For the past few years, I have really been overly indulgent with the seed catalogues from Renee’s Garden. I wanted to try more varieties of classic annual cosmos, Cosmos bipinnatus, than I could fit in my garden. I recently grew ‘White Seashells’ with tubular ray flowers, and colorful ‘Double Click’ with ruffled semi-double and double flowers, and even the ‘Dancing Petticoats’ mix, which includes several varieties! By now, I have probably grown all but a few of the many offerings.
After trying so many though, I still can not tell you which are my favorites. It would not matter much anyway, since I did not deadhead them to deprive them of their abundant seeds. Their self sown progeny are now mixed and beginning to bloom in random shades of pink ranging from pale pink to nearly red to nearly purple, with a few white.
Naturalized cosmos eventually reverts to bloom with more genetically basic single flowers in simpler shades of pink and white, on stems about three or four feet tall. They can even get taller than six feet and wider than two feet. Most of the popular garden varieties that I started out with though stay less than three feet tall. ‘Sonata’ is a popular strain that stays even shorter, so is among the most practical and proportionate for refined gardens.
Seed can be sown or new plants can be planted now to bloom through summer. Naturalized plants are already blooming only because they get an earlier start. Regardless of color or form, all cosmos flowers are about three inches wide, with yellow centers. Their finely textured pale green foliage is quite delicate and airy.
It is impossible to say how long native wildflowers have adorned the natural landscape of California. Various lupines, California poppy and evening primrose had always been the most colorful wildflowers locally until they began to be displaced by exotic (non-native) plants only in the past two centuries or so. Although natives are remarkably resilient to dry summers and occasional wildfires, they are not very competitive with more aggressive and prolific invaders. What the natives and exotics have in common though is that they are so well adapted to local environmental conditions that they are able to perpetuate without much help.
Lupines, poppies and evening primrose, as well as native yarrow, godetia, and fleabane, may unfortunately need a bit of help if exotics want to move into their territory. In areas that are regularly or even only sometimes watered, weeding to remove more aggressive exotic plants helps the natives stay in control. They should otherwise do well on their own. Although without irrigation their growing season is much shorter, natives are slower to be displaced, since so many of the otherwise competitive exotics are not adapted to dry summers.
Many exotic flowering annuals are prolific enough to almost become naturalized, but are not quite aggressive or adaptable enough to get very far from cultivated landscapes. Cosmos, nasturtium, alyssum, catchfly (silene), four o’clock, gaura and foxglove self sow so readily that they are considered by some to be invasive. Some of us instead consider them to be ‘reliable’. They can be useful for unrefined parts of the garden that we do not mind watering, but otherwise do not want to put much effort into.
However, foxglove and even nasturtium can actually become noxious weeds in coastal areas not too far from here. I think that forget-me-not, feverfew, baby tears and English daisy can be problematic anywhere that they get enough water. Also, most annuals eventually revert to more genetically stable forms; which is why all varieties of dwarf nasturtium eventually bloom with the same yellow or orange single flowers. Yet, if we can distinguish between the plants that we can appreciate for their reliability and those that can be too invasive, native and exotic wildflowers and not so wild flowers can make gardening a bit easier.
Daffodil bloom from bulbs that were installed last autumn.
The elegant white callas that are just about to bloom in my garden have their origins in the ‘old country’. I obtained them from the garden of my great grandfather Tomeo in my ancestral homeland; Sunnyvale, near San Jose. I am told that my great grandfather planted them decades ago, and had been trying to get rid of them almost as long. I suppose that means that these callas are easy to grow.
My belladonna lilies that got planted two autumns ago are about as old, since they came from the garden of my mother’s mother in Santa Clara, right near Sunnyvale, and were in her mother’s garden prior to that. These bulbs just keep on growing, blooming and multiplying. Although I do not like their bright pink color much, I can not argue with their reliability.
Bulbs and bulb like plants that can take care of themselves and thrive with minimal or no attention are always welcome in my garden. Bright orange crocosmia is perhaps just as reliable, or should I say ‘persistent’, as callas are, and like callas, should be planted about now. Yellow, red, and orange with red flowering varieties are also available. Pink, red, orange, yellow and salmon cannas are in season too. They are easier to contain, but are likewise prolific.
Some of my other favorites that get planted about now for summer bloom want more attention, but are certainly worth it. Dahlias can naturalize if conditions are right for them, but will more likely do better if dug, divided and replanted in enriched soil at least every few winters. They are remarkably easy to propagate. Asiatic lilies likewise prefer to be dug and replanted as their soil becomes depleted, but are not likely to regenerate year after year if ignored.
Honestly though, some of the other summer blooming bulbs and bulb like plants that get planted about now are rather risky. I like to grow gladiolus because they happen to be among my favorite flowers. However, unless they get well amended soil and fertilizer, they do not perform very well, if at all, after their first year. Liatris is not much more reliable. Tuberous begonia is still a mystery to me, since I have not been able to prevent them from rotting in their first year!
Of the many bulbs and bulb like plants that get planted in autumn that are now blooming, grape hyacinth, snowdrop, watsonia, bearded iris, daffodil and narcissus are the most reliable and likely to naturalize, particularly with rich soil and regular watering. Daffodil and narcissus do not spread as well as the others, but are probably the most resilient. With a bit more effort, freesia and crocus can be persistent. In some situations, freesias have actually been known to naturalize as effectively as grape hyacinth.
Other early bloomers (that get planted in autumn) are more demanding. The anemones that I planted in about 1990 survived neglected in my garden for nearly a decade, but probably produced more flowers in their first year than in all subsequent years combined. Ranunculus and hyacinth may do the same if conditions are not just right for them. Tulips are perhaps the most profusely colorful of spring bulbs, but are sadly grown mostly as annuals, since they rarely do much more than produce foliage after their first year.
The first of our compost piles will not die. Some of the scraps of vegetables from the kitchens grow to produce more of the same. As this first pile of pre-compost gets turned over to the next pile, we commonly find potatoes and onions. Tomatoes, squash and sometimes cucumbers grow around and on top of the pile. Without watering, their season is limited, but just long enough.
It is actually frustrating that some of the vegetables that are not so productive where tended in the vegetable garden perform better, although likely briefly, on the random compost pile.
1. Vegetable scraps and rotten vegetables are common in the compost pile, even while the kitchens here are not presently operating. These do not seem to have been rotten when discarded.
2. Summer squash is common here, even though scrap from the kitchens should be from juvenile squash, which should contain no viable seed. This might produce yellow crookneck squash.
3. Cucumber is not so common, and will not likely last as long as other vegetable plants. The area is warm and dry. Cucumber prefers sunny but not so warm exposure, and regular watering.
4. Determinate tomato looks just like what grew here last year. If so, it makes small cherry tomatoes that are shaped like ‘Roma’ tomatoes; and all the fruit will ripen at about the same time.
5. Pumpkin vine should be sprawling more than this. It could be just another type of squash. The round fruits with stout stems resemble baby pumpkins. However, the leaves are not right.
6. Bearded iris is no vegetable, but naturalized similarly next to the compost piles. It is perennial rather than annual. Although shabby here, it can be recycled into landscapes. Bloom is gold.
This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate:
Vegetation make people feel closer to nature. It is, after all, what most of us expect to see out in the wild. Most vegetation that is observed in forests and undeveloped areas really is natural. Much of the associated insects and wildlife are natural as well. Such flora and fauna know how to survive within their respective ecosystems. They can not rely on any unnatural intervention from anyone.
Naturalized exotic (non-native) species proliferate only because they are adapted to similar environmental conditions. A lack of pathogens that afflicted them within their natural ranges is a major advantage for most of them. Nonetheless, they are unnatural components of what is commonly considered to be nature. Most naturalized exotic species actually interfere significantly with nature.
Vegetation and associated wildlife that inhabits synthetic landscapes is very different from that which lives out in nature. Only some of the vegetation has potential to naturalize. Even less is native. Almost all of it is reliant on artificial intervention for survival, particularly irrigation. Associated wildlife is reliant on the survival of the reliant vegetation. Landscapes accommodate. Nature does not.
With few exceptions, landscapes that emulate nature are impractical. Landscapes within forests are some of those few exceptions that might need no more than what the forests provide. Even in such situations, combustible vegetation and structurally deficient trees should be cleared away from homes. In California, nature is innately combustible. It is messy and potentially dangerous too.
Most urban landscapes of California would still be dreadfully bleak if limited to natural components. Both San Jose and Los Angeles are naturally chaparral regions. They were formerly inhabited by sparsely dispersed trees on scrubby grasslands. Now, relatively abundant vegetation in both regions is more appealing, and improves urban lifestyles, but is nothing like what nature intended.
Nature is simply inadequate for what is expected of urban landscapes of California.
Naturalized Himalayan blackberry is detestably aggressive.
Every palm tree in local landscapes is exotic. Simply put, all palms are originally from somewhere else. The desert fan palm, the only palm that is native to California, came from isolated colonies in desert regions many miles away. In fact, most plants in common landscapes are exotic. Landscapes composed of Californian plants likely include some plants from other regions of California.
With few exceptions, exotic plants are not a problem. However, some of those few exceptions have become very serious problems. Himalayan blackberry, blue gum, silver wattle, pampas grass, giant reed and broom are some of the more notorious examples. They naturalized to become prolific and aggressively invasive weeds. Some are more common than natives in many situations.
Naturalized exotic plants such as these are problems for local ecosystems, even if they do not affect refined landscapes. They compete with native plant species for limited resources, space and pollinators. A lack of pathogens from their homelands can be a distinct advantage. They alter the lifestyles of some of the native fauna. Some enhance the combustibility of the forests they inhabit.
The justifications for importing exotic species are as varied as the species themselves are. It might have been for lumber, forage, fruit, or vegetable production. Giant reed might have arrived here as packing material for cargo from southern Asia. Nonetheless, most naturalized exotic species, including the most aggressively invasive, came here simply for home gardening and landscaping.
Realistically, of all the countless exotic species that came here during the past few centuries, very few naturalized. Fewer are now aggressively invasive. Some with potential to naturalize may not have yet been able to escape the urban situations they inhabit. The problem now is that there are so many more exotic species readily available from all over the World than there has ever been!
Online marketing facilitates procurement of exotic and potentially invasive plant species from other regions, with minimal regard to regulation of such commodities.
Tony Tomeo 