Native Plants for the Santa Cruz Mts

In celebration of Native Plant Week earlier this month, let’s talk about using . How do you pick the best ones for your situation and what do they need to grow in your garden?

California is a vast domain when it comes to natural features and different soils. From hills to mountains to deserts to valleys and ocean bluffs, there are 6000 plus plant species within our borders. Hundreds of these are showy and useful plants worthy of cultivation in our garden. Some, like ceanothus, have already been cultivated for a century or more, both here and abroad.

There are features of the California landscape that present a certain flavor and seasonal progression, quite distinct from that of the subtropics and year-round, moist forests that many traditional garden plants come from. Plants of hilly and mountainous areas are often found in rocky or sandy soils and require well-drained garden soils. Many plants of the chaparral have poor resistance to the root pathogens that thrive in a warm, moist soil and may not tolerate typical garden style irrigation in summer.

Matching or creating the right conditions is the key to success to grow California natives. Planting on a raised mound or berm, for instance, is one way to drain water away from sensitive crowns. Knowing where in California a given native plant comes from can help you make the right decisions.

That being said there are many natives with an amazing broad tolerance of different conditions. Heteromeles arbutifolia or toyon grows in both sandy and clay soils as does Achillea millifolium or yarrow which is also a good cut flower. Carex grass and Erigeron glaucus or Seaside daisy also do well in most soils.

If you garden in clay soils,  good native shrubs are Western redbud, manzanita, spicebush, bush anemone, ceanothus, garrya, Pacific wax myrtle, western mock orange, blue elderberry, mahonia, California wild rose and snowberry. Native perennials for clay soil include coral bells, sticky monkeyflower ( a good cut flower ), salvias, deer grass, rubus and Dutchman’s pipe vine.

Sandy conditions require California natives that are decidedly drought tolerant. You may already grow many of our manzanitas and ceanothus. But do you also have lupine, lavatera, coffeeberry, buckwheat, fuchsia-flowering gooseberry, purple sage, wallflower or the beautiful Douglas iris?

Then there are the folks that live in the shade. Native plants from canyons and riparian areas will do well in your garden. They require some summer watering but that’s all. Native shrubs that tolerate bright shade are manzanita, spicebush, bush anemone, ceanothus, mahonia, Ca. wax myrtle, any of the ribes, wild rose, snowberry and huckleberry. Perennials for color are columbine, Western bleeding heart, Ca. fuchsia, Douglas iris and coral bells.

Where ever you garden, to provide food and nectar or berries for our winged friends be sure you have some flowering currant, sticky monkey flower, coffeeberry, salvia clevelandii, Dutchman’s pipe vine,wax myrtle, Ca. fuchsia, aster chilensis or seaside daisy.

Vegetable Gardening in Spring

April is a month of change in the garden.  The word originates from the Latin aperire which means to open and refers to this month being the season when trees and flowers begin to open. Thanks to abundant rainfall this winter I see trees, shrubs and flowers blooming profusely. They appreciated last season’s rain but this year is the icing on the cake and everything wants a part of it. 

If cool spring weather has kept you from planting your vegetable garden, don’t worry.  As night and soil temperature warm, newly planted starts and seeds will grow quickly. Don’t plan to plant the whole garden at once. Make a drawing so you can leave space for the veggies that like it warmer.

Remember that cool season vegetables include beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, kale, lettuce, onions, radish and spinach.  These don’t mind cold soil and chilly weather. Crops that prefer night temps of 55 degrees and over but will tolerated an occasional light frost are tomatoes bell peppers, corn beans, squash, cucumber, muskmelon and pumpkin. Distinctly warm weather, long season crops that need temperatures in the 70’s are watermelon, eggplant and chilies. You can’t rush Mother Nature.

You can raise the temperature of the soil by laying clear plastic (not black ) over the surface. Be prepared to protect plants at night with row covers, hot caps, cardboard boxes or anything that will trap heat during the night until temps are right for your crop.

Rotate the beds when planting your vegetables to avoid a build up of diseases and insects that can survive in the soil or on plant residue.  Don’t plant the same or closely related vegetables where they grew in the last 2-3 years. 

Pay attention to the watering needs of each kind of plant, otherwise you might plant high water use vegetables beside ones that need need less water.   This can not only waste water but can actually harm plants.  A good guidelines is to group plants by how big they get and how fast they grow. The bigger and faster they grow, the more water they’ll use.  Plant heavy water users at one end of the garden, light users at the other. For instance, plant shallow rooted beets, bush beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes and other greens together as they grow at about the same rate and use similar amounts of water.  Corn, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes and squash combine well as they all grow rapidly and need lots of water.  Another tip is not to mix new (successive) plantings of carrots, lettuce and other crops with existing ones as water use changes as the plants mature. 

Vegetables at maturity that root over 48" deep are tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, winter squash, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and artichoke.  When watering wet your soil to this depth to keep them happy.  Moderately deep rooting veggies ( 36"-48" ) are beet, beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, eggplant, muskmelon, peas, pepper, summer squash and turnip Shallow rooting ( 18" – 24" ) veggies include broccoli, cabbage, celery, corn, garlic, lettuce, onion, parsley, potato, radish and spinach.  Water less if your plants aren’t full grown yet. 

Vegetables in containers are a great solution if you don’t have much space in the ground to devote to them. They warm up quicker in the spring, too. Just about anything that grows in the ground can also grow in a pot or half barrel. This includes vegetables, herbs and even small fruit trees.

Small plants like lettuces, spinach, swiss chard and herbs grow nicely in smaller pots near the back door while large edibles like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers and melons need more room like a half barrel or large 7 or 5 gallon pots.

It’s important to use fresh planing mix in your containers each year.  Heavy producers  need fresh nutrients and deplete the soil by the end of the season. Also feed your containers for the best tasting fruit and vegetables and water on a steady basis. Skip a day of watering when larger plants are at their peak and you can lose your crop. There’s no such thing as dry-farmed tomatoes in a container.

Plant something edible. You’ll be glad you did.
 

A Private Arboretum in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Recently I had the honor to tour a remarkable garden in Scotts Valley. This horticulturalist calls himself a hillbilly gardener but he is no such thing. Some of his plants come from as far away as Oklahoma, Texas and Hawaii. What a thrill to see spring growth emerge from the new leaves of his unusual trees, flowering shrubs and perennials.

Our first stop was to admire his large collection of echium candicans or Pride of Madeira. These stately shrubs reach 5-6 ft tall and 6-10 ft wide so they make quite a show when the huge flower clusters are in full bloom. Being deer resistant and drought tolerant they are perfect for our mountain environment. The color of the spikes varied from pink to lilac, sapphire blue and purple. This gardener is resourceful. He got many of his seedlings along Hwy 17 where they had reseeded after being used as brush to stabilize the slopes after the ’89 earthquake. The bees were really happy visiting the hundreds of blossoms on the beautiful spring day that I was there.

Tucked under wild cherry trees collected in Texas, are second generation iris of dark purple and pure yellow. Originally from his grandmother’s garden in Virginia, these iris are descendants from a light blue variety and a pale yellowish-beige douglas iris.

This extraordinary gardener also has a huge wild rose from Missouri covered now with fragrant white flowers, a wild olive from Texas and a sand plum from Oklahoma.  There is a yucca about 4 ft tall that he and his brother started as cuttings when they were teenagers in Port Arthur, Texas. He is also the proud father of a couple of bald cypress complete with "knees". This tree of southern swamps and other low nutrient areas grows woody projections above the ground or water level to act as a structural support and stabilizer allowing them to resist very strong winds. Even hurricanes rarely overturn them.

A beautiful Canary Island palm, planted from a seedling in 1996 that he had nurtured in a gallon can, is now over 9 ft tall.  Akebia vines grow up oak trees, passiflora and white wisteria vines up redwoods, a yellow banksia rose rambles up into a madrone and madevillea laxa is happy growing up an oak, too. A willow-leafed hakea salicifolia, indigenous to New South Wales and Queensland, graces his entry with its tiny, white fragrant flowers.

Other trees this gardener loves include Causarina, native also to Australia, sugar pine, incense cedar, Western red cedar, deodar cedar, staghorn sumac and a maytens tree.  His mother in Pennsylvania taught him to plant his first garden at age 4 and he cherishes his Eastern white pines, pinus stroblis, and giant sequoias, three of which he grew from seed.

And I can’t forget his collection of salvias. The red flowers spike of salvia confertiflora bloom year round. The beautiful salvia mexicana will soon to be covered with rich, blue flowers. He also grows salvia chiapensis and a salvia-like plant native to Hawaii called salvia lepechinia. This deliciously scented plant will be covered soon with reddish lavender lipstick-like flowers adored by hummingbirds like all the salvias.

A new greenhouse where he has a small collection of orchids will soon house new seedlings that are sprouting in a germination station under lights. Of the many Hawaiian seeds he has collected are maile, a flowering plant that is probably the oldest and most popular material used in leis by early Hawaiians, milo- a chocolate and malt powder popular in many parts of the world, gossypium tomentosum, coral vines, hibiscus and the koa tree.

There were hundreds more cool plants I learned about and got to admire that day. I’ll be visiting this garden again and again for the next round of wonders. it’s a marvel.

 

The Mountain Gardener’s Hot Plant Picks for 2011

It’s not just another garden show, it’s the world renowned San Francisco Flower & Garden show and it was the perfect start to spring. Sure the show gardens are part theater and part reality but you can’t help but come away with inspiration, ideas and spring fever. One of my favorite parts is the display of new plant introductions from Western Horticultural Society. These are great plants destined to become favorites in the garden.  Well, I have my own Top 10 Hot Plants for 2011. These selections do not include California natives because Native Plant Week is coming up soon and I’ll focus on our valuable natives in an upcoming column.

I’m often asked for plant recommendations for our unique set of gardening conditions-extreme weather, heavy clay or sandy soil and limited water resources in the summer months. The following plants are easy to grow, have few or no problems with pests of diseases and posses valuable qualities such as color, fragrance, winter interest or support wildlife and beneficial insects. Try something new this year in your garden.

Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’. This low spreading shrub grows 1 ft tall by 4-5 feet across and blooms year round with pink and white spidery flower clusters. Great for attracting nectar feeding birds and gophers don’t like their taste. Full sun, evergreen and drought tolerant -this is a great groundcover.

Kaleidescope abelia
This evergreen shrub is a kaleidescope of color as it’s name implies. Variegated foliage is bright yellow and green in spring, changing to golden yellow with bright oranges and fiery reds in fall. Its grown habit is densely compact and rounded. The beautiful foliage doesn’t scorch in the sun either.  It’s a beauty 2-3 ft tall and 3-4 feet wide. What more can you ask for?

Loropetalum Pipa’s Red
Also known as Fringe flower this shrub sports rich burgundy foliage in a fountain shape with tiered branches. Raspberry flower clusters are heaviest in the spring but some bloom is likely throughout the year.   I place this plant in the foreground where you can appreciate it’s graceful shape-looks great as an accent or in a raised bed.   The burgundy color can add color to a woodland garden and it even does well in a container on the patio.   You can prune it to any size but please don’t turn it into a tight ball and ruin it’s shape. Another plus is that it is not attractive to deer. 

Karl Foerster feather reed grass adds a vertical element to your summer and fall garden. It provides wonderful contrast among low shrubs and perennials. Named after the famous landscape architect and photographer with a love for all aspects of perennial plants, Karl Foerster  lived in Germany from 1874 to 1970. This grass won the 2001 Perennial Plant of the Year and although it’s not new on the market it’s an  easy to grow ornamental grass that won’t overpower your space.

Cordyline Electric Pink
This show stopper lives up to its high-voltage name. It surpasses other grass-like plants with boldly striped leaves of maroon and shocking pink. This well-behaved cordyline is clump-forming and reaches only 2-4 feet in height and width. Place in large mixed container or flower borders to instantly add an exciting look.

Pennisetum Fireworks
With arching leaves striped with white, green, burgundy and hot pink this grass is beautiful in the garden. Purple tassels rise above the foliage in late summer. The variegated pink striped blades of this grass are just as spectacular as the purple flower heads. Some gardens with clay soil and heavy frost in winter may need to grow this plant in a container for protection but it’s worth the extra effort.
 

Leaucadendron Safari sunset
Fiery red bracts on densely covered tall stems are sure to draw oohs and aahs. This is one of the most popular Leaucadendron available. It’s a vigorous, erect grower to over 8 feet tall and tough enough to handle frost and clay soils. The flower is actually an insignificant cone surrounded by large colorful bracts which are excellent for cut foliage harvesting.

Belinda’s Find red hook sedge
This red sedge is a two-tone delight of bright cherry red leaves with a green stripe running down the center.  Its loosely tufted, upright form grows 12" tall by 15" wide in part sun. Tiny bulrush-like flowers, from June to August,are elevated above the tidy, low growing evergreen clump. Use in the front of the border, in masses or mixed containers.

Euphorbia Diamond Frost blooms continuously with clouds of white flowers that float above finely textured apple-green foliage. This delicate looking perennial may be small in stature, reaching 12-18 " tall and wide, but is easy to grow and surprisingly tolerant of drought and heat. Combine this airy plant with bright colors for a dazzling border.

Phormium Jester is a New Zealand flax cultivar that grows to 3 feet making it a better fit in the garden than some of the larger phormiums. It can tolerate fairly dry conditions but looks best with occasional to regular irrigation. This strong color combination of green and pink doesn’t revert to the parent plants coloring. It’s hardy to 15-20 degrees. You might find this plant also listed as Jubilee.

 

Vines for the Santa Cruz Mountains

If you enjoy and beautiful blooms, you can have them both when you plant vines.  Vines use little space, add color to bare walls and fences, cover free-standing arbors, provide shade and extend the garden skyward.  Vines are amazing plants.
   
If your trees aren’t big enough to provide shade yet , vines on a pergola or lattice work can cool a west facing patio.  They can also block the wind making your garden more comfortable.   Vines with large, soft leaves can soften sounds that would otherwise bounce off hard surfaces.  Birds will love you for your vines.  They offer shelter for many species and nectar for others. 
   
Creating an outdoor room with vines can make your yard feel cozy.  They readily provide the walls to enclose the space.  Views from one part of the garden may be partially open, framed by vines or blocked entirely.  Shrubs can also be used to create garden rooms but vines form a thin living wall that is quickly established.  Creating boundaries with vines also adds vertical design elements to an otherwise flat landscape.
   
Hide something unattractive with a covering of vines. A dog house, old stump, or rock pile can become a pleasant view when covered with vines.  Disguising a concrete block retaining wall with a climbing hydrangea will reward you with a great show of flowers each spring. A native vine like Roger’s Red wild grape or Boston ivy will provide fall color on the same wall.
   
Planting vines in containers or planters on a deck, balcony or paved area can add beauty to these areas. Remember that large containers offer more root space than small ones and require less frequent watering and transplanting.  Vine need support for them to climb.  A small lattice structure or netting stretched between posts works well for vines such as clematis and pink jasmine.  The  structure doesn’t need to be in the container.
   
Combining vines can have twice the effect.  A classic combination is to plant a large flowering clematis like Jackmanii with a rambling rose.  I’ve seen these on arbors and split rail fences and the look is breathtaking.
   
For a vine with long lasting interest, try trumpet creeper which blooms from midsummer to early autumn. Hummingbirds love it. Growing in sun or shade, it can tolerate wet or dry conditions and is generally pest free.  Give it lots of space to grow. 
   
Climbing hydrangea has showy white spring flowers and bright yellow autumn color before the leaves fall.  During the winter months the peeling bark provides interest.  It thrives with a bit of shade and regular moisture.  This is an excellent choice for masonry walls and the trunks of mature trees.  It will clothe a wall with white flowers and turn a dull trunk into a floral masterpiece. 
   
Plant vines for fragrance in your garden.  Evergreen clematis bears showy white fragrant flowers clusters above shiny dark green leaves in spring.  Clematis montana is covered with vanilla scented pink flowers in spring also.   Carolina jessamine‘s fragrant yellow flowers appear in masses throughout  late winter into spring.       
Star jasmine is a wonderful vine for sun or shade and it’s intense fragrance near a patio or open window will delight you.  It is easy to grow and is generally not  troubled by pests. Pink jasmine blooms mostly in the spring but sporadically through fall with showy, sweet scented pale pink flowers.  It grows fast to 15 feet and is tolerant of drought.  It can also be allowed to cascade over a wall or from a hanging basket.
   
Other vines that are beautiful and easy to grow are the native honeysuckle, lonicera hispidula with its translucent red berries in the fall. Violet trumpet vine, white potato vine, passion flower, Lady Banks rose, hardenbergia, Chilean jasmine and wisteria.
   
The above vines are just a few of the wonderful vines that do well in our climate, in a wide range of soils and conditions.  They are pest resistant and need little fertilization or care other than pruning to control size if needed.   Look around your garden for a spot that would be enhance by a beautiful vine.