2020

Posted on December 29, 2020 by tomkarwin

Acacia cognate ‘Cousin Itt’

Acer palmatum Japanese Maple

Aeonium arborescens ‘Zwartkop’

Agapanthus praecox – Lily of the Nile

Agave ‘Blue Flame’

Agave ‘Blue Glow’

Agave ‘Cornelius’ Quasimoto Agave

Agave americana var. medio-picta ‘Alba’

Agave angustifolia var. marginata

Agave applanata ‘Cream Spike’

Agave attenuata ‘Variegata’ – Variegated Fox Tail Agave

Agave attenuata—Fox Tail Agave

Agave celsii ‘Nova’

Agave desmetiana ‘Variegata’ Variegated Smooth Agave

Agave filifera ssp. schidigera ‘Durango Delight’

Agave geminiflora ‘Leapin’ Lizards’

Agave guadalajarana – Maguey Chato

Agave Horrida

Agave isthmensis ‘Rum Runner’

Agave kavandivi

Agave parrasana ‘Fireball’

Agave parryi var. truncate ‘Retro Choke’ folder

Agave potatorum

Agave potatorum cv. Cubic

Agave potatorum II

Agave pygmaea ‘Dragon Toes’

Agave schidigera ‘Shira ito no Ohi’ -Queen of White Thread-leaf Agave

Agave titanota – Felix Otero form

Agave titanota – Gentry form

Agave titanota ‘White Ice’

Agave titanota Felix Otero form

Agave victoriae-reginae

Agave x arizonica

Albuca bracteata – Pregnant Onion

Aloe ‘Delta Lights’

Aloe ‘Jeff Karsner’

Aloe arborescens – Torch Aloe

Aloe brevifolia

Aloe maculata – Soap Aloe

Aloe plicatilis – Fan Aloe

Aloe vera

Aloe Wrasse

Alstromeria aurea – 2 varieties Peruvian Lily

Alyogyne huegelii ‘Santa Cruz’

Anemone hupehensis – Japanese Anemone

Anemone hupehensis – Japanese Anemone seedheads

Anigozanthos hybrid ‘Regal Velvet’

Anigozanthos hybrid ‘Regal Velvet’ CU.jpeg

Arctostaphylos pajaroensis – Pajaro manzanita.

Aristea major

Asarum caudatum – Wild Ginger

Asparagus densiflorus ‘Sprengeri’

Astroloma foliosum “Candle Cranberry”

Beaucarnea recurvata – Ponytail Palm

Bergenia cordifolia – Piqsqueek

Bletilla striata – Chinese Ground Orchid

Brugmansia sanguinea

Bulbine Frutescens Snake Flower

Calandrinia spectabilis

Calycanthus occidentalis

Campanula Medium ‘Deep Blue’ – Canterbury Bells

Canna ‘Cleopatra’

Cantua buxifolia ‘Hot Pants’

Carex divulsa – Berkeley Sedge

Chitalpa ‘Pink Dawn’

Cistus argenteus ‘Silver Pink’

Cistus ladanifer ‘Blanche’

Cistus ladanifer (Crimson spot rockrose)

Citrus limon “Eureka” – Eureka Lemon

Clivia miniata

Cordyline australis – burgundy/yellow variegated

Cordyline ‘Festival Grass Burgundy’

Cordyline australis – red/cream variegated

Correa ‘Gwen Elliot’

Correa ‘Ivory Bells’ “White Australian Fucshai”

Correa ‘Ray’s Tangerine’ Tangerine Australian Fuchsia

Correa ‘Ray’s Tangerine’

Cotoneaster lacteus

Cotula coronopifolia ‘Tiffindell Gold’

Cotyledon orbiculata

Cotyledon orbiculata – Finger Aloe

Crassula lycopodiodes – Watch Chain Crassula

Crassula nudicaulis ‘Devils Horn’

Crassula pubescens ssp. Radicans

Crassula tetragona

Crinum moorei – Natal Lily

Cryptbergia ‘Red Burst’

Cuphea ‘Starfire Pink’

Cuphea ignea – Firercracker Plant

Cussonia gamtoosensis – “Gamboos Cabbage Tree”

Dahlia imperialis – Tree Dahlia

Dahlia unknown

Dasylirion longissima “Mexican Grass Tree”

Deuterocohnia brevifolia – Argentine Ball

Dietes bicolor

Dudley brittonii

Dudleya edulis -Chalk Lettuce

Dyckia fosteriana

Dyckia platyphylla – Broad-leaf Dyckia

Echeveria ‘Autumn Flame’

Echeveria ‘Blue Bird’

Echeveria ‘Etna’?

Echeveria ‘Mahogany Rose’

Echeveria ‘Moana Loa’

Echeveria ‘Perle von Nurnberg’

Echeveria agavoides ‘Lipstick’

Echeveria agavoides ‘Red’ – Molded Wax Agave

Echeveria Ciliata x Nodulosa – Mexican Hens & Chicks

Echeveria colorata ‘Mexican Giant’

Echeveria harmsii – Plush Plant

Echeveria lilacina – Ghost Echeveria

Echeveria set-oliver

Echeveria setosa var. deminuta – Firecracker Plant

Echeveria shaviana ‘Pink Frills’ – Mexican Hens

Echveria runyonii

Elegia tectorum – Small Cape Rush

Elegia tectorum Small Cape Rush

Epilobium canum – California Fucshia

Eriogonum grande var. rubescens – Buckwheat

Espostoa lanata – Peruvian Old Man Cactus

Eucharis amazonica

Euphorbia amygdaloides ‘Purpurea’

Euphorbia mammillaria – Corncob Cactus

Euphorbia mammillaria – Corncob Cactus revisited

Euphorbia millii supergrandiflora ‘Amarillo’ – Giant Crown of Thorns

Ficus carica – Black Mission Fig

Fockea edulis

Freesia alba

Fuchsia magellenica

Fuchsia microphylla

Fuchsia thymifolia ‘Variegata’

Fucshia ‘Santa Cruz’ (red + dark red)

Fucshia boliviana

Fucshia boliviana-white variety

Fucshia genii ‘Aurea’

Gasteria ‘Flow’

Gasteria ‘Little Warty’

Geranium ‘Johnson’s Blue’

Geranium × cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’

Geranium maderense

Geranium peltatum – Ivy Geranium

Gladiolus communis

Globurlaria sarcophylla

Golden Barrel Cactus

Graptopetalum paraguayense – Mother of Pearl Plant

Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’

Grevillea ‘Poorinda Queen’

Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem II

Grevillea lanigera ‘Coastal Gem’

Habanero lemon ‘Hot Pepper’ – Yellow Habanero

Haemanthus coccineus

Haemanthus coccineus – foliage 12/9/2020

Hardenbergia violacea ‘Happy Wanderer’

Haworthia fasciata – Zebra Plant

Haworthia fasciata ‘Royal Albert’

Hedychium gardnerianum – Kahili Ginger

Hesperoyucca whipplei

Hieracium maculatum ‘Leopard’

Hydrangea quercifolia

Hylotelephium ‘Herbstsfreude’ AUTUMN JOY

Hymenocallis × festalis ‘Zwanenburg’

Iris ‘Canyon Snow’

Iris douglasiana

Iris pallida

Iris Unk. – blue self (‘Violet Reprise’)

Iris Unk. – rich purple (‘Trick or Treat’)

Jovibarba globifera

Kalanchoe thyrsiflora ‘Flapjacks’

Kennedia beckxiana ‘Flamboyant’

Kniphofia ‘Pineapple Popsicle’

Lathyrus odorata ‘Cupani’

Lathyrus odoratus ‘Nuance’

Lavandula angustifolia – English Lavender

Lavandula x allardii ‘Meerlo’ – Variegated Allard’s Lavender

Lepechinia hastata

Leptospermum scoparium

Leucophyta brownii

Lewisia cotyledon ‘Elise’

Lorapetalum chinense

Mahonia pinnata – Oregon Grape

Mammillaria karwinskiana – Owl Eyes Cactus

Mammillaria rhodantha ssp. Pringlei – Pincushion Cactus

Mandevilla laxa – Chilean Jasmine

Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ (red edged)

Mangave ‘Macho Mocha’

Mangave ‘Pineapple Express’

Marrubium supinum (Horehound)

Mimulus aurantiacus

Mirabilis jalapa – Four O’Clock

Monardella villosa

Montanoa grandiflora – Daisy Tree

Nasrcissus papyraceus ‘Ziva’ – paperwhite

Nerine bowdenii – Guernsey Lily

Nerine red unk.

Olea europaea ‘Majestic Beauty’

Oscularia deltoides – Pink Iceplant

Paeonia suffriticosa -Tree Peony

Pandorea pandorana ‘Snowbells’ – Wonga Wonga vine

Papaver somniferum – Opium Poppy

Pelargonium cordifolium ‘Heart-leaved Geranium’

Philadelphus lewisii – Lewis’ Mock Orange

Phlomis purpurea -Purple Phlomis

Phygelius aequalis ‘Yellow Trumpet’

Pimelea ferruginia ‘Bonne Petite’ – Rice Flower

Pittosporum tenuifolium ‘Nigricans’ – Black Matipo

Portulacaria afra – Elephant Food

Puja venusta

Rebutia krainziana – Krainz Crown Cactus

Rhus integrifolia – Lemonade Sumac

Ribes sanguineum – 3 varieties of Flowering Currant

Ribes speciosum -Fuchsia-flowered Gooseberry

Ricinus communis ‘New Zealand Purple’

Romneya coulteri

Rosa – Flower Carpet ‘Pink Supreme’

Rosa ‘ballerina’

Rosa ‘Burgundy Iceberg’

Rosa ‘Day Breaker’

Rosa ‘Distant Drums’

Rosa ‘Dortmund’

Rosa ‘Golden Celebration’

Rosa ‘Graham Thomas’

Rosa ‘Iceberg’

Rosa ‘Mary Rose’

Rosa ‘Memorial Day’

Rosa ‘Mulligani’

Rosa ‘Portland from Glendora’

Rose curculio

Rosmarinus officinalis ‘Tuscan Blue’

Ruellia elegans “Elegant Ruellia”

Salvia ‘Amistad’

Salvia africana-lutea -Golden Salvia

Salvia chiapensis ‘Chiapis Sage’

Salvia convertiflora (red)

Salvia dolomitica

Salvia Elegans – Pineapple Sage

Salvia gesnerifolia ‘Tequila’ – Big Mexican Scarlet Sage

Salvia greggii (two cultivars)

Salvia karwinskii

Salvia madrensis – Forsythia Sage (yellow)

Salvia microphylla ‘Hot Lips’

Salvia unk.

Salvia wagneriana

Sarcococca ruscifolia – Sweetbox

Sedum unk.

Sempervivum tectorum

Senecio haworthia – Wooly Senecio, Cocoon Plant

Sollya heterophylla – Australian Bluebell Creeper

Spuria Iris ‘Always a Mystery’

Stachys byzantia

Syringa vulgaris – 3 Lilac varieties

Tagetes lemonii

Tagetes lemonii – Mexican Marigold spring & fall

Three Little Cacti

Trichostema lanatum – Wooly Blue Curls

Tulbaghia violacea – Society Garlic

Tulipa ‘Peer Gynt’

Urginea maritima – Giant White Squill

Verbascum olympicum ‘Album’

Weigela florida ‘Variegata’

Westringia fruticosa ‘Morning Light’

Yucca – unidentified

Yucca desmetiana ‘Blue Boy’

Zantedeschia aethiopica – Calla Lily

Zephyranthes candida

Social Distance XVI – Garden Paths

Posted on December 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

This column continues explorations of three kinds of gardening activities that can respond to our creative energies, support healthful exercise, and improve the quality and enjoyment of our living environments.

Care for Your Garden

We recently touched on the Big Three of Weeding: pulling, solarizing and mulching. In this column, we survey ways to minimize weed growth on garden paths.

Some gardens consist of lawns with planted garden beds that either around or within the grassy area. In landscapes with large garden beds the lawn might take the form of narrow paths between the planted areas. In either case, managing weed growth in lawns requires supporting vigorous growth of the grass (good for the environment) or applying a broadleaf weed killer (bad for the environment).

The following notes focus on non-grassy garden paths.

The most basic garden path is bare soil, compacted by foot traffic. Such areas still can foster weed growth, although a layer of organic mulch could help to discourage weed rooting.

The next level of limiting weed growth is to cover basic paths with decomposed granite (“DG”), which is coarser than sand, with angular grains that can be tamped down to form a firm surface. Landscape fabric might be placed on the path below the DG installation.

A three-inch deep layer of DG provides an inexpensive path that is not hospitable to weed growth but weeds eventually will establish roots in the DG and their removal become a time-consuming maintenance task. While landscape fabric discourages weed growth from below, the weeds begin with seeds that winds and birds bring to the path’s surface.

As the DG path becomes weedy, practical weed management could be accomplished with occasional spraying of 20% or 30% vinegar. This organic treatment requires careful handling to protect desirable plants and nearby gardeners from this harsh chemical.

Some advisers recommend household vinegar (5%) mixed with table salt plus a small quantity of liquid detergent as a surfactant. Spraying with this solution will trouble weaker weeds but doesn’t really get the job done.

A DG path can be protected from weed growth with the use of a stabilizer that is added to the DG before installation. This method yields an attractive, durable, and permeable surface that is less expensive than concrete. Stabilized DG is best installed over a bed of crushed gravel. For one example of this product, see https://www.granitecrete.com.

The most stable and durable type of DG uses natural resign mixed in with the decomposed granite aggregate. This creates an asphalt-like material, but with a more natural look.

Then, we have a variety of hardscape paths. These include natural flagstones, cut stone slabs, common bricks, and concrete pavers. These materials should be installed over a bed of crushed gravel for stability plus a layer of sand for adjustment to a level surface. The gaps between the paving materials can be filled with sand, but such gaps eventually will harbor weed seeds and result in a weeding task.

A better method for filling gaps between paving materials is the use of polymeric sand, which is available from landscape suppliers. This filler is a mixture of fine sands and polymers that, when mixed with water, form a binding agent that locks the sand particles together and results in a uniform, durable surface.

Concrete provides ultimate and most costly protection from weed growth on garden paths. This approach includes installing concrete under and between the paving materials or creating a solid path by pouring concrete between forms. In either approach, a bed of crushed gravel is needed in for stability.

Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

As always, useful information on each of these methods for weed control on garden paths can be found by searching the Internet for the respective keywords. A search of YouTube also will lead to video clips that demonstrate the methods.

Enrich Your Gardening Days

The UCSC Arboretum has reopened, following a closure period in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This extraordinary facility offers a pleasant and completely safe opportunity to enjoy unique garden vistas and gather inspiration for your own gardening ventures.

The Wollemi Pine (Wollemia nobilis) had been known only from fossils up to 200 million years old, but was discovered in Australia in 1994 and is being grown again in botanical gardens.

Erica mammosa ‘Ninepin’. The species name for this South African heath plant refers to the udder-like shape of the flowers.

The Spider Flower (Grevillea)grows in a wide range of sizes

Photographs with this column have been created by Bill Bishoff, the Arboretum’s volunteer photographer, as samples of the many plants that are in bloom at the “Arb” right now.

The Arboretum’s hours are from 9:00 to 5:00 every day. Admission is $5 for adults, $2 for children, and free for volunteers and members. When visiting, practice social distancing, wear a mask and bring your own drinking water.

For driving directions and information about being an Arboretum member or volunteer, visit https://arboretum.ucsc.edu/. The website also has links to purchase Arboretum plants online for curbside pick-up.

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative and enjoy your garden.

Social Distance XVI – Summer Tasks

Posted on December 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

Our first day of this year’s summer arrived on June 20^th, so we’re already well into the season. We’re also well into this year’s historic pandemic season, which we all hope and trust will end before long, and not return.

We are seeing many thoughtful and creative advisories on coping with the challenges of this crisis. Here are some recent examples oriented to health and emotional well-being:

Care for Your Health
Confirm Your Responsibilities (e.g., wear a mask)
Vary Your Media Choices
Share Your Time and Assets
Continue Your Protections

As we consider these recommendations and expand upon them from our individual perspectives, we recognize them as the beginnings of good advice.

This column adds three categories of gardening activities that can provide opportunities for our creative energies, always desirable exercise, and payoffs in the quality and enjoyment of our living environments.

Care for Your Garden

At this time of the year, caring for your garden focuses on maintenance activities.

Installation of new plants would be best scheduled for the fall, after the hottest months have passed and the rainy season will soon water your plants. Some plants, e.g., irises, Shasta daisies, etc., can be divided and replanted later in the summer. Many bulbs, e.g., daffodils, can be lifted now and replanted in the fall.

Most pruning of trees and shrubs should be done during the dormant season, but several pruning-type tasks are appropriate for the summer months. Do not prune flowering shrubs that are setting buds for the next season. Examples include lilacs, azaleas, rhododendrons, hydrangeas, and others. Summer pruning tasks include deadheading flowering plants and herbs to encourage compact growth and avoid setting of seeds and cutting back spring bloomers to promote reblooming, except when you are encouraging plants to self-spread or gathering seeds for planting or sharing. Other seasonal pruning task: removing suckers from hybridized fruit trees and shrubs (e.g., roses).

Watering plants could require regular attention. Plants in containers might need daily watering, and plants in the ground should be monitored during dry weather. Water only when the soil has become dry, and schedule watering for early morning or evening, rather than during the hottest part of the day. When irrigating late in the day, avoid the development of fungus and disease by keeping moisture off the leaves with drip irrigation or low-level hose irrigation.

Weed management could be prioritized during the summer months. Manual removal of perennial weeds is always a good idea, and removal of annual weeds should be done before they set seeds. Some gardeners find weeding to be therapeutic in some respect, but serious weed management methods could be considered, particularly short-term solarization with plastic sheeting and smothering with a layer of cardboard covered by organic mulch.

Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

The University of California’s Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program provides excellent online information on weed control. Browse to http://ipm.ucanr.edu and search for “weed management.” For details of the solarization method, search the same site for “soil solarization.”

Any of the other summer-season topics can be researched on the Internet. A search for “pruning plants” could yield an unmanageable flood of information, so searching for “pruning [your plant]” is more likely to provide advice for immediate practical use. As always, searching for a plant by its botanical name works best.

Enrich Your Gardening Days

The regular pursuit of seasonally appropriate garden priorities can be a satisfying experience. To increase the likelihood of this outcome, prepare yourself with studying in advance and schedule your work sessions during cooler times and days.

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative and enjoy your garden.

Social Distance XV: Pruning Research

Posted on December 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

Care for Your Garden

Home gardeners might appreciate the ornamental value of a pendulous (“weeping”) tree, one that has branches that hang down. Many varieties of such trees are available for garden use. While a small number have naturally hanging branches, most weeping trees have been developed by grafting a mutated variety on to a compatible rootstock.

Basic pruning techniques apply to most trees and shrubs, but weeping trees have particular pruning requirements. This column explores the specific task of pruning a weeping tree, as an example of the general task of researching unfamiliar challenges in gardening.

A related memory illustrates the value of timely research. Several years ago, a group of Master Gardeners volunteered for a one-day project to help maintain the fairly large garden of one of the members. The garden included a young Camperdown Elm (Ulmus glabra ‘Camperdownii’). The garden owner prized the tree’s weeping and contorted branch structure, and had it growing in a large container prominently placed near her house.

The volunteer project proceeded well until one of the participants (not me!) pruned off the Camperdown Elm’s pendulous branches, which the well-intentioned volunteer regarded as misshaped.

This act of horticultural vandalism shocked the garden owner, who was very upset. The specimen tree would recover, but only after several years of new growth.

Recently, in my own garden, I contemplated an overgrown Weeping White Mulberry (Morus alba ‘Pendula’). I received this plant as a gift from a friend years ago and enjoyed its graceful branching as it grew to seven feet high. As I looked for ripe berries, I saw that the tree’s pendulous branches were reaching to the ground and spreading like a trailing gown. The effect was not unattractive, but the tree needed pruning for ideal overall size and form.

Seven foot high Weeping White Mulberry (Morus alba ‘Pendula’) needs pruning.

Surfing the Internet, I soon learned important differences in pruning a Weeping White Mulberry versus a standard White Mulberry. A major difference: for a weeping tree, prune the upward growing branches; for a standard tree, prune the downward growing branches.

Another difference: remove no more than one-third of a weeper’s branches; remove a standard’s branches as much as desired, even to the ground. It will grow back.

A basic recommendation for pruning weeping trees is the same for all trees: prune during the winter months, when the tree is in dormancy and leafless branches reveal the tree’s structure. This is vital for the Weeping White Mulberry, which bleeds heavily when pruned during its growing months.

The time to prune this beautiful tree will be during the coming winter.

Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

This situation brings to mind the carpenter’s traditional advice, and suggests a horticultural version: “Research twice, cut once.”

When the gardener confronts an unusual task and has access to the Internet, a brief search for online advice often will yield positive returns in the form of improvement and in some cases survival of valued plants. Fortunately, most plants will recover eventually from thoughtless mistreatment, but all plants will look and grow better when the gardener uses methods that are consistent with natural processes.

The first step in an Internet search is to identify the subject plant’s botanical name. If that name is not readily available, search for its common name and the botanical name will appear shortly.

Search using key words. In this column’s example, I searched for “prune weeping mulberry.”

Then, explore the links that the search has generated. Review several advisories to screen out any fringy ideas and discover the common wisdom.

Enrich Your Gardening Days

True enjoyment in gardening comes confidence in knowing that you are caring for your garden on a foundation of knowledge and experience.

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative and enjoy your garden.

Social Distance XIV – Self-Spreaders

Posted on September 29, 2020 by tomkarwin

We continue our exploration of ways to pursue gardening while maintaining social distance.

Care for Your Garden

Last week’s column listed some basic landscaping concepts, one of which is “Plant in Groups.” As an expansion of that concept, we explore landscape uses of self-spreaders: plants that propagate by generating lots of seeds and plants that propagate by creating roots, stolens, bulbs, corms, or rhizomes. We could call these groups self-seeders and runners.

When we adopt the objective of planting in groups, we can regard the self-spreaders as botanical partners in landscaping. While it is quickest to develop plant groups by purchasing and planting multiple specimens of a selected plant, collaborating with these partners can require a few seasons of growth, but is considerably less expensive.

To begin planning for self-spreaders, acknowledge that they can appear in one of three broad categories: garden-worthy plants, thugs, and weeds. These categories are not botanically distinct. Instead, their membership in one category or another depends on their circumstances and the gardeners’ priorities. The landscape planner should be prepared to recognize which category to which an unexpected seedling belongs.

Many weeds propagate quickly, using either seeds or runners for the purpose. The most notorious in my garden include Bermuda grass ( Cynodon dactylon), which is a popular for lawns in southern United states, and Bermuda Buttercup (Oxalis pes-caprae), which has no friends that I have encountered. Both are South African natives, and both might have been introduced to the United States through Bermuda.

There are countless other self-spreading weeds.

Gardeners can learn to recognizing weedy problem plants best through experience. It is not always important to know their common or botanical names, only to know them when you spot them. The best control is hand-pulling by their roots; effective inorganic approaches exist for both annual and perennial weeds, with each group needing seasonal control schedules.

At the other extreme of self-spreading plants are the garden thugs. These are plants that have appealing qualities, but that spread more vigorously and persistently than gardeners usually want. This is another large category. Examples from my direct experience include Bears’ Breeches (Ancanthus mollis), Spiny Bears’ Breeches (A. spinosus), California Wild Rose (Rosa californicus), Japanese Anemone (Anemone hupehensis and other species), and English and Algerian Ivy (Hedera species). With hesitation, I include the California Poppy (Eschscholzia californica) because it pops up in unexpected spots presents cheerful blossoms, and then evolves to a mess. This is our state flower, but I would rather it would grow elsewhere.

Acanthus Blossom — Acanthus spinosus grows aggressively in the garden

Finally, we get to the garden-worthy. self-spreading plants. These self-spreaders can be genuine assets to the landscape, and still their propagation can be managed seasonally without great effort.

The strategies for working with these botanical partners include first allowing them to go to seed. If you deadhead, you get more blooms; if you don’t deadhead, your get more plants.

A second practical strategy is to manage the spread of these plants in the spring by removing misplaced progeny or transplanting them with care to a preferred location. Plants that propagate from runners can be moved quite successfully when the transplant includes a substantial amount of root.

Happily, a large number of plants fit in this category. Examples from my direct experience include the following:

Winter Blooming Bergenia or Pigsqueak (Bergenia crassifolia).This plant was given to me about twenty-five years ago and has spread courteously in my garden. I have recently given away more than 100 gallon-size plants without creating a gap in my landscape.

Cranesbill/Hardy Geranium (Geranium x cantabrigiense). I installed this plant several years ago as a low-growing border. It has since spread slowly and methodically to create a blanket about eight feet wide. It is an attractive plant, but one that must be reduction to share through the garden exchange or compost.

Four O’clock (Mirabilis jalapa). I started this plant two years ago from seeds shared by a friend and from selected seeds from Rene’s Garden. It has been a reliable perennial that produces good flowers that bloom late in the day, dies to the ground, and returns vigorously in the spring. The seedlings are easily controlled to manage its spread.

Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

All plants propagate themselves one way or another, and many are garden-worthy selections or weeds or garden thugs. There are far too many to list here, advance you familiarity with each of these categories, make systematic observations in your garden, search your local library or bookstore of online book seller, or search the interne for “self-seeders” or “plant runners.”

Enrich Your Gardening Days

As you work patiently with your garden’s botanical partners, you will gain considerable satisfaction in developing your landscape in a well-managed and very inexpensive manner. This easy process is at the core of real gardening nature.

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative and enjoy your garden.

Social Distance XIII: Landscape Design Concepts

Posted on June 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

This column’s garden photo shows a swath of the Friendship Salvia (Salvia ‘Amistad’) as background for Fernleaf Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina ‘Coronation Gold’). These plants have good traits in common: both are summer-blooming perennials, upright in form, and propagate each season by spreading. The Yarrow needs support while the Salvia stands on its own, but they work well together in multiple ways. This photo illustrates useful concepts in landscape design, which is the focus of this column as we continue to explore accessible and productive gardening activities while we are social distancing.

Care for Your Garden

Gardening by walking around can be worthwhile just for meditating on Nature’s wonders, but it can also be an opportunity to consider ways to refine your garden landscape.

Landscape design involves a multitude of issues and ideas and deserves college-level study and extensive reading, but a short list of basic concepts can support significant improvements in garden vistas.

This column addresses three concepts in aesthetic landscape design.

Concept #1: Place tall plants in back. This concept is primarily practical: it simply protects the visibility of shorter plants. The shorter plants might also hide the less attractive stems of background plants. This approach leads to installing a series of plant layers in the garden bed, providing an attractive display.

As with all landscape concepts, this rule can be broken. For example, some “see-through” plants such as Angel’s Fishing Rod (Dierama pulcherrimum) or Brazilian Vervain (Verbena bonariensis) could be placed in front of shorter plants without obstructing the view.

Concept #2: Plant in groups. Having multiple specimens of a favored plant provides visual continuity in the landscape. Too often, when gardeners see an attractive plant in a garden center, they purchase and install just one plant and the landscape develops an eclectic or scattered appearance. A more effective method from a design perspective is to install at least three plants in a grouping. Some plants, e.g., Salvia ‘Amistad’, will spread on their own through runners, and soon create an attractive cluster.

A related concept, repetition, also provides continuity in the landscape. A plant that grows well in the garden and reproduces over time could form a clump that is larger than wanted in its location. This situation inviting transplanting divisions of the plant within the garden, ideally within sight of each other so they are visually linked.

Concept #3: Arrange Plants by Form and Color. The garden landscape looks best when it has been arranged intentionally. When selecting plants, envision their intended location in the garden to consider whether the new plants will look relative to existing plants in size, color and form of foliage, or color and form of blossoms.

Size relationships go beyond the “tall plants in back” concept. A landscape generally gains visual interest from plants of various sizes, but adjacent plants should not differ greatly in height or width.

Also consider foliage texture and color: which can vary over a wide range. When a given plant is grown in a grouping, there will be continuity in the foliage, but when installing different plants together, the garden design often will be enhanced by juxtaposing different foliage textures and colors. For example, pairing a red foliage plant with one that has silvery foliage could provide a striking effect, while putting two different plants with similar foliage could look like a design blunder.

Blossom colors, which are often emphasized in garden design, present challenges and opportunities. Again, intentional combinations look better than randomness.

One of the world’s most famous garden designs is Vita-Sackville-West’s white garden at England’s Sissinghurst Castle. This landscape favors white shades in both blossom and foliage color.

A comparably monochromatic effect could be developed with any of several other colors, but the more popular approaches use analogous or complementary color schemes. Such design approaches could be applied to larger garden beds, or smaller vignettes of just a few closely positioned plants.

Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

Analogous color schemes typically involve three colors that are close on the color wheel, e.g., red, orange and yellow, while complementary color schemes involve two colors that are opposites on the color wheel, e.g., violet and yellow in this column’s photo. These schemes can expand into complex ideas for fine artists and fabric designers, but gardeners can accomplish effective displays by applying the basic schemes. Learn about developing this aspect of your garden landscape by searching the Internet for “analogous color scheme” or complementary color scheme” or “color wheel.”

Enrich Your Gardening Days

As you stroll by gardens in your community or public gardens, or search YouTube.com for “private garden tours,” look for examples or violations of the three landscape design concepts outlined in this column.

Look also for creative and successful departures from these basic concepts. Even the best rules can be broken!

Keep your emotions positive and your viruses negative, and enjoy your garden.

Social Distance XII: Garden Books

Posted on June 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

Our botanical highlight for this week is the Fernleaf Yarrow (Achillea filipendulina ‘Coronation Gold’). This native of the Mediterranean basin area grows well in the compatible environment of the Monterey Bay area. Its stalks grow up to five feet tall, and its large flowerheads are so tightly packed with individual blooms that the plant needs staking to keep from flopping. The bright colors are worth that extra management.

As we strive to keep our emotions positive and our viruses negative, we continue our exploration of accessible and productive gardening activities.

Care for Your Garden

Seasonal maintenance tasks provide plenty to keep gardeners involved while sheltering in place. Unless you have a special strategy, weeding is likely to be on the “to-do” list.

A longer-term weed management method is to remove large weeds from an area, cover the area with a layer of cardboard, wet it down, and then cover the cardboard with three or four inches of organic mulch. This will smother weeds while the cardboard deteriorates.

Cardboard in rolls can be purchased for this work, but recycling cardboard cartons is less expensive and good for the environment. It is necessary, however, to remove any packaging tape, which doesn’t deteriorate.

Previous columns in this Social Distancing series describe various ways to care for your garden during these difficult times. If you wish to review those columns, browse to my “ongardeniing” website. Here’s a list of topics:

Chelsea Chop
Moving Plants
Seasonal Care of Rose
Garden Photography
Walking the Neighborhood
Gardening Curriculum for Kids
Gardening by Walking Around
Readiness for Wildfires
Gardening with Kids
Garden Maintenance

2. Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

3. Enrich Your Gardening Days

Gardeners can both advance their gardening knowledge and enrich their gardening days by reading garden-related books.

Gardening interests, fashions and tools evolve from year to year, but the basic concepts have been with us for generations. The best books on gardening continue to be informative and enriching, even decades after their original publication.

The Society’s annual Book Award Program began in 1997 with a list of 75 Great American Garden Books. Each year since then, a distinguished committee of garden communicators selects the award recipients from among the year’s new books submitted by publishers. Books are judged on qualities such as writing style, authority, accuracy, and physical quality.

Here are the award winners for 2020:

Fruit Trees for Every Garden: An Organic Approach to Growing Apples, Pears, Peaches, Plums, Citrus, and More. by Orin Martin with Manjula Martin \
The Melon by Amy Goldman; photographs by Victor Schrager
The Scentual Garden: Exploring the World of Botanical Fragrance by Ken Druse; botanical photographs by Ellen Hoverkamp

The American Horticultural Society is also an excellent online source of information on earlier high-quality books about gardening. Browse to the AHS awards webpage and click on the link to 75 Great American Garden Books. Then scroll to the bottom of the page to the link to List of Previous AHS Book Award Winners.

A good plan to draw from your choice of these thoughtfully selected books begins by creating a comfortable reading nook in the garden, for occasions for rest and reading between weeding sessions. Find the book or books of your interest in a local, reopened library or bookstore, or through ever-present amazon.com.

Enjoy your garden.

Social Distance in Gardening, Part XI: Chelsea Chop

Posted on June 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

This week’s botanical feature is the large white crinkled blossom of the California Tree Poppy (Romneya coulteri), also called the Matilija Poppy (referring to a canyon in Ventura County, where it is abundant). It was once a contender for state flower, but the California Poppy was given that title. The California Tree Poppy grows six feet tall, and once established will spread to eight feet or more. We cut this plant to the ground in the early spring, and it is now back to its full size and flower.

While we are social distancing, gardening keeps our emotions positive, and our viruses negative. Thinking about these objectives, we continue our exploration of accessible and productive gardening activities.

1. Care for Your Garden

Right now, late May, the “Chelsea Chop” is a useful gardening practice. This technique gets its name from Royal Horticultural Society’s Chelsea Flower Show, held around this time of the year. This exemplifies very British gardening, but it also works quite well for us colonists.

The Chelsea Chop helps control the size, shape and flowering time of certain summer-flowering plants. It applies to herbaceous perennial plants that flower in the early summer and particularly those that tend to flop.

The Chelsea Chop involves pruning back all the stems on a clump, which delays all the flowers by four-to-six weeks, or just half of the stems, which extends the plant’s flowering period further into the summer. Full pruning could be accomplished by shearing the perennial clump, while selectively pruning the clump could be done best with garden clippers.

This method encourages the production of a greater profusion of flowers. After “chopping,” fertilize the plants and provide a thorough watering.

Here are some of the herbaceous perennials that benefit from this treatment: Achillea; Asters; Campanulas; Echinacea; Heleniums; Helianthus; Nepeta; Penstemons; Phlox; Rudbeckias; Salvias (herbaceous species) and Sedums. Your garden could include some of these or other plants that would respond well to being “chopped” in late May.

This technique does not apply to woody perennials, which require different treatment. Roses, for example, should be deadheaded regularly at this time of the year to promote blooms.

2. Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

Assign yourself to a study one of your favorite plant genera and search the Internet for information to study.

Online sources are quick, easy and free. Wikipedia, for example, has detailed articles about roses and many other garden plants. To get started, browse to Wikipedia.com and search for “List of garden plants.” It’s impressive.

You could also get a book from the public library, a local bookstore, or an online shopping service, e.g., Amazon, depending on what is available in your community.

Depending on your level of interest, you could extend the study of your favorite plant genus by learning about other plants in the same botanical family. The Abelia, for example, is a member of the Honeysuckle family (Caprifoliaceae), which includes forty-two genera. Learning about your favorite plant’s relatives will broaden your understanding of its cultivation.

3. Enrich Your Gardening Days

Gardening can be an ideal pursuit while social distancing, but it is also a highly social activity, as evidenced by the hundreds of societies that gather like-minded gardeners to share ideas, experiences, and plants. These societies are now in hiatus, but in most cases their websites are running, and freely available for interested gardeners.

To locate a society for plants of your interest, search for your selected plant genus and “plant society.” For example, search for “rose plant society.” Other approaches start with the state, e.g., “California plant society,” or a plant category, e.g., “indoor plant society.”

A brief search could lead you to information from others who share your gardening interests. You don’t have to join a society to scan their online information. If the first search doesn’t yield helpful results, try a different search.

Enjoy your garden.

Social Distance X: Moving Plants

Posted on June 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

This week’s featured plant, Graptoveria ‘Fred Ives’, is a succulent plant growing to 2 feet by 2 feet and producing clumps of rosettes to 8 inches tall by nearly 1 foot wide with broad bronze and pink leaves. This is a 1946 hybrid cross between Graptopetalum and Echeveria, both of which are natives of Mexico. The cultivar name honors one of the founders of England’s National Cactus & Succulent Society. It’s a beautiful and durable summer-growing plant that is a mainstay for succulent garden beds.

While social distancing, gardening keeps emotions positive, and viruses negative. With these goals in mind, we continue our exploration of appropriate gardening activities.

1. Care for Your Garden

We have advocated “gardening by walking around” as a productive gardening activity while practicing social distancing. Today, we consider the value of “gardening by moving plants around” as another productive activity.

There are numerous reasons for moving plants within the garden. Providing more favorable growing conditions for the plant could be important. A plant might need more sun or more shade, or better drainage, or higher quality soil. Plants might have been planted in the wrong place, or nearby plants might have grown to block sunlight or crowd the plant in question. When a plant appears to be struggling to grow, consider moving it to more hospitable site.

Another reason for moving a plant is to keep it from crowding other plants or encroaching on a walkway. Too often, gardeners install a small new plant without considering its mature size.

Finally, moving a plant might refine the landscape design. A plant might be moved to relate better to other plants in terms of height, foliage form, blossom color, or overall size. A garden vignette might “come the life” after moving a plant from a background location to a starring role.

An old gardening aphorism states, “Plant after May, you better pray.” As with many generalities about gardening, this advice needs examination.

It really doesn’t apply to installing new plants, when done correctly. When a plant is moved from a nursery container to the garden, it benefits from gaining root room and (presumably) an appropriate growing environment.

Moving an existing plant in the summer, however, could challenge the plant’s health because transplanting an established plant unavoidably disturbs its root structure. The usual recommendation is to transplant during the early spring or late fall, rather than during the heat of the summer.

Still, if you have been gardening by walking around and seeing a plant that really must be moved, following good practices that could result in a successful move. The primary goal for most plants is to minimize loss of moisture. This is less of a problem when moving succulent plants, which store moisture quite effectively.

Gardeners in the Monterey Bay area’s temperate climate have a clear advantage over gardeners in California’s central valley, where summer heat makes transplanting problematic. Here are good practices.

Schedule the move for the evening or a cool, overcast day.
Water the plant thoroughly the day before the scheduled transplanting.
Dig the hole for the plant‘s new location and fill the hole with water before proceeding to lift the plant.
Water the subject plant again, to keep the roots intact.
Lift the plant and install it promptly in its new location. Use a tarp to move a larger plant.
Fill the hole halfway with water and let it settle, then fill the hole with soil and tamp it lightly around the transplant.
For the next several days, shield the plant from direct sunlight and water regularly.

2. Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

Gardeners have ready access through the Internet for advice and demonstrations, when they are necessary or helpful. We can all learn from a quick search through Google or YouTube before tackling a significant gardening task. Phrase your inquiry with natural language and the Internet will interpret your interest. If you don’t get the results you expected, try restating your inquiry.

3. Enrich Your Gardening Days

Here’s this week suggestion for an entertaining garden-related online resource.

Laura Eubanks’ website offers photos of her designs and installations of succulent gardens in southern California. The homepage also includes a link to her many “Succulent Tip of the Day” video recordings on YouTube. She gardens with confidence and enthusiasm, and thus encourages bold gardening.

Enjoy your garden.

Social Distance in Gardening, Part IX: Seasonal Rose Care

Posted on June 10, 2020 by tomkarwin

Roses are in a fine display at this time. They received just enough rain earlier in this season to develop nicely. The rose featured in today’s column is a long-time favorite, ‘Iceberg’, bred in the 1950s by Kordes in Germany. This rose produces large clusters of double-white flowers and has earned many awards, including the World’s Favorite Rose (1983).

We continue our exploration of three categories of gardening activities that are suitable under social distance constraints and rewarding to the gardener.

1. Care for Your Garden

During short trips in the community, I’ve observed many healthy roses in bloom. Given the season’s pleasing growth of roses, today’s garden care notes have a timely focus on roses.

Roses need routine attention every year, but gardeners seeking worthy tasks while social distancing should consider fostering the growth and productivity of their roses.

During their spring growth, roses benefit from fertilization. Garden centers offer organic rose food mixes that are preferred over chemical fertilizers that can accumulate salts in the soil. About a week after an initial spring feeding, following package directions, some gardeners follow up by giving each rose a handful of Epson salts and a handful of Kelp meal. Your roses will thank you!

Regular irrigation is also important during this growth period. Roses grow best with two or three gallons of water for each plant. Whether you use drip or hose irrigation, provide adequate water each week.

Regular rejuvenation pruning of roses (weekly, perhaps) supports the gardener’s contemplation and encourages the roses’ productivity. This is a low-energy, low-stress activity (some call the rather grim term, “deadheading”) that improves the look of your rose plants and promotes new blossoms. It also provides opportunities to refine the overall shape of the rose bush. The basic practice is to remove old blooms to just above the first five-leaf or seven-leaf junction. With some plants, the first bloom to fade is between two buds; in those cases, prune the faded bloom and let the buds develop.

At this time of the year, you should also protect your roses from the Western Rose Curculio (Merhynchites wickhami). These pests are red and black, hard-bodied, snout beetles (weevils) about 1/4 inch long. They emerge from the soil in the spring and lay eggs in rose buds, preferring white and yellow roses. The eggs hatch and the larvae chew small holes in the buds. They are very damaging to beautiful roses! The pests eventually fall and bury into the ground, to emerge in the following spring.

Recommended management is to examine roses regularly for signs of the pest, and removal and proper disposal of the affected buds and blossoms. This can be done in the course of rejuvenation pruning.

Another approach is to hold a wide-mouth container of soapy water below where pest damage can be seen and shake the plant to drop the pests into the water, where they will expire. They are not tough customers.

2. Advance Your Gardening Knowledge

Gardeners who want or need more detailed advice for seasonal care of their roses should draw upon the Internet’s resources. A Google search for fertilizing, irrigating, rejuvenation pruning (or deadheading) roses will yield helpful recommendations. A search for Rose Curculio also will provide additional details about the life cycle of this pest, and methods of control. Toxic sprays are not needed; direct action is easy, safe and effective.

3. Enrich Your Gardening Days

The Internet also offers many enrichment opportunities for gardeners to explore. One category of these opportunities is comprised of blogs by garden designers. Deborah Silver is an award-winning designer in Detroit who is particularly generous in sharing her ideas, opinions, and examples through the Internet. Visit “Dirt Simple” to draw upon her design installation and garden accessory experiences. She describes very upscale projects, so she’s not about planting petunias, but there’s a lot on her blog site to see and appreciate, and a flow of ideas that any gardener could adapt. Enjoy your gardens and gardening and stay healthy.