Posted on by tonytomeo · 13 Comments

Six on Saturday: HAPPY NEW YEAR!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy January too! Happy Saturday! Really though, what is all the fuss about? There is nothing new about this. New years have been arriving annually for as long as anyone can remember. New days arrive daily. New hours arrive hourly. In fact, a new one just began within the last sixty minutes or so. Perhaps that justifies trying to be happy whenever we want to. I digress. My Six for this Saturday are irrelevant to this New Year, and actually, are not exactly happy. All six pictures involve just two trees, a valley oak, Quercus lobata and a coast live oak, Quercus agrifolia.

1. Thunderstorms are rare here. A real doozy arrived on Christmas morning though. The wind could have landed Rhody in Oz. This distinguished valley oak lost two major limbs. 

2. The worst of the damage is just above and slightly left of the center of this picture. The large limb that fell from there clobbered another large limb that was closer to the center.

3. Can you identify what this picture shows? The pair of short yellow lines near the lower center of the picture is a clue. That is the dirty tip of my left boot in the lower left corner. 

4. Tilting the camera from vertical reveals why I could not return to work after what was supposed to be a quick errand. This large coast live oak fell and totally blocked the road.

5. But wait, there’s more! This was more than we could move efficiently with the tractor. Two crews, working at both ends, took all day to clear it all. Another trunk fell to the left. 

6. The trunks had been deteriorating for decades. The moisture of the adjacent drainage ditch accelerated rot. All that evergreen foliage finally got too heavy when wet from rain. 

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: Rhody Hates Pictures

Six on Saturday is cancelled for Christmas. I should have remembered that. Well, I already posted my Six on Saturday, as well as these extra Six.

. . . .

Rhody is who everyone who comes to my blog really wants to see. I would share more of his pictures, but there simply are not many. He dislikes getting his picture taken, so does not cooperate. These six pictures demonstrate that splendidly. This is not my real Six on Saturday for today. I submitted them a moment ago. I just added these because Rhody is just that popular, and because I did not know what else to do with these six silly pictures that do not conform to any particular horticultural topic.

1. If only I could get a few simple candid pictures of Rhody before he notices the camera.

2. Oops! It is too late now. He gets so annoyed when he sees me aiming a camera at him.

3. Then I get ‘the look’, which, as one can imagine, means that he is even more annoyed!

4. Now he is contemplating where he will hide each left boot of every pair of boots I own.

5. Again I get ‘the look’, but a bit more resigned. He just wants me to finish and go away.

6. Now he just does not care. He knows I will take pictures anyway. He does as he wants.

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 · 12 Comments

Six on Saturday: Halloween is Dead!

Halloween is the Holiday that I loathe most, for several reasons. Nonetheless, pumpkins that are grown almost exclusively for Halloween, are one of the main crops of Half Moon Bay and the rest of coastal San Mateo County. One of my classmates at Cal Poly was Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Queen of 1985! I am actually rather fond of pumpkin. Where I lived in town, neighbors left pumpkins on my porch after Halloween. They were bright orange but mildly flavored Jack O’ lantern types, but were good enough for me to can enough to last until the next Halloween. Anyway, these six might have been more appropriate prior to last Halloween.

1. Screwball! Seriously, what is this? I did not grow this orange. I have no idea how it got impaled by all those screws. I just found it here. It resembles a character of ‘HellRaiser’.

2. Skeletal remains of trees that were burned by the CZU Fire, which I happened to write about on Halloween last year, were likely Douglas fir. They look like the Haunted Forest.

3. Poison oak is a nasty species in all regards. Not only are most people very allergic to it dermally, but it looks evil also! These vines look like they want to strangle their support.

4. Hellebore does not perform well here. Perhaps it might perform better if it were bored in . . . someplace else. This is likely my favorite since it is white; but such a ghastly white.

5. Ignore the diminutive werewolf to the lower left, and the background flora too. Notice the bridge above instead, and the bright orange horticultural oddity in the middle below.

6. Pumpkins are squash. This one demonstrated that characteristic splendidly. Now that Halloween was a month and a half ago, most go to waste. At least this one had some fun.

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: No Theme

There was a theme when I assembled these six pictures. I just can not remember what it was now. I am very happy with the three species from Del Norte County, #3, #4 and #5. #6 is my favorite though. It was so unfortunately necessary to remove the venerable old trees. It was necessary to remove their suckers too. I combined the two unpleasant tasks in a rather satisfying manner. There was absolutely no indications that the original trees were grafted. I looked for unions. I was informed that the suckers were visually identical to the original trees. I hope that the suckers that I transplanted within the centers of the decayed trunks will grow into trees that are new copies of the original trees!

1. Brugmansia X candida ‘Double White’, angel’s trumpet is a copy of the specimen at el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos. It somehow got frosted! Frost happens even here.

2. Yucca recurvifolia or Yucca gloriosa var.(iety) tristis, pendulous yucca is blooming at an unoccupied residence where only a few neighbors see it. It tastes like iceberg lettuce.

3. Abies grandis, grand fir was brought by another horticulturist here, from the extreme northwest corner of California, literally on the coast, barely south of the Oregon border.

4. Picea sitchensis, Sitka spruce got collected with the grand fir above and the bear grass below. I am very pleased with these species, but do not know where to plant more trees.

5. Xerophyllum tenax, bear grass came with the two tree species above, but will be easily incorporated into landscapes here. I am unfamiliar with it, and intent to get acquainted.

6. Prunus serrulata ‘Beni Hoshi’, flowering cherry was so severely decayed that only the outer shell of its stumped trunk remains. The twig in the center is its own rooted sucker! 

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 · 11 Comments

Six on Saturday: More Bad Recycling (Even More)

This is the season for digging and relocating crowded or redundant plants. Most of them get recycled directly back into other landscapes, so that there is no need for the extra work of canning and storing them. Most of the daylily (#1) were simply relocated with only a few leftovers for canning. Bamboo (#2) and perennial pea (#4) were actually canned earlier in the year. Ponderosa lemon (#5) is a rooted cutting (which is ungrafted and therefore ‘on its own roots’) that I grew from a pruning scrap. I have no idea of what to do with it. I really should limit all these recycling projects to plant material that is actually useful.

1. Hemerocallis, daylily, migrated too aggressively, so needed to be removed from under benches and other perennials. More of another cultivar got dug where an old sewer pipe was replaced.

2. Phyllostachys aurea, golden bamboo, appeared within an unrefined landscape, and wasted no time migrating. It should have been killed and discarded rather than canned live for recycling.

3. Salvia mellifera, black sage, layered a few copies from an original specimen that was planted intentionally. It is native here, but unpopular. Some find the foliar aroma to be a bit too strong.

4. Lathyrus latifolia, perennial pea, is a persistently and invasively naturalized exotic species. In other words, it is a weed. I canned this and three copies of another, because they bloom white.

5. Citrus x pyriformis, ‘Ponderosa’ lemon, is not really a lemon, but is a weird hybrid of pomelo and citron. The fruit might weigh five pounds. What can I do with just one five pound ‘lemon’?!

6. Felis catus, Darla, only allowed me to get this picture by zooming in from a distance. She tolerates Rhody, but hates me. She protects cuttings and seedlings from rodents and perhaps birds.

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 · 14 Comments

Six on Saturday: More Bad Recycling

Recycling can be a bad habit. We accumulate more material here than we can use back out in the landscapes. Some gets shared with friends and neighbors. Of these six, all but the Agave (#4) grew from seed, so are not cultivars. Although the Agave grows from genetically identical pups, no one know what species it is! Fortunately, around here, we are not too discriminating.

1. Liquidambar styraciflua, after pruning to compensate for severed roots, has only a few twiggy branches, but is more than sixteen feet tall! What a homely sweetgum! Was it worth recycling?

2. Liquidambar styraciflua grew from seed where it could not stay. It is twice as tall as the eight foot bed of the pickup is long. The roots are now contained in a squatty #15 (fifteen gallon) can.

3. Cornus florida, flowering dogwood, was significantly more prolific with seed than the sweetgum. We wanted to recycle just a few seedlings, but got eighty four. Each cell contains a seedling.

4. Agave of an unknown species was removed from one of the landscapes a few years ago, but has been trying to regenerate since then. We dig and can the pups, but cannot give them all away.

5. Phoenix dactylifera, date palm, grew from seed in a compost pile. There are about seven of them. It is impossible to predict which will be female, or what the quality of their fruit will be like.

6. Acer platanoides, Norway maple, might be invasive, even here. A few that grew from seed in one of the landscapes were therefore removed, but not discarded. I used them as understock for the much more desirable and noninvasive ‘Schwedler’ cultivar last year. The scions, which are above the yellow tie, did not take. I must now try again, or pollard them so they produce no seed.

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 · 9 Comments

Six on Saturday: WHITE

White is my favorite color! It always has been, long before it became a fad and a trendy coffee table book in the early 1990s. I do not care that it has become politically incorrect since then. Nor am I concerned with what Brent has to say about it. (He has not valued my opinion since 1986 anyway.) I realize that he is the famous landscape designer, and I am not, but I also know what I like in my own garden. I am quite pleased that there are so many white flowers at work, and even an exclusively white garden, at el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos!

1. Pelargonium X hortorum, the white zonal geranium at el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos, is blooming with smaller floral trusses because the weather is getting cooer through autumn.

2. Dianthus deltoides has the unappealing common name of ‘pink’, likely because most varieties bloom pink. Some bloom red. This is one of the best because it blooms so perfectly clear white.

3. Hydrangea macrophylla should be at el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos instead of the other ‘white’ hydrangeas that were relocated there last winter before deciding to bloom lavender.

4. Camellia sasanqua is blooming impressively well for the shade that it lives in. I do not remember the name of this cultivar. It might be a hybrid of Camellia sasanqua and Camellia japonica.

5. Rhododendron such as this are known as ‘azalea’. (There is no picture of Rhody.) This and ‘Coral Bells’ bloom about now, but not while the others bloom so abundantly at the end of winter.

6. Betula pendula is an old fashioned tree that still works well here. White trunks are striking among the dark green redwoods. We dig and can their seedlings to eventually replace aging trees.

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 · 3 Comments

Six on Saturday: Hesper Palm Reunion

The small hesper palm that was taken from my garden last August has returned. A colleague directed me to it, at the home of one of his neighbors. I appropriated it without inquiring about its presence there. I suspect that it was taken as random ‘greenery’. However, if the neighbor actually wants a palm, I may provide one that is more appropriate to the particular situation. Since I got only a single picture of the recovered hesper palm though, my Six on Saturday for this week are completely random.

1. Hesper palm would not have been happy here in the shade of a redwood forest. It happened to be just across the driveway from where the kitties of ‘Cat Burglar’ live. It is back at home now.

2. Windmill palm is more impressive. It will be dug and canned for a former resident of the now abandoned house to the left. My date palm seedlings came from the compost pile at this home.

3. Dracaena palm (which is not actually a palm) was too big and tall for me to relocate from the now abandoned house, but not too large for gophers to relocate. They put it right onto the eave.

4. Deodar cedar was relocated three years ago, without the assistance of gophers. Most met a most unfortunate fate with a weed eater. This specimen got established slowly, but is happy now.

5. Gnomes annoy me! I do not know why this appeared in one of the landscapes, but it will go into the trash if not removed. My statue of Saint Francis, in my own garden, offended a neighbor.

6. Rhody does not allow me to get too annoyed. He is posing with mulch because mulch was the topic of the gardening column when this and a few other formerly unused pictures were taken.

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 · 10 Comments

Six on Saturday: Recyclery

With only one exception (#6), everything that I added to my downtown planter box was recycled from somewhere else. Almost all of that which I added came from the garden of the mother of a now deceased old friend, so has major history with me. The original cuttings rode around for more than a month on the dashboard of the old station wagon prior to getting plugged. Yet, I do not know many of their names. Only #5 inhabited the planter box before I got there. Nowadays, bits and pieces generated from occasional grooming of the planter box get recycled elsewhere. Many are shared with neighbors.

1. Tree houseleek grew almost as big as small tumbleweeds. Except for two Indian hawthorn trees that were installed when the planter boxes were built, they are the most prominent features.

2. Unknown succulent resembles tree houseleek, but stays much lower. A neighbor requested ‘Australia’ canna (#6) because this and tree houseleek produce so much pallid light green foliage.

3. Unknown Aloe is more appealing in the planter box than these shriveled cuttings are. I think that it might be more appealing if it bloomed. After a few years, I have not seen a single flower.

4. Unknown bearded is not a good choice for a planter box downtown. It blooms only once annually, and the few flowers get picked. They are slightly grayish white, so are not even very pretty.

5. Variegated lily turf is one of the few plants that was already in the planter box when I go to it. Some of it reverted to unvariegated, and became even more invasive, and then more abundant.

6. ‘Australia’ canna is the only item that I actually purchased for the planter box. I got it because a neighboring merchant expressed an appreciation for bronzed foliage. It does not disappoint!

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 · 11 Comments

Six on Saturday: Happy Beginning

Vermin, weeds and insects can be major problems. Gophers continue to inflict serious damage within the landscapes here. The predators who help with other vermin would get gophers too, if only they were more accessible. However, it could be significantly worse. Some weeds are actually pretty. The worst insect damage was neither serious nor prominent. Deer just glare at me as if wondering why I glare at them.

1. Gophers are the most destructive of the wildlife here. This was a new and perfect hedge of variegated Pittosporum tobira before the gophers got in. The spacing of its plants was impeccable.

2. Perennial pea should have finished blooming a while ago. It typically gets crispy during the warm and arid weather of summer. It is an annoying albeit pretty weed in some of the landscape.

3. Katydids chewed my roses last summer. Fortunately, the damage was not serious, and only affected my own roses that are not within the landscapes. This one seems to be in the family way.

4. Deer have potential to cause major damage to the landscapes, but never have. Their nibbling is minimal. No one knows why. They are a significant problem within adjacent neighborhoods.

5. Predatory birds ‘control’ some of the rabbits and other vermin, but not gophers. I do not know who this bird is, but would guess that it could take off with Bambi if she nibbles the camellias.

6. RAIN! This is the happy ending of the Fire Season, as well as the happy beginning of the Rainy Season! The first storm of the season is always major news here, but is rarely this significant. The flashing blue light on the windshield of one of the pickups is a motion activated security system that began chirping in response to so much water falling from the perforated gutter above.

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/