Of the few unrelated species of dusty miller, the most common here is Senecio cineraria. Like other dusty miller species, its foliage is remarkably silvery white. Its foliar tomentum can be so thick that it resembles fine felt. Individual leaves exhibit intricately deep lobes. They are about two to five inches long, but are smaller and simpler on upper floral stems.
Dusty miller blooms with floppy clusters of tiny but bright yellow daisy flowers. However, because the colorful foliage is more appealing, bloom might not be a priority. Removal of floral stems prior to bloom promotes denser and neater foliar texture. Within more severe climates, dusty miller is a warm season annual. It is a resilient shrubby perennial locally.
Mature specimens of dusty miller can get a bit taller than three feet with bloom. They are shorter with grooming and pruning to maintain compact form without bloom. If necessary, they are conducive to pruning to limit their height to about a foot and a half. This species tolerates a bit more partial shade than other dusty miller. Ideally, it prefers sunny warmth.
Floral color gets most of the attention within home gardens through spring. It should. It is the most copious and most colorful of color. Though, it is not the only color. A few species that provide floral color, and more that do not, provide colorful foliage. Similar to Olympic Medals, this foliage can be bronze, silver or gold, or variants of such. Some rivals bloom.
Colorful foliage is not the same as foliar color of deciduous foliage as it sheds in autumn. Much is evergreen. Most is most colorful while it grows through warming spring weather. Actually, most fades through summer, and some becomes simpler dark green by autumn. Afterward though, some deciduous colorful foliage also develops foliar color for autumn.
The most popular colorful foliage is variegated. This means it is partly green with stripes, margins, blotches, spots, patterns or blushes. The color range of such variegations is as variable as its pattern range. Some foliage is variegated with a few vividly distinct colors. New Zealand flax, coleus, croton and caladium are some of the more familiar examples.
Of all unvariegated colorful foliage, bronze foliage is the most variable. It includes foliage that is brown as well as reddish, purplish or perhaps dark orangish. Some emerges pink before developing a darker shade. New photinia foliage is reddish bronze only briefly as it matures as dark green. Purple leaf plum and smoke tree are famously purplish bronze.
Silver foliage is the most useful colorful foliage in the wild. At high elevations, where sun exposure is harshly intense, it is selectively reflective. It absorbs sufficient sunlight for its photosynthesis, but not enough to succumb to scald. It is how Arizona cypress and some agaves survive in the high desert. Such foliage may be gray, pallid blue or almost white.
Many species with gold foliage are the same as those with bronze foliage. New Zealand flax, smoke tree, barberry and elderberry can be either bronze or gold. Since gold foliage contains less chlorophyll than green foliage, it is a bit less vigorous. Unlike silver foliage, it serves no natural practical purpose. It survives in landscapes for visual appeal.
The landscape in front of the home across the road from where I am staying in Arizona is weird. Like many of the landscapes here, it is simple, with only a few small shrubs and stone surrounded by gravel, but also includes this silly pair of purple leaf plum trees. They are pruned into symmetrically round form. The pruning keeps their canopies nicely dense with strikingly bronzed foliage. What makes them so weird is their location. Within the climate here, shade is an asset. However, these trees are not allowed to make much shade. The natural form of these small trees could frame the facade of this house nicely. However, they clash with it defiantly. With their profuse spring bloom and rich foliar color, these trees might enhance the scenery from within the windows. However, they subjugate it and exclude any other scenery, and likely exclude a bit too much sunlight without providing significant cooling shade through summer. I am certainly no landscape designer, but in my opinion, this landscape looks odd. The vegetation is of good quality and quite healthy. The stone and gravel is neatly arranged. The facade of the home is quite appealing. The problem is that the assemblage of the landscape relative to the home is awkward. The tree in the foreground is one of the first three mesquite trees that I ever met when I pruned them up for clearance last year. It and the specimen next to it are also awkwardly placed in front of their home, although the third is in a better situation next to the garage. That is precisely why these three trees were pruned up for clearance, and why they will be pruned higher as they grow. They already provide a bit of shade, and will provide more as they grow.
Eight columns arranged in a semicircle behind the High Place garden at Filoli were found by excavation for the foundation of a skyscraper in San Francisco. The stone from which they were carved is European, but no one knows how or why they were buried under San Francisco. They could have been recycled into one of many buildings that were destroyed by the Great Earthquake and associated fire of 1906, and subsequently buried within landfill with tons of other debis. They were more likely recycled as ballast for a European ship that, as it deteriorated or became obsolete, was dismantled and buried within landfill in San Francisco. It is a mystery. They are in a formal landscape at Filoli now, and will likely remain there for a very long time.
Within a dumpster of recyclable broken concrete, I noticed this old concrete column. With a bit of investigation, I also found the base. Each component is very heavy. I have no idea what they were, but I suspect that they were the base of an elaborate birdbath. I did not find any associate basin within the dumpster. In order to identify their origin, I inquired about these items with those who disposed of them. At the location, I found a small portion of the column that fits between the base and the larger portion of the column, as well as another column that is identical to the original with the smaller portion attached, but no other base. Nor did I find any basin or other features that might have been supported by the columns. They are either already disposed of, or buried by earlier excavation. It is such a waste. Regardless, these items are here now, and will hopefully be incorporated into the landscapes, although I have no idea how.
As expected, the second half of my vacation was delayed. Then, very unexpectedly, all of our delays worked out. Rhody, Carson and I left exactly on time. Then, as unexpectedly, and just an hour from our first destination at Brent’s Jungalow, we were diverted to our final destination near Buckeye near Phoenix in Arizona. The explanation is as tedious as the additional six hour drive, at night and partially through Los Angeles style traffic. We are here now but got almost no pictures yet. We stopped only briefly in San Luis Obispo, where Brent and I were in school from 1985 to 1990, and where a few of our friends live.
1. From his shelf in back, through the dirty windshield, and through the dirty window of a cafe, Rhody stared impatiently at me as I tried to enjoy a bit of coffee the day before we left. ‘Hot Lips’ Salvia microphylla to the left is the only vegetation visible in this picture.
2. Wile E. Coyote also stared at me impatiently, at the end of the same day, as I finished a last task prior to leaving. I can not identify the vegetation that is visible in this picture. I suspect that the tree to the left and above is a common Pacific willow, Salix lasiandra.
3. The hills have eyes. I have no idea what the pair of shrubs at the center of this picture are. I only know that they have not changed since I arrived at Cal Poly in 1985. I got this picture right outside of my classmate’s office in the Alan A. Erhart Agriculture Building.
4. Also right outside of my classmate’s office, several specimens of unidentified eucalypti were recently installed. I recognize none of them. This specimen exhibits remarkably big leaves for the genus. These trees are very close to where I first met Eucalyptus torquata.
5. Barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii, dies ugly. It looks like something out of a horror movie, or like it consumed a horror movie. I suspect that this and several other similarly imploded carcasses decayed because of automated irrigation that is intolerably frequent.
6. Is this good or bad landscape design? I typically prefer uniformity and symmetry, but this seems to be excessive. Several rotting specimens, mostly to the right, are disrupting the symmetry, but also leaving voids. I got this random picture as I left San Luis Obispo.
‘French Hybrids’ are not fuel efficient European cars. (However, if there were a French equivalent to the old Japanese Datsun ‘Z’ that was instead named the ‘S’, we could really see the ‘S car go!’) ‘French Hybrids’ are varieties of lilac with single or double flowers in various shades of lavender, pink, pale blue, pinkish red, purple and white. Some have flowers that are two-toned. ‘Primrose’ is an interesting shade of pale yellow. All are strongly but elegantly fragrant.
Even though ‘French Hybrids’ have the advantage of being better adapted to mild winters, the original species of common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, and its older varieties seem to do just fine locally, and actually seem to be more fragrant. The only disadvantage is that almost all bloom with lavender flowers. ‘Alba’, with white flower, is rare. ‘Descanso Hybrids’ were developed for even milder winters.
The individual tubular flowers are actually very small, but bloom in dense conical trusses that are typically about three or four inches long, and possibly twice as long. Trusses develop on year old stems, so pruning should be done right after bloom only, although dead-heading (removing deteriorating trusses) without pruning can be done at any time. The soft and sometimes light green leaves are about three inches long. Mature plants are often eight feet tall and nearly as broad, and can get twice as large.
Unlike most plants that get suckers that need to be removed, most lilacs should instead be pruned to remove older canes and to promote healthier growth of suckers. This process of ‘alternating canes’ continually replaces less productive deteriorating stems with vigorous new stems. Old fashioned grafted plants are the only lilacs that should have their suckers removed; but they are uncommon, and do not sucker as much anyway.
The problem with escargot that is too fresh is that it grazes – a lot! Snails, as well as slugs, lurk in our own gardens, waiting for nightfall, or sometimes not, to emerge and devour any tender plant parts that appeal to them. They tear apart large leaves and fresh flowers, and eat seedlings completely. They are particularly problematic this time of year, while the garden is still damp, but the weather is getting warmer, and especially since there is so much fresh new vegetation for them to eat.
The most effective means of controlling these troublesome mollusks is to eliminate their hiding places where they camp out during the day. This involves pulling large weeds and removing any debris that may be laying about the garden. Leave no stone unturned. Of course, this is not so easy in lush gardens with abundant or overgrown foliage, and features like large pots and statuary. In such situations, cunning and diligence are in order.
I have found bare copper wire wrapped around pots, planters and tree trunks to be an effective deterrent. Copper tape sold in nurseries and garden centers is probably better since it is wider. It can be self adhesive, or stapled to wooden containers or shelves. Snails can get past the copper though, on any plant parts than hang over where the snails can reach. Wire should be removed from tree trunks after ‘snail season’, or wrapped in a manner that accommodates for trunk expansion. For example, an ‘S’ shaped curve in the circling wire set flatly against a tree trunk provides enough slack for a bit of expansion.
It is also good to hunt snails as they come out after dark or before they go in for the morning. They are neither elusive nor fast. They are merely objectionable to handle. Laying a piece of cardboard or similar material out for them to hide under, and then surprising them during the day is a sneaky trick, but effective. Putting small puddles of beer out in shallow containers, such as saucers for potted plants, is more work, but not often as effective. It is sneakier though, since it entices the snails to stay out drinking until they die in the sunlight.
Azaleas, which are species of Rhododendron, have been in cultivation for centuries. At least ten thousand cultivars are documentable. Most are interspecific hybrids. Only a few are selections or breeds of simple species. Most of their ancestral species are native to Asia, Europe or North America. Almost all cultivars that are available here are evergreen.
Azaleas can bloom profusely enough during April or May to almost obscure their foliage. Bloom may last for more than two weeks. Floral color ranges between white and red with many tints of pink, salmon and magenta. The most profuse flowers are as narrow as half an inch. Larger flowers may be three inches wide. Rare deciduous azaleas are fragrant.
Azaleas do not grow fast, but can eventually sprawl more than five feet wide. Some can grow nearly twice as wide. Although most do not grow much taller than three feet, some can grow twice as tall. Azaleas are naturally understory species, so can tolerate a bit of partial shade. They should not crave fertilizer. If they do, they prefer acidifying fertilizer.
Bloom is bountiful for spring. It is more abundant now than it will be at any other time of year. Early bloom has more time to produce more seed prior to autumn and winter. Also, it can most efficiently exploit its pollinators who are also most active in spring. The most prominent blooms appeal to such pollinators with floral color. Their effort is remarkable.
Most bloom within most natural ecosystems here relies on wind for pollination. Although very efficient, it lacks prominence. Some grasses seem to produce seed without evident bloom. Because such vegetation does not rely on pollinators, it has no need to advertise. Toyon produces tiny but prominently profuse flowers for both wind and insect pollination.
Most species within home gardens rely on pollinators rather than wind for pollination. At least their ancestors did. They originally developed both floral color and floral fragrance to attract pollinators. Extensive breeding enhanced color and fragrance, but also caused sterility for some. Others are not true to type. Their visual appeal became less practical.
Obviously, such visual appeal and associated practicality are subjective. Although less practical for procreation, enhanced bloom is more practical for home gardens. Most who enjoy flowers appreciate enhanced floral color and enhanced floral fragrance. They are unconcerned with how species that provide such bloom procreate. Looks are everything.
Besides, some pollinators can still enjoy most enhanced floral color. A few flowers are so genetically modified that they confuse some pollinators. A few insects die of exhaustion while trying to gain entry. Generally though, most get what they came for or safely leave without it. Many who enjoy gardening also enjoy pollinating insects and hummingbirds.
Ultimately, floral color is personal. Many garden enthusiasts prefer specific color ranges or specific colors. Many prefer an abundance of color. Some prefer more subdued floral color. Some prefer specific types of flowers to provide floral color. Bloom season may be another concern. Some want more winter bloom while nearby gardens lack floral color. Many prefer major spring bloom. Some like random bloom through the year.
Tony Tomeo 