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Tucson Botanical Garden: Butterflies and Barrio Gardens

12 Thursday Apr 2012

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I love visiting other gardens and getting ideas. Last week I went to the Tucson Botanical Gardens and the butterfly green house. It was amazing. The greenhouse was full of plants that grow in San Diego such as hibiscus and Pentas lanceolata, which was beautiful. I might try to plant it. I see it grows as a perennial here and as an annual other locales.

I had some little garden helpers with me on the tour. The butterflies were attracted to them.

We really enjoyed the butterfly house, but there was so much more to see. So many of the plants both inside the 80 degree green house and outside the butterfly house, can grow in San Diego. That’s what so amazing about the climate here. We can grow almost anything.

But here is a shady fountain that they have planted and turned into a flowerbed. I think that’s Dusty Miller, which, I am surprised to learn, is a type of Artemisia. I don’t usually like Dusty Miller, but I love my Artemisia Powis Castle. I am not so great at growing it, but I love its smell and its silver gray color. I love all the funny names it has too like Wormwood. I read that is has been grown since “the time of ancient Greece.” (Sunset Western Garden book.) Now that I read this, I see I need to prune it in the fall. Maybe that’s my problem. Anyway, here it is in Tucson:

I also loved the Barrio Garden with its roses, fig trees, purple heart (the deep purple houseplant-type that grew profusely in the flowerbeds in the house I grew up in), pomegranates, and tombstone roses. Just beautiful!

I love the look of this garden path (see below), which is lush and full, despite the heat. This pictures shows a pomegranate, a mesquite and some other flowers in the wildflower garden area. If you are ever in Tucson, be sure to visit this wonderful place!

Of course, March is a wonderful time to visit Tucson.  Everything is blooming–the Palo Verde trees are full of yellow blossoms. They float down the street reminding me of buttered popcorn. My great-grandma tried her whole life to paint one that satisfied her with its perfection. The vibrant yellow flowers against the sage green branches made a very compelling subject. Since I don’t paint, I write, and I can write about her trying to paint, but mainly I prefer to watch them because they are full of pollen and make me sneeze! (If I find a picture, I will post it.)

Erysimum

09 Monday Apr 2012

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April is here and there is so much going on in the garden. First, the roses — they are about to bloom.  Looking at them now, I’m comforted that I did not prune too much. Maybe the first year I pruned the climbers when I shouldn’t have, but every other rose seemed to take the aggressive pruning well. Buds are everywhere waiting to bloom. I cut my first rose on Easter morning.

The second news is somewhat disappointing but not uncommon to my garden—I dug up my seed nursery. Well now, what can I say? It had originally been the home of a nice fat Erysimum Bowles (mauve) that died. When it did, it left me with a garden hole, not one you could see, but one that was sheltered and became my “nursery” where many plants such as this nemesia self-sowed. But I dug it up and planted a new Erysimum Bowles “Mauve”, popularly called wallflower, and now, who knows.  The Rudebekia seeds were so tiny. I’m sure they are buried under too much dirt now. But at least, I had a “control” set in peat pots along with some Coneflowers. There are a few tiny sprouts now.

The Erysimum Bowles, by the way, is a great perennial. It takes little water, grows in a nice even mound, blooms almost continuously. The only complaint I have is that a few of mine have bloomed themselves out of existence after a few years. They grew woody and split open, which I’ve heard about lavender, but I seem to encounter that more with the wallflower—I read it’s “short-lived” somewhere so maybe this is expected.

I’m also not quite sure how to prune it. Perhaps this leads to the problem above (the splitting open), but the leaves and flowers seem to reside in the outer orb of the plant and when I’ve cut it back, it looks dead so go figure!

Let me know if you have any ideas. I have three in my front garden right now and they do look good against a wall.

Seed Planting

18 Sunday Mar 2012

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I planted some seeds about two weeks ago. I  put them in my plant “nursery” area where good things seem to come up on their own. Seeds I planted I am going to do an experiment and plant them in seed cups too to see which do better. I want Black Eyed Susans (Rudbeckia, Tiger Eye Hybrid and Indian Summer from Burpee) in August and I’ve only had random success with them in the past. Random meaning I planted several seed packages and got maybe two plants. But they were wonderful plants. Last year, I planted the seeds too and got nothing. They seem tempermental. So this year, I tried again. I planted Coneflowers (Echinacea, Magnus) too since I keep reading about them.  I hope my new seeds grow soon. We are having a winter storm today so at least they are getting watered. Here is a nice Scabiosa from my garden.Scabiosa

 

Bachelor Buttons growing by the rose.

 

Ever-blooming

13 Tuesday Mar 2012

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Today Annie’s Amazing Nursery catalog arrived and I can’t believe how fabulous it is. I took a pen and circled everything I ever wanted as I flew on the plane to Arizona. Now I am sitting in Silver City, New Mexico and it is snowing, plans for planting summer flowers put on hold as I take in the drastic weather in my parka that I grabbed on my way out the door.

I chased my sister away because she was talking too much as we sit in the Lion’s Den café; she is talking about art and the snow and drinking a tall latte with a tall foam full of fat. She does not like to be silent, especially not on the “day before”– no today we are both chattering away as if we don’t have a care. Tomorrow, we will drive sixty silent miles to visit my Aunt’s house to clean out her closets. Forgive me for not talking of gardens right away as I sit here in a strange coffee house, which the proprietor just told my sister won a Willy Wonka decorating contest, explaining the giant foam peppermints and candy canes hanging from the walls. Forgive me for distractions of chatter.

In my suitcase my Annie’s catalog waits along with my plans for my “fabby” garden that will bloom continually and will never feel snow.

Nope, my garden will fill my thoughts as I lift up the heavy hangers, carrying dry cleaner bags full of carefully ironed clothes out the back door to the car where we will pile them in, armful by armful, trying to be as fast and cheerful as we can and not worry my uncle too much, who stands alone with his dog by the door. The snow left and the sun came out, but still the fields are yellow and the wind blows through my sweatshirt. Our aunt loved flowers. I think of taking a cutting of her geraniums, but I never go in the front door. And would they survive winter outside anyway? If my aunt were here, they would be inside and she would be tending them now, but I don’t see them anywhere so I forget it and concentrate on stuffing the car so full that we will never have to go back again.

No, I will not think of that. I will think about my garden and the blooms that will last all summer. It will be drought-tolerant, deer-tolerant, and ever-blooming. Penstemon barbatus, achillea ageratum, geranium magnificum, and Cynoglossum Amabile “Azul”—I just like the sound of it all, like an incantation, something that’s already alive.

 

Here are pictures from South western New Mexico the second week of March, day after snow, at Bear Mountain Lodge, the gardens and views from that location.

Maze at Bear Mountain

 

 

View from driveway

Buds and First Blooms

23 Thursday Feb 2012

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It has been hot here and the garden is already blooming.  In the slideshow are some of the first flowers of 2012.

We went to this incredible garden at the Parker Hotel in Palm Springs. I loved how lush it was. Very different from my garden but lots of good ideas to take home.

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A Garden Valentine

15 Wednesday Feb 2012

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Often the garden is a metaphor for life. The garden never judges. The garden perseveres when you neglect it, buds in coldest winter, never interrupts, does not care when you say dumb things after a few glasses of wine.

The garden is waiting for your care. And when February sun shines through after rainy days, it starts to bloom. This is the time of quickening, bulbs coming up where you least expect them. The garden is good to you and is a place of peace and ease and where your work can bloom before your eyes and accomplishments after even an hour are visible and real. The garden is a comfortable home. The garden is your Valentine.

Rose Pruning — Too Much or Not Enough

11 Wednesday Jan 2012

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Last weekend, I pruned my roses. There is always a certain amount of anticipation and dread in pruning, plus last year, pruning my roses resulted in a medical event for me (more on that later). I worry that I won’t do it right, then I go for it and chop the heck out of them. I alway have a certain feeling that it is me against them as I prune –you wouldn’t believe the size of the thorns on some of the roses and there is always a chance that one of the climbers will snap back at my face and stab me or I’ll get scratched or have a thorn embed in my knuckle, like last year, which resulted in some kind of arthritis that I battled for six months (I promise I will write more about that next time. I know I said that twice now.) Anyway, don’t let the thorns get you!

Of course, now I think I pruned too much, especially the climbers. Why I did not read my gardening books before I pruned, I will never know, but I waited and read the books the day after to see if I did it right. Then I realized that I over-pruned my climbers, which is what I did the year before. No wonder they look shabby! I think I pruned them too much the first year, too. Oh well. I have taken a class on pruning roses–learning to prune them is a personal evolutionary process. One day after years of practice, I will finally get it right. Anyway, the rose is an amazing plant, complicated and simplistic at the same time. They will survive my efforts.

Here are some of the things to remember:

–The three Ds of pruning: remove canes that are “diseased,” “dead” and some other “d” word that I can’t remember. No wonder I can’t do it right! The one thing that is cool about diseased canes are that in my roses I can see the hole where a beetle bored through it. You chop the cane down to where you get to good wood and no longer see the little black beetle hole.

–Try to cut crossing branches. Try to create an open “vase-like” effect–not my words. Those are from Pat Welsch. But if you leave crossing canes, you will soon see them attacking each other with their thorns and basically mauling each other, allowing disease to enter the wounds.

–You can actually see where the little buds will form and which direction they will grow. Clip 1/4 inch above those to determine where new growth will happen and influence its direction. Leave more than three little buds on a cane and clip above that. I love that I can determine the direction the canes will grow.

–There are lots of other important rules of thumb like 1/3 rules and whatnot that I can’t remember. I am a disastrous rose pruner. It makes me feel good though to go out and chop them.

–Next on the list: spray with dormant spray and add Ada Perry’s Magic Formula–but that’s next weekend’s job!

I took these pictures to help me see if I did it right once or wrong … in years to come, I will look back at this first. I promise. These aren’t all of my dozen roses just the main varieties.

Note to self: read this before picking up the pruning shears! Wear gauntlet gloves, too.

This all sounds horrible, but as I was pruning, a couple walked by and told me that they absolutely love my roses every year so I can’t be that bad at it!

Mary Rose pruned, Jan. 8, 2012

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Pumpkin time

19 Monday Sep 2011

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Now I planted seedling pumpkins in July. I know this was late, but I am always hopeful. I hope I will have Thanksgiving pumpkins. But again I had problems. Some little baby pumpkins came but fell off. Some plants had only male flowers — how in the heck is that possible? Anyway, while I was discouraged, I was happy to find some real little gal flowers with baby pumpkins at the base along with some male flowers. Now that I read about fertilizing them myself, I decided to get on it.

That sounded wrong…what I meant was, I was going to have to cross-pollinate my pumpkins. First of all, I probably planted too few and too far apart.  I had to plant them in the front flower beds because we are going to re-do our backyard. Since I bought them late, I only bought one of each variety–a Cinderella, a baby bear and a Jack be Nimble (or something) plus a loofah gourd. Don’t ask me why I bought a loofah. I don’t really like them, but I was fighting some lady at Walter Andersens who was also there buying late pumpkins. We were helping each other, sort of. I got the loofah.

Well, I used a Q-tip. That seemed scientific. I stuck it in there and got as much pollen on it as I could and then I ran around to the Cinderella, the Baby Bear and the loofa and rubbed pollen in all the lady flowers. I thought maybe I should have on some Marvin Gaye. I felt a little embarrassed, like I was doing something naughty.

But you know what, I got a pumpkin. See the one in the photo! I hope it makes it. I hope I don’t get some weird loofah pumpkin hybrid. I’ll keep you posted.

P.S. I went to Olivewood Gardens last week in National City. It is a really neat place. More on that later.

Oh yes, plant your sweet peas and wildflowers now. I started. You can do it in ten minutes if you have a prepared bed, or if you don’t, sweet peas and wildflowers will grow just about anywhere there is sun and water. I don’t have much room for planting right now (plus the pumpkins are taking up a lot more space than I anticipated). I had to find little empty spots around the yard.

Compost Thrills

17 Wednesday Aug 2011

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All the talk of composting made me want to try, too. I didn’t want to buy one of those $100 composting bins and growing worms isn’t for me. I came just imagine my eight year old walking in the house holding a hundred worms in her bare hands. (She loves any creepy crawly thing.) No, I can’t grow my own worm castings. I prefer to buy a bag of them when I can afford it.

So back to composting — I found this video on Sunset Magazine’s web site:http://www.sunset.com/garden/backyard-projects/chicken-wire-compost-bin-video-00400000037005/

This was cheap, fast and easy to make. The problem was that this method took me a year to make compost!

Also, if you do this method, you had better have a lot of space because you should start several of these bins at once or over a series of months. That way you would have continuous compost and when one bin filled up, you could start another. Also, it was very hard to stir and turn the compost the way you were supposed to because the sides were too high. Maybe my husband and I made it too high to begin with, but you might want to consider how tall you are (and how strong you are too.)

Now in the Vegetable Gardner’s Bible by Edward C. Smith, it shows this type of chicken wire hoop as the perfect tool for making “leaf mold” compost, which is supposed to be one of the best composts. But he tells you it takes a year. So start now!

The compost I eventually made ended up enriching my vegetable garden but was nowhere near what I need for my whole yard. I am still trying to figure it out. Send me your ideas!

Now if you have a very short attention span, need instant gratification and cheap thrills (and can’t wait for compost to decompose), try this soil amendment recipe from my favorite San Diego gardening author Pat Welsh.  In her Southern California Gardening book, she writes about harvesting seaweed from the beach. Stuff it in a black plastic bag, take it home and chop it up with a machete and mix it in the soil. All this sounds really funny to me. I don’t think I have a machete. I guess I could use a meat cleaver. I am not sure that would be safe for anyone.  But if you really want to try that go for it. I may do it one day just to amuse my husband or my niece –she says all I blog about is fertilizer, anyway.

Please send me your composting tips. I need help!