Curly Leaved Willow Revisited

We had our annual visit to the LA County Fair today and did have a lot of fun.  Last year I saw that they had removed one of the 2 Curly leaved Willow trees on the Fairplex property. Today I went to go see the one left by the First Aid building to find a new building there and NO TREE!  See my 2011 post about this tree here: Willow   I am so mad at them for this.  I couldn't even find the name of this tree searching the internet!  Didn't they know what rare trees these were!!!!!!!  I guess NOT!

THANK GOODNESS I was able to root cuttings and have 2 of them growing, one I just planted in the ground 2 weeks ago, the other is still in a pot.  I know it was a little early to plant(since it's still freakin' HOT here). But I moved the pot disturbing the roots.  It then pouted and dropped a BUNCH of leaves. I cut it back and thought I better get it in the ground before I lose it!

LA County Fairgrounds has been around since 1922.  Who knows how old those trees were.  It is such a shame to see them gone :-(   But I am so happy to have mine :-)

New Pruner Blade!

Anyone who grows roses will tell you that high quality pruners are a must! And any professional gardener better have the best as they're used every day! I am loyal to the FELCO brand because they work easily, they have replaceable blades and I've used the #2 pruner for about 25 years(I think I'm on my 3rd pair). I tend to be brand loyal on a LOT of things :-)

So, this morning I got to my first job, pulled out my pruners and noticed the tip of the blade had broken off! They still worked on my 2 jobs. But I knew I had one extra replacement blade at home. So just now I took my Felcos apart(just need a screwdriver), cleaned the pieces up with 409 and a green scouring pad. I put them back together with the new blade. Yay, it's almost like having new pruners! Add a little WD40 and they're good to go!

So if you garden, invest ($55 or so) in good pruners. It'll make gardening easier!

Bulb Time!

Just a reminder that now is the time to plant bulbs in SoCal for Spring bloom! I planted in the ground last week a bunch of Daffodils, Leucojem, Sparaxis and Homeria I had in pots from last year. Here is my Leucojum post from last year .  Leucojum  And my Sparaxis post Sparaxis.  Better nurseries will have a good selection. Or you could mail order them.  If you have endless $$$, you could plant a bunch of Tulips. But they only are a one-shot deal here. I like the easy bulbs that return every year like those listed above. Go buy some. Don't miss out!

Sweet Peas!

Just wanted to let you all know that it's time to plant Sweet Peas! I planted mine today and you should do so soon. I only say this because I don't want you to miss out. Sweet Peas are the only flowering annual I know that you have to wait 6 or 7 months from seed to flower. I bought these special peachy seeds at a nursery back in May or so because if I hadn't they'd be gone when I returned. You know how that goes. I'd never seen Sweet Peas in the orange realm of colors before. Sweet Peas want half to full sun and a trellis or fence strings to climb. Go plant some and you'll have bouquets of fragrant flowers next Spring!

Crazy Fern

I have grown this one Asparagus retrofractus for about 12 years.  It started out for me in a one gallon can as I most often try to buy smaller plants that are cheaper.  It then got potted up into a 5 gallon can, then a 15 gal. and now is in a very large 24 inch pot.  It is called an Asparagus "fern" and there are other varieties.  But Asparagus ferns are not really ferns because they do not make spores.   Some make little white flowers like the Asp. sprengeri (the cascading type that is SO obnoxious in the ground).  Some make no flowers like this one.  Asparagus ferns are propagated by division.  Most have water holding pods on their roots. That's what makes them so drought tolerant.   My big Asparagus fern sends out new shoots right from the ground that come up like bamboo maybe once a year.  They're almost as quick too!   And they do look like the edible Asparagus when the new sprouts emerge.  

My good friend and garden guru Alice G. once told me not to cut off dead stems because they will sprout new leaves along the branches.  I thought she was CRAZY!  I had NEVER seen them do that!  A branch dies, you cut it off!!   So, last week my A. retrofractus started to drop lots of those needly leaves.  Before I knew it, new sprouts were coming along the branches!   Crazy, I know :-)  But it's just like Alice said.  It was really difficult to capture this in photos.  

See the tighter needles in this photo.  That's new leaves coming along with older leaves!  

 Asparagus retrofractus is a wonderful plant.  It will grow upright to about 6 feet when at it's happiest.  It likes some shade but will tolerate some sun.  It is a great filler for cut flower arrangements and can be used short or long.

Vegetable Garden Progress

This is my own first vegetable garden. I had worked vegetable gardens for clients but that was about 10 years ago.
On March 26 I planted pumpkins, tomatoes, chives, basil, strawberries, artichokes, radishes, carrots, zucchini, cucumbers and baby bottle gourds.

5 pumpkins seeds sprouted and 3 pumpkins grew. It was fun watching them get bigger. But the foliage wilted EVERY day despite my watering every other day in my sandy soil. A couple weeks ago the foliage started to get crispy and die back leaving brown vines sprawling across our backyard. Our summer wasn't THAT bad until August arrived with it's oven like heat! Last weekend I noticed that 2 of the pumpkins were rotting! Ugh! :-(.

The 2 tomatoes have produced nicely but are looking crappy now. I left the radishes in too long. The cucumbers were tough. The zucchini stopped producing about a month ago. The chives are doing well. The carrots never sprouted. I was taught that one could grow them any time. But maybe they do better in cooler weather. Strawberries are spreading. I lost one of my 2 artichokes because I moved it remembering how huge they grow. The basil is still growing like crazy! The gourds are very happy and have about 10 gourds on them!

Last evening I ripped out the pumpkins and zucchini.

I'm not the best vegetable eater but I'm a huge salad lover! I'm really looking forward to planting cool weather veggies like spinach and many different varieties of lettuce and carrots. I know broccoli gets aphids and cabbage gets worms. Maybe I'll try snow peas.

I'm still learning and will adjust next year from my mistakes. How did your vegetable garden grow this summer?

Autumn Evidence!

I hate summer!  I hate working out in it and sweating in the heat.  Every year I look forward to Autumn, when the sweltering ends and I don't have to get up super AM early to go to work to beat the heat.  Today I SAW evidence that summer is near the end, Floss Silk or Chorisia trees are starting to bloom!  The first photo I took in Glendale, the others are lifted from the internet.  

 I will always call them Chorisia  (KOR-EE-SEE-a) but THEY(the botanists) recently changed the botanical name from Chorisia speciosa to Ceiba speciosa.  Whatever!   The tree's flowering signals the change from summer to autumn!   Chorisia are native to South America and grow very well here in SoCal.   Research says they'll grow to 80 feet but I have only seen them grow to about 50 feet here.   The large pink flowers can be between 4-6 inches in size.   

They have wicked thorns on their trunks to store water in dry times. And those trunks are green with abundant chlorophyl to be able to photosynthesize even when the tree is leafless.  That makes sense because I have often seen these trees confused.   They're supposed to lose all their leaves in winter, put them on in spring, and flower in autumn. But sometimes they'll be half in flower and half in leaf, or all flowers and no leaves or any other unusual combinations.  Older trees are often grayish.  

After flowering they produce a large avocado-ish looking seed pod.  Inside are seeds held together by kapok(white fluffy stuff).  Pillows once were stuffed with kapok here(they might still do so in South America).  Now mostly polyester fiberfill is used. The kapok helps the wind catch the seeds to blow them around, thereby spreading the tree to more locations.  

Enjoy the flowering of the Chorisia tree.  But don't slip on the flowers.  To me it is more than pretty because I know that summer is almost over!