Cool plants: Eriogonum nudum 'Ella Nelson' California native buckwheat

Just a quickie.  Have to say how much I've been loving this buckwheat.  Eriogonum nudum 'Ella Nelson' is just the best.  Love that sweet yellow and I am a sucker for pompoms.  This first started blooming in Feb,  and the photo below is the second crop of flowers. I hope it holds up when the heat turns on this summer.

I got this baby from Annie's.

enjoy.

Hard to capture the beauty of this plant!

Over priced? Or undervalued?

I love Annie's Annuals.  But even I, the seasoned and obsessive gardener scoffs at paying $5-8 bucks for a 4" size annual. As I look at the catalogue I begin my roller coaster ride of thrifty gardener emotions.  Will it grow?  Please God tell me it will reseed at a price like that!  Will one be enough? Hell, I want hundreds.  But do I have the space? Will it be worth it? This vacillation goes on for a while and then I settle down and place my small order.

Yesterday I ordered something that I feel is really frivolous,  marigolds.  In the main I don't even like them. You see them there, in Home Depot by the hundreds, uniformed solders, a phalanx of flowers. They're all dowsed with growth retardants and fertilizers and so on.  Basically they are as close to a silk flower as a real plant comes.  But there are other marigolds.  I remember when I was an intern at Great Dixter,  Christo would have loads of stripped marigolds waiting the in the wings. The moment a perennial was looking shabby he would have some fun annual like marigolds put in amongst them to take that part of the garden through the summer. And these are full grown loose habit NICE marigolds,  with REAL flowers.  So I chose 'Harlequin' to grow this year, of course I will save seeds and it will be great for the vegetable garden where I will be growing it.

But the question comes back,  is $5 plus shipping and tax too much to pay for an annual? I think the answer is no.  When I think of the joy I will have each day when I see the red and orange stripped flower in the garden it will all be worth it. And as a horticulturist I think it's really important to support the great resources we have.  Annie's is always delighting us with new and wonderful plants. We should support them and other great nurseries.  And just think of the fun you have when that box shows up at the house.



 

When Agave isn't masculine enough try a Mangave!

Remember the Manwich?  LOL.  It was a man's sandwich. 

Well, now there's  X Mangave.  X Mangaves are an intergeneric hybrid between Agaves and Manfredas.  They have the architectural interest of Agaves with the speckled fun of Manfredas. Why hasn't someone come up with a Manfreda called 'Kahlo' yet?!

Anywho,  a couple years ago I bought an unnamed Mangave from a succulent grower at the Riverside garden tour meeting area.  I had no idea how big it would get but now I know. And judging from the pups I would assume mine is full grown. It's about 2' x 2'.  The deep burgundy ends of the leaves and the spots are a real treat. I hate that I don't know the name of this beautiful clone. If I had to guess I would have to say that it was a hybrid of Agave desmetiana and a Manfreda. 

If you know the name of this plant, it's history or anything at all about it, will you please tell me? Thanks. 

Honey update

Nearly a year on and the beehive is finally in gear.  Just three weeks ago there was only a little honey stored in the top box, and so you can imagine my surprise when I could barely remove the top box just two weeks later.  I would estimate that they made about 35-40 pounds of honey in that two week period.  The bees were getting cramped for space so two medium supers were added.  This will give the gals plenty to do in the coming weeks.

We did feel empowered to take a little reward for the efforts.  With a steak knife and a bowl we cut out a stick of butter sized chuck of comb.  Seeing the honey ooze out of the comb switched on my inner Pooh bear. The taste was awesome, surprisingly not floral but more of a fresh bread flavor.

underside

medium frames being drawn out 

tasty void

chunk of honey goodness

Cool plants: Melianthus 'Purple Haze'

As I've mentioned many times on this blog I do have a tendency to fixate on certain plants and certain plant types. One thing I look for more and more is any compact form of plants I already love.  This time the object of my affection is Melianthus 'Purple Haze'.  Normally Melianthus major is a whopping 6' + shrub, which really doesn't fit that many urban gardens, but this compact cultivar grows to 2'-3' max.  M. 'Purple Haze' has the nice ric rac edged foliage of the species with the added benefit of being uniquely blushed in lavender-purple, so its a great foliage plant.  The African honey bush also gets flower spikes in the spring which are attractive to pollinators, though I haven't had M. 'Purple Haze' flower in my garden yet. This year will be the first spring in which it is established in the garden so we'll see what happens.

Roger Raiche once told me the story of how he discovered this cultivar, He was at a nursery in the Bay Area, cruising through the 1 gallons when he spotted a purplish runt.  He grabbed it immediately knowing that he had something special. Since then it's been passed around but finally Monrovia picked it up with Dan Hinkley's recommendation.

Melianthus 'Purple Haze' 

Melianthus with concrete hedgehog-urchins

Introducing Encelia 'Gimbel's Gold'

Working in horticulture for years, I am always looking for new varieties either in nurseries or out in nature etc.  Wherever I am I keep an eye for variations in habit and foliage.  Two years ago, while in hiking Griffith Park I noticed a strange stem on an Encelia californica, our beautiful and abundant brittlebush.  I snapped a little yellowy stem off of the plant and crammed it into a plastic water bottle.

Fortunately the cutting struck,  and after several months I took many more cuttings from that new plant.  This spring I planted several in the ground to see how they would perform. Below are some photos that I took this morning.  I think 'Gimbel's Gold' is a winner, what do you think?  I can't wait for the plant to be covered in those yellow daisies!  The only drawback is that the variegation only shows on the new growth.

In the category of flowers so large they're silly, relatively speaking of course... Stapelia gigantea

Hi,

It has been such a long summer.  So much for autumn, the heat waves roll on.  I really do want to blog... Sorry for being away for so long.  And for those of you who asked, yes I will be blogging about my trip to Europe.  :)

Sometimes plants bloom even when you neglect and de facto abuse them.  Put sun plants in shade, shade plants in sun, water the dry plants and dry out the water plants. You might think I don't like plants. And there is much justification in the name of testing and discovery.  This is the case of my Stapelia gigantea. Given to me  a while back from my friends Sue and James of The Folly Bowl, I did have every intention of integrating this succulent into the garden, but the spots in the garden keep shrinking. So there it sat on the side yard in partial shade nearly rotting in moist potting soil... for about a year and a half!  Why did I finally take pity on it and move it to the sun? Pity I guess.

So, seemingly out of spite it bloomed this week. I've been watching the pregnant podlike blooms swelling for quite a while, waiting waiting waiting.  Yesterday it happened the alien was swarmed with flies. Yup, carrion scented, just what you want in the garden. Still, its a keeper.

If you want a cutting, let me know.

Tees for tomatoes

Ever wonder what to do with old T-shirts?  This week I was looking for twine and found that I was completely out.  OK nobody panic.  My tomatoes desperately needed to be lashed to their stakes. Being the thrifty man that I am, I went after the stack of tees headed to the thrift store and snipped and ripped my way to tomato tie heaven.

Process:

First cut out the arms and seams until you are left with a clear section of fabric. Then snip on one side and tear.  You have to tear down the warp or the weft, I don't know which is which but you can do a little test before you get to ahead of yourself.  One direction tears neatly (for good ties) and the other direction is hopeless. If you tear down the right side the ties naturally curl up to make a soft bit of rope.  Now you will be ready to stake your veggies.

you're welcome.   ;)

Why not elope with a French cantaloupe?

FINALLY!  After months of waiting my first Charentais melon is ripe.   They're tiny little melons but seem to be pretty easy to grow and kinda cute. They are only a little bigger than an apple.  I've been crouching on the ground for weeks trying to sniff to see if these guys are ready.  Today I detected that familiar aroma and when I tugged ever so gently on the melon it gave itself to me.

FYI I got these seeds from Johnny's.

YUM.

garden appreciation

My friend Mike surprised me with this entry for the word "Garden" on our Drawsomething game.  LOL

Mike's drawing

And here's a shot I just took