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Red Flowering Gum

61123We all know about the bad reputation of eucalypti, especially the notorious blue gum. They are too big, too aggressive, too messy, too structurally deficient, and in groups, they are too combustible. However, there are several eucalypti that are not only appropriate for local home gardens, but because of their resiliency, drought tolerance and adaptability to the local environment, should be more popular than they are.

Red flowering gum, Eucalyptus ficifolia (which is now known as Corymbia ficifolia), rarely gets more than thirty feet tall and broad, with a stout branch structure. It is a good street tree because the roots are usually deep and complaisant. Constantly falling leaves and seed capsules are somewhat messy, but the mess is proportionate to the compact canopy, and is probably worth the spectacular summer and autumn bloom.

Fuzzy trusses of staminate flowers are usually some shade of red, but might be pink, salmon, reddish orange or pale white. Trees must be a few years old to bloom, so color might be a surprise when young trees bloom for the first time. Profusion of bloom can be variable from year to year, or from one portion of the canopy to another. Tree size and form are also variable. Some are vigorous while others are more compact.

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Sweetgum

71122One of the big four for mild climates, sweetgum, Liquidambar styraciflua, develops an excellent display of mixed yellow, orange and red, regardless of how quietly autumn tries to sneak in. Of the other three, Chinese pistache is more orange with less yellow, flowering pear is more ruddy, and gingko is only bright yellow. They all get very flashy color, but sweetgum just might be the flashiest.

Some trees can favor one color or another. Distressed trees tend to be more pinkish red. Vigorous trees might have more yellow. Garden varieties were selected for reliable variability; although ‘burgundy’ has more dark red. Only trees that are too sheltered, too vigorous or pruned too aggressively will lack color. Urban trees can get fifty feet tall, but do not get very broad. Structural deficiency, aggressive roots and spiky seed capsules the size of ping pong balls can be problematic.

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GREEN

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GREEN – Greening Residential Environments Empowering Neighborhoods – allocates resources, procured from both municipal funding and private donations, to the installation, maintenance and protection of trees in public spaces within the collective urban forest of Los Angeles, and to the enforcement of environmental justice.

How is that for a mission statement?

It is no coincidence that GREEN is also Brent’s last name. He is quite vain. Really though, it works.

Brent has been planting street trees since we were in school in the 1980s, and did his first big project of thirty trees in the median of San Vicente Boulevard on his thirtieth birthday in 1998. This January, twenty years later, he will be planting fifty more trees.

Here and there, I will be writing more articles about these projects. They are too involved to write just one article about. For now, I would like to mention the Facebook page for GREEN, at https://www.facebook.com/GREEN-1518459741733375/. I am sorry that I can not devote more attention to it. I really should be writing more articles about what GREEN does.

There is more to it than just planting. Trees also require staking. Street trees need pruning for clearance above the roadways that they shade. Some trees needed to be injected with systemic insecticide for homopteran insect infestation. When mature Canary Island date palms were being stolen from the embankment of the Santa Monica Freeway and sold into other neighborhoods, GREEN was there to stop it, and to get at least one of the trees returned (although the neighborhood is still waiting for other reparations). GREEN has organized neighborhood clean-ups and graffiti abatement.

GREEN is in Los Angeles, but could be duplicated in other municipalities that could use more trees, or that already have trees that need maintenance. So many trees in America have tree preservation ordinances, but some of the biggest cities need to enforce their ordinances more diligently.

If you continue to read my blog, you will be reading more about GREEN. Again, the Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/GREEN-1518459741733375/

Posted on by tonytomeo · 8 Comments

Trees Do Not Like Chimneys

P71027There are many reasons why fireplaces and their chimneys are not such a safety concern like they were decades ago. Only a few modern homes are even equipped with them. Installation of a new fireplace is outlawed in many municipalities, even if a fireplace gets damaged by an earthquake, and should be replaced. Urban sprawl has replaced almost all of the orchards and woods that once supplied affordable fuel.

Most of the few fireplaces and wood stoves that still get used are safer because their chimneys are outfitted with spark arrestors. Also, most combustible cedar roofs have been replaced by non-combustible roofing material. Nonetheless, chimneys can sometimes get overwhelmed by potentially combustible vegetation. Trees, large shrubbery and vines might need to be pruned for adequate clearance from the heat.

Vines like ivy, Boston ivy and creeping fig are sometimes allowed to climb chimneys because they do not damage bricks as easily as they damage painted surfaces. However, they can easily grow over the top of a chimney. Aggressive vines generate significant volumes of vegetation, and can accumulate even more from nearby trees. Because they are directly over chimney exhaust, they ignite as soon as a fir is lit below.

Trees that reach over chimneys take a bit more time to burn because heat dissipates somewhat in the space between the top of the chimney and the higher vegetation. Cypress, pine, eucalyptus, cedar and big junipers are very combustible. If they get close enough, ungroomed palms and yuccas can be even worse! Deciduous trees are mostly defoliated, and less combustible while it Is cool enough to use a fireplace.

Regardless, all chimneys need adequate clearance from vegetation. Trees and vines that were allowed to get too close while fireplaces were unused through summer will need to be pruned back before the first fire is lit to take the chill out of cooling autumn weather. Debris that collects behind (upslope from) chimneys should also be removed. It can be combustible while dry, and once dampened by rain, it can cause rot.

This is also a good time to start cleaning eaves-troughs (gutters) and downspouts. Yes, it may need to be done more than once if enough deciduous foliage continues to fall through autumn. Debris is easiest to clean out while dry (before it needs to be cleaned out), but unfortunately becomes messier with rain.

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Cork Oak

71115Like redwoods, the cork oak, Quercus suber, is a ‘pyrophyte’, which means that it survives forest fires that burn off competing vegetation. The trunks and main limbs are insulated with a very thick bark. Only the foliage and smaller stems burn off. After a fire, the upper limbs of cork oak regenerate new foliage while other less fortunate plants start over from their roots or seed at ground level.

The thick bark is really what cork oak is grown for. It is used for corks, gaskets, flooring, notice boards, cricket ball cores and too many other products to list. It is also quite handsome on the stout trunks and limbs of landscape trees. If only the acorns were not so messy, cork oak would be a nice drought tolerant street tree with complaisant roots. The hazy evergreen leaves are about two inches long. Old trees eventually get almost fifty feet tall.

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Dwarf Bluegum

P71103Bluegum is famously problematic. It is too big, too invasive, too messy, too structurally deficient, and as demonstrated in the Oakland fire, too combustible. Dwarf bluegum, Eucalyptus globulus ‘Compacta’, is a completely different animal that does not even look related. It gets only about fifty feet tall, with a dense and somewhat symmetrically rounded canopy. The mess and falling limbs do not affect such a large area.

Dwarf bluegum is not a particularly appealing tree for home gardens, but happens to be practical on freeways or for quick shade in areas that are not landscaped. Once it gets going, it needs no irrigation. Too much water compromises stability. The distinctively curved lanceolate leaves resemble those of common bluegum, but are more densely arranged on shorter stems. Self sown seedlings grow as normal bluegums.

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Arborists Are Physicians For Trees

71108thumbBefore the storms of winter get here, it might be a good time to make arrangements to get some help for big trees that need it. Smaller trees that can be reached from the ground may not need anything that we can not do ourselves. It is the big trees that have grown beyond our reach that may need professional help if they have problems. They are unsafe for us DIY garden enthusiasts.

Once late autumn and winter weather patterns start, storms can break limbs and destabilize trees. Identifying problems and executing necessary remedies can limit such damages before they happens. Disproportionately heavy or structurally deficient limbs can be pruned to reduce weight and wind resistance. Obtrusive limbs can be pruned for clearance from roofs and anything else.

Trees are the most significant and influential features of our gardens. They shade and extend their limbs over our homes and gardens. Not only can they cause serious damage by dropping limbs or falling, but they can also change how our home and garden are affected by their shade. They are worthy of proper maintenance, even when it is necessary to procure the services of an arborist.

An arborist is a horticulturist who specializes in arboriculture, which is the horticulture of trees. Arborists are essentially tree physicians, who evaluate the health, stability and structural integrity of trees, and make recommendations for maintenance, or to repair problems. Most municipalities require an ISA Certified Arborist report in order to issue a permit to remove an unsalvageable tree.

The ISA is the International Society of Arboriculture. Certified Arborists have passed an examination of their arboricultural expertise, and maintain their credentials by continued involvement with ISA educational seminars, classes and workshops. More information about the International Society of Arboriculture and local certified arborists can be found at the website, www.isa-arbor.com.

Arboriculture is not the sort of thing that gardeners should be expected to perform. It is completely different from the sort of mowing, shearing and pruning that they do. Sadly, much of the damage that arborists find in trees was caused by improper arboricultural procedures. Arboriculture also has the potential to be very dangerous to someone who lacks adequate training and equipment.

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Planned Obsolescence

P71028For my exquisite 1979 Electra, planned obsolescence did not work out so well. It was probably a grand Buick for that time, and one of the last with tail fins! It was elegant. It was big. It was steel. It was made to last ten years or 100,000 miles . . . and that was it. Seriously, as much as I enjoyed that car, it did not want go to much farther than it was designed to go. It limped along for almost 20,000 miles more, but was not happy about it, and was really tired and worn out by the time it went to Buick Heaven.

Planned obsolescence used to mean something completely different in landscaping. Yes, we all know what it means now; that many of the so called ‘sustainable’ modern cultivars last only a few years so that they need to be replaced sooner than older cultivars. What it used to mean is that fast growing plants were used to get a landscape established quickly, while more desirable but slower plants took their time growing. As the more desirable plants matured, the fast growing plants could be removed.

For example, a large condominium complex was landscaped primarily with Norway maples and flowering pears. These trees would eventually grow to be proportionate to the buildings and the spaces that they shade. To provide shade sooner, and to help the landscape look established by the second summer, common cottonwoods were incorporated into larger areas. Their placement was not as important as it was to the maples and pears, but was strategic enough to avoid the other trees and buildings as long as possible. The intention was to allow the cottonwoods to be the prominent trees in the landscape only temporarily, but to remove them as the maples and pears matured. It was a practical technique used by landscape designers for as long as anyone can remember.

Sadly, few modern ‘gardeners’ understand this concept. The cottonwoods did not get removed when they should have been. They overwhelmed and crowded the other trees, and caused them to be disfigured as they grew. The cottonwood roots broke pavement and ruined lawns. Then, after all the damage and destruction, . . . the cottonwoods died, like cottonwoods do. Now the landscape is shaded by healthy but distorted maples and pears. The plan did not work very well.

Now, such planned obsolescence is simply impractical for trees. Even if those maintaining landscapes were reliable enough to follow through with such plans, modern tree preservation ordinances would prevent them from getting permits to remove temporary trees. Planned obsolescence can work with smaller shrubbery and perennials in home gardens, but those of us who use the technique must follow through with our plans so that things do not get too crowded.

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Firewood

P71027Heating homes has certainly changed. It has gotten much more efficient and less polluting. Homes are much better insulated than they were only a few decades ago. Heating systems use much less fuel, and produce much cleaner exhaust. That is partly how more than a million people who live in San Jose now make less smog than when there were half as many.

The unfortunate part of that efficiency is the decline in popularity of traditional fireplaces and stoves. Burning wood is now politically incorrect, and at times, even illegal. ‘Spare the air’ days are strictly enforced when air quality gets unpleasant.

In San Jose, building codes do not allow fireplaces to be build into new homes. Only homes that were build with fireplaces or stoves prior to the ordinance are outfitted with them. Fireplaces that are damaged by earthquakes are often removed instead of repaired.

Tending a fire does not fit into modern lifestyles very well anyway. If someone stays home long enough to do so, he or she is too busy with other work. Tending a fire simply is not considered a common household chore anymore. Fireplaces do not have thermostats, so do not maintain the sort of consistency in temperature that so many of us have become accustomed to.

Those of us who still use our fireplaces (when permitted) must procure firewood. There are no more deteriorating orchards to supply it. We can not grow our own because permits are needed to cut down trees that are big enough to make firewood. Permits are only granted for trees that must be cut down for other reasons. The need for fuel is not good enough.

Consequently, it becomes necessary to purchase expensive firewood. To some of us, it is still worth it. We can either purchase mixed firewood from a tree service, or get it from a firewood cutter in the Santa Cruz Mountains. There always seem to be more trees that need to be cut down than are needed for firewood.

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Fire!

P71018Fire is part of life here. It is a risk that those of us who live in the Santa Cruz Mountains must accept. We live in forests full of abundant vegetation fuel, where fire crews and equipment have limited access. The horrible Tubbs Fire that recently burned an urban neighborhood in Santa Rosa demonstrates how destructive, risky and unpredictable fires can be. That neighborhood was in town, outside of forests, where fire is not such a commonly accepted risk.

This morning, October 17, on the anniversary of the Loma Prieta Earthquake, our community woke to a fire of our own. The sunrise looked more like a colorful sunset, with orange and tan smoke everywhere. The ash that had fallen from the sky made it seem like there had been a cremation party last night. It is getting to look like Pompeii around here. The fire started last night as a house fire near Bear Creek Road outside of Boulder Creek, and moved into more than a hundred acres of forest. Crews from as far away as San Jose responded quickly, and seem to be containing it. The region was evacuated, and Bear Creek Road was temporarily closed. The fire is only 5% contained as I write this before noon. Fortunately, the humidity is up, and the temperature is down.

Fire is more than a part of life for us. It is part of nature. Although almost all fires here are caused by human activity now, fires had been burning forests and wildlands long before humans arrived. There certainly were not as many fires, but without anyone here to suppress them, they burned much larger areas for much more time. A fire started by lightning early in summer could burn for hundreds of miles until extinguished by a storm the following autumn. A single such fire could easily burn more area than all unnatural fires now burn each year. There were likely several such fires annually. That is why old photographs show that California was historically not as densely forested as it is now. Forests simply burned more regularly.

Many plant species know how to work with fire. A few, such as the giant redwood and coastal redwood, survive fire by being relatively noncombustible. They only burn if other vegetation around them gets extremely hot. Most of the pines do not mind burning because their cones open to disperse seed after getting cooked by fire. The seed germinate quickly the following winter to reforest the area that was just cleared by fire. If they are fortunate, they grow up and dominate the forest before other vegetation does, only to burn again a few decades later.

Then there are a few plants that take this technique a step further. Monterey pine is innately sloppy. By that, I mean that it holds much of its old dead limbs instead of shedding them. Lower limbs collect significant volumes of fallen needles, instead of letting the needles fall to the forest floor. Consequently, when a Monterey pine forest burns, it gets hot enough to incinerate competing vegetation and its seeds. Monterey pine cones do not burn completely. They insulate the seeds within just long enough to survive the quick and hot fire, and then open afterward to disperse seed. This is a significant advantage to the Monterey pine, even though they get incinerated too. Not much more than their own seed survives to dominate the forest.

California fan palms (and the related Mexican fan palms) collect long and very combustible beards of dead fronds. When they burn, they likewise incinerate everything below them. The single terminal buds of the palm trees remain safely insulated inside their thick trunks, and will regenerate later as if nothing every happened.

This tactic sounds violent, but it works for the trees that use it. However, enhanced combustibility is not such an asset in home gardens. That is why it is so important to either plant combustible plants at a distance from homes and buildings, or to maintain them so that they are not allowed to collect fuel.

If palms are allowed to wear their beards long enough to reach the ground, other combustible plants should not be allowed to get too overgrown around them. Alternatively, palms can be allowed to wear long beards if the lower portions are pruned up and away from other combustible plants.

Just like there are several plants that are not notably combustible, there are some that are notably combustible. Pines, cypresses, firs, spruces, cedars, junipers, acacias and eucalypti, although useful and appealing in the right situations, all happen to be notably combustible.