Misgivings

I have a tendency to fall in love with plants, bringing my infatuations home with what is, at best, a fuzzy notion as to where I might put them.  However, during the fall planting season, when I was focused on the design of the side garden and the redesign of portions of the backyard border, I spent considerable effort in selecting plants that I thought would be culturally suited to the areas in question and would also coordinate well with one another. Nonetheless, plant availability factored heavily into the final selection process as leaving empty spaces in a bed for any extended period goes against my nature.  So, for example, when I planning the area surrounding the side yard patio, I specified "orange flowered annual" and gave myself license to pick from the options available in that category at that time.  I selected Ursinia anthemoides 'Solar Fire,' grown by Annie's Annuals, to fill that role.  I liked the bright green ferny foliage and the flowers I'd seen in a demonstration bed at Roger's Gardens.  Annie's site claimed that, in zone 10, no matter what time of year they were planted, these would bloom "shortly thereafter."  After more than 3 months, the first buds are finally opening but, in the meantime, the foliage has gone from lacy to scruffy.  In addition, the first flowers are much smaller than the 2.5 inches they were advertised to be.

The lower portions of the Ursinia have turned a tawny brown

This flower is about the size of a nickel

     

The fault may be entirely mine.  I probably didn't provide enough fertilizer.  The water provided by my irrigation system may have been insufficient.  And maybe Ursinia doesn't like our dry Santa Ana winds.  In any case, despite the fact that the plants are finally covered in unopened buds, I'm sorely tempted to yank them out right now and replace them with either Iceland poppies, which are already flowering in the surrounding area, or more dwarf Anigozanthos (Kangaroo Paws), provided I can find them.

I'm very impressed with this dwarf Anigozanthos hybrid so far

I'll probably hold off another couple of weeks to see if Ursinia blankets its scruffy foliage in orange/gold blooms  - unless I come across more of the dwarf Kangaroo Paws first.

In the good news category, I like the mix of Stipa tenuissima (Mexican feather grass), Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussey' and Crassula lycopodioides to the right of the Ursinia.

I also like the nearby combination of Agonis flexuosa 'Nana,' Stipa tenuissima, Iceland poppies, and Alternanthera tenella 'Crinkle Red.'

Unfortunately, I'm also having misgivings about some changes I made to the backyard border.  I admit to being uninspired when it came to replanting the mid-section of that border after tearing out a mass of lavender hiding my Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata' in October.  I ultimately installed 3 Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green' in front of that plant to echo its lime color and added 5 Digitalis x mertonensis in front of those but, from the start, I was concerned that the area looked too flat.  All 8 of those plants hugged the ground.  The Nicotiana is supposed to reach 3 feet and the Digitalis 2 feet so I assumed that time would remedy things.   I may be too impatient but, 10 weeks later, the area still looks flat.  While I'm confident that the Digitalis will be fine, I'm concerned with that the Nicotiana foliage remains utterly prostrate despite the fact that it's already displaying a few short stubby blooms. 

Nicotiana alata 'Lime Green'

It doesn't help that the nearby Alchillea 'Moonshine' and the Itoh peony have yet to put new growth or that I chose the wrong spot to group some bearded Iris tubers I had on hand.  Rather than waiting to see if the Nicotiana gains stature in the next few months, I'm thinking of replacing it with a mass of Lomandra longifolia (recently featured here as one of my current favorite plants).  Any other ideas would be welcome.

The changes I made to the left side of the backyard border turned out somewhat better.  Although the plants still need to fill out a bit, I think the Tulbaghia violacea (Society Garlic) nicely complements the Erysimum linifolium 'Variegatum' and the Osteospermum ecklonis '3D Silver.'

And then there's the bed that I planted last February, after our eucalyptus tree was removed.  I picked Dryms lanceolata to serve as the focal point of the bed.  While I like the plant, I'm not sure it's focal point material.

The Dryms lanceolata (aka Mountain Pepper), said to grow 10-15 feet tall, is currently dwarfed by the nearby Coprosma

and the Mountain Pepper is virtually lost in this larger photo

Ever since I saw the beautiful Japanese maple in one of my neighbor's gardens, I've been thinking of acquiring another one.  It occurs to me that a Japanese maple might be nice to replace the Mountain Pepper if the nearby Arbutus 'Marina' provides enough shade to prevent summer scorch.

Maple with colorful fall foliage in a neighboring front yard, photographed in December

Are you more patient than I am?  How long do you give a plants to fulfill their promise?

April Foliage Follow-up

I drafted the following post prior to hearing news of the events at the Boston Marathon.  This is probably not the place to take a position on what happened but I find I can't ignore it either.  I want to express my profound sympathy for the residents of Boston and those who were in the city to participate in or observe the marathon.  Whether this was an act of domestic or foreign terrorism, it is both incomprehensible and unconscionable.  There is enough pain and sorrow in the world without its deliberate creation and I cannot understand why anyone would seek to add to this in an attempt to advance an agenda.  My prayers are with the victims, their families and friends.

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Foliage Follow-up Day is an opportunity to highlight the foliage that often gets short shrift with all the attention given to flowers.  To be honest, after so many years gardening in a shady, postage stamp-sized garden, I'm afraid I went more than a little bloom crazy when we moved to our current, mostly sunny, half-acre property a little more than 2 years ago.  However, I've recently begun focusing more attention on foliage as, after all, it's a more persistent presence in the garden and also essential to preventing the busy look that can come with an excessive reliance on flower color.

I'm lucky to have inherited a lot of established hedges.  I also have quite a bit of lawn - I've been chipping away at that and plan to continue to do so but I'll leave some as it offers an opportunity for the eye to rest.

I brought a few foliage plants with me from our old house in the form of cuttings.  The Plectranthus I placed in a bed running along our living room did very well, although I've had a harder time establishing it elsewhere.  It gets about 2 hours of morning sun along the living room and the foliage stays a rich green with purple undersides.  It also flowers well in the fall.  I've had some difficulty definitively identifying the species.  It's most likely Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Warrior', although some of the descriptions suggest this plant is shorter than mine has proven to be.  In my experience, this plant gets to about 2 feet tall and can easily spread twice that distance.

Plectranthus ciliatus 'Zulu Warrior'?

Photo showing the underside of the leaf on this Plectranthus

My cutting of Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon' also took and, so far, has remained well-behaved in the same mostly shade bed.  I cut it back hard in the fall.  I'm thinking of trying it in another, somewhat sunnier location after seeing a vigorous example of the same plant in the Getty Center's garden.

Persicaria microcephala 'Red Dragon'

A friend gave me several divisions of a golden feverfew, which I've inserted in various locations that needed a jolt of chartreuse green.  It flowers but I grow it mainly for the ferny foliage.

Tanacetum parthenium 'Aureum'

In terms of major foliage accents, I've added Phormiums in several locations.  Here are a few of the larger varieties.

Installed shortly after we moved in, I kept no record of the name of this one

Phormium tenax 'Apricot Queen' (I think - I may have this and the next one confused)

Phormium tenax 'Yellow Wave' (I know - it needs grooming)

I've also added a lot of Heucheras, although their placement has posed an issue as I've found they don't do well in full sun here, where they can shrivel during the heat of summer.  Here are a few of the most interesting varieties.

Heuchera 'Miracle', returned this spring after partial die back last fall

Heuchera 'Melting Fire', a new addition

Heuchera 'Marvelous Marbles', still struggling a bit in an area that gets just morning sun

Heuchera 'Key Lime Pie', moved last year from a very shaded area to one that gets morning sun

The elimination of the large Eucalyptus tree from our side yard early this year, which I wrote about here, created a large new bed and an opportunity to add more foliage plants.  Two of the best additions are the Dryms lanceolata, inserted as the centerpiece of the new bed, and the 3 Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussy', inserted as accent plants.  The Dryms, also known as a Mountain Pepper, is still small - just over a foot tall - but it should eventually reach 10-15 feet tall and 10 feet wide.  True to its advertisement, it produced small greenish white flowers in early spring.  It's supposed to develop black fruit in the fall but, in the meantime, it displays the nice red stems shown below.

Dryms lanceolata, still an infant

The Coprosmas would show better against a green background.  As this is a fairly sunny spot, I'm thinking of adding a ground-hugging thyme as a backdrop.

Coprosma repens "Plum Hussey'

I'm going to have to be vigilant about cutting this plant back to keep it in scale.  The one I placed on the sloping edge of my dry garden is already getting too tall and skinny, which won't do in the other bed.

Coprosma repens 'Plum Hussy' living up to her name in the crowded dry garden

My final foliage offering will no doubt appear pitiful; however, I thought this Clerodendrum myricoides 'Ugandense', the second one I've tried in this garden, was a goner.  I had a beautiful shrub of this variety at a rental apartment in Santa Monica many, many years ago and it's a sentimental favorite of mine but I'm afraid it doesn't like our current location much.  My first try died within 6 months - or maybe I just gave up on it too soon.  I started with a smaller plant on my second try and, while it produced it's trademark blue butterfly-shaped flowers, it declined soon after flowering last summer.  I cut it back, gave it a healthy shot of compost, and waited.  Last month, I thought it was dead but, as this picture indicates, there are now signs of life!  As the saying goes, hope springs eternal.

Clerodendrum myricoides 'Ugandense'

Pam at Digging hosts this monthly foliage follow-up.  Please go to her site for more foliage photos.

Remaking a Planting Bed

The Eucalyptus tree that dominated the southeast side of our property is now history.  I wrote about my angst over the removal of the tree here and the process itself here.

What I was left with is an irregularly-shaped bed close to 20 feet long.  It's approximately 9 feet across at its widest point, narrowing to 3 feet at the far end.  It slopes slightly on one side, where it is bounded by a stacked manufactured stone wall.  A dirt pathway, now covered with Eucalyptus sawdust, runs along its side, leading to another planting area facing the street.  The bed gets full sun part of the day but, even with the large tree's removal, it's shaded for portions of the day by other trees nearby.

The only plant left alive in the bed after the Eucalyptus was removed was a scraggly Osteospermum (variety unknown).  I pulled out much of the Eucalyptus sawdust left behind by the tree service crew and worked in bags and bags of compost, as well as a basic fertilizer.  I considered leaving the bed alone for awhile but, with our living room overlooking the space, I couldn't face that much bare earth day after day.

I didn't want to put another tree in as there are already 2 California Pepper trees (Schinus molle), 2 Strawberry trees (Abutus 'Marina'), a tree-size Toyon (Heteromeles arbutifolia), and a variety of tall hedges in the immediate area.  I considered several shrubs and was semi-settled on using Pittosporum tenufolium 'Marjorie Channon' as my centerpiece plant; however, even after checking the plant out at a local nursery, I was having a hard time getting excited about the choice.  I nonetheless took my working plant list along when 2 friends and I took a trip to Rogers Garden, an Orange County nursery, last week.

Rogers had a large selection of Pittosporum tenufolium varieties but I fell in love with another shrub across the aisle: Dryms lanceolata, commonly known as the Mountain Pepper.  This variety was a new selection, part of Monrovia's "Dan Hinkley Collection."  I liked the dark green leaves and red stems.  The shrub is supposed to produce aromatic greenish flowers in spring, followed by black berries in fall.   It grows 10-15 feet tall and 10 feet wide, although I can't find any reference to its speed of growth.  It's reported to like partial sun.  The only downside is that it requires regular water.

Dryms lanceolata

Of course, changing my featured shrub required changes to the rest of my plant list as well.  I decided to try a purple-leaved Loropetalum (Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Hine's Plum Leaf').  I was lucky to find 3 of these in good condition in 3 quart pots at Lowes so I saved some money there.  These plants can grow 6-8 feet tall by 8 feet wide but I've been told their size can be managed with regular pruning.

Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum 'Hine's Plum Leaf'

I picked up a few accent plants while at Rogers (it was an expensive visit), including 3 Heuchera maxima and 3 Coprosma 'Plum Hussy'.

Heuchera maxima

Coprosma 'Plum Hussey'

I was also tempted by a few annuals I wanted to trial.  Rogers offered selections produced by by favorite mail-order nursery, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, without the shipping charge.

Anagellis monellii 'Blue Pimpernel'

Nigella hispanica 'African Bride" with Argyrantemum 'Elsa White' and Alyssum

I also spruced up the adjoining bed with a selection of succulents and more annuals.

Crassula radicans, Graptosedum 'California Sunset', and Sedum 'Salsa Verde'

Nemophila menziesii 'Baby Blue Eyes'

Despite these efforts, the bed still looks very bare!

After initial planting

Another view after planting

I need to add edging plants and, as the Mountain Pepper and Chinese Fringe Flowers will take time to fill out, I'll probably fill in with some additional annuals and/or short-lived perennials.  Here's what I'm considering:

• Plectranthus - cuttings from existing plant, noID, possibly Plectranthus fruticosus
• Nicotiana langsdorfffii (green flowered tobacco)
• Heuchera - purple leaved variety
• Ajuga reptans 'Catlin's Giant' (Bugle weed)
• Teucrium chamaedrys (Germander)
• Seslaria caerulea (Blue Moor Grass)
• Dichondra argentea 'Silver Falls'
• Stachys byzantina (Lamb's Ears)
• Athyrium niponicum pictum 'Silver Falls' (Japanese Painted Fern)
• Clematis terniflora (Sweet Autumn Clematis) - to climb arbor

Price and availability will factor into final selections but that's my current working list.  What else would you add?