Posted on by tonytomeo · 19 Comments

Six on Saturday: Lenten Rose?!

Lenten rose does not perform well here. Perhaps it prefers more of a chill during winter. Perhaps it prefers more humidity. I do not know. Some were added to the landscapes at work sometime in the past, and naturalized. Because no one knows when this happened, it is impossible to know which if any are original, and which are naturalized feral plants. Until recently, only one specimen bloomed unexplainably well annually. Now, after very unusually wintry weather, Lenten rose is performing unusually well. Although not quite as impressive as it is in other climates, we are impressed locally. These pictures are more than a week old, but are still relevant, since the Lenten rose continues to bloom. I do not know what to expect. They never performed like this before.

1. Helleborus argutifolius, Corsican hellebore is the only simple species of Helleborus in the landscapes here. All the others are simple Lenten rose hybrids or their feral progeny.

2. Helleborus X hybridus, Lenten rose typically does not perform well here. The climate is likely too mild. This specimen, which is likely feral, performs unusually well annually.

3. Grayish lavender seems to be the most common color here. Lenten rose is performing unusually well this season. Perhaps they appreciated the unusually cool wintry weather.

4. Darker grayish purple is not as common here. Regardless of this unusually impressive bloom, hellebore are still prettier in pictures from other climates of more wintry winters.

5. White, of course, is my favorite. Only two bloom convincingly white, but the other is a bit spotty and blushed. I might have split a few copies if they typically bloomed this well.

6. Rhody does not cooperate for pictures. If I remember correctly, this picture was taken immediately prior to the picture from last week with his tongue out. It could be cropped.

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/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Rain Can Ruin Bloom And Developing Fruit

Bloom is not really early. Frost and unusually torrential rain just happen to be late.

Again this year, the excellent weather that makes gardening so much fun even through winter has the potential to become a problem. Winters are innately mild here, and like this year, are sometimes mild and warm enough to prompt many plants to bloom much too early. Many of the fruit trees and their ‘flowering’ (non-fruiting) counterparts are already finishing bloom as if it is the middle of spring, even though the equinox is about two weeks away. This should not be a problem for the flowering cherries, plums, pears and apples (flowering crabapples), but is risky for the many trees that should produce fruit.

The problem is that, despite the weather, it really is winter and early spring, so could potentially rain while fruit trees are blooming. The rain can batter the blooms, or cause them to rot before they set fruit, compromising or even eliminating the fruit production for the following summer. Trees that are not blooming, or just barely showing ‘color’ of the first few blossoms, should be safe. Also, the trees that bloomed earliest and have already set fruit should likewise be safe, as long as the weather does not stay rainy too long, which it almost never does here. Trees that are in full bloom when it rains are the most sensitive to damage.

It is impractical to cover mature trees with plastic sheeting to protect them from rain. Even if it is possible to get the sheeting over the trees, it knocks much of the bloom or developing fruit off anyway. Also, if the sheeting is not removed when the rain stops, it can trap humidity, which can rot the blooms that were so carefully protected from the rain. (Although, high trees hold the plastic high enough from the ground to allow for good air circulation.)

Small trees are easier to cover, but do not produce enough fruit to worry about. In other words, it would be easier to buy fruit at a market, or to get it from friends and neighbors with different varieties (that bloom at different times) than to put too much effort into protecting trees from the rain. In most situations, it is best to just accept that fruit trees will sometimes have ‘off’ years when they either do not produce, or produce only minimal quantities of fruit. The good news is that trees that lose some but not all of their fruit often produce best.

Plum bloom is not resilient to late frost or rain.
Posted on by tonytomeo · 38 Comments

Six on Saturday: Narcissism

That is such an objectionable word. Perhaps that is why so many of us prefer to describe narcissus as daffodils or paperwhites. Both bloom at work, and as much as I prefer white bloom, I do not maintain favorites in this regard. I enjoy paperwhites for their whiteness as well as their fragrance. However, I enjoy classic yellow daffodils, such as ‘King Alfred’, because they are so traditional. All are blooming late this year. So is winter daphne. The weather has been cooler than it typically is, but only for the past month or so. It seems to me that if chill were to enhance bloom, it would have needed to begin somewhat earlier. Also, it seems to me that narcissus do as they please.

1. Frost is generally minor and uncommon here. However, a wet jersey that was hung to drain overnight froze solid enough to lean against this pickup. Its hanger is not hanging.

2. Cupressus macrocarpa, Monterey cypress is nothing special, but I happen to be fond of its foliage and bark. This is a hedge that never got hedged, but grew as crowded trees.

3. Daphne odora ‘Marginata’, winter daphne is still blooming! It blooms slowly through winter, but should be finished by now. Furthermore, it blooms remarkably well for here.

4. Narcissus grows wild in soil that was dumped on the perimeter of our industrial yard over the years. No one sees them there, so I collect some to bring into our meeting room.

5. Narcissus are much more abundant within the landscapes where they belong. Several sporadic colonies are sparsely naturalized. However, several new bulbs bloom only once.

6. Narcissus are even prettier close up. I consider these to be daffodil, although I do not know what the distinction is. They are blooming late, and more are beginning to bloom.

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/

Posted on by tonytomeo

Spring Pruning Breaks The Rules

Spring pruning allows bloom to finish.

Dormant pruning is the best pruning. It happens while the subject plants that benefit from it are dormant and unaware of such procedures. Such procedures would be significantly more distressing to plants while they are vascularly active. In comparison, spring pruning may seem to be cruel and tortuous. Nonetheless, it is justified for particular applications.

For most plants that benefit from dormant pruning, the worst time to prune is immediately after the best time. Such plants are most vascularly active while blooming and refoliating during early spring. They become more resilient to pruning as they finish bloom and their foliage matures. This generally applies to plants that benefit from spring pruning as well.

The primary difference between plants that prefer dormant pruning and plants that prefer spring pruning is their primary purpose. Several plants that benefit from dormant pruning produce fruit. Plants that benefit from spring pruning merely produce profusion of bloom. Dormant pruning concentrates resources. Spring pruning allows maximum spring bloom.

For example, flowering plum is like a sterile but prettier version of fruiting plum. It merely blooms impressively without subsequently fruiting. There is no need for dormant pruning to concentrate resources into fruit, or to compensate for fruit weight. When and if pruning becomes necessary, it can happen after any unwanted growth has contributed to bloom.

Flowering cherry, flowering crabapple and flowering quince may actually prefer dormant pruning like their fruitful relatives do. However, like flowering plum, they also bloom more abundantly prior to spring pruning. Unrelated dogwood, redbud, forsythia and even New Zealand tea tree likewise benefit from spring pruning, which is the same as late pruning.

In moderation, blooming stems of plants that get either dormant or spring pruning can be delightful as cut flowers. A few unpruned stems can remain after dormant pruning for that purpose. They only need proper pruning when harvested or after bloom. Likewise, plants that get later spring pruning after bloom can likely spare a few stems while still blooming. Alternatively, such stems should be conducive to forcing.

Posted on by tonytomeo

Winter Bloom Might Be Scarce

Some camellia bloom sporadically for winter.

Oregon gardens get to display superior peony bloom for spring and summer. That is one of several advantages of winter chill. Some plant species appreciate a bit more chill than they can get here. It enhances their performance. However, chill also limits winter bloom. Not many plants want to bloom while the weather is cool, and pollinators are less active.

That is one of several advantages of mild winter weather. It allows flowers that bloom for autumn to bloom a bit later. It allows a few of the flowers that bloom for spring to bloom a bit earlier. There is not much time between the last flowers of autumn and the first flowers of spring. Winter bloom is not as important here as where winters are longer and chillier.

Even if less important here, reliable winter bloom might be a bit more challenging. Some plants that bloom for winter in other climates might be hesitant to bloom for winter locally. After all, they prefer to bloom while the weather is cool. Mild chill might be unsatisfactory. Cool season annuals are unpredictable, but are likely the most reliable for winter bloom.

Of the popular cool season annuals, cyclamen is actually perennial. If not removed at the end of its season, it goes dormant for summer, and regenerates for subsequent winters. It does not bloom as profusely as it originally did, but adds color to mixed small perennials or ground covers that do not bloom for winter. Some types of primrose are also perennial.

A few perennials bloom sporadically and randomly throughout the year, including winter. African daisy and euryops daisy typically do not bloom as much as they do during warm weather, but can. Euryops daisy may actually bloom best during winter. Bird of Paradise flowers mature so slowly that those that begin during autumn might finish through winter.

Witch hazel, daphne, heather, mahonia and winter jasmine bloom for winter, but perhaps not as impressively as for other climates. Some camellia bloom abundantly while others bloom sporadically. Bergenia may bloom later here than for other climates. Forsythia and some spring bulbs, especially daffodil, bloom so early that they seem to bloom for winter.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 15 Comments

Six on Saturday: Bloom!

Bloom has been conspicuously absent from my Six on Saturday posts for the past several weeks. Severe weather had prevented me from performing my horticultural obligations, and then prevented me from processing pictures after resuming my obligations. As I was able to post last week, I merely posted six pictures of why I neglected to share pictures of horticultural relevance for previous weeks. Finally, I can share a few pictures of some of the bloom that I have neglected. I am impressed that some of it survived so much severe weather. Incidentally, the weather has been totally awesome since the storms stopped as suddenly as they started. Zayante Creek flows as it typically does for this time of year, as if nothing happened. The water seems to be unusually clear.

1. Camellia japonica cultivars are sufficiently numerous here for a month or so of Six on Saturday. Some bloom profusely but briefly. Some bloom sporadically for a long season.

2. Camellia sasanqua cultivars are less numerous, but might be sufficient for two weeks of exclusive Six on Saturday presence. This one is ‘Christmas Cheer’ blooming a bit late.

3. Narcissus is too botanically complicated for species designation. This is possibly ‘King Alfred’. Experts might be able to identify its species or hybrid. I know it only as daffodil.

4. Iris X germanica is also botanically complicated. This unidentified cultivar wastes no time recovering from seemingly early division last September. I am very pleased with it!

5. Scilla peruviana, squill was still canned when we noticed it blooming! We neglected it while busy with the weather. The best is now planted. The rest awaits gopher mitigation.

6. Rhody is very pleased that his crew has been able to resume their normal duties, such as providing treats and petting, without all the stress associated with the severe weather.

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/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

Forced Bloom Is Not Sustainable

Moth orchids are grown for bloom.

Poinsettias are very popular blooming potted plants for about a month prior to Christmas. Then, most quietly disappear prior to spring. A few become foliar houseplants. Fewer go into home gardens to likely succumb to frost or neglect. Very few survive for more than a few years. It is not easy to recover from the procedures that forced them to bloom so well.

Forcing bloom is stressful. It provides unnaturally indulgent doses of stimuli that optimize floral performance. It involves any combination of deceptive environmental and chemical manipulation. Optimal bloom is the primary objective. Sustainability or even survivability after bloom is irrelevant. Forced plants are barely more than cut flowers with potted roots.

For example, poinsettias receive much more than the nutrition they require for exemplary growth and bloom. The greenhouses that they grow in maintain optimal temperature and humidity for them. Shading shortens their daylength to deceive them into believing that it is the season for bloom. Transition from such decadence to natural conditions is difficult.

Almost all fancy blooming potted plants that are available from supermarkets and florists, and several from nurseries, are forced to some degree. These include poinsettia, orchid, chrysanthemum, hydrangea, azalea, a few types of roses and various bulbs. Such bulbs include lily, narcissi, crocus, hyacinth and tulip. Some exhaust their resources by bloom.

Many forced plants are cultivars that are distinct from more common landscape cultivars. For example, many florist hydrangeas bloom with huge and very abundant floral trusses on short stems. They are spectacular in pots, but might not be so practical for landscape situations. Landscape hydrangeas support bloom higher over the ground on taller stems.

Their potential for inferior performance after their potentially difficult recovery from forcing should not necessarily disqualify forced plants from salvage. Short florist hydrangea can be delightful accessories to bigger landscape hydrangea. Moth orchids are impressively adaptable. Premature doubting of possible ultimate results can be more effort than trying.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Bad Timing

The preponderance of white amongst these ‘Six on Saturday’ is merely coincidental, and might not be obvious anyway. Only #2 and #4 are actually white. Contrary to its cultivar name, #3 is really very pale yellow. As stylish as he might be, #6 is quite obviously gray. #1 bloomed with tiny white flowers earlier, but its berries are now as red as #5. Anyway, with the exception of #1, their timing is less than ideal. #2 and #3 are performing better than they have all year, but will not last for long now that the weather is cooling. #4 and #5, although slightly confused, should still bloom splendidly in season. #6 was not there in the morning.

1. Ilex aquifolium, English holly is doing nothing that it should not be doing at this time of year, but is rarely so prolific with its berries here. It might be more invasive if it were.

2. Brugmansia X candida ‘Double White’, double white Angel’s trumpet is likewise a bit more enthusiastic than it typically is, but at the wrong time, as autumn becomes winter.

3. Helianthus debilis ‘Italian White’, Italian white sunflower is blooming like the angel’s trumpet, at the wrong time. It grew slowly through summer to begin blooming this late.

4. Rhododendron, azalea of an unidentified cultivar is either very late or very early. This unseasonal bloom deducts from the bloom for the following season, but is rather minor.

5. Rhododendron, azalea of another unidentified cultivar bloomed even earlier, or not so late, as this is an older picture. The minor consequences are the same. This white is rad!

6. Kenny II waddled out to meet me as I went out to close the gates for the night, but did not seem to do so intentionally. He stopped waddling when he encountered me, so I left.

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/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 2 Comments

African Daisy

African daisy hybrids are generally sterile.

Old fashioned trailing African daisy was becoming too common by the time it succumbed to the Big Freeze just prior to Christmas of 1990. Shrubbier and more colorful cultivars of hybrids with similar species, particularly Osteospermum ecklonis, are now more popular. Such hybrids mostly lack species designation because their lineage is very complicated.

Mature specimens do not grow much wider than two feet, so do not migrate as efficiently as old fashioned trailing African daisy. Since they are hybrids, they do not produce viable seed either. However, if pressed into damp soil, peripheral stems generate roots to grow as new plants that extend the collective width. They also replace deteriorating old plants.

Sporadic bloom may be almost continuous between a few profuse phases, with the most profuse phase between winter and spring. Only the coolest and warmest weather inhibit bloom. It can be difficult to shear overgrown plants between phases without ruining a few flowers. Floral color is pastel hues of purple, lavender, red, pink, orange, yellow or white.

Posted on by tonytomeo

White Bloom Brightens Cool Shade

White might be an acquired taste.

White and black are supposedly opposites. White is a combination of all wavelengths of visible light. Black is a complete absence of such light. In other words, white is a mixture of all colors, while black is the absence of any color. This seems contrary to the common perception of white as a complete lack of color, and black as a complete mix of all colors.

It actually makes sense. The two really are opposites of both each other and themselves. This is about horticulture though, rather than physics. Black is quite rare as a floral color. White is not. The vast majority of flowers do not rely on color to attract pollinators, so are green or brown. Otherwise, most other prominent flowers in many ecosystems are white.

Like inconspicuous green and brown flowers, many white flowers exploit wind more than pollinators. Such flowers are generally profuse, but mostly diminutive and unimpressive. Other flowers that appear to be white utilize infrared or ultraviolet colors that are invisible to people, but colorful to nocturnal pollinators. Some of them are pale during the daytime.

Otherwise, the majority of white flowers that are popular within home gardens are just as flashy as their nonwhite associates. For many types of flowers, such as roses, camellias, azaleas and the countless types of annuals, floral color is more variable than floral form. White is simply another option for color. It serves various specific and practical purposes.

While brightly colorful annuals are appealing within sunny and exposed situations, white flowers brighten darker situations. They contrast nicely with dark green foliage and richly colorful flowers. Petunias that might be a bit too deep purple for a particular situation can mix with similar but white petunias to be more harmonious. White can be a buffering tint.

Colors should preferably be appropriate to their particular applications. Such selection is more aesthetic than horticultural. Some plants, such as gladiola, petunia, calla, oleander and some lily, excel at white bloom. Bougainvillea and crape myrtle excel at richer color.