Monthly Archives: May 2023

Design trends

Natives attract Birds, Bees & Butterflies

It’s always a breathtaking experience taking a walk at this time of year. You might see the cobalt blue flowers of ceanothus or a stand of dicentra formosa with their dainty pink bell-shaped flowers backlit in the spring sunlight. Coral bells are in full bloom as are the Pacific coast iris. These are just a few of our local native plants. Everywhere you look nature is beginning the season fresh with anticipation and promise.

California is a vast domain when it comes to natural features and different soils. From hills and mountains to deserts, 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. Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia) grows in both sandy and clay soils as does yarrow (Achillea millifolium) which is also a good cut flower. Carex grass and Seaside daisy (Erigeron glaucus) 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, Pacific wax myrtle, any of the ribes, wild rose, snowberry and huckleberry. Perennials for color are columbine, Western bleeding heart, California. fuchsia, Douglas iris and coral bells.

Where ever you garden, to provide food, 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, California fuchsia, aster chilensis.

Design trends

The Wonderful World of Wisteria

Wisteria are one of those vines that you either long for or lament ever having planted. They are all fragrant with a delicious sweet scent that varies from faint to strong to almost overpowering. Bees and hummingbirds love them. Here are some tips to choose and enjoy one in your garden.

Wisteria are one of nature’s most resilient survivors. They are able to withstand and recover quickly from difficult conditions. To some they are a little too tough for their own good with a growth rate rivaling bamboo during the summer. If you dream of a wisteria-covered pergola shading your patio here are some maintenance tips that are sure to keep both gardener and vine happy.

Wisteria are so vigorous they can be pruned at any time, keeping them in bounds and clearing out unwanted or dead growth. Prune out any stems you see extending into eaves, windows or shingles. If yours has gotten away from you, you can even prune it down to the ground and start over with training although you’ll have to wait a few years for your vine to bloom again.

To their control size major pruning is done during the dormant season. Start by trimming the long tendrils that grew over the summer back to about 6 inches from the main trunk. Cutting the tendrils back in this way will initiate flower bud development, neaten the plant up, and show off the attractive trusty, gnarly character of the vines.

Whatever time you do renovation pruning remember the response of the wisteria to aggressive pruning is to literally explode with new runners. They put energy into new vegetative growth at the expense of flowering. Make sure you keep up on ongoing maintenance pruning by removing all unwanted runners right to their point of origin. Then prune back the others to 3 buds or sets of leaves. Repeated pruning of these runners is what will eventually give you spurs of wood, short laterals that in turn will provide you with flower clusters. You need to prune these runners all season long which ends up being every 3-4 weeks.

Do not fertilize your wisteria. They do not flower well if there is an over abundance of luxuriant growth. Over feeding also ends up giving them the means to become un unmanageable monster. If you have trouble getting your vine to flower an application of a high phosphorus fertilizer may promote blooming.

Maintaining a wisteria requires some diligence but the reward is worth the effort. Remember this especially during winter pruning season to make summer maintenance easier. If you find that the wisteria vine has invaded a nearby bed, cut roots with a shovel below the soil line to control any that have wandered.

Which variety of wisteria should you get to cover your arbor, pergola, tree or other structure?

Chinese varieties such at ‘Cooke’s Special’ have clusters of fragrant blue-purple flowers 20 inches long. This variety can re-bloom which makes it a favorite. Chinese wisteria can take up to 20 years to mature enough to produce flowers, but once it has matured, the plant is very long lived and can live up to 100 years.

Japanese wisteria like ‘Caroline’ bloom early with mauve flowers. ‘Royal Purple’ , known also as ‘Black Dragon’ , has sweetly scented dark purple flowers. Japanese wisteria are most effective when grown on pergolas so their long flower cluster can hang freely.

American wisteria, native to more eastern areas of the U.S. is a smaller, less invasive species that grows about a third the rate of Asian wisteria. ‘Amethyst Falls’ blooms at an early age with lightly fragrant purple racemes. Use in containers for porch or patio, train up an arbor or trellis or as a small free-standing tree.

Silky varieties produce a profusion of short, 6 inch, fat clusters of strongly scented flowers that open all at once. They have velvety seed pods and bloom best in full sun.

All parts of the wisteria vine contain a toxin known as wisteria which can cause stomach upset. Growers should also be wary of pets and children eating the flowers or seed pods.

Design trends

Filoli Gardens in May

What fun is must have been for the children raised in the 1900’s at Filoli Estate. You can just imagine what a kid could do on 654 acres of orchards, fields and gardens creating a maize of places to hide and seek. As gardeners a visit to Filoli Gardens will inspire you to re-imagine what your own garden can be. It’s spring. Here are some of my takeaways from my recent visit to Filoli.

Filoli Gardens is a manicured garden around the mansion and carriage house so the paths are straight and formal. Lined with dwarf boxwood each path encloses a different grouping of plants that change with the seasons. Many of us have meandering paths in our gardens separating the different garden rooms. The elements of garden design, like arrangement of paths, planting beds and open spaces, shape your garden. Your eye is drawn along a path through a garden. The plantings along the sides serve to frame but it’s the style of the path itself that enhances your experience in the garden. Some of the paths at Filoli Garden are gravel, some grass and some brick and mortar. All draw the visitor deeper into the garden to explore and linger at each spot.

Every month there is a different assortment of trees, shrubs, bulbs and vines blooming at Filoli. On this visit the wisteria took center stage. Their fragrance was intoxicating. To keep them in check volunteers keep them pruned tightly. Yes, it’s an ongoing task but the rewards are worth it. I’ll cover wisteria care in another column so you’ll know how to live in peace with your wisteria.

As in any garden, color plays an important role. It’s the wow factor we all go for. At Filoli on my recent visit the foxglove were in full bloom. I liked the apricot ones growing under the wisteria outside the carriage house. But then a bed of dark rose foxglove under another wisteria vine caught my eye. In my humble opinion, the combination could have been enhanced with some white flowers or silver foliage to tone it down but this bed was breathtaking. Everyone was photographing it and posing in front. Something to remember is that light colors like pale pink and blue, creamy yellow and lavender are more vivid in low light or on an overcast day.

Another show stopper was a vivid red azalea blooming throughout the gardens. Even from a long distance you couldn’t help but be drawn to them. Many were planted to be viewed against the dark green foliage of large shrubs and the mature columnar yews. As opposites on the color wheel, red and green are complementary and striking when paired together.

Some of the best beds still had some late blooming tulips. One of my favorite combinations was the softest pink parrot tulips with the purple allium pom pom flowers towering overhead. Another bed featured medium pink tulips, allium, white foxglove and the feathery burgundy foliage of fennel. A nice combination indeed and one you wouldn’t think of normally.

A huge Beni Hoshi flowering cherry was in full bloom with soft pink rhododendrons below. There are so many varieties of rhododendrons that you can have them blooming from March until May. They are long-lived and deer resistant.

Like kids in a candy store, my fellow companions, who are both Master Gardeners, enjoyed every turn at Filoli Gardens. We plan to go back in a couple months for the next rotation of flowering trees, roses and perennials.

Design trends

Growing Veggies in Shade, Containers & Small Spaces

I have been gardening for a very long time. But even now I feel I know just a little bit about a whole lot of subjects. Every day I learn something new. Now that spring weather has finally arrived I’m anxious to start planting like the rest of you. Because I have a lot of shade that rotates during the day and a small space to garden I am limited by what I can grow successfully. On a lark I signed up for a free ChatGPT Open AI account to see what all the fuss was about and whether I could learn anything from my query. Let’s just say the results were a little dry. So here are my own thoughts about growing vegetables in containers, small spaces ors shade.

The best veggie varieties for growing in containers are: beans, chard, chili peppers, kale, lettuce, onions, radishes, spinach, sweet peppers and tomatoes. Last year I grew some French Marcotte container bush beans which were delicious although I ended up nibbling on them raw while putzing around on the deck. They were delicious. Strawberries are great for containers, too.

Little Crunch Snap Pea

Last week I started some Little Crunch Container Snap Peas. The package says I’m to get loads of crispy, sweet pods on vigorous short vines that are perfect for snacks. Peppers, both chili and sweet varieties do well in containers, too. You might want to try growing bite-sized sweet peppers for your pizza or for snacking while out in the garden.

Tomatoes are always popular to grow whether in the ground in a small garden or in pots on the patio. Bush types (determinate) don’t grow as large as indeterminate vines. If you like large size tomatoes, plant Bush Beefsteak and you’ll be harvesting clusters of delicious 8 ounce. tomatoes in just 62 days. A half wine barrel can house a taller tomato like the ever popular Sungold. Small gold-orange cherry tomatoes ripen early and are oh-so-sweet. You’ll plant these every year after you’ve tasted one.

Zucchini lovers might try the non-rambling Raven or Astia varieties which won’t take up as much space as a traditional type. If you have a little space to spare grow the round French heirloom squash, Ronde de Nice. Jade colored zucchini produce over a long period. Harvest the fruit when they reach golf ball up to baseball size. They are sublime grilled or try them stuffed. A tip to encourage pollination when squash or melons bloom is to pinch off leaves covering the blossoms in order to give pollinators a clear path to the flowers.

Herbs make good additions to the smaller garden, too. They can be kept compact with frequent pinching as you harvest sprigs for cooking. They also attract beneficial insects to the garden. Oregano, chamomile and fennel are good insectary herbs.

Shade tolerant vegetables for your brightest spots – the partial shade areas – include beans, peas, potatoes, pumpkin, summer squash and early maturing tomatoes like Early Girl, Stupice, San Francisco Fog, Isis Candy as well as other cherry tomatoes. Corn and peppers will be lankier and bear later and only modesty in partial shade.

Root crops and leafy plants can tolerate more shade than fruiting crops. Beets, carrots, potatoes, celery and turnip will grow quite happily in partial shade. So will shallots and bunching onions, cilantro, garlic, chives, kale, leeks, parsley, oregano, cilantro and thyme. Leafy plants can tolerate partial to light shade because their leaves grow larger to absorb the sunlight the plants need. In very light shade areas concentrate on leafy green like Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, arugula, radishes and tarragon.

Shade can be decidedly helpful to some crops. Leafy greens will be more tender and succulent, without the bitterness they tend to acquire when conditions are too hot. A combination of a bit of afternoon shade and an abundance of moisture will help cut-and-come-again crops like broccoli, lettuce, cabbage and celery stay in good condition longer in hot weather.

Whatever plants you grow in your shady garden, be sure not to crowd them. Plants tend to sprawl there and if placed too close together they will compete for available light. Place your vegetables plants wherever they will get the most light even if it means putting different crops in separate places. A small harvest is still better than no harvest at all. Your vegetables may take a bit longer to mature without full sun so be patient.