Posted on by tonytomeo · 14 Comments

Six on Saturday: Strange Times

Some flowers are blooming strangely this year. Well actually, one bloomed strangely last year, and is now blooming normally. Flowers that prefer more winter chill than they can experience here are blooming quite nicely this year, even after less frost than last winter. I can neither make sense of it all, nor complain about it. I mean, it may be strange, but it is strange in a good way. We added a windmill palm that I mentioned two weeks ago to a landscape. I like palms, especially this palm, but I am not sure that I like them here with the redwoods. Palms are strange with redwoods.

1. Trachycarpus fortunei, windmill palm is strange because it is one of only three palms here. Palms and redwoods should not mix. It remains canned, so will be removed as the unseen angel’s trumpet behind it grows. I featured it two weeks ago, before it came here.

2. Hyacinthus orientalis, hyacinth is not so strange either, but it performs strangely well and reliably with only minor chill. Several have been blooming like this for several years.

3. Bergenia crassifolia, pig squeak is blooming strangely late with a strangely light pink floral color. Otherwise, it blooms a bit better now that a sycamore that shaded it is gone.

4. Ribes sanguineum, red currant is blooming with a strangely light pink floral color too. It is not much more than white, but is not white. All are this same strangely pallid color.

5. Brugmansia X cubensis ‘Charles Grimaldi’ angel’s trumpet did just the opposite. After blooming strangely pallid peachy orange since spring, it now blooms yellow as it should.

6. Helleborus orientalis, Lenten rose is blooming strangely well this year. Typically, only a few bloom like this. Now, many are. This is one of a uniform colony that is likely feral.

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 · 6 Comments

Horridculture – Hackers

How could anyone believe that this was appropriate?!

Of the many different types of horticultural professionals, the two most professional and educated are nurserymen and arborists. The two least professional and downright idiotic are maintenance gardeners and arborists. That means that some of the most professional and some of the least professional of horticultural professionals are arborists.

I have been very fortunate to have worded for some of the most professional, most educated and best arborists. However, much of my work as a consulting horticulturist and arborists involved damage that was caused by some of the least professional, least educated and worst of so-called arborists. They ruin the trees that their clients pay them to maintain or repair. It is infuriating.

Someone put a great deal of effort into destroying this formerly healthy tree.

This tree was formerly a nearly exemplary specimen of big cone pine, Pinus coulteri. It was impressively healthy and exhibited no indication of instability. Its only obvious problem was that it developed so many trunks that it would eventually develop structural deficiency. That will not likely be a problem now, since it will not likely survive long enough for such deficiency to develop. Even if it remains healthy enough to grow significantly, it will become too structurally deficient as a result of this recent damage to survive for long.

I can not imagine how anyone, arborist or not, could believe that this was a proper pruning technique. Nor can I imagine how anyone could have put so much effort into so blatantly destroying this formerly healthy tree. Seriously, this involved a lot of work! Every trunk, every major limb, and many minor limbs were cut. Some cuts were made at lateral branches, but many were not. It is not possible for the tree to compartmentalize all of the resulting pruning wounds, which will remain exposed to the weather until the tree succumbs to the resulting decay.

Recovery from such severe damage is impossible.
Posted on by tonytomeo · 23 Comments

Six on Saturday: Hello Yellow

White is my favorite color. I sometimes post six pictures of exclusively white flowers for Six on Saturday. Also, I posted six pictures of exclusively red flowers merely to show that I could. I might have tried other colors as well. I do not remember trying yellow though. California bay gave me the idea, although its bloom is rather unimpressive. Silver wattle is much more colorful. So is daffodil. Dandelion is merely a weed; but technically, silver wattle is also. Ultimately, I got four pictures of yellow flowers, a picture of an aberrative beet, and a picture of someone who might qualify as golden retriever light gold, which at least sounds yellow. He can not see most colors anyway.

1. Acacia dealbata, silver wattle is an aggressively naturalized exotic species. It certainly is pretty though. It typically blooms earlier, and maybe by New Year’s Day farther south.

2. Umbellularia californica, California bay does not bloom as prettily. Its flowers are too tiny, too sporadic and too high in its canopy to be prominent, but it blooms nonetheless.

3. Taraxacum officinale, dandelion, like silver wattle, is also an aggressively naturalized exotic species. It infests most lawns, and blooms to toss its seed whenever it wants to.

4. Narcissus pseudonarcissus, daffodil continues to bloom. Several are still budded. If it were not so variable with its bloom schedule from year to year, I would say that it is late.

5. Beta vulgaris, beet should be red, not yellow. ‘Detroit Dark Red’ is best! This seems to taste about the same, but looks like a sick carrot! I loathe carrots! Why do this to a beet?

6. Rhody remains unimpressed. He is no more interested in beets than carrots. He could be more concerned about the first of a few storms that should arrive in only a few hours.

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

Horridculture – Salvage

A hedge of a dozen like this came from one branched stump.

This is an old and redundant topic. I should know better. Some vegetation is not worthy of salvage. Even that which is worthy can become excessive if too much is salvaged. The problem is that I find it very difficult to discard vegetation that I can relocate to another landscape, or grow in the recovery nursery whether or not we have use for it.

A few stumps of shrubbery needed to be removed from a small landscape of one of the buildings at work. With one exception, the shrubbery was common Photinia X fraseri, which had been cut down some time ago, and had not grown back much. The one exception was a common Escallonia rubra, which had been cut down even earlier, so had grown back about five feet tall, with a few distinct trunks.

I had no problem discarding the Photinia X fraseri. The stumps came up with mostly severed large roots, and very minimal fibrous roots that they needed to survive. If I really want to grow more, it would be more practical to grow it from cuttings. I am none too keen on the species anyway.

The Escallonia rubra was not so simple. Although I was determined to discard it all, and I am no more fond of the species than I am of Photinia X fraseri, it came out with more than enough fibrous roots to survive relocation. What is worse is that the several trunks were easily divided into several individual well rooted specimens, with several more layered stems attached to them. I assembled an even dozen well rooted specimens as a hedge outside a fence of our maintenance shops, and nine smaller rooted cutting to alternate between cypress trees outside another similar fence. Although pleased with the results, I should have discarded them.

This is one of the smaller well rooted specimens, although the layered stems are smaller.
Posted on by tonytomeo · 13 Comments

Six on Saturday: Palm Springs

Palms spring up anywhere they want to. Only the fourth and sixth of my Six on Saturday are not feral. Incidentally, the last three are not my pictures; and Brent sent the last two. His curbside Mexican fan palm is at least one of the parents of my pair of seedlings here.

1. Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palm, which I wrote about earlier, was too pretty to stay in the recovery nursery where no one can see it. We put it here temporarily, until a pup from the Agave ovatifolia, whale’s tongue agave that bloomed and died here, gets large enough to replace it. It is canned within the big pot for ‘efficient’ removal, but is so heavy that I have no idea of how to get the can out of its pot. It will be a bit heavier later.

2. Wicked spines on its petioles contribute to the difficulty of relocating this heavy palm.

3. Trachycarpus fortunei, windmill palm is also too pretty to stay unseen in the nursery. It will also get groomed and relocated temporarily to a landscape next week. This young palm grew in the garden of the mother of childhood friends, so I am very protective of it.

4. Palms and redwoods do not mix well. A colleague wants this windmill palm gone. It is about twenty four feet tall. That ladder is eight feet tall. It will be difficult to relocate, but I do not want it cut down and killed. Like the others, I have no idea of what to do with it.

5. Brent’s curbside Mexican fan palm looks embarrassed with its silly uplighting. That is the moon above. This palm, which is a Memorial Tree for Brent’s brother, was about ten feet tall when relocated here because it grew under electrical cables several blocks away.

6. Bedford Drive, nearer to the original location of Brent’s curbside Mexican fan palm, is flanked by very old and alternating Mexican fan palms and Phoenix canariensis, Canary Island date palms. They were grandly uniform until the Canary Island date palms began to succumb to pink rot during the 1980s. The Beverly Hillbillies started their shows with a scene of their arrival in town on a similarly flanked street three blocks to the northeast.

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

Horridculture – Weather

So close to ripening!

The weather here made national news on Sunday night. It was apparently quite a storm, with unusually windy wind. A few trees fell in the neighborhood. The roads were messy with debris. The electricity at home was disrupted. Otherwise, to me, it did not seem like a particularly bad storm. After all, this is winter.

HOWEVER, on Saturday, even before the worst of the weather on Sunday, the wind knocked over my small ‘Ponderosa’ lemon, only a few hours after I posted a picture of one of its two developing fruit. It is a dinky tree in a #1 can, but its lemons are disproportionately large. As I mentioned on Saturday, I should have removed the lemons to divert resources to vegetative growth, but wanted to see if they would develop and ripen. The weather did it for me.

Now I am annoyed. I do not like to be one who complains about the weather. There is not much to complain about in that regard here. This is a pleasantly mild climate that lacks the sort of severe weather that other climates must contend with. The gust that blew over the small lemon tree was not nearly as strong as those that blew over trees within the surrounding forests and neighborhoods. I am just annoyed that after letting the lemons grow as much as they did, their effort will now be wasted.

The two lemons did not develop as they should have, but are still bigger than average ‘Eureka’ or ‘Lisbon’ lemons. I put them aside to ripen if they can. I doubt that they will. I can prune the small tree to remove the stems that had previously supported the two lemons, and make cuttings of them, to grow more small trees. Actually, I should have done this anyway.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 14 Comments

Six on Saturday: Tree Circus

‘Crazy Great Ideas From Crazy Green Thumbs 6’ featured four sculptural tree specimens that had been relocated to Gilroy Gardens, which was formerly Bonfante Gardens, from the now defunct Lost World, which was formerly Tree Circus. While getting gasoline for Morgan in Scotts Valley, I stopped at the former site of Tree Circus for these six pictures. Not much remains to suggest that Tree Circus was ever there. Of these six pictures, only one shows real vegetation, which is a single London plane, Platanus X acerifolia, with a pair of trunks, which form an arch. (Incidentally, Crazy Green Thumbs sent me seed for poinciana and esperanza, which I featured for Six on Saturday almost two years earlier.)

1. Tree Circus Center now occupies the former location of Tree Circus, and subsequently, the Lost World. Progress can be so trivializing. Notice the emblem at the top of this sign.

2. The emblem depicts this last tree of the Tree Circus, which was a pair of trees that got grafted together and separated and grafted together. Notice the plaques to the lower left.

3. This upper plaque very briefly explains the history of Tree Circus and the Lost World, although without mention of what happened afterwards. Notice the other plaque below.

4. This lower plaque features illustrations of a few of the many sculpted trees of the Tree Circus, although woefully weathered. Notice the illustrations to the far right and far left.

5. This illustration to the far right shows the only other tree of the Tree Circus to remain at the site, although it is now gone. Notice the caption, ‘Protected for future generations’.

6. This illustration to the far left shows one of the Tree Circus trees that was exhibited in the context of ‘Crazy Great Ideas From Crazy Green Thumbs 6’ by Crazy Green Thumbs.

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 · 15 Comments

Six on Saturday: Plugging Along

Agapanthus orientalis, lily of the Nile and Osteospermum ecklonis, African daisy are all there is to my Six for this Saturday. Lily of the Nile is in the first three. African daisy is in all but the first. Both are in the second and third. Both are from South Africa. Both have been getting recycled from where they are migrating a bit too much, and getting plugged into more appropriate situations. It is nursery production directly within the landscapes where the finished products are desired. Processing African daisy cuttings and lily of the Nile shoots takes time, but is still less expensive than purchasing nursery stock. They are byproducts of our normal landscape maintenance.

1. Gophers are killing fewer lily of the Nile than they killed last year. I must plug some of the spare shoots from last Saturday here though. Gophers ate the thick rhizomes below.

2. African daisy is performing as well as the majority of lily of the Nile in this landscape. It migrates nicely, but also encroaches somewhat into the adjacent row of lily of the Nile.

3. Edging is now necessary to separate the African daisy from the lily of the Nile. The lily of the Nile should grow to become too dense for the African daisy to encroach next year.

4. Some of the pruning scraps of the African daisy had already developed roots, as if they belong there. Their roots can be useful somewhere else. These scraps became cuttings.

5. Remaining stems are generating axillary growth for this year. We should apply a layer of compost over the stems to hold some against the soil so that they can develop roots.

6. Pruning debris from the African daisy was processed into unrooted cuttings that were plugged wherever we wanted more African daisy. They will develop roots prior to spring.

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 · 23 Comments

Six on Saturday: Bucket List

Hyacinth Bucket of ‘Keeping Up Appearances’ might say, “It’s ‘Bouquet’.” However, this really is about the contents of two buckets, two cans, a bin, and a terracotta pot, without flowers. Most of these items must be processed prior to the end of the rainy season.

1. Agave ovatifolia, whale’s tongue agave bolted and bloomed too soon after installation. It is monocarpic, so died an ugly death while trying to replace itself with fresh new pups. I planned to later select the biggest pup to replace its original. Unfortunately, a gardener who did not know what they are pulled them all with nearby weeds. I scrounged through the debris to find these. Incidentally, I must still find homes for Agave americana pups.

2. Chrysanthemum X morifolium, mum contrarily will not die. It was abandoned after a wedding, but then potted into a landscape as it bloomed again. Removal for replacement as it again finished bloom revealed that each of these many stems is rooted individually.

3. Agapanthus orientalis, lily of the Nile is getting to be rather tedious. These shoots are of the same batch that I featured last week, and that I processed more than a month ago. I processed too many, so must now get the leftovers into the ground before winter ends.

4. Forsythia X intermedia, forsythia will bloom soon, but for the moment, is dormant. I relocated an old specimen that was always in the way. These spare twigs can be forced.

5. Actinidia deliciosa, kiwifruit vines grew easily from a broken bit that I found in a load of debris that someone left here last winter. They are female without pollinators though. These are dormant pruning scraps of its male pollinator, and should grow just as easily.

6. Rain was falling yesterday and is forecast to continue lightly through most of Monday.

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

Horridculture – WWW

Online, bay laurel often passes for culinary bay.

Anyone can say anything online. There is no shortage of inaccurate information. Much of it is stupidly inaccurate. Much of this stupidly inaccurate information is more popular and more efficiently dispersed than conflictingly accurate information. To make matters worse, some accurate information that seems like it should be readily available is notably lacking. For example, I can not determine if the native blue elderberry requires a pollinator for fruit production. It is a simple question that seemingly lacks an answer.

Facebook shared a link to an article about the twenty worst trees to select for home gardens. The article does not say where this information is relevant. Nor does it bother to mention that trees perform differently within different climates. It is presented as universally accurate information.

Chinese flame tree is first on the list. What is a Chinese flame tree? The article does not provide that information. This is what botanical taxonomy was invented for.

Eucalyptus is next on the list. What species of Eucalyptus? The article does not say. Nor does it mention any of the many species of Eucalyptus that are quite practical small trees. That is like saying that France, Spain, Italy, Greece and Portugal are all countries of Europe, but Africa is just Africa. (That happens also within other contexts.)

Tulip poplar is apparently dangerous because it drops branches. That sounds reasonable. However, coast live oak, blue gum eucalyptus, California sycamore and red willow are much more likely to do so here.

Black walnut is toxic. Although true, and some naturalized black walnuts remain from understock of the now extinct English walnut orchards, black walnuts are not commonly planted, and are not even available from nurseries.

Mulberry is messy. However, the only mulberry that is commonly planted is the fruitless mulberry. Fruiting cultivars are very rare, and mostly planted by those who actually want the fruit, and maintain them so that they do not get too big and messy.

Eastern cottonwood drops limbs. However, as the name suggests, it is Eastern, so is nowhere near here. Western cottonwood is a variety of the same species, and behaves similarly, but like black walnut, is neither planted intentionally nor is commonly available from nurseries.

The list goes on to include many trees that are not available here or that are simply not problematic. After describing all of the diverse species of Eucalyptus as one, it mentions a few species of similar cottonwoods as if they are more distinct from each other than they actually are. It shows a picture of common Mediterranean olive for Russian olive, which is not even remotely related. It says nothing about palms, which are good trees within appropriate situations, but require expensive maintenance by arborists who can climb them.

The internet is a useful tool, but is not perfect.