You Can Grow That!

The 4th of each month is You Can Grow That day! Here's what all the bloggers came up with this month.... http://wholelifegardening.com/blog/2012/06/05/garden-bloggers-you-can-grow-that-day-june-2012/

Ten Plants for Early Summer!

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Slide show of the plants in this article: Click here

As we head into summer, gardeners may be looking for plants that give lots of landscape value with little input. For ease of growth, abundance of bloom, and interesting foliage, here are ten plants I keep coming back to in the months of May and June for garden performance.

1. Buddleia Royal Red (Butterfly bush)
Butterfly bushes draw butterflies, hummingbirds, and bees. They have fragrant flowers, and are reasonably drought tolerant. The new Buzz Buddleias are dwarf, fitting into smaller yards and borders. But I still think Royal Red, which is actually purplish-red, is one of the best for its vibrant color.

2. Canna Tropicana (Canna lily)
I don't even really like Canna lilies for the most part. Ok, they impart a bold, tropical look, but they can look pretty scruffy after the bloom, and the rhizome roots keep pushing outward to make unwieldy-size clumps. But Tropicana has beautiful striped leaves. Great in containers, near water features, or in a border deep enough to accommodate some spread. The bright orange flowers are a nice bonus.

3. Cotinus coggygria (Smoke bush)
This is becoming one of my favorite small trees for patios, dry landscapes, and hot locations. Royal Purple has the most vivid colored leaves. A great substitute for the ubiquitous red-leaf plum, with a more graceful, open habit, and more tolerant of drought. The flowers are in wispy clusters, causing a "smoke" effect. There is also a gold-leaved variety.

4. Hemerocallis Gentle Shepherd (Daylily)
More than 60,000 cultivars of daylily to choose from, and I like this white one? Yes! The clean, creamy-white, very large blossoms are a departure from the usual oranges, reds, and yellows of daylilies, blending with any other color in the landscape. But there are gaudier colors if you prefer. Anybody can grow daylilies!

5. Hydrangea quercifolia (Oakleaf hydrangea)
Grandma's mophead hydrangeas, the giant-flowered types in pink or blue, are fussy in Davis. They get anemic due to the water quality, and require lots of water. The white-flowered Oakleaf hydrangea is a very elegant substitute. It doesn't care about the pH of our water, the foliage is very attractive (and turns a nice red color in fall), and the plant is much more refined than the mopheads. Prefers afternoon shade.

6. Lavandula x intermedia Grosso (Lavandin, hybrid lavender)
Lots of lavenders to choose from, but I especially recommend this one for fragrance and heavy bloom yield. It grows 3 to 4 feet tall and broad. All lavenders are heat-loving and drought-tolerant; in fact, it is easy to over-water them. Keep them dry once established. Grosso, like many of the hybrid lavenders, blooms from May through summer, often into fall.

7. Melianthus major (Honey bush)
Big bold-toothed grey-green leaves, mahogany-colored flower spikes in May. The foliage smells odd, not unpleasant; some say like pasta. Tolerates hot sun, partial shade, drought. Sprawls several feet across if allowed to, but can be cut back periodically for size control.

8. Penstemon heterophyllus Midnight (Summer snapdragon)
Penstemon is one of my favorite perennials, and Midnight is my favorite penstemon. Some varieties aren't long-lived; this one is. I have one plant that is more than ten years old. This is one of those May through July perennials, but it will give another fall bloom if you remove spent bloom spikes. Hummingbirds and the big solitary bees love penstemons of all kinds. Full sun or partial shade, tolerant of drought or average watering. Give 'em room: each of my plants is about 3 feet across.

9. Phlomis fruticosa (Jerusalem sage)
This is a big, sprawling shrub with attractive fuzzy grey-green leaves and strange, beautiful yellow flowers in whorls over a long period. The flowers smell exactly like carnations! Very drought tolerant, very sun tolerant, moderately shade tolerant. Branches can be allowed to root if you want it to cover territory. If not, cut it back now and then.

10. Punica granatum (Pomegranate)
One of the easiest fruit trees to grow, pomegranates always remind me in May and June how attractive they are in the landscape as they sport large, bright orange-red flowers. Then they remind me again in fall as the leaves turn bright yellow and the vivid red fruit ripens. Even if you don't eat the fruit, it is a beautiful landscape shrub or small tree. Pest-free, drought and heat tolerant. Dwarf varieties that set miniature fruit are useful landscape ornamentals.

-- runners up --
11. Achillea (yarrow): lots of new varieties with shorter stature and brighter colors have brought this old perennial back in popularity.
12. Alstroemeria (Peruvian lily): finding new use as a garden perennial, rather than just for cutting, due to a whole spate of new compact varieties.
13. Celosia (Plume flower and cockscomb): psychedelic color range, strange crested forms make these sun-loving annuals favorites for kids.
14. Euphorbia Ascot Rainbow: colorful foliage, chartreuse flowers, compact habit, full sun. Great with succulents.
15. Phygelius capensis (Cape fuchsia): elegant hanging flowers on tall open spikes attract hummingbirds all summer. Not a fuchsia! Much easier and hardier.

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Buddleia is the genus of Butterfly bushes, a group of shrubs tolerant of sun, heat, and moderate drought. Old types grow 6 feet tall or more, and benefit from a hard pruning every year of so. Royal Red, shown here, isn't really red: it is purple with a tinge of red in each small blossom. Fragrant, free-blooming, and very attractive to hummingbirds as well as butterflies.

Canna lilies are noted for their bold, tropical foliage and gaudy flowers. They spread by rhizomes to make large patches. Tropicana has especially attractive striped, colorful leaves, and vivid orange flowers.

Oakleaf hydrangea is becoming one of my favorite shrubs for shady landscape areas. Elegant growth habit, attractive foliage, nice fall color, clean white blooms. A great substitute for the standard hydrangea, which doesn't like our water.

Honey bush is a big, dramatic plant in the landscape! It can tolerate sun or light shade. Interesting for large containers as well.

Penstemon, sometimes called Beard tongue, is a summer-blooming perennial that is attractive to hummingbirds and large solitary bees. Newer hybrids may have brighter, splashier colors, but Midnight is a proven performer in Valley landscapes. Plants shown here are three years old: 3 feet across and tall, blooming from May through July.

Jerusalem sage isn't a true sage, but it's a close cousin. A big plant for sunny locations, growing to 4 feet tall and 5 feet across, but readily trimmed for size. Fragrant blossoms, easy to root, easy to grow.

We need to start thinking of pomegranate trees for their ornamental value! The flowers are large and showy in May, fall leaf color is bright yellow, and the fruit is bright and colorful in fall. I water my pomegranate tree about once a month. The fruit is delicious, and if you don't happen to eat it the songbirds will.

Achillea (yarrow): the variety shown here is Strawberry Seduction, which blooms at about 18 inches tall from summer through early fall. Yarrows attract beneficial insects, make lovely dried flowers, and spread slowly by short rhizomes. Full sun is best.

Written for the Davis Enterprise, May 31, 2012

Check out all the great posts at May's

! An informal project of garden writers, bloggers, and garden center owners.

You Can Grow That! May 2012: Sunflowers!

Sunflowers!

"Good mornin'.
You sure do make it like a sunny day.
Sunflower
fair warnin'.
I'm gonna love you if you come my way." --Glen Campbell, 1977
I listened to that song repeatedly as I drove across the western states in the summer of 1977. It was Glen Campbell's last top-10 hit, and it dominated the country-western airwaves that year. Between California and South Dakota in the summer of 1977, the ONLY airwaves were country-western. To this day, I frequently burst into song at the sight of a field of sunflowers, much to the chagrin of my kids.
Fields of sunflowers have become a lovely and common sight in Yolo and Solano counties in recent years. Sunflower acreage increased 44% between 2003 and 2004, to over 13,000 acres, with farmers growing them for production of certified seed. Many of the fields that used to be in processing tomatoes now give us glorious blooms in July and early August.
From an aesthetic standpoint, this is a big improvement! The fields are a photographer's delight. Sunflowers also draw beneficial insects and are pollinated by many species of native bees. At least 29 species of native bees have been found visiting sunflowers in fields in Yolo County, especially species of long-horned and sunflower bees, followed by bumble bees and sweat bees. Most of these are ground-nesting solitary species.
In fact, the native bee species are more effective sunflower pollinators than honey bees, and they even make the European honey bees more effective. Why? European honey bees tend to specialize in nectar or pollen, and the two types of sunflowers planted in commercial fields – being male or female varieties -- have mostly one or the other. So the honey bees mostly stick to one type of flower. But the native bees bully the Europeans, chasing them between the rows, and making them up to 10 times more productive! Typical aggressive Americans.
Helianthus annuus is a western North American native. Western Native Americans domesticated it, with archeological evidence of cultivation as early as 2300 B.C. So it would even predate the Three Sisters (corn, beans, and squash). Sunflowers were used for food, dye, face-paint, oil, hair treatment, and even wart removal, snakebite and sunstroke treatment.
The plant was introduced to Europe and became very popular in Russia, where sunflowers were bred for their oil content (28 – 50% oil). Sunflower oil has been researched as an alternate fuel source, having 93% of the energy of US #2 diesel fuel. Russian varieties were re-introduced back into Canada and the US for vegetable oil production.
There are many varieties for oil, seed, and flowers: an agricultural research station at Iowa State has a repository of over 2,000 varieties. In the last twenty years three new types of sunflower varieties have been introduced. Dwarf varieties include Sunspot and Teddy Bear, each 12 – 18' tall. These are great for containers, and fun for kids to grow.

Cutting varieties branch, producing multiple (but smaller) flowers, and come in colors including red, mahogany, pale yellow, and white. Good examples are Italian White, Indian Blanket, and Parasol Mix. Some are pollenless, a real advantage for cutting since sunflower pollen stains fingers, fabric, and surfaces. Good pollenless varieties include Prado Red (rich garnet color) and Velvet Queen (a 'combination of bronze, burgundy, chestnut red, and mahogany' – Sunset Western Garden Book).
The sun 'flower' is actually a composite structure made up of 1,000 – 4,000 little tiny flowers (florets), compressed onto a flattened stem. Typically there are showy ones along the edge, which are male or 'ray' flowers, surrounding female or 'disk' flowers in the center of the head. Each disk flower has a little nectar to draw the bees; hummingbirds are also very attracted to them.
Why does the sunflower face the sun? The reaction is called phototropism (light+movement). An internal hormone called Indole acetic acid regulates this process. IAA is the hormone in plants which stimulates cell growth and enlargement wherever it is located in the plant. It is very light-shy and very mobile within plants. At night it is all throughout the plant. In the morning it migrates to the shaded west side of the plant, causing the stem to stretch gradually to the east, and in the afternoon this reverses. This continues until the stems become woody.
Sunflowers are incredibly easy to grow in all climate zones! Plant in full sun. They germinate fastest in warm, loose soil. But seedlings can actually tolerate some frost, so in the Sacramento Valley seeds can be started as early as February and planted out in March. Or they can be sown directly in the ground as late as August.
For the tallest plants and biggest flowers, plant in April or May into soil you've enriched with compost and fertilizer, and water frequently. The standard variety for competitive size and maximum production of quality seeds is Russian Mammoth, a variety that's been around for over 140 years. But sunflowers can be planted into mid-summer for pretty flowers, for cutting, and for seed production, and don't require special soil or care. You can just leave the plants to make seed and topple over, and songbirds will thank you.
There are a couple of sunflower relatives worth mentioning, both very easy to grow in full sun and pretty much any soil. Helianthus multiflorus is a hardy perennial that can be grown in every climate zone in North America, with many-branched stems topped with 3-inch sunflowers. There is a double-flowered form. H. tuberosus is the Jerusalem artichoke. This common name mystifies me. It isn't from Jerusalem: it is native to eastern and central North America. And the part you eat doesn't look or taste anything like an artichoke. It is a starchy tuber with a texture like a potato and a slightly nutty flavor. The plant grows to 6'+, with bright yellow single sunflowers, and spreads – shall we say? – freely.

Sunflower
good mornin'.
You sure do make it like a sunny time.
Sun mornin'
good mornin'.
And some da child
I'm gonna make you mine. (repeat'and repeat'.and repeat'.)

You Can Grow That! for April

Check out all these great blog posts in the You Can Grow That! site for April! This is an informal project of writers, bloggers, independent garden center owners, and other garden enthusiasts.
http://wholelifegardening.com/blog/2012/04/04/garden-bloggers-you-can-grow-that-day-april-4/

Rosa banksiae, the Lady Banks Rose: You Can Grow That!

Walking the dogs down the county road at sunset, my son and I came to a stop to identify the fragrance that had suddenly surrounded us. If you’ve been to the county fair, you know the smell of cotton candy. If you had a grandmother that used violet water, you know that faint sweet scent. Put them together, and that was the invisible cloud we had just entered.
“What is that?” he asked.
“The Banks rose in the back yard,” I replied.
“But,” he said.
Yes, I know. The back yard is over five hundred yards away.

Many plants create compounds that volatilize under certain conditions; heat brings out the fragrance of lavender, Brugmansia and Cestrum nocturnum are only fragrant after dark. And many, like the Lady Banks rose, release their aroma at twilight.
You Can Grow That? Pretty much anyone, if living within the hardiness zones, can grow Rosa banksia. If they have enough room.

This is one unusual rose. No thorns. Evergreen. And it only blooms for about three weeks each year. But for those weeks the small blossoms are so abundant you can’t even see the foliage. It climbs by arching and clambering up, over fences, up into trees.
A single plant can cover thirty to forty feet of fence (mine does), or fully engulf a tree. In fact, the largest rose in the world is the Rosa banksia in Tombstone, Arizona, which covers over 8,000 square feet. But it can be pruned. One of my favorite examples is a specimen in downtown Davis (CA), across from Union Bank, which has been trained as a “tree” on two stakes, and has been severely pruned that way for as long as I can remember. It is being kept at about eight feet tall and broad!

The Sunset Western Garden Book tells us that it grows in Sunset Zones 4 – 34, and both zones in Hawai’i. In USDA parlance, that apparently equates to Zone 7a. So here in the Sacramento Valley (Sunset 8, 9 and 14; USDA 9) it is perfectly hardy.

There are three cultivars that I’ve seen, only two of which are in the trade, and not many wholesale growers produce the Lady Banks rose. You may have to search a bit for it.


Rosa banksiae ‘Alba’ is the white, double-flowered form. Flowers are showy, but fragrance is light (some might prefer that).

R. b. ‘Lutea’ has pale yellow, double flowers. It is more fragrant, and less common.


I have the white single-petaled cultivar, R. banksia normalis, which some references say “is believed to be the original wild form.” It is most fragrant of all, and very uncommon in the nursery trade. I got mine at a swap meet of heirloom rose growers in the 1980’s.


Note: a supposed variety called Snowflake has been in the trade for a couple of decades. It is a hybrid with another species, and is easily recognized by the thorns. True Lady Banks rose is thornless. The bloom habit is less abundant, but over a longer period, and it is not fragrant. If you’re expecting the profusion of Lady Banks, you’ll be disappointed. And the thorns are especially nasty.

For more on the Tombstone Rose: http://www.helpmefind.com/rose/ezine.php?publicationID=654&js=0

You Can Grow That! is a grass-roots project of independent garden centers, garden bloggers and writers, and other plant professionals!

Bees and systemics: the smoking gun

Two new studies implicate systemics in bee problems
"Field Research on Bees Raises Concern About Low-Dose Pesticides
Erik Stokstad
Five years ago, bees made headlines when a mysterious condition called colony collapse disorder decimated honey bee colonies in parts of the United States. Now bees are poised to be in the news again, this time because of evidence that systemic insecticides, a common way to protect crops, indirectly harm these important pollinators. Two field studies reported online this week in Science document problems. In bumble bees, exposure to one such chemical leads to a dramatic loss of queens and could help explain the insects' decline. In honey bees, another insecticide interferes with the foragers' ability to find their way back to the hive. Researchers say these findings are cause for concern and will increase pressure to improve pesticide testing and regulation."

Don't apply systemic insecticides such as imidacloprid (Merit) to plants that are visited by bees.