Trichostemna lanatum, and Agave deserti: California blues

Trichostemna lanatum, "Woolly Blue-curls"


Apparently everyone has killed this plant except me.  I hasten to point out I haven't killed it only because I haven't tried to grow it, though I suspect our south-facing, sharply draining sandy-silty slope would be the perfect place.  Of course everyone wants to grow it:  the flowers are blue!  They are lovely, if small, and very fragrant, while the foliage is a deep wrinkly green, like a highly elongated version of Ceonothus griseus

Pretty, sweetly fragrant flowers on a good looking smallish plant that needs no irrigation.  What's not to love?  Well, this plant loves to die.  It may need no water, but it also needs absolutely perfect drainage, no fertilizer, no organic material in the soil, no mulch, no dampness at all around the base of the plant.  It hates clay, which eliminates 90% of the gardens in Southern California.  Other than that...



Also quite blue, pale blue, is Agave deserti, native to San Diego, Riverside, and San Bernardino counties.  A nicely compact grower as Agaves go, but a clumper:

Quercus tomentella, the Island Oak

I saw this California native oak at the Rancho Santa Botanical Garden on Saturday and was immediately both intrigued and baffled--intrigued because it is a gorgeous tree with beautiful foliage, baffled because I've never seen one before, and haven't heard much about it any time or anywhere. 

The leaves are a rounded off rectangle, wth just a slight prickled edge.  They have a low gloss and a deep rich dark olive color.  The growth habit is different from the spreading, tilting, meandering wide umbrella of Q. agrifolia as well--the growth habit of Q. tomentella is more possible for our small suburban gardens...it is upright and relatively narrow (20'-25'/6-7.5 m), meaning it will fit into gardens too small for Q. agrifolia.  Though it loves the fog drip of the Channel Islands, to which it is endemic, the specimen in much drier Claremont was thriving.

Where have you been all my gardening life, gorgeous?   I hear much more about Q. agrifolia--magnificent, no argument there--but it is not a species meant for all gardens.  Q. tomentella is one to consider.  Sorry it's not a great photo, but trust me, this tree is a beauty.  In the photo,  it's taller than the Q. agrifolia behind and to the right of it.  The narrowness of the growth habit can been seen in the tall crown...



Of course, it's still a considerable tree.  The genus Arctostaphylos offers significantly smaller, but still beautiful possibilities for the Southern California garden.  Deep wine-red bark and dainty white bell-shaped flowers in spring.

Arctostaphylos catalinae:


Artostaphylos glauca:




A common theme that ran through the native shrubs and trees in the botanical garden was the natural "limbed up" habit they eventually develop.  Moisture-challenged, they must discard their oldest and least productive foliage and sustain only the freshest. 



Thus over time the plants develop bare stems with a moderate amount of newish foliage and flowers only at the branch tips.   The most beautiful of these are the Artostaphyllos or manzanitas, and the Madrone, Arbutus menziesii, because of their deep wine-red bark.  The botanical garden contains many wonderful mature specimens, a few already in bloom due to our early October rain. 

California Landscapes

Scenes from the Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden in Claremont.

Yucca brevifolia (Joshua Tree), Artostaphylos, and Rhus in the foreground with the San Gabriel Mountains behind:


Pines, Arctostaphylos, and Artemesia.  I've seen more than one California 'Plein Air" painting where the foreground vegetation is deeply colored and the mountains beyond have this strange faded out lavender blueness to them.  I thought the painters were making that part up.  Now I see they were not.  The mountains really are that strange faded out color. 


Coastal Scrubland:




Oak woodland:




Spent flower stalks of Yucca whippleii:




The "Majesty Oak":

Old Old Dogs

To walk without a dog is like walking without clothes--alarming!  But the dogs are old now--not quite old enough to vote or drive a car, but close, and too old for a long hike.



So we had to leave them home when we went for our post-Thankgiving hike.   I gave thanks for forgetting how good everything tastes when bathed in heavy cream.  Once-yearly indulgence in that kind of cooking is enough.   We spent a few hours trudging through the local canyon, enjoying the spectacular clear warm weather, and examining the native vegetation.  There are the usual alien intruders:  Eucalyptus, Pennisetum, Palm, Schinus molle.





This canyon was cattle-grazing land for decades.  The native survivors are the ones less tasty to cattle, I guess.  The majority are Artemisia californica...



...mixed in is Eriogonum fasciculatum, now just greening up for the rainy season...


...and Salvia clevelandii, different from what I grew in our garden...smaller and far less prosperous,  but still thriving:


...last winter's seedpods beautiful against clear sky...


...I was surprised and pleased to see a few Fremontodendron californicum.  We must go back to this spot in a few months to see the show of yellow flowers.  Now there is just foliage and last year's seed heads.  May they all sprout new plants.



We also spotted a few Baccharis, snowy with again, last years flowers, now this years seed heads...



This robust specimin was about 6'x10':
 

Besides the common Opuntia littoralis, we found what might be Cylindropuntia fulgida (?).  I avoid Cactus when reading as well as when shopping--too spiny--so my knowledge is very thin here, even thinner than usual.  An intruder to this area, perhaps, though not to the Southwest.


I once thought the native plants were weedy and dull:


They were, until I got to know them and appreciate them.  Perfectly attuned to their climate, they are beautiful in their wary, reserved, and subtle way.  They are like old, old dogs, who are sleepy most of time, but quite ready to jump up for treats--biscuits in their case, precious rain water in the case of our native plants.  We can come to love them, as we love old, old dogs. 

The Rosette

I love the rosette form, whether it is a rose or not--and it need not be.


It may be a water lily,


or an artichoke,


an Agave


or an Aeonium,


or an Echeveria.


The rosette form is a calm symmetry, a mandala of order.  It's serene and formal, the antithesis of chaos:  the rosette form is everything modern life is...not.  The rest of my life is confusion, uncertainty, incompleteness, failure, dissatisfaction.

A perfect rosette grants me a feeling of peace.  Peace to you, dear readers.  Take a deep, deep breath. 

Dodder

Dodder, various plants in the genus Cuscuta,  are parasites that resembles shredded cheese.  I am not making this up.   Here's some Dodder that has completely taken over a large slope in Upper Newport Bay:



An overview of Dodder here and here

I see it every once in a while in the hills around here, and a few years ago I found some in a Helichrysum by the driveway, just a few threads beginning.  I thought at first it was some pieces of orange thread.  I pulled it out, along with the Helichrysum stems it had attached to, and it has not returned.  I must have got it before it could produce seeds--a bullet dodged.   Too bad it's a nasty and destructive parasite, because it's cool-looking...well, sort of.  Who could have thought up a plant that looks like shredded cheese?

Holiday

We are hosting Thanksgiving this year, so blogging will be spotty this week.  Please check back later...

How To Make A Vertical Succulent Planter

Vertical planters have been all the rage lately, and I wanted to try one, but the ones for sale are expensive!  Since I had some scrap wood sitting around doing nothing besides getting in the way, I decided to see if I could build anything decent for a more modest price.

I had some 2x2 redwood, which is 1 3/8" x 1 3/8" (3.5 cm x 3.5 cm).  I cut 4 pieces, each 12" (30.5 cm) long.  Another water resistant wood is cedar;  if I had cedar lying around I would have used that. 

Using galvanized deck screws...


...I screwed the pieces together to make a strong frame...


...for the backing I used redwood bender board.   This may turn out to be a mistake--plywood is much stronger, but I didn't have the right kind of saw to cut big sheets of plywood...




Tongue-and-groove fencing might have been better, but hey, it's an experiment.  Time will tell.  I used finishing nails to secure the backing to the frame...






...creating a shallow box.  Now I need some wire hardware cloth with 1/2" square openings (~13 mm) and some redwood laths to secure the hardware cloth  to the front of the shallow box:






And the same small finishing nails  to secure the laths...


...and since I had some leftover deck stain...


...the stain will help preserve the wood somewhat from the ravages of water.   Plus, it looks nice. 


A couple of eye-hooks and a piece of wire for hanging and it was done.

After the deck stain was thoroughly dry, I filled my planter with a potting mix intended for succulents, and added some Echeveria imbricata and Sedum cuttings.  Mostly Sedum:  S. album 'Nigra' and S. makinoi 'Ogon'.  Sedum is going to be about the best plant for such a shallow container.   Hopefully it will form a dense blanket that highlights the Echeveria before the Echeveria gets too big.  I'll keep the planter horizontal for a while, until the plants have (hopefully!) rooted.  A little growth from the Sedums and the wire mesh will be covered, and the potting soil will (hopefully!) not all fall out when I raise the planter to a vertical position.



Well...it's an experiment!  The laths and bender board and nails are what I had to buy, enough for two planters, and that cost $7, or $3.50 per planter.  I already had the rest of the stuff lying around.  However, even buying all of the material it is maybe $10 for one planter.  The ones I saw for sale, although undoubtedly better, were $60-$100, plus tax and shipping.  For $3.50 I'm willing to experiment, plus I got rid of some odds and ends that were sitting in the garage getting dusty and taking up space.  It took me about 30 minutes to build and stain two planters.    It would have taken a lot more time if I had used a hand saw:  like forever, because it would not have happened.  Hand saws and I don't work well. 

I'll update in a month or so as to whether or not the plants grow and end up looking good.