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Six on Saturday: Bad Timing

Autumn and winter are busy seasons here. They do not last long enough for all the work that must be done while particular plants are dormant. That is why pruning began early every autumn within the orchards that formerly occupied the Santa Clara Valley. Within the landscapes, scheduling in compliance with the seasons is complicated by factors that are not so seasonal, such as gophers, who eat whenever they want to. Major weeding of a new landscape is planned to begin next Wednesday because the weeds are so overgrown. Unfortunately, this does not coincide with the dormancy of plants that I would prefer to relocate from the same site. Furthermore, the achira is being uncooperative.

1. Hedychium gardnerianum, kahili ginger should not be disturbed so late in its season. Gophers do not care. I salvaged this cane with three buds and a root. It seems to survive.

2. Ceanothus papillosus, wartleaf ceanothus grew from seed within a new landscape that will get weeded next Wednesday. I pulled and canned them early to avoid wasting them.

3. Betula pendula, European white birch grew in the same landscape. Big seedlings were tagged and left until defoliation. These tiny seedlings in the front row were canned early.

4. Sambucus caerulea, blue elderberry was, as one might guess, in the same landscape. I could not bear to simply let it go with all of the other weeds. I pulled and canned it early.

5. Canna edulis, achira, like kahili ginger, should not be disturbed so close to dormancy. However, its busted can could not hold water. Although early, it moved into a larger can.

6. Canna edulis, achira really wanted out! If it did this to escape its can, do I really want to release it into the garden? Its new can will only contain it until dormancy this winter.

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/

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Posted on by tonytomeo · 20 Comments

Six on Saturday: L. A. II

Los Angeles was fun, even if merely for five days. So was the indirect trip there and back. While there, I collected a few bits and pieces of vegetation to bring back here. Much of it, including these Six, needed to be removed from Brent’s garden anyway. I want to collect more Plumeria cuttings later, during the correct season. I only took what I got from this procedure because two of the dozen or so specimens needed minor pruning. Conversely, I collected many more giant bird of Paradise seedlings than I can accommodate because they needed to be removed from where they were. A neighbor here should hopefully take most of them. Most of these acquisitions were expected, although the quantities of some were unexpectedly excessive. Nonetheless, I am very pleased with them.

1. Heliconia of an unidentified species was phased out as other vegetation matured over the past several years. Remnants came up with only bits of rhizome, so may not survive.

2. Strelitzia nicolai, giant bird of Paradise grew from seed from a very mature specimen that was the first plant that Brent installed after he moved here almost twenty years ago.

3. Plumeria of an unidentified cultivar or even species needed to be pruned off the roof. It grows easily from cuttings, such as these, but needs protection from minor frost here.

4. Washingtonia robusta, Mexican fan palm, like giant bird of Paradise, grew from seed from a recycled specimen that Brent installed. Its parent is his brother’s Memorial Tree.

5. Clivia miniata, Natal lily formerly bloomed profusely in the front garden, but became overwhelmed by other vegetation. They were installed directly into a landscape at work.

6. Chamaedorea costaricana, pacaya, which Brent and I know as bamboo palm, is much more vigorous and larger than the more common bamboo palm, Chamaedorea seifrizii.

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 · 16 Comments

Six on Saturday: Lumpy Lecter

This Six on Saturday did not go as planned. I intended to finally share six pictures of the esperanza and poinciana (pride of Barbados) seed from Crazy Green Thumbs, since they were sown shortly before I shared more of Brent’s pointless pictures last week. However, the file of those pictures was somehow deleted! It is too dark to get a picture now. When I get a picture later, it will show only flats of unseen seed! Since reminding Brent to NOT send more pointless pictures, he responded by sending a profusion of pointless pictures! However, if I can not share the six pictures that I very much wanted to share this week, I will most certainly not share six more pointless pictures that I do not want to share. So, I ultimately decided to share six pictures of an exemplary Mediterranean or European fan palm, Chamaerops humilis, that we relocated more than two weeks ago. However, since I had not planned to share these pictures just yet, I had neither procured a picture of the palm at its new home, nor copied a picture of it prior to departure from its former home.

1. From beginning to end, and even after the intensive grooming of the trunk, only three of these many healthy fronds got pruned away, and only because they hung too low. For most palms, I prefer to remove most foliage for transplant. So far, this one sustains it all. This is the view of the top of the canopy as the dug tree was laying in back of the pickup.

2. Female specimens have fewer and more pliable teeth on their petioles than the males. This was one of the most tame of females I have ever engaged. I had expected far worse.

3. Only a few aborted berries were observed. Since this species in unpopular here, it may lack a male pollinator. However, it has potential to sneakily provide its own male bloom.

4. Gads! I almost never see this palm pruned and groomed properly. Petioles should get cut below the thorns and as closely to the trunk as possible. These long stubs are thorny.

5. The upper left quadrant of this picture demonstrates what this trunk should look like, after the thorny petiole stubs were cut away. It looks like Lumpy, the son of Chewbacca.

6. Here, it looks like Doctor Lecter of ‘Silence of the Lambs’, strapped into a dolly. It was much easier to handle after grooming, but still weighs about a hundred and fifty pounds. This species typically develops a few curving trunks. Such a straight single trunk is rare.

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 · 19 Comments

Six on Saturday: el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos

To everyone else, it is merely the Memorial Chapel. I prefer to think of it as el Catedral de Santa Clara de Los Gatos. It is a long story. Not only is it my favorite building that I work around, but it is outfitted with one of my favorite landscapes. Floral color is limited to white! My favorite color! There is not much to the landscape yet, but there will be later, particularly as the removal of adjacent trees improves sun exposure. Relocation of lily of the Nile is untimely, but necessary.

1. White lily of the Nile are a perfect fit here. They will function like a low hedge between the sidewalk and the roadway, without getting high enough to obscure the façade of the small Chapel.

2. Since the roadway is more than five feet below the sidewalk, the dense border of lily of the Nile will make the retaining wall seem less precipitous. The shading Douglas fir will get removed.

3. Double white angel’s trumpet was also a perfect fit when it was relocated here from the same garden that the lily of the Nile came from, but got majorly distressed by spider mite infestation.

4. It is recovering splendidly now, and is even developing floral buds again. Its future is uncertain though, since mites may continue to be a recurring problem. It lives next door to the Chapel.

5. Zonal geraniums presently provide the most white bloom here, although I can not take credit for them. Someone else put them here. I merely pruned them back when they were overgrown.

6. This is not what it looks like. This gentleman may seem to be expressing his opinion of the exclusivity of the white garden, or perhaps my predilection for white, but he is merely being silly.

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 · 21 Comments

Six on Saturday: Godzilla vs. Kong!

There are plenty of pictures, but not six to conform to a single topic. Only half here are horticulturally oriented. The other half are merely relevant to dysfunctional wildlife of the landscapes. Lily of the Nile was not such a major project as the removal of the carpet roses that occupied the site previously. We wanted to relocate them prior to spring, but that did not go as planned.

1. Lily of the Nile is rad! I have been digging and splitting it since the seventh grade. I do not care if it is cheap and common. This replaces carpet roses that should not have been at the walk.

2. Angel’s trumpet needed to be removed from another landscape, so was relocated here. It is now in the process of replacing the foliage that it shed in the process. It is happier than it looks.

3. Angel’s trumpet wastes no time getting ready to bloom as quickly as it generates new foliage. The flowers are double white, and very fragrant. This particular specimen has a lot of history.

4. Godzilla hitched a ride in the work pickup on Friday afternoon. Well actually, it merely tried to, but got nowhere with me. I do not know how it got in, but I do know how it ‘safely’ got out.

5. King Kong was here earlier in the week. He (or she) fled long before Godzilla arrived. He also got a bit of help on his way, since I do not want him in the garden, or the trash, or anywhere!

6. King Kong does not look so scary in this coon trap. He did not get relocated so far away that he cannot return if he wants to; but if he does, will likely avoid the area where he was trapped.

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

Wheat

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It is not as bad as it looks.

No, this is not wheat. It is the larger of the two Mexican fan palms that I dug and canned more than a week ago. ‘Wheat’ refers to the unpleasant phase that it is now going through. It is a long and awkward story about how it became known as the ‘wheat’ phase. All that anyone should know is that it refers to the color of the fading foliage. It fades from green to golden brown, just like ‘wheat’.

I say that the explanation is awkward because it involves an old skit by an offensive comedian on HBO in 1986, when the renowned landscape designer, Brent Green, was my college roommate.

Yes, we will just leave it at that.

Anyway, this is not at all unexpected. It is a normal process. I just wish it could be avoided. Every time I dig and can a palm, I hope that it will not happen; and I actually engage the associated palm as if it will somehow be different from the rest, and maintain all of its healthy green foliage. Some get through it more efficiently. Some start to produce new foliage before their old foliage dies off.

I actually relocated a mature windmill palm that somehow maintained the upper half of its canopy until it started to produce new foliage. That was all the fronds that were above a right angle to the trunk! I was impressed by that one. It was very different though. Most of the roots had already been damaged prior to relocation. Also, it was relocated in autumn, so had all winter to start recovery.

This unfortunate palm was dug not very long ago, just as the cool and rainy weather of winter was ending. Now that the weather is suddenly warming to around 80 degrees, the foliage is resuming vascular activity that the severed roots can not sustain. To compensate, it will shed this foliage that is now browning, while diverting resources into new foliage and roots. It knows what it is doing.

The new fronds that are still folded up in the middle are just fine. They will unfold into healthy new fronds as the palm recovers through summer. The first few fronds might be a bit stunted, but that is just part of the process. Newly relocated palms tend to accelerate foliar growth during such recovery, so, in just a few months, this cute little palm may look as good as it did when I canned it here.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 18 Comments

Six on Saturday: Moving Day

A neighbor family relocated to a new home a short distance away. The former home needs such major repair that it may instead be demolished and replaced. For now, it remains abandoned. I collected a few plants from the abandoned garden so that some could be relocated to the new home. So far, only two Philodendron selloum and one Mexican fan palm went. The rest remain here, and may actually go to other homes.

1. In all my career, I have never seen a trunk of a palm shrivel from desiccation like this. All of the now absent roots were desiccated also. I seriously doubt that this queen palm will survive.P00418-1

2. It got canned anyway. Without significant roots, it certainly did not need all this medium. It only got a #15 can so that the shriveled trunk could be buried, sort of like a weird palm cutting.P00418-2

3. This lemon tree was almost left behind because it is so mutilated. It looks a bit suspicious too, sort of like shaddock understock of a formerly grafted tree. Actually, it is ‘Ponderosa’ lemon.P00418-3

4. The smaller of two Mexican fan palms got canned into a #5 can until it starts to produce new roots and foliage. Actually, only the queen palm and the big Mexican fan palm got larger cans.P00418-4

5. This bigger Mexican fan palm got a squat #20 can because the trunk is wider than a #5 can. There are not very many roots in there yet. It got left here to divert traffic around the garden.P00418-5

6. These three Philodendron selloum were all I originally wanted to salvage. One lacks foliage for now. The other can that seems to be empty contains bare tubers of an unidentified heliconia.P00418-6

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

Norwegian Wood

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Isn’t it good?

This is really getting to be a problem. Too many feral plants that we find at work get canned as if they will eventually be installed back into a landscape somewhere. The small nursery where they recover until their relocation is getting crowded. Although many are practical and appropriate for such recycling within the landscapes here, some are not, so may be with us for a while.

Five feral Norway maple saplings were found in one of the landscapes where mature trees were pruned for clearance from a roof. We could not just leave them there. They eventually would have been overwhelmed by the rest of the forest, or grown too close to the same roof that we pruned other trees away from. They were very easily dug, so came back to the nursery with us.

It was too late to prune them as necessary. They are tall and lanky trunks, with too many comparably lanky branches. As much as I am instinctively compelled to prune them while they are bare and dormant, I will refrain until later in spring or summer, when they will not bleed so much. They look ridiculous. They seem happy though. Their buds are beginning to swell already.

We have no idea where they will go from here. After pruning, they should develop into exemplary specimens. As goofy as they are now, their trunks are remarkably straight. I happen to be fond of Norway maple, and would be pleased to find an application for them here. The problems is that there are too many trees here, and the forests and landscapes continue to make more!

Horticulture in a forest can be like that. It seems like there is plenty of space out there, but so much of the space is too shaded or too crowded.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 4 Comments

They Don’t Know When To Quit

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The good news is that these billowy white blooms were not wasted.

The main difficulty with such a mild climate is that many plants do not get sufficient chill in winter. Several types of apples do not perform well here without it. Only a few are productive in Beverly Hills (in the Los Angeles region), where I sometimes need to modify my gardening column accordingly. A few of my neighbors here somehow grow peonies; but I do not even bother.

Even plant that require more chill than they get here seem to be aware that it is cooler at this time of year. Their deciduous foliage turns color and eventually falls to the ground. They just want the weather to get a bit cooler and to stay cooler for a bit longer before they are convinced that it is really winter. Otherwise, they think that autumn simply merges directly into spring.

I really do not know what hydrangeas are thinking though. They perform about as well in milder climates of Southern California, and may not bother to defoliate completely if old foliage can linger until it is replaced by new foliage. In the mildest climates, bloom is merely subdued through winter, but might continue sporadically. I am not convinced that they need any chill at all.

The hydrangeas here get pruned shortly after the roses, and almost as severely. (They are a bit more complicated than roses, and a bit less cooperative, but respond well to their pruning.) I started the process on Thursday with a few that needed to be relocated, and will be finishing on Wednesday or Thursday. Most of the remaining yellowed old foliage falls away in the process.

Their lingering bloom is a bit more disconcerting. I hate to waste what the old hydrangeas put so much effort into producing. Some of the best blooms were outfitted with a bit of eucalyptus foliage (since they lacked their own) and given away to others who work here. However, there were invariably some undeveloped blooms that were just discarded as they got pruned away.

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Undeveloped bloom was merely discarded with the rest of the debris.

Hydrangeas seem to appreciate a good chill, but do not seem to need it, or expect it to last for very long. I sometimes wonder if I could just groom them to remove old canes throughout the year rather than pruning them aggressively in winter. I do not remember ever pruning any in Southern California, but might expect them to be less responsive to the even milder weather.

For me, they would be easier to prune where winter is cool enough for them to be completely dormant. Without foliage, it would not seem like I would be pruning them while they are still active. Without bloom, I would not be concerned about the waste. I could just prune them like so many other deciduous plants. There really are a few disadvantages to mild winter weather.

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Hydrangeas that were transplanted got pruned and dug bare root.

Posted on by tonytomeo · 4 Comments

Deodar Cedar Migration – Update

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Reassigned deodar cedars have adapted to their new landscape.

Reassignment is in season right now. The brief article about it that posted yesterday links to three other related articles. We have done quite a bit of it here, and intend to do a bit more for useful plants that happen to be in the wrong situations. It should be done before winter ends, to take advantage of both natural dormancy and cool winter rain that settles transplanted roots.

Most plants that get reassigned get dug from situations where they can not stay, and transplanted directly to where they will likely become assets to their respective landscapes. Those that do not get transplanted directly into other landscapes get canned and housed temporarily in the nursery. Some need to recover. Some must wait for landscapes that can accommodate them.

Some reassigned plants are feral descendants of exotic (non-native) species, that grew from self sown seed. Others were originally planted intentionally, but for one reason or a few, are no longer appropriate for their particular situations. Some are overgrown perennials that needed to be divided. On rare occasion, we encounter specimens of native species that get reassigned.

Deodar cedar that were reassigned slightly more than a year ago recovered from the process last spring and summer, so should grow this year as if nothing ever happened. Unfortunately, several were inadvertently killed when the roadside weeds and grasses that they grow amongst were cut down. In other areas, too many superfluous specimens survived, so must be culled.

Those that will be culled out need not go far. They can be plugged back to replace those that were mown down. The second process will be easier than the first. Superfluous specimens were reassigned because we expected nearly half to not survive the process. Except for those that were mown down, almost all survived. If not culled, they will get too crowded in just a few years.

There are plenty more where they came from. The four parent trees are prolific with their seedlings. We can not reassign all of them to other landscapes, and should not waste resources on canning specimens that will not likely be accommodated within any of our landscapes. I will likely can many of them, but not for here. They may become GREEN street trees in Los Angeles.

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The four reassigned deodar cedars in this small space are not easy to see in this picture.

If it seems as if the reassigned deodar cedars are too close to surrounding trees, it is only because the surrounding trees will be subordinated and eventually removed as the deodar cedars grow big enough to replace them. One is a dangerously disfigured sweetgum with roots that are displacing pavement above. Two others are disfigured and deteriorating California bay trees.