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1986

Since 1986 (or so)

This is no ordinary daffodil. I realize that it looks just like the daffodils that I posted a picture of two Saturdays ago, and it could actually be the same variety, but it is quite distinct. I acquired this particular daffodil in about summer of 1986. It could have been a year or two earlier or later, and might not have been summer. The foliage was not completely shriveled as it should have been during summer, but it lasts longer in the coastal climate that I took it from. I really do not remember when I acquired it, but I know that it was a long time ago, about the summer of 1986.

Although we have not been acquainted for as long as I have been acquainted with my paternal paternal great grandfather’s rhubarb and my maternal maternal great grandmother’s Dalmatian iris, both of which I acquired prior to kindergarten, we have significant mutual history.

I ‘borrowed’ several large clumps of bulbs from an abandoned flower field to the east of my Pa’s home in Montara. The clumps were very overgrown and very crowded, but still in their original rows, as they had been arranged for cut flower production many years prior. Shortly afterward, all of the other bulbs were somehow and seemingly pointlessly removed from the field by an excavator. A monster home was built on the highest part of the field, with a view of the field, which remained completely uncultivated afterward. No one knows how or why all the daffodil bulbs were removed so completely, but none were ever seen again. The naturalized field of daffodils seemed like it would have been an attribute to the home.

Over many years, the bulbs grew at most of the homes that I lived in, until the last few years, after I left the last of them at a former home in town. Then, after bringing a few roses here from my old rose garden at a previous home, I noticed that a few bulbs came with them. I thought that they were fancier daffodils, but now that this one bloomed, it is obvious that they are the familiar daffodils from Montara.

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Mexican Weeping Bamboo

Mexican weeping bamboo is more appealing in abundance.

Like junipers, bamboos have gotten a bad reputation from only a few of their problematic specie. Many of the traditional running bamboos really are too aggressively invasive. However, there are many clumping bamboos that are much more adaptable to confined and refined garden areas. Even these complaisant bamboos remain uncommon though, both because of the unpopularity of bamboos, and because they are not so easily produced.

            Mexican weeping bamboo, Otatea acuminata aztecorum, is certainly one of the more interesting of these clumping bamboos. Their limber inch and half wide stems are not nearly as rigid as those of most other bamboos are, and may bend down to the ground under the weight of their abundant and remarkably finely textured foliage. The four or five inch long leaves may be only an eighth of an inch wide. Both the stems and foliage move nicely in even slight breezes.

            Established plants are somewhat resilient to neglect, but can get rather yellowish and will likely stay less than ten feet tall without regular watering. With regular watering and monthly application of nitrogen fertilizer, such as lawn fertilizer, during warm weather, they can get twice as tall. Old canes should be pruned to the ground as they begin to deteriorate. There should be plenty of fresh new stems to replace them.   

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Dracaena Palm

Modern dracaena palms are more compact, more colorful and more user friendly than old fashioned sort.

(This article was deferred from yesterday morning.)

            While hoping to find some of the uncommon yuccas that I still lack, I instead encountered some of their friendlier kin in a local nursery. Even though dracaena palm, Cordyline australis, is an old fashioned plant that was probably considered to be too common until the past few decades, many more colorful modern cultivars are restoring its appeal. Classic dracaena palm has olive drab foliage. The nearly as traditional bronze dracaena, ‘Atropurpurea’, has reddish bronze foliage. The more contemporary ‘Red Star’ though is deeper purplish red. ‘Pink Stripe’ has bronzy green leaves with pink edges. ‘Sundance’ has pink in the middle with green edges.

            Modern cultivars also stay shorter so that their abundant foliage can be appreciated on a more personal level. The individual sword shaped leaves are about three feet long and three inches wide, a bit larger than traditional dracaena palm leaves. However, I actually prefer the traditional dracaena palms that can get taller than twenty feet and spread nearly half as wide, with sculptural bare trunks and high branches.  

            Any dracaena palm that gets too tall can be cut back to a more proportionate height. One of my colleagues recommends cutting about a quarter through trunks a year or more prior to cutting back, to stimulate new shoot growth just below the cut. The new growth prevents the trunks from being bare immediately after getting cut back. Overgrown heavily branched trees should first be thinned to decrease their weight before cutting partly through their trunks. Young plants can be cut back to the ground to regenerate with multiple trunks.

            Billowy trusses of tiny pale white flowers add interest at the end of spring, particularly against darker foliage. I am told that the flowers of modern cultivars are slightly fragrant. However, against the olive drab foliage of older dracaena palms, I think that the blooms look rather dusty, and do not smell any better.

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‘Rosalie Figge’?

Bearded iris should bloom for early spring, not winter.

Each of the several bearded iris that I grow have history. Their origins are more significant than their performance. None were merely purchased. I obtained my first, which is actually Dalmatian iris rather than bearded iris, from the garden of my maternal maternal great grandmother when I was about five years old, before I was in kindergarten.

Some of the seventeen or so that inhabit my garden may be added to a designated iris garden at work as they multiply. Some of the eight or so that inhabit the designated iris garden at work may be added to my garden as they multiply. I will likely procure at least two additional cultivars when I return to the Pacific Northwest later in winter, as well as Louisiana iris from another source.

The most abundant of the bearded iris within the designated iris garden at work were recycled from where they had become too abundant in a home garden in Santa Cruz. They are unidentified. I suspected that they might be a simpler species, rather than a hybrid bearded iris, because they resemble my simple Dalmatian iris. Their floral stems are similarly slender. The leaves are similarly somewhat narrow. The fragrance is similar. The main differences are that the floral stems are a bit shorter, the flowers are rich purple rather than lavender blue, and instead of blooming promptly and thoroughly only for early spring, they bloom sporadically throughout spring, and again about now.

After posting a picture of them last winter, I was informed that they could be ‘Rosalie Figge’. They conform to the description of the cultivar, although they bloom for winter rather than autumn. They were blooming a month ago, and are still blooming now. Although I do not care what they are, it would be nice to know.

It was blooming a month ago.
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Mondo Grass

Of course, it is not actually a grass.

The thick clumps of evergreen grass-like foliage of mondo grass, Ophiopogon japonicas, make a nice lumpy ground cover for small spaces. Because it is rather tolerant of shade, and actually prefers partial shade to full sun, it works nicely under Japanese maples or highly branched overgrown rhododendrons. It gets only about half a foot deep. Narrow stems with small pale purplish blue flowers that bloom in summer are not too abundant, and are generally obscured below the foliage, but can actually get taller. ‘Silver Mist’ is variegated with white.

New plants are easily produced by division of large clumps. Overgrown or tired looking clumps can be shorn down at the end of winter, before new growth begins. Slugs and snails can be problematic.

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Alocasia or Colocasia? II

Alocasia or Colocasia or both?

While it seems that anything can be found online, it is baffling to see what can not be found online. Horticultural concerns seem to be particularly lacking. Perhaps those who enjoy horticulture innately dislike the internet. Perhaps they are merely too busy in their gardens to bother getting online too much.

‘Pele’s Smoke’ has been one of the more popular cultivars of sugarcane for home gardens for quite a while, but I can not determine how wide its canes are. Eucalyptus pulverulenta and Eucalyptus cinerea seem to have traded their names since the 1980s, but now, no one seems to know which is which, or if either ever was the other. No one can explain how seed from sterile banana cultivars are available online. Anyone can say anything. There is no accountability.

Alocasia and Colocasia are as baffling now as they were when I mentioned the difficulty with choosing between the two about a month ago. I am still inclined to procure Colocasia gigantea for a riparian landscape at work. However, I am now inclined to also procure Alocasia macrorrhiza. Both are quite appealing. I think that I would like to grow both within the same landscape so that I can compare them later. It would be easier than trying to compare vague information about them that I can find online. Realistically, since I would grow them from corms, both are quite inexpensive. If necessary, I can later relocate whichever is less appealing than the other.

This would not be my first occasion of not relying on the internet. I am working with ‘Pele’s Smoke’ sugarcane presently, and will be pleased with it regardless of how it behaves. I grow both Eucalyptus pulverulenta and Eucalyptus cinerea; although by mistake, since I procured one because I thought it was the same as the other. All of the cultivars of banana that I grow were procured as pups or plugs, since I do not trust seed. Ultimately, I will be pleased with both Alocasia and Colocasia.

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Horridculture – Cyclamen (deferred from Wednesday)

Cyclamen are too expensive to be as disposable as they are.

Cyclamen persicum is a popular cool season annual. It is known simply as cyclamen here because it is the only common cyclamen that is available. It might be known as florists’ cyclamen where other species are available. Red and white are the most popular colors because cyclamen are associated with Christmas. Cyclamen can alternatively bloom with various tints and shades of pink, salmon pink and purplish pink. Some bloom with two-toned color or picotee margins. Cyclamen really is a delightful perennial.

Yes, perennial. Like many garden annuals, cyclamen is actually a perennial. It can survive in the garden for many years. It merely goes dormant through warm summer weather, and then resumes growth as weather cools during autumn.

Not only is it a perennial, but it is an expensive perennial. It is too expensive to be so disposable. So-called ‘landscapers’ do not mind. Disposable annuals are lucrative for them. Besides, even where cyclamen can perform as a perennial, it is not colorful throughout the year, and even in season, it is not as colorful as it is for its first season away from the nursery that it originally grew in.

Other species of Cyclamen that are available within other regions are becoming available here as well. Their bloom is sparser, with only light pink or blushed white flowers. They are grown as perennial wildflowers that bloom for autumn or winter, when not much else blooms. Although not as garish as common florists’ cyclamen, they are appreciated for their perennial performance.

The few florists’ cyclamen that we install at work bloom somewhat reliably only until spring. Because they were grown within ideal greenhouse conditions, they do not adapt immediately to landscape conditions. By spring, many are already beginning to rot. Those that survive their summer dormancy may become perennial.

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Candelabra Tree

Candelabra tree is a big and strikingly weird succulent.

The weirdly sculptural succulent stems of candelabra tree, Euphorbia ingens, dark green but devoid of any real foliage, are striking in the right situation.  These stems resemble those of unrelated cactus, with longitudinal ridges topped with spines. Although botanically interesting, the minute greenish yellow flowers that bloom in autumn and winter on the ridges of the upper portions of the upper segments are not much to look at. Deep red seed capsules that turn purple as they ripen sometimes develop in milder climates after the flowers are gone, but are almost never seen locally.

Good exposure is preferred. Candelabra tree are better structured and more prominent standing alone away from other larger trees and shrubs. Cool winters and occasional frosts limit their height to not much more than fifteen feet; and unusually cold frost can actually kill big specimens back severely. However, in sheltered areas and milder climates, candelabra tree can get twice as tall. Soil should drain very well and get dry between watering. Regular watering can cause rot, particularly in dense or rich soil.

The main problem with candelabra tree is the remarkably caustic latex sap, which can be dangerous to children, chewing dogs or even those who need to prune the stems. Fortunately, candelabra tree needs very little attention, and only needs to be pruned where the stems get in the way or start to lean against fences or roofs. The caustic sap prevents insect problems.

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Alocasia or Colocasia?

Alocasia odora

‘A’ or ‘co’? What is the better prefix for ‘locasia’? There are certainly differences between the two, but information regarding such differences and characteristics is confusing and potentially misleading. It is amazing how much less information is available now that so much more information is so much more available than it has ever been before.

Alocasia generally develops big leaves that point upward. Colocasia generally develops big leaves that point downward. Alocasia prefers a bit of partial shade. Colocasia prefers more direct sunshine. Alocasia generally has more colorful leaves. Colocasia generally has bigger leaves. Of course, these are generalizations, and some species of each of these two genera seem to be species of the other genus.

Colocasia gigantea supposedly develops the biggest leaves and can get twenty feet tall. Alocasia macrorrhiza supposedly is the biggest of its genus and can get fifteen feet tall. It is difficult to know what to believe.

One the edge of a pond at work, we would like to grow whichever of these massive perennials develops the biggest leaves. If we grow Alocasia, we can put it in a partially shaded situation. If we grow Colocasia, we can put it in a sunnier situation nearby. If we grow Alocasia, we can put it a short distance from the edge of the pond. If we grow Colocasia, we can put it right at the edge of the pond. We only need to know which cultivar of which species of which genus we should grow.

I am inclined to grow Colocasia gigantea. We have a few months to decide, since we do not want to plant it during autumn or winter. We recently acquired this Alocasia odora. Also, another similar but unidentified perennial that seems to be a Colocasia must be relocated from another disproportionately compact landscape.

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Perennial Annual Dahlias

Annual dahlias are expected to be, as their designation implies, annual. In other words, they grow in the spring, perhaps from seed, bloom through summer, and then succumb to frost during their first winter. Some are likely grown from cuttings or division of nursery stock tubers, in order to be ready for spring earlier than seedlings. Regardless, they are not expected to survive for more than one year.

Most other dahlias are expected to be perennial. That is how their expense is justified. Most are sold while they are merely dormant tubers, and are generally more expensive than annual dahlias. Some, especially the trendy sorts, are significantly more expensive.

‘Cafe au Lait’ was a trendy dahlia a few years ago, and is still trendy. We procured one at work. It performed somewhat well for the first season, and was then dug and stored for winter. It did not perform well for the second season, and was then dug and stored again, but did not survive through winter.

Four smaller annual dahlias were procured in conjunction with the single ‘Cafe au Lait’ dahlia. They were relatively inexpensive, but delightfully colorful. They bloomed nicely around the larger ‘Cafe au Lait’ dahlia. They were also dug and stored for winter after their first season, although we knew that we should likely merely discard them. One had actually divided into two. These annual dahlias bloomed better than ‘Cafe au Lait’ for their second season, and then again, were dug and stored for winter. Unfortunately, three, including one that divided during the previous winter, did not grow for long after last spring. However, two of the original four annual dahlias continue to bloom, and will be dug and stored as they succumb to frost this winter. These annuals have been more perennial than the perennials.