Succulents and More™

I couldn’t pass up the Memorial Day sale at Silverado Nursery in Rancho Cordova and added two new ornamental grasses to our collection. Quite a deal at 40% off! Melinus nerviglumis (left) and Briza media (right) The first is ruby grass grass ( Melinus nerviglumis , formerly Rhynchelytrum nerviglume ). Hardy in zones 8-10, this African native forms a mound about 12 inches tall; the stems are an additional 1-2 feet. Once established, this grass is reputed to be fairly drought tolerant, which makes sense given its origin. It’s a fairly recent introduction to the U.S. (it debuted commercially in 1998), and this is the first time I’ve seen it in a local nursery. Melinus nerviglumis The leaves are fairly ordinary but the flowers are a stunning color of ruby red, hence the plant’s common name. The full potential of this grass is hard to see in a small plant, but check out this site for photos of larger specimens. Melinus nerviglumis flower panicle Melinus nervig...

I don’t remember when and where I first read about the groundcover known as silver carpet ( Dymondia margaretae ). Native to the coastal plains of South Africa, this diminutive plant (only 1-2 inches tall) forms dense mats over time and chokes out virtually all weeds. In fact, this mat supposedly withstands foot traffic and, according to succulent guru Debra Lee Baldwin, is tough enough to park cars on. Since dymondia has a fleshy taproot that goes straight down, it is drought-tolerant and can cope with temperatures above 100°F. It is relatively slow-growing but regular irrigation, at least in the first year, will speed up its growth. Gardeners who have experience with silver carpet say that it’s worth the wait. If all these wonderful attributes are true (and I have no reason to doubt they are), dymondia would make a perfect ground cover for much of California where conserving water is always a top priority. That’s why I’m baffled that it’s so difficult to find this plant in nurserie...

As I walked the dog yesterday, I noticed that two pomegranate trees a block away are starting to bloom. The family that lives there has many fruit trees, but the bright red pomegranate blossoms are visible from quite a distance—as are the fruit in the fall.   The pomegranate ( Punica granatum ) is native to the Iranian Plateau and the Himalayas of northern Pakistan and India but has been cultivated since ancient times in the Mediterranean regions of Asia, Africa and Europe. It followed the Spaniards to the New World and has become established in Mexico, Arizona, and California. In fact, the Sacramento Valley’s Mediterranean climate offers perfect growing conditions for pomegranates, as evidenced by the many pomegranate trees all over Davis.   Our neighbors have regular Punica granatum trees (about 12 ft. tall). These are the trees grown for fruit production. There is also a Japanese dwarf variety called Punica granatum ‘Nana’ which is grown purely for ornamental ...

“The castor bean plant is the most deadly of all plants. Eat a single castor bean, or perhaps two if you're an adult, and you'll die — maybe. If you live beyond three to five days, you will probably survive.” So says USA Today , the authoritative source on all things scientific. OK, I’m being facetious—I love sensationalism as much as the next guy. Ricinus communis ‘Carmencita’ Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons There is no denying that the castor bean plant ( Ricinus communis ) is the botanical equivalent of a black widow spider, but its deadliness is concealed in a most attractive package. In just one season, it grows from a seed the size of a bean into a tree-like shrub that can reach 10 ft. in height if conditions are favorable. Its hand-shaped leaves with deeply cut lobes give it a distinctly tropical look that I find irresistible. It can be grown pretty much anywhere in the United States as an annual, allowing even gardeners in notoriously chilly climes to add a...

A little while ago I wrote about a bamboo experiment that has yielded surprising results. Last year I planted a piece of rhizome with no above-ground growth in a 22” tub, not expecting much. Maybe precisely because I had such low expectations, I was taken by surprise when fat shoots 1” in diameter began to emerge. In just a week, the shoots have grown into 4 ft. culms and they’re showing no signs of slowing down. Today it rained (a very rare occurrence for late May) and the extra moisture will be like fuel on fire. I can’t wait to see how tall these culms will eventually get. The limiting factor may be the fact that there is less than 9 inches of soil in that tub! This bamboo is a running species, Phyllostachys viridis . It is a giant and has the potential to grow to 50 ft. with 3” culms. I’m planning on planting this bamboo at my in-laws’ property in Mount Shasta later this summer, but by then the culms might be too tall to fit in our van! Phyllostachys viridis last week… ...

At this time of year all our attention seems to be on flowers. Obviously there is good reason for that, as my post from yesterday shows. In the grand scheme of things, however, flowers come and go while leaves are there year round—or at least most of the year. I was amazed by the variety of leaves in our garden, not only in terms of size and color, but also shape and texture. These photos are just the tip of the iceberg, but they give you a good idea of what I’m drawn to. We have plants whose leaves are small… Creeping wire vine ( Muhlenbeckia axillaris ) …and large. Giant elephant ear ( Alocasia macrorrhizos ‘Borneo Giant’) Frilly… Foxtail fern ( Asparagus densiflorus 'Meyersii') …and curly… Lemon-scented pelargonium ( Pelargonium crispum ) …and flat. Greater meadow rue ( Thalictrum aquilegifolium ) Rough… Puya coerulea var. violacea …and soft. Purple Dragon dead nettle ( Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon’) Earthy… G...

After a weekend that went by much too quickly and a busy Monday at work, I enjoyed a quiet stroll through the garden with my camera and macro lens. So many plants are in bloom now, and I love looking at flowers up close. The palette of shapes and hues really is endless. I hope these photos will brighten your day like they did mine. As they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. Tower of jewels ( Echium wildpretii ). Click here for a post on this very special plant. Our tower of jewels is about done blooming, and I’m hoping for a rich harvest of seeds so I can keep the cycle going. Hot Lips sage ( Salvia macrophylla ‘Hot Lips) Indigo Spires sage ( Salvia farinacea x longispicata ‘ Indigo Spires’) Electric blue sage ( Salvia chamaedryoides ) Purple Dragon dead nettle ( Lamium maculatum 'Purple Dragon') Noble aloe ( Aloe nobilis ). Lady bug busy eating aphids. Nasturtium ( Tropaeolum majus ) climbing through a pot of horsetail rush ( ...

Last week I fessed up to killing a potted Golden Goddess bamboo due to neglect. Instead of replacing it with another bamboo that would just end up being pot-bound in a few years, I decided to go with a restio. To summarize an earlier post , restios are rush-like plants native to South Africa and Western Australia, areas sharing a similar Mediterranean climate. Superficially resembling reeds or even bamboos, they are related to neither. Instead form their own family, the Restionaceae, or “restios” for short. In our part of the world, restios are definitely a specialty plant. You can’t just walk into a nursery and expect to find a selection of them. If you’re lucky, you’ll find Cape rush ( Chondropetalum tectorum ), which seems to be the most common restio in California, but that’s about it. I wanted some very specific restios, so I had to go the mail-order route. Luckily, one of the very few nurseries in the U.S. that has a decent selections of restios is located in Fort Bragg on the...