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Native Species Are Natural Choices

California lilac grows wild throughout California.

Wildflowers are only part of the story. They are happy enough with the chaparral climate here to bloom for spring or summer. A few are naturalized exotic species, though. In other words, they are not native to California. They merely behave like they are, likely because they are from similar climates. Native species are happy here because they are at home.

More than the most abundant wildflowers are native. Many trees, vines, shrubs, annuals and perennials are also. They were here long before Spanish explorers imported the first exotic plants after 1542. They were as satisfied with local soils and climates then as they are now. This is why many are more suitable for home gardens than many exotic plants.

Native plants are less popular than exotic plants only because a few are a bit too natural. Since they are from chaparral climates, some may get a bit scraggly and dry by summer. They survive arid weather by being partially dormant through some of it. Most appreciate irrigation through summer. However, some are susceptible to rot with generous irrigation.

Conversely, there are several advantages to native plant species. They naturally require less irrigation than most exotic species. Once established, some expect none at all. Only species from other chaparral or desert climates might be less demanding. Landscapes of exclusively native species therefore conserve water. Some get all they want from rainfall.

Also, native species are more compatible with natural ecosystems. Any that self sow into nearby wildlands will be where they belong. They do not compete unfairly for pollinators that other native species rely on. Nor do they compete unfairly for possibly limited space and resources. Furthermore, they contribute habitat and sustenance to wild native fauna.

California poppy and sky lupine are probably the most familiar of native annuals. Various salvias and bush lupines may be the most familiar native perennials. California lilac and flannel bush are familiar native shrubs. California sycamore, coastal redwood and coast live oak are familiar native trees. Many native species are practicable for home gardens, and landscaping.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 16 Comments

Six on Saturday: Azaleas 2025

Azaleas make it difficult to limit this post to only six pictures. So many cultivars are now in bloom. However, azaleas also make it easy to comply with suggestion #7 of the Six on Saturday participation guide, which suggests minimal verbiage. There is not much to say about them, since I do not know much about them, or even what cultivars they are. I can only guess the identities of half of them. Even if I could identify the cultivars, I could not identify the species. I only know that all azaleas are of the same genus of Rhododendron. I suppose that, in this regard, they could qualify as a few more of Rhody’s rhodies.

1. ‘Hino Crimson’ happens to look very much like this. The small leaves are dark, but not quite bronzed presently. They were bronzed, but only during the coldest winter weather.

2. ‘Coral Bells’ happens to look very much like this. It is the most common azalea within the landscapes at work, and is remarkably reliable with its remarkably abundant bloom.

3. The bloom of this cultivar seems to be even more abundant because almost none of its foliage is visible beneath it. These flowers are little, but bigger than those of ‘Coral Bells’.

4. This azalea seems to be a ‘florist’ cultivar rather than a landscape cultivar. It was likely left by someone who worked in a nearby office years ago, and then found by a gardener.

5. Within the spacious landscapes here, each cultivar of azalea is installed in groups of at least a few individual specimens. Like the florist azalea, there is only one of this cultivar.

6. ‘Fielder’s White’, which is my favorite of the common azalea cultivars, happens to look very much like this. After restating this phrase thrice, I still can not identify any of these.

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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Manzanita

Manzanita is Spanish for “little apple”.

Mature common manzanita, Arctostaphylos manzanita, can get more than fifteen feet tall and about half as wide, so can be rather large shrubbery or small trees. Pruning away lower growth exposes their interestingly sculptural and smooth cinnamon red stems and trunks. The rather stiff light green leaves make light shade that smaller plants can live with. Waxy pinkish buds bloom into small pendulous clusters of tiny white lantern like flowers as winter becomes spring.

Manzanitas prefer to be neglected. They should not be pruned too much, and certainly should not get shorn. Obtrusive stems should be pruned out completely, since stems that get cut back do not regenerate. New plants should only be watered once or twice weekly through the first summer. Mature plants plants only want to be watered monthly or even less. After all, they are native to the surrounding hillsides, so are very satisfied with annual rainfall.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 6 Comments

Slugs & Snails

hor d’oeuvres

The British Invasion by the Beatles may not have been much of a problem to American gardens; but the French Invasion by brown snails is. Since getting imported as escargot, they eat much more than they get eaten, tearing apart flowers and foliage and devouring young seedlings completely. They tend to hide during the day, and emerge after sunset to graze voraciously until dawn.

Snails as well as slugs are most active this time of year, while the garden is still damp from winter rain, but getting warmer with springtime weather. Fresh vegetation that grows and starts to bloom about now is more than abundant enough to sustain them. Slugs and snails may be slow and ‘sluggish’, but have immense appetites.

Unfortunately, lush foliage that is most susceptible to the wrath of snails and slugs is also the most conducive to their proliferation. Overgrown foliage and plants with large leaves provide plenty of cool damp shade for snails and slugs to hide in during the day. Removing big weeds, fallen leaves and any debris eliminates some of the shelter that they crave while the sun is up.

Snails and slugs are neither elusive nor fast. Hunting them should be easier than it actually is. They are of course easiest to catch while they are out at night. Shallow containers, like saucers for potted plants, containing puddles of beer purportedly get snails to stay out drinking until the sun comes up and roasts them, but this technique is probably more work than it is worth. It wastes beer and seems to catch only a few victims at a time. Besides, the beer gets washed away whenever the garden gets watered.

It is easier and just as sneaky to leave boards or cardboard out overnight for snails and slugs to hide under in the morning, and then surprise the deceived snails and slugs during the day by depriving them of their shelter. They are objectionable to handle, but otherwise easy to collect. Your imagination is probably more useful than any recommendations about how to dispose of them once collected.

Copper tape that can be found in nurseries and hardware stores is a barrier to snails and slugs. It can be self adhesive, or stapled to wooden planter boxes. Plants must be contained within a copper barrier to prevent slugs and snails from getting over the barrier on any plant part that extends within their reach.

Bare copper wire can also be effective. Because trees are actively growing this time of year, copper wire wrapped as a barrier around tree trunks should have some slack, such as a flat ‘S’ shaped curve, to accommodate for trunk expansion.

Salt should not be used to control snails and slugs because it can be harmful to plants. Too much would be needed to surround susceptible plants, and like beer, it would get rinsed away when the protected plants get watered. Keeping drainage saucers filled with water as protective moats for potted plants inhibits drainage, and provides a place for mosquitoes to proliferate.

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Off Color II

Borago officinalis, borage, as I mentioned last October, blooms almost exclusively with blue flowers. At the time though, a few maturing seedlings were blooming with a few pink flowers that eventually were replaced with blue flowers. Now that more are blooming, a few are doing so like this, with white flowers. Also last October, I mentioned that, although white is my favorite color, I expect borage to bloom blue. Not only does blue seem like a more natural color for it, but is also prettier. White borage seems rather mundane. Fortunately, most bloom blue, with enough that bloom white for my own garden, where I am less concerned with how pretty they are. I now wonder if they will be true to type. In other words, I wonder if those that bloom white will produce seed for more that bloom white, or if they will revert to bloom mostly blue. I will take what I get, I suppose. I have not yet found one that I do not like. I would be impressed, or perhaps concerned, by orange bloom, but I seriously doubt that will happen. I should be more concerned with what to do with all these borage seedlings than with their bloom color. I will plant only a few at work, which leaves more than a few for my home garden. Although supposedly not invasive, they are also supposedly proficient with self seeding. Once they get established within my garden, they will likely always be there. I suppose that I should learn to exploit their culinary applications, particularly for those that bloom blue where I do not want them, but perhaps less so for those that bloom white where I do want them. Now I am getting ahead of the situation. After all, they are still just seedlings.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 4 Comments

Lungwort

Most lungwort blooms blue or purplish.

Its unappealing common name is less common than its more agreeable botanical name. Lungwort does not sound as pretty, or at least as official as Pulmonaria officinalis. It is an evergreen perennial, although its foliage likely desiccates through summer. New foliage replaces it during cooler autumn weather. Lungwort prefers cool and moist partial shade.

Mounds of foliar rosettes grow no deeper than a foot. They often stay only half a foot high as they spread as wide as two feet. Their lowest rhizomes produce adventitious roots so that they can sprawl even farther. Such growth is easy to divide. Foliage of most cultivars exhibits pretty lighter green or silver spots or blotches. Some is almost completely silver.

Lungwort blooms mostly for late winter and early spring. Trusses of daintily small flowers hover barely above their basal foliage. The most popular sort blooms with pinkish purple flowers that mature to blue. Others bloom with purple, pink, purplish red or white flowers. Although foliage is healthier within partial shade, sunshine promotes profusion of bloom.

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Perennials Perform Longer Than Annuals

Kaffir lily is a reliable perennial.

Annuals live for only one year. Biennials live for only two. Technically, all other plants are perennials. Horticulturally, this classification is much more specific. Generally, It does not include vegetation that qualifies as something else. Also generally, plants that qualify as perennial are herbaceous rather than woody. Of course, this is not as simple as it seems.

Palm trees that develop substantial trunks, for example, classify as herbaceous trees. So do arboriform yuccas, such as Joshua tree. Palms and yuccas that do not develop trunks can classify merely as perennials though. Different species of one genus could therefore classify very differently. Tree ferns may also qualify as herbaceous trees as they mature.

Many palms and yuccas, as well as agaves, bamboos and banana trees, are perennials. They might not seem as if they should be, since they can grow so large. Spring bulbs are more recognizable as perennials likely because of their small size. Lavenders and some salvia develop more woody stems than banana trees. They are perennials nonetheless.

Perennials are generally self perpetuating. Lavenders and similarly twiggy sorts may not not seem like they are, but they can be. Their lower stems that sprawl over the surface of the soil can grow adventitious roots. These adventitiously rooted stems can grow as new plants to replace the old. Herbaceous perennials are more overt about self perpetuation.

Lily of the Nile, for example, constantly produces new rhizomes to replace the old. It can do so indefinitely. Some may have done so longer than the oldest bristlecone pines have been alive. They do not retain old growth as evidence of their age. This self perpetuation is an advantage in home gardens. It facilitates both sustainability as well as propagation.

Lily of the Nile, Daylily, Kaffir lily and African iris are very simple to propagate by division. Once separated, either after bloom or while dormant, their rhizomes grow as new plants. Many perennials actually perform better after occasional division. It alleviates congestion by providing more space to grow and bloom. Canna and ginger rhizomes grow very fast. Canna may benefit from annual division.

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Six on Saturday: More Gifts from Tangly Cottage Gardening

Tangly Cottage Gardening was a primary destination of my vacation. I posted pictures of it last week. These are six more species that I received as gifts.

1. Acanthus spinosus, armed bear’s breech has the strangest common name of these six. Is the bear armed or just its butt? Regardless, I happen to like common Acanthus mollis, and had coincidentally been wanting to try this less common species as well. Now, I will.

2. Echinops ritro, globe thistle was a minor crop where I worked with cut flowers during the summer of 1986. I did not enjoy harvesting it then, but recently, I had coincidentally been wanting to add a single specimen to my garden. I just could not think of an excuse.

3. Helenium autumnale, common sneezeweed also has an amusing common name. I am unfamiliar with this species, although its botanical name somehow seems to be familiar. I got three distinct cultivars of it now! If we were not already acquainted, we will be now.

4. Brachyglottis greyi, daisy bush has a contrarily mundane common name. Many other species could easily qualify for its name. Somehow though, it makes it more compelling. Now, I want to see what makes it distinct from all other daisies, bushes or daisy bushes.

5. Leycesteria formosa, Himalayan honeysuckle or pheasant berry is yet another species that I had coincidentally been wanting to acquire. I embarrassingly did not recognize its name initially. I was told that I would find its flowers to be more appealing than its fruit.

6. Lupinus, lupine is regifted and unidentified. I do not know if it is annual or perennial. Because it was grown in a can rather than merely shared as seed as annuals should be, I suspect that it is perennial. I will find out. This one can contains several swell seedlings.

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/