Saturday, November 12, 2022

Bonus Blooms for Fall

 It is always a relief for me when the cooler temperatures of fall come bringing the promise of rain. Fall is also the season that some plants really shine with peak bloom. Here are several fall bloomers that I enjoy in my garden. 

      Senna splendida 'Golden Wonder' tree form

       

    Close-up of the large flowers of Senna splendida 'Golden Wonder'

Senna splendida 'Golden Wonder' is a lovely small tree. If it isn't pruned, it is a large shrub. The flowers of this plant are showy, large, and long-lasting. They are easily 3 inches across and a nice rich buttery yellow. While its main bloom period is in the fall, it puts out blooms intermittently all year. All sennas are host plants for Sulphur Butterflies. The caterpillars are green and yellow and blend in with the foliage and are hard to find. There are never enough of them to do any noticeable damage to the foliage. This plant was tough to get established but now it is tough and drought tolerant. It can tolerate a light freeze. Full sun and well-draining soil are requirements for good growth.

                  Hypoestes aristata or Ribbon Bush

Do you remember the polka dot plant so popular in terrariums when we were kids? This lovely plant is in the same genus. I barely notice the glossy light green leaves the rest of the year, but in the fall it is engulfed in lavender ribbon-like flowers. Cut back Hypoestes aristata after bloom to keep it densely growing. I keep this one around three feet tall and wide. I water this about once a week-to ten days in the summer and not at all in the winter. This South African native is an easy plant to grow in full sun/light shade and well-drained soil. It will tolerate light frosts and is evergreen. It is popular with hummingbirds and bees. Like the Poinsettia, the colorful flowers are actually fused bracts instead of petals. 

     Flowers of Odontonema strictum or Fire Spike

If you only have shade and want to attract hummingbirds, don't despair! This is a shade growing hummingbird plant. It will bloom in pretty dense shade. Of course, there will be more blooms if you give it more sun, but it blooms surprisingly well in shade. Odontonema strictum grows to about six feet tall and is a strongly upright plant. In the fall, large spikes of the most incredible red form in the leaf axils and ends of branches. The flowers do not bloom all at once and will open from the bottom up over a long period of time. Even after the flowers drop off the spike. the structure left behind is bright red and showy. This plant looks so tropica with its large glossy foliage, but it is surprisingly drought tolerant and easy to grow. Cut it back after bloom for more branches and more flowers. It is light frost tolerant. They say that hummingbirds can see red a mile away and I do not doubt it with this plant!

       Dombeya burgessiae 'Seminole'

Why this plant isn't grown more in San Diego is a mystery to me. It is one of the easiest, most rewarding plants in my garden! It is a robust grower that blooms from an early age. In the fall, it is smothered in pink bouquets of flowers. This plant wants to be eight feet tall and wide, so I chop it to the ground after it blooms, to keep it around five feet. While other plants languish and droop in the summer heat, this one stays healthy and strong with very little water. It takes full sun to part shade. I think it benefits from a little shade. It can be propagated by layering low-growing branches. The leaves are large, slightly fuzzy and a grey-green color, and typical for members of the Malvaceae. It will tolerate a light frost. 

In San Diego, fall can be a rewarding and bloom-filled occasion if we take the time to find autumn-flowering plants. There are a surprising number of plants that bloom in the fall. My goal is to have plants in bloom all year round, and we can in Zone 10. 







Saturday, July 23, 2022

Succulents as Low Maintenance Shrubs

When you picture a succulent garden you might be like me and see in your mind's eye many colorful tiny plants in a precious arrangement, but have you ever thought of succulents as shrubs in a low-maintenance and drought-tolerant garden? Many succulents have a neat and tidy domed habit that suits a low-water garden well. These mid-size succulents can perform the role of shrubs with much less water and maintenance. Be sure to have well-drained soil and full sun for these plants. Some of them can tolerate some shade but the colors will not be as intense.

Unlike shrubs, these neatly growing plants rarely are boring green, and come in many interesting colors and shapes. One of the basic tenets of good garden design is a variety of textures, sizes, and colors. Succulents don't rely on flowers to provide interest, they do that all year long with their foliage. You don't ever have to apologize to garden visitors that, "they should have been there last week because the plants were blooming" because the interest is the year-long texture and color of the foliage. With these plants, you can have a beautiful garden 12 months a year.

Additionally, they are easy to prune should they get larger than you want. Cuttings quickly and easily make new plants somewhere else in your garden. For example, cut the head off an Aeonium and stick it in the soil, and soon you will have another shrub- succulent. Here are a few of my favorites.

Aeonium 'Jack Catlin' with Coleonema pulchellum 'Sunset Gold'          David Feix

Several Aeoniums make great succulent shrubs. The rosettes don't collapse in the summer heat like Aeonium arboreum and quickly make an organized dome of heads. In this case, Aeonium 'Jack Caitlin' is a small succulent shrub around two feet tall and wide with gorgeous wine and spring green rosettes. It is a hybrid of A. arboreum 'Zwartkopf' and A. tabuliforme made by John Catlin at Huntington Gardens. This succulent does best in full sun where the colors intensify. Repeat this succulent shrub in several places in your border to create continuity in your color scheme. This is a tough plant that will get by on very little water, even in full sun. Plant with chartreuse plants to pick up the fresh green center. One good pairing is with Sedum x adolphii. This is a low-growing yellow succulent, that varies from chartreuse to golden with orange tips. A. 'Jack Caitlin can tolerate light frosts.


Aeonium 'Sunburst'                                                                                             David Feix

One of my favorite plants, this plant has easy care and color in spades. You would think looking at it that it is a delicate fussy plant, but it is a robust fast grower just looking for an excuse to show off in your garden. Once again, full sun and well-drained soil are required for best results. Skirt this succulent shrub with Senecio serpens for a pleasing combination. The blue of the Senecio serpens picks up the bluish green of the Aeonium. The coral pink stripe of the rosette is more evident in full sun and heat. Interplant with Echeveria 'Mauna Loa' to echo the coral edge of the Aeonium's rosettes. Any coppery succulent will work. You can also use shorter dark red Phormium cookianum. These rosettes are bigger and can get close to a foot across. The rosettes root easily. Even when not watered they will hang out until there is some water to start growing. Aeoniums have a drawback in that stems will die back after bloom, but there are always plenty of rosettes to replace the plant stem that died. 


Crassula arborescens                                                                                         

Many of the Crassula arborescens selections are great succulent shrubs. This one is Crassula 'Bluebird'. The foliage is a nice medium green paddle with a bluish cast and a red edge leaf edge. It quickly makes a rounded shrub, and like the shrubby Aeoniums, starts easily from pieces of branches. The foliage is chunkier than the well-known jade plant. Other forms of Crassula arborescens have silver foliage, or undulating smaller foliage. Any forms are easy plants for drought tolerant shrub forms in a succulent garden. They are slightly frost tolerant. This plant reaches 2-3 feet tall and wider. To keep it smaller trim off slightly smaller than desired and it will fill back in. 



    Aloe camperi                                                                                  Geoff Stein

There are so many forms of Aloe from groundcovers up to trees. There is a small group of shrub-sized Aloes that offer different textures and foliage colors in the garden border, plus blooms that last a month or more. The Aloe pictured is a species called Aloe camperi. This plant blooms in spring and grows about one foot high and three feet wide. If orange Aloe foliage is desired, plant Aloe dorotheae or Aloe cameronii. These shrubby Aloes have foliage that turns red with heat and drought. This is good to know in Zone 23 Sunset where summers can be challenging for landscape plants. These mid-size Aloes are great as you can have one blooming almost all year with careful selection. They clump and spread to create a small mass that is weed-free and lovely. Another good dense spring bloomer is Aloe 'Moon Glow' with yellow-tipped blooms and bluish foliage. Match this up with blue Senecio serpens and Crassula 'Sunset' to echo the colors.


Kalanchoe bracteata    

If you are nuts about white, silver, and blue foliage, like I am, you can find these colors in so many succulents. Kalanchoe bracteata has blazingly white fuzzy foliage. It is absolutely one of the easiest plants to grow. Succulents often have fuzzy white or silver foliage to deal with heat and drought. Fuzzy white leaves keep the full intensity of the sun from reaching the leaves and cool the leaf surface, plus they slow dehydration. Kalanchoe bracteata grows to about two feet tall and wide.  It blooms in muted red and the blooms are visited by hummingbirds. White foliage matches everything and can be happily sited in full sun next to almost any plant. I like to group white or silver foliage together. This plant looks good with another drought tolerant plant called Teucrium marum with silver foliage and purple flowers. Both are easy and drought tolerant. Teucrium marum is a long-blooming plant favored by bees.
Hopefully, this article got you thinking about using succulents as shrubs in the garden. Succulents are better than thirsty shrubs because they are drought tolerant and grow densely to choke out weeds. Using medium size succulents this way adds interest to the garden with color and texture, and is a smart choice to reduce maintenance and watering. With a little planning, you can easily make a satisfying garden composition and you can stand by while compliments come your way.