Well at least that is over with…sort of.

I woke to the sound of knocking at my front door at 8:00 am this morning and leapt out of bed. I knew it could only be bad news.  Sure enough when I opened the front door there were two guys digging plants out of the mediterranean garden and the foreman was there to let me know the lateral was going in earlier than expected.  I ran and got a shovel to help them remove plants. In 15 minutes all the plants in the center of the garden were out and the excavator was in place.  I tried to take out my more beloved specimens myself because of course the construction guys were not as careful about getting all the roots out as I was.  We’ll see what makes it and what doesn’t.  I’m guessing it may be something like 50/50 or worse.

This is just not the sort of thing one wants to see in their garden.

Here are my plants all piled up on top of each other.  That Lavandula pinnata var. buchii has been in full glorious bloom since last summer and all through winter but sadly one of the guys got to it before I could and not it has no roots. It may survive if I hack it way back.

It doesn’t help that today and tomorrow are going to be the hottest days in the past two months. It got up to about 73 today.  Everything was looking very droopy.

I was hoping I would have the weekend to carefully remove each plant myself.

Salvia africana-lutea stayed in place and was just out of the danger zone.  It was a risk and it did get a ton of stray sand dumped on it as the excavator bucket went back and forth but I think it will be OK.

I’m just so fried at this point.  Remember my pictures just a week or two ago on how far the garden had come in a year?  Back to square one.

In goes the lateral pipe. That white pipe across the top of the hole was the original irrigation. It is a damned good thing I never got around to installing drip in this garden.  One less hassle to worry about.

They were really careful not to hit the gas line (the gas pipe was just beyond the guy laying the lateral).  Big relief as I didn’t really need another headache to worry about.

Once the pipe was laid they filled the hole back up. Sort of. A lot of the soil is still on the street.  And of course my good compost is gone and now I have a mess of Los Osos sand. Blargh. Well at least this is a garden of drought tolerant plants that want good drainage.

And the final view. Compare that to last weeks pictures.  It looks like my garden was attacked by an army of plant hating fiends. And Gabe’s Bobcat is in the repair shop. I was hoping he would be able to come over and contour a little soil for me. I guess I’ll be doing it by hand.

This has been a terrible week but at least it is over. And while the sewer construction continues on my street for at least another two months at least they finished my side street (I hope).

One bright spot was that my free seed allotment from the Mediterranean Garden Society arrived in the mail today.  So maybe there will be a bit of new life on the way to make up for all the plants that won’t make it.

Stomatium alboroseum

So very busy and likely will be for a few more weeks.  But some of my Stomatium alboroseum that I showed were in bud the other day opened today for the first time.  Just six months from seed to flowers.

Annual Garden Transitions

The spring annual garden is more or less over.  The California natives actually performed really well despite all my fretting that they didn’t get enough winter rain this year.

The Layia platyglossa was the last remaining California native annual last weekend.  I collected a huge envelope of seed (Not so easy to do on a windy day! As you can see in the photo above the achenes of Layia are very much like dandelion fluff).  I collected some seed from Lupinus succulentus as well.  I may do some sort of seed exchange later in the year.  Check back this fall or winter and maybe if I have collected enough seed from interesting plants I’ll set something up or have a contest or something.

I could have left a few of the Layia but decided to make a botanical garden inspired clean sweep of things.  Of the early spring bloomers only a few Ursinia and perennials remain in the front beds.  The rest was removed, weeded, and cleaned up.

Helipterum roseum ‘Pierrot’ planted in the back of the annual bed is still looking pretty good. I’ll probably grow this from seed again next year.

Clarkia amoena ‘Aurora’ is a late spring bloomer.   It is in full bloom now.

The problem with using true annuals or doing any kind of seasonal bedding is you are always going to have some down time.

Luckily there are enough perennials and a few remaining annuals so it doesn’t look too bad.  The front of the mixed border is now planted with a mix of Convolvulus, different types of annual Rudbeckia, and Ageratum.  If all goes well in a month or two all that bare soil will be filled in and we’ll be back in full bloom.

The main annual bed has newly planted Convolvulus, a few Rudbeckia, California native Mentzelia lindleyi, Ageratum, Consolida regalis, and a few Calibrachoa that aren’t really doing that well. I’m not sure if they prefer warmer weather or what the story is with them but they look sad.  There are also some Scabiosa stellata ‘Stern Kugel’ and Didiscus caeruleus (aka Trachymene caeruela) that I started from seed in January and planted out in April. They both just take a really long time to bloom.

The first Scabiosa stellata ‘Stern Kugel’ flower is finally starting to open. These should have really amazing ornamental seed heads.  Easy to grow from seed but a bit slow.

Convolvulus tricolor ‘Royal Ensign’ were just recently planted but some are already blooming.  I’m curious to see how these do.  I’ve used them in containers before and they are wonderful spilling out and hanging over the sides.  Now I have them planted in the ground in the fronts of the beds to sprawl about.  Hopefully I’ll like the look.

This is probably more work than a lot of people want to deal with in their gardens.  This may actually be more work than I want to deal with in the long run.  Next year I may end up sticking some low maintenance shrubs in these beds.  But for now the novelty and excitement of having a garden after 10 years of apartment living is motivating me to try as many things as I can. So a few weeks of ugly should have a nice pay off in July or August. Look for updates then!

Weird Plant Tricks

One of the things I love about plant seeds is how remarkably resilient and interesting they are.  Some of them have complex requirements that must be met before they will germinate and start to grow.  They have evolved to give the plants the greatest chance of successfully surviving “birth” and reaching adulthood.  Many seeds have the ability to remain dormant in the soil until the perfect conditions are met that will increase their odds. This might be something as simple as moisture or as complex as double dormancy where two cold winters are required, the first breaks dormancy in the roots and the second in the shoots.

In mediterranean climates some plants have evolved to respond to fire and smoke.  I suppose the simplest explanation for this is that seedlings might have a better chance of surviving if all competing vegetation has been burnt away by dry season fires that sweep through California’s chaparral or South Africa’s fynbos.  The combination of heat to break tough seed coatings or the chemical compounds in smoke plus the first rains of winter start the new cycle of life.  In a year without fire those seeds might remain dormant in the soil patiently waiting for optimal conditions.

I have sown some seed from South Africa that is stubbornly refusing to germinate.  It is possible that the seed just isn’t any good but my success rate has been about 90% with succulents and 5% with herbaceous and woody South African plants.  Since I am not keen on starting even a small controlled fire in my house or garage I found another trick that seems simpler.

It seems kind of silly, no?  But apparently the smoke compounds in the liquid smoke used to flavor barbecue is enough to trigger germination in some seeds.  So I applied it at a rate of one tablespoon of liquid smoke to nine tablespoons of water to all my stubborn seeds.  Perhaps nothing will happen and the seed are just no good.  In the meantime my mudroom (where I have grow lights) and garage (where I have my largest heat mat) have a pleasant smokey barbecued scent now (I like it and I don’t even eat meat).

It all seems like a bit of a practical joke so I’ll let you know if I get any results.

Cool Plant of the Week!

Caulophyllum thalictroides fruit - blue cohosh

C. thalictroides is native to woodlands of eastern North America.  It has fern-like compound leaves similar to the genus Thalictrum which is where it gets the specific epithet thalictroides (Thalictrum like).  The flowers are sort of insignificant little yellowish-green affairs but they are followed by the beautiful blue berries pictured above. (ETA: I remembered today that they are not actually berries but are in fact seeds.  They push through the thin membranous fruit early in their development and ripen exposed to the elements.)

Caulophyllum thalictroides flower

More Seedlings Flickr Set

New Mesembs One Month Old, a set on Flickr.

Just an update on how my succulent seedlings have been doing. The first few pictures are the other month old seedlings, followed by a few shots of the year old seedlings and finally the seven month old seedlings. Click the pictures for details on the plant names and ages.

Seedling Army

Back in my post on Monilaria moniliformis I mentioned that I was going to start some seeds of Monilaria pisiformis and that I thought the seedlings were going to be “super cute”.  Well what do you think?

Monilaria pisiformis 1 month old

Pretty cute right?  Pretty good germination too.  What am I going to do with all these Monilaria if they all survive?  I’ll have a tiny green army.

I’ve been very busy this month sowing seeds for the new garden.  Aside from my little succulent I also have seed going from Chiltern Seeds from England, some herbaceous plants from Silverhill Seeds from South Africa, I sowed seed from Plant World Seeds from England, a few batches of old seed I had stored in my freezer including some Clarkia seed from 2002, and Horizon Herbs from Oregon.  Right now I am also checking out Thompson & Morgan and Baker Creek Heirloom for vegetable seeds for my veggie garden.

I have a heating mat on my potting bench in the garage and once they germinate they come inside to the mud room.  Not the spiffiest of arrangements but it will do for now.  Once they get their first true leaves I’ll pot them up.  The weather has been warm enough here to bring them outside too.  At least during the day.

These Calceolaria fothergillii seedlings are so tiny I can barely see them.  Getting any seedling to blooming size is rewarding but something this tiny it will be doubly so.

The Worst Blogger Lives!

I’m still the worst blogger. I don’t have time to post any England pics.  But I just wanted to post a quick update.  I’m feeling much better.  No fever since Wednesday and even that was very mild but best of all the headaches went away yesterday and so far I don’t feel like they will be back today.  So any brain tumor/meningitis worries are slowly diminishing and this hypochondriac is happy and relieved.

I’m still behind on the work I’m doing but I wanted to just do a quick post on the seeds I started last night.  I finally got around to sowing the succulent seeds I ordered from Silverhill Seeds in South Africa. Sown late last night 6/25/11 were Dactylopsis digitata, Titanopsis primosii, Euphorbia cooperi, Lithops optica v. rubra, and Cheiridopsis purpurea.

The seeds were sown in cactus mix. I mixed sand in the seed packets to help evenly disperse the fine seed and then enclosed them all in a zip lock baggie and put them on a heat mat. They should germinate pretty quickly.

The last succulents I sowed I was pretty successful with so I’m hoping these will be the same.

These little guys were sown on 1/16/11. From left to right they are Mitrophyllum dissitum, Lithops sp. mix, Frithia pulchra, and Cheiridopsis cigarettifera.

Look how cute the Frithia and Cheiridopsis are up close! Growing plants from seed is so satisfying. Getting them to live to blooming size will be even more satisfying.

Sorry for the quality of the pictures. I just snapped them quick with my phone.  And now I’m back to playing catch up.  Hopefully soon I’ll have some new seedling pictures to share and I promise I’ll get some England pictures up soon.

Par Avion

My seeds from Silverhill Seeds in South Africa arrived!  As excited as I am I think I will wait to sow them until I get home from my trip to England.  I don’t want to risk the little seedlings drying out while I am gone.  Even succulents need to be kept watered when they are young.

Lots of other exciting stuff to report but it will have to wait until tomorrow.  I’ve had a busy couple of days and need to go pass out now.

More Seeds on the Way

Just placed an order for more mesemb and other succulent seeds from Silverhill Seeds in Africa. Can’t wait!  The ones I started three months ago were pretty successful. I would kill to have my own green house someday.

http://www.silverhillseeds.co.za/