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Mustard

Mustard can be a weed also.

Mustard is not easy to classify. It is a cool season vegetable here, although it grows until summer gets too hot. In cooler climates, it is a warm season vegetable. Whether warm or cool season, it provides more than greens. For agricultural applications, it is also a cover crop and livestock fodder. Its seed and seed oil have culinary and medicinal application.

Also, some consider mustard to be a wildflower, and some consider it to be a weed. Most but not all species that naturalized here are of the genus Brassica. None are native. Wild turnip and wild radish are similar and are also naturalized, but not as aggressively. Their bloom may be pink or creamy white. Most mustard varieties display bright yellow bloom.

Garden varieties of mustard have milder flavor and finer texture than wild sorts. They are sometimes available as cell pack seedlings, but grow like weeds from seed. Varieties for mustard seed might only be available online or from mail order catalogs. Mustard greens develop bitter flavor with age or bloom. Bigger lower leaves can develop coarser texture.

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Silverberry

Most modern silverberry is variegated with yellow or white.

Old fashioned silverberry, Elaeagnus pungens, has always been useful for large informal hedges and barriers in difficult locations. It may not be as refined or as bright green as other plants that are more commonly used for formal hedges; but it is more adaptable to harsh exposure, since it has no problem with heat and reflected glare.

If necessary, silverberry can be shorn like privets, but is at its best with only occasional selective pruning to keep it within bounds. Without pruning, it can grow to more than ten feet high and nearly as wide. Despite its slower growth at maturity, it grows faster and fills out quite efficiently while young.

All parts of silverberry are covered with slightly raspy and silvery or ‘rusty’ tomentum (fuzz – although it is not exactly ‘fuzzy’). The one to two and a half inch long leaves often have undulate margins. The less than abundant, half inch long brownish berries taste better than they look. Somewhat spiny vigorous stems efficiently deter intrusion. Trespassers that might get through them once will not try again. 

Modern cultivars (cultivated varieties) are neither as rugged as the straight species, nor as large, but have more colorful foliage. Leaves of ‘Variegata’, which is shown in the illustration, have lemony yellow or nearly white margins. ‘Marginata’ has brighter white leaf margins. ‘Maculata’ leaves are instead equipped with bright green margins around bright yellow centers. ‘Fruitlandii’ has larger silvery leaves.

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Cucumber

Cucumbers dislike the warmth of summer.

Cucumber, Cucumis sativus, technically qualifies as a summer vegetable. Several types can be productive through the warmest of summer weather. However, locally arid warmth can cause fruit of many varieties to be bitter. Such varieties perform better through spring or autumn instead of summer. Their seed should start a month or so before their season.

Individual cucumber vines are productive for less than a month anyway. Those that grow through summer will need occasional replacement to stay productive. Even within a brief spring or autumn season, more than a single phase is possible. Summer aridity does not limit performance for all varieties, but winter frost does. Consistent irrigation is important.

Most of the many cucumber varieties classify as slicing, pickling or seedless cucumbers. The biggest can potentially grow two feet long or four inches wide. The most popular are best before they mature, though. They are ready for harvest when just a few inches long. Regular harvesting promotes continuous production. Vines can climb about six feet high.

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Campanula

Many home garden Campanula are easier to identify by cultivar name than by species.

Of the hundreds of varied Campanula (Campanula spp.) that can be found in the wild, almost all of the few grown in gardens are small scale ground covers or creeping perennials, with blue or white bell or star shaped flowers. Most campanula fill in nicely between clumping perennials, and will spread wherever they have other plants or features to shelter them, although they are rarely reliable as ground cover for exposed areas. Campanula can be grown from seed, but is easiest to propagate by division. Pieces trimmed off from around the edges or pulled out of shrubbery also root very easily.

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Pot Marigold

Pot marigold blooms with marigold colors.

French marigold is one of the most popular annuals of autumn. Pot marigold, Calendula officinalis, provides similar color with daisy like flowers. Most are bright orange or yellow. They lack only the warm burnished red of French marigold. They compensate with more variety of their pastel ranges. Their single or double blooms are two to three inches wide.

Within cooler climates, pot marigold blooms between spring and late autumn frost. Here, it blooms better through mild winters, with only minor pauses for any mild frost. It is more likely to dislike summer warmth. Like many seasonal annuals, it can technically grow as a short term perennial. However, also like others, it performs best for a particular season.

During their season, taller varieties may grow a bit higher than two feet. Most are shorter. Their oblong and slightly fuzzy leaves are mostly between two to five inches long. Some develop wavy margins. Mildew is sometimes a problem. Deadheading promotes bloom. However, a few deteriorating flowers can remain to provide seed for another generation. Subsequent generations eventually revert to simple and single yellow or orange bloom.

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Japanese Aralia

Japanese aralia is both prehistoric and futuristic.

The popularity of Japanese aralia, Fatsia japonica, has spanned more than just a few decades. The big, glossy leaves of this lush foliar plant adorned the home of the Flintstones in Bedrock many thousands of years ago, as well as the office of Mr. Spacely of Spacely Sprockets, where George Jetson works, some time in the future! It is just as happy in most types of soil as it was in the front yard at the Flintstone Residence, and is just as happy in large containers as in Mr. Spacely’s office. As long as it is protected from harsh exposure or reflected glare (like it might get from large lightly colored walls or tinted windows), Japanese aralia does well in full sun, or can be just as happy in the shade of larger trees. 

Although it does not grow too rapidly, Japanese aralia eventually gets nearly eight feet high and wide, and commands a bold presence. Their deeply and symmetrically lobed leaves can get as broad as a foot and a half, on long petioles (stalks). The foliage of ‘Vairegata’ emerges with a yellow border that turns pale white. ‘Moseri’ stays quite compact.

Plants grown for their foliage can be maintained by cutting oldest stems to the ground as they deteriorate, so that newer stems can replace them. Excessive basal watersprouts can be cut or ‘peeled’ off if they get too crowded. Alternatively, lower growth can be pruned away as it develops to elevate the canopy and expose interior stems. However, individual stems do not last indefinitely, and will eventually need to be replaced by any convenient watersprout. The most deteriorated plants can be rejuvenated by getting cut to the ground just before spring.

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Bedding Dahlia

Bedding dahlias can perform as perennials.

Dahlias are as variable as related chrysanthemums. Rare tree dahlias can grow ten feet tall from the ground annually. Most popular dahlias grow less than half as high with more lavish bloom. Bedding dahlias are less than a foot and a half tall with smaller but profuse flowers. They are popular as warm season annuals, but can be perennial like the others.

Bedding dahlias are neither as ornate nor as diverse as those that are better cut flowers. They compensate with foliar density and floral profusion. Their flowers are less than five inches wide, and could be about half as wide. Their floral color range is limited to yellow, orange, red, pink and white. Floral variegation can add another color of the same range.

Bloom continues through summer and autumn, until frost. Deadheading promotes better bloom. Dormant tubers may remain in their gardens through winters here. They could rot, though, while their soil remains cool and damp. If dug and stored for winter, they prefer to return to their gardens prior to spring warmth. Dormant tubers propagate well by division.

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Blue Marguerite

Not many flowers are as blue as blue marguerite is.

            Like all sorts of daisies, gazanias, ice plants and so many of the familiar flowers in the Compositae family, blue marguerite, Felicia amelloides, is endemic to South Africa. Their flowers are the colors of the flag of Sweden though, with clear blue petals around bright yellow centers. These inch wide or slightly wider flowers bloom on well groomed plants most of the time, except during cool weather. Plants that do not get dead headed (groomed of deteriorating flowers) take breaks between bloom phases. The simple inch long leaves seem to be glossy, but almost have the texture of a cat’s tongue.    

            Mature plants may be taller than a foot and broader than four feet. Their somewhat woody stems are not as substantial as they should be, so can break easily, leaving awkward holes in otherwise well rounded shrubs. Unfortunately, the healthiest plants may live for only a few years. Distressed plants actually last a bit longer. Aggressive pruning at the end of summer or just before spring can restore old deteriorating plants for a while.

            Blue marguerite likes well drained soil, good sun exposure and somewhat regular watering. It is most often used as a colorful and shapely perennial, but is colorful enough for pots and urns of mixed perennials or annuals.

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Four O’Clock

Two colors on one four o’clock.

Punctuality is not one of its primary attributes. Four o’clock, Mirabilis jalapa, is supposed to unfurl its flowers about four o’clock. It is more likely to do so a bit later here because of aridity. Flowers can remain open and mildly fragrant all night, but might close after about noon. Four o’clock grows vigorously with summer warmth, but also appreciates humidity.

Floral color ranges through various hues of pink, red, orange, yellow and white. Flowers commonly exhibit stripes, spots or patches of other color within this range. Flowers with completely different colors can bloom on the same stems. Simple bright pink flowers are typically the most fragrant. Other colors and mixed colors may lack fragrance completely.

Most four o’clock grow in their gardens without invitation. They sneak in as seed, but are too pretty to be weeds. They grow tuberous roots to overwinter as their foliage and stems later succumb to chill. Stems do not stand much more than three feet tall, but may sprawl twice as wide. Below their lush foliage, these lanky stems are vulnerable to disturbance and wind.

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Billbergia sanderiana

Billbergia sanderiana is like a larger version of Billbergia nutans.

To many of us, Billbergia sanderiana is really just a coarser version of the related and more common queen’s tears bromeliad, Billbergia nutans. The somewhat stiff leaves of the former are substantially wider but are actually shorter than those of the latter, less than a foot long. Billbergia sanderiana foliage has minute teeth for lightly snagging against flannel sleeves, and is sometimes spotted with white. The dense basal rosettes of foliage are always producing pups that can be divided to propagate copies for friends and neighbors.

Their nearly foot long flower spikes look like bunches of perch hanging from jigs on fishing poles. The small weird flowers buds are tipped with almost navy blue, with lime flavored Pez green at the base. These flower buds hang upside down, with their blue tips pointing downward at first. Their petals curl back and upward as they open. The bright pink bracts that wrap the stems that suspend these bunches of flowers puff out as bloom progresses. By the time the lemony yellow pollen laden stamens emerge, the most memorable colors of 1985 are represented.

All specie of Billbergia are naturally epiphytic (grow within the canopies of large trees) so their wiry roots are rather minimal and seem to cling to the inside of their pots while ignoring potting media (potting soil) within. They like to be watered regularly but not excessively while weather is warm, but do not need much at all through the cooler time of year. Their media should be very loose and drain well.