. Most occur in terminal clusters of short spur stems. Some develop singly on elongated vigorous stems. Foliar debris has an herbicidal effect on the ground below.

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Street Trees Must Be Adaptable

Pavement necessitates trees with complaisant roots.

Trees of substantial size are not as popular as they had been among old home gardens. Modern landscapes of bigger homes on smaller parcels can not accommodate as many. Clearance from various infrastructure is now more of a concern than shade. Within many modern urban gardens, most available space is in front. Such is the realm of street trees.

This is not because of a lack of obstacles, such as infrastructure that requires clearance. It is more because such obstacles are closer to the ground with more open space above. Many street trees must actually be more adaptable to certain constraints than other trees. Selection of such trees, if allowable by their municipalities, necessitates diligent scrutiny.

Street trees are, most simply, trees between curbs and sidewalks. Some inhabit medians while others are adjacent to curbside sidewalks. Many municipalities prescribe particular trees for particular situations. Anyone who is uncertain of such limitations should inquire. Many municipalities permit property owners to install any trees they prefer, or none at all.

For those who can select street trees, such trees must be appropriate to their application. They must grow high enough to not obstruct sidewalks or roadways. Both sidewalks and roadways require minimal clearances. So do street signs, streetlamps and traffic signals. However, street trees should not grow too large for the confined spaces that they inhabit.

This includes their roots. Aggressive roots of willows, poplars and sweetgum are likely to displace pavement. Oaks, although too big for confined situations, are more docile. Their roots are less likely to displace adjacent infrastructures. Crape myrtle has become overly common because it is too small to cause damage. It does not make much shade, though.

Crape myrtle might also get rather messy, which is another consideration for street trees. It drops flowers during summer, and can get infested with scale, which exude honeydew. Magnolias drop flowers that can be a slipping hazard. Whether deciduous or evergreen, street trees should be reasonably tidy. Over roads, they should not need much attention.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Going Bananas Again

Banana trees have grown slowly through the oddly cool weather of spring. They are only now beginning to slowly recover from last winter.

1. Ariolimax columbinanus, banana slug is obviously unrelated to bananas, but seems as if it should not be. It is about as big as a small banana, but fortunately does not consume much viable vegetation. It prefers redwood detritus. It is rarely out during arid weather.

2. Actinidia deliciosa, kiwi vine is obviously as unrelated to bananas as a mollusk, but is something that I want to show off. These remaining three of five original cuttings are my second attempt to grow a male pollinator for a female vine that grew here two years ago.

3. Musa ingens, oem or giant highland banana produced a pup that grew big enough for separation. A smaller secondary pup remains attached as a potential replacement for the primary trunk when it finishes, but additional pups will likely develop through summer.

4. Musa itinerans var. xishuangbannaensis ‘Mekong giant’ banana also produced a pup. It is still dinky and now seems to be blinding out without a new leaf within its latest leaf. Another pup is only beginning to appear. I hope that more pups will eventually develop.

5. Musa, banana of an unidentified species and cultivar is recovering slowly from winter. It was here through last summer, so, unless it is a dwarf, it should be bigger by now. The shabbier specimen to its far left is Musa X balbisiana ‘Blue Java’ or ‘Ice Cream’ banana.

6. Rhody is who everyone who reads my Six on Saturday really wants to see. I have been negligent in posting pictures of him. He is not exactly easy to get a good picture of. Even this picture should have been centered better. Obviously, he knows his fans do not mind.

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/

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Port Orford Cedar

Cultivars are much more compact than the simple species.

Fifty foot tall Port Orford cedar trees, Chamaecyparis lawsoniana, like those that get harvested for timber from their native range on the south coast of Oregon and the northwest corner of California are almost never found in refined gardens. Their remarkably diverse garden varieties mostly stay less than half as tall, as dense, compact trees or large shrubbery that resembles arborvitaes. Many have bluish or greyish foliage. Some have gold foliage. Finely textured needle-like juvenile foliage that is so prominent among young plants continues to appear sporadically with scale-like adult growth as plants mature. The small round cones are not prominent. Like related arborvitae, Port Orford cedar tolerates a bit of shade.

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Home Garden Conifers

Dwarf Alberts spruce is more like a conical shrub than a tree.

Most of the familiar conifers, or ‘cone-bearing’ plants, are large trees like pines, spruces, cedars and cypresses. They are practical trees only with sufficient space, and where their debris and constant evergreen shade will not interfere with lawns or other plants below. Their less familiar compact specie and cultivars (cultivated varieties) that grow as smaller trees or large shrubbery are actually more proportionate, and therefore more useful for refined landscapes.

There are actually several small specie of pine, like Scots, Austrian black, dwarf Swiss stone, mugo, and the various Japanese red, black and white pines. Some of the most compact cultivars grow as dense shrubbery. Others grow as small to mid sized trees with the personalities of larger pines.

There are fewer compact spruce to choose from. Dwarf Alberta spruce, which is a very compact cultivar of white spruce, is perhaps the smallest and most symmetrical, growing as a dense and strictly conical shrub.  Columnar and pendulous cultivars of blue spruce grow in opposite directions, upright and downward, but stay compact enough to be grown as sculptural specimens or shrubbery. There are also pendulous white and Norway spruce.

Several compact cultivars of western red cedar and northern white cedar (Thuja spp.) are popularly grown as tall hedges. They are not actually cedars (Cedrus spp.) and are more often known by the common name of ‘arborvitae’. There are even more Asian arborvitaes (Platycladus spp.) to choose from; many of which have bright golden foliage. ‘Swane’s Golden’ Italian cypress is narrower and denser than the arborvitaes, but not as brightly colored.

Despite the bad reputation of certain cultivars that were planted too extensively decades ago, many junipers are very practical and sculptural coniferous shrubs, as well as ground covers and even small specimen trees. Some ground cover types stay less than a foot deep. Shrubby and small tree types are at their best where they have room to grow without pruning. If ‘Hollywood’ juniper is too old fashioned, the various Rocky Mountain junipers and Eastern red cedar (again, not really a cedar) are worth investigating for their distinctively picturesque forms.

Chamaecyparis are perhaps the most variable of the evergreen coniferous shrubs and trees. Although there are naturally only a few specie which grow into substantial timber trees, there are countless cultivars that are compact enough for residential gardens. Most stay less than thirty feet tall. Many stay less than half as tall. Most have rich deep green foliage; and many have bluish, greyish or golden foliage.

Chamaecyparis are known by a few different but inaccurate common names, including ‘cypress’, ‘false cypress’ and ‘cedar’. (Although the Alaskan cedar is now classified as a cypress, Cupressus or Callitropsis nootkatensis.) Like almost all other conifers, they are best where they can grow naturally without major pruning or shearing to compromise their naturally appealing forms and textures. The most diminutive cultivars are excellent for bonsai and rock gardens, or even in urns of mixed perennials.

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FIRST Louisiana Iris!

Finally, after two years, ‘Black Gamecock’ Louisiana iris from Tangly Cottage Gardening are blooming! At the end of winter of 2023, I divided a significant clump of them into enough pups for a thirty foot long row on the edge of the irrigation pond. They grew through summer, and should have bloomed for the following spring. Instead, a gopher ate all but a few pups. At the end of winter of 2024, I divided another clump into enough pups for a twenty foot long row in the same location, but closer to the water. Again, they grew through summer, and should have bloomed this spring, but instead, all but a few were eaten by a gopher. These that are now blooming are the survivors from the original batch, which were canned for their safety. They are blooming late, probably because they would rather be in the ground than canned. I will divide these into more cans now so they can proliferate and be divided again later, until there are twice as many as necessary for the edge of the pond. Then, I will plug some at the edge of the pond, into saturated soil that gophers can not dig under.

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Lemon Bottlebrush

Lemon bottlebrush is popular among hummingbirds.

Like oleander and junipers, lemon bottlebrush, Callistemon citrinus, has become passe. It was a victim of its own practicality. It was so popular that it became overly common. Yet it is just as practical now as it was then. It is resilient enough to survive within medians of freeways with minimal irrigation. In less exposed situations, it might require no irrigation.

As a small tree, lemon bottlebrush can grow more than fifteen feet tall. With pruning from below, some grow about twenty feet tall with sculptural trunks. Their canopies eventually become messy though, and require aggressive pruning. Most lemon bottlebrush grow as big flowering shrubbery or high hedges. Shearing can compromise bloom if too frequent.

Bright red bloom should be most abundant for summer, but may be sporadic at any time. It is very popular with pollinators, including hummingbirds. Many small staminate flowers bloom in compact cylindrical trusses, like bottlebrushes. Each truss is about two or three inches long and nearly as wide. The aromatic and evergreen leaves are almost as long. Dark brown bark is handsomely shaggy and furrowed.