So. Calif. Spring RU 2010 - PLANTS

Welcome home, DP. Glad you enjoyed your trip. : - )
You were missed by us all.
Can't wait to see those Water Tower Photos, I know them well. Chuckle.
WIB!
SW

Mike is this a watsonia? Not the best picture but I am curious if this is what one would look like?

This message was edited Apr 20, 2010 10:00 AM

Marie: No...it's a chasmanthe. That MAY have been in with the bulbs I gave you...I had watsonias and chasmanthe growing in the same spot and the bulbs look almost identical...as does the foliage, so they probably got intermingled when I dug them up.

Ok this was the only one that has shown up. It is interresting, I sure hope it comes back next year.

You can't kill them. They thrive on neglect.

Except in my garden where it took me 4 years to get a morning glory to grow :o(

You can grow Morning Glories, QG? DH's workers rip them out, because where they are from, they are considered weeds. GRRRR!
WIB!
SW

DS just gave me some Poppy seeds. He says they're multi-colored and he's not sure if they're legal!!! I really want to see them, but with that admonishment, I'm a little afraid to plant them.

Oh what the heck. I can always play dumb.............RIGHT?!?!??

Must be papaver somniferum? People always wonder if they're legal...lol...

I have some planted around the house. I think they are pretty, but I go around removing seed heads too.
While they aren't native to CA, they aren't to the best of my knowledge illegal. Plant them, water them, and enjoy them. Mine have already sprouted. : - )
WIB!
SW

I gave up on listing seeds. I will have a basket full of various types of seeds for people to pick some out of. There is no possible way I can grow all of them. : - )
I will have some potted plants looking for a new home, and lots of Jade plants that you can take cuttings from.
I'll be busy doing some transplanting in the next few days, so I may not be able to check in as I'd like.
WIB~
SW

If nobody has claimed all of the nutmeg geranium plant, I would like one.
Agapanthus would be nice too. I only have one.

geranium maderense if there is any left.

Louise if there is any Nicotine plants left, than I would like one.

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Rosea' / Sticks of fire, if there is any left, would be great for me. It is hard to get things to grow that a lot of you grow.

If anyone has any day lilies of any kind that they divided, please save me some.

I have this Lambs Ear that has run a muck. If anyone wants it, let me know, since I have to get it in pots asap, so if it doesn't transplant well, it can recover a bit.

I have to dig up my Mystic Merlin Malva too.

I am still seeing what seedlings I have coming up, that may be ready too.

Dawn, I will bring you the Sticks of Fire and a Geranium Maderense. I also have several other plants that might do well for you....I'll check what I have.

Donna

I'll put you down for a couple of Aggies, Dawn.

Great thanks guys. Anyone have red hot poker or any more Wooly Pletranthus? Mine froze and I loved them. I want to put some stuff in the house in pots next year during the cold.

If there is still Forsythia on the table, I am a taker for that. I just had one plant that I could never figure out what is was, but it just never took off, just survived as one long branch. It bloomed this year and it is Forsythia, but I had it in the shade so it never did much I guess. I transplanted it from another area and had forgotten what it was when I moved it.
Anyone want some Algerian Ivy? Wave Petunias, I can spare a few of them. I love them so much.

Can I put a dibs on a couple of Wave Petunia's? I love them with their little pearly centers! I could use a few more on the back side of the waterfall. : - )
I'm not sure if I have red hot pokers, but I do have aloe vera which puts out a cool bloom. I have about three of them that could use new homes. See photo.
WIB!
SW

This is a close up of the flower spikes.
WIB,
SW

hellnzn11...... I have some cuttings of Forsythia that are biginning to form leaves. You may have one. I would love to have one of your Lamb's Ears.

Sylvia

Sob!
DH's worker's cruelly trimmed a china berry tree, and took out my elderberry tree up at my rental house.
Does anyone have something I can use for shade and a privacy screen?
They were only supposed to weed whack and take out the cactus, they weren't supposed to butcher the trees. They even did a whack job on the pepper trees. It's enough to make you want to spit. Especially since I've never been able to plant an elderberry where I want it to grow. They grow where they will. I tried last year for Robcorreia, and that didn't work out.
Any ideas or suggestions would be appreciated.
Thanks,
WIB,
SW

Jules I would love a piece of your aloe. But what is the bulb sending up a bloom spike behind the aloe.


Dawn how do you get lambs ear to run amok? I have killed it at least 4 times. Maybe it is just too hot here?

Amaryllis, or nekkid ladies. LOL! Can you smuggle one home? I can send you bulbs when they go dormant.
One aloe vera to pot for you, Marie. I'll get it done tomorrow. I'll try to find a little one since I know you have a long way to travel, but they can travel sans soil. I've picked 'em up and planted them after they'd been laying in the full sun for a couple of days and they came back. Best treatment for burns too! Well, don't tell DH I said that, raw Honey works pretty good too. It's just messier.
WIB!
SW

SW, you need to get some orange flags and bright stretchy tie-on tape. When they are going to be working around your plants, mark them and tell them they're dead if they don't pay attention! Put the fear of .... into them, woman!

Oh yes to all of you, givers and receivers too. I will cough up lambs ear and petunias. I need to go to bed. Long, hot miserable day and I am burnt too, so I need to apply more spf 50 that was not enough today for my lily white body.

Marie, I don't know how it did, but last year it struggled on it's first year. I did not even remember what I threw in the planter and it is in full sun all day except when it is in back of the house for a short part of the day. It flowered real faded last year, but this year with all the rain, it grew and ran amock. When the heat comes it may not do well again, but I am going to put some under my shade area, since it is crazy mad, at this time.

Maybe I can get my Globe Willow to root quickly for you or bring a branch that I cut that day SW, since my old house had a huge, huge one and the neighbor took a branch my x threw in the desert and the neighbor took it days later and it is a huge tree now.

KC,
When Casey my GF, told me what they did, they took off. When I saw the damage they caused, they could hear me even though they were driving away. I know they are afraid of me. I don't think much of one of them, and the other could be taught if I spoke Spanish. Although, he should learn English if he is going to be working in this country! If I was their boss, they'd of been fired yesterday. But everyone knows I can't stand incompetence. I was told that DH didn't even send them up there, they just showed up. I'm dealing with it.
Bring a couple Globe Willow shoots please, hellenzn. If we can get 'em going we will. I am so bummed, and know I still have to go get photos of the devastation.
I have asked DH not to send his workers up there unless I am there to supervise them. They are creeping out my GF. I did suggest they could root out that devil grass growing by my turtle/fish pond.
It's kind of hard to tape things off when DH doesn't tell me, or they just decide to go and do it on their own. ARRRGH!
I do have tape, it is a good suggestion, and I will take it up there when I go to take photos. Sigh!
They also took down my curly leaf willow. Saddens me, because even dead, it was providing homes and safety to my hummers.
Well, I'd best go look for Olympic swimmers (toads/frogs) in my pool, and transfer them to the pond. Check on plants, and most importantly make sure that the "workers" aren't killing anything else.
Thanks for the petunia's, hellenzn! : - )
Now what do you want, little girl? Anything on your wish list? Like a gardening hat? : - )
Walk In Beauty!
SingingWolf

Jules I always go home with a suitecase full of plants and some carry on bags!! Louise is always kind enough to take Rodica and to a nursery or two :o) I will be sending you a few different bulbs of crinum once stuff starts blooming and I make sure I am not sending you the exact same thing. Do you need some muscari?

Thank you Marie,
I can find a place for some. I like them around the big quartz rock in my front garden. I do have a small patch growing along the side walk but when they trimmed the Giant Bird of Paradise, the muscari got disappeared?
I'll find you a nice aloe, Marie. Something not too big and not too small, that you can bare root home. : - )
WIB!
SW

I would want to murder someone if they did that to me, it is so hard and more years than I like to think about to establish and grow a tree to the point of shade. I say go fast with a F Mulberry for quick shade. I have so many, but I did not plant the dumb things. A couple are fine, but there are too many.

I will bring you something to work with hopefully, it is only a small tree that I bought last year though. Do you know they get 40 feet wide? I hope you have need for 80+ feet of dense shade? Just treat for Bores every fall and every Spring though. You probably know this of Willows though.

I wished I was good at cuttings. I have this gorgeous Euphorbia with Lime Green flowers and red leaves, that my friend from dg sent me from Oregon.

Just knowing that you care means a lot to me. Some people just don't get it. I'm sure that we'll find something suitable. I'll be going up to take photos so that you can see what they did. I know I don't want poplars up there.
Thanks hellenzn. That is awfully sweet of you.
WIB,
SW

Navajo Willows should be on a farm of someone who's screen name is Singing Wolf. Your Welcome. I hate incompetent landscapers. We had one guy who came in and put our sprinklers on 3 valves with schedule 10, thin, thin, pvc. I told him not to put more than 3 heads on one set because we have low water pressure, but no, he did not listen despite the fact that I restated it 10 x's. We freeze here, so schedule 10 is like putting in hoola hoop plastic for sprinkler.

I stayed in the San Fernando Valley one night and told Greg to dig out this dead Pine tree sapling and he dug out the live three, and left the dead tree. I still get upset when I see the other 2 survivors. I lost one to a gopher and one to a big dorky man. So I get it. I have 2 mulberry trees that I can pack up if you want them. You will have shade in 3 years. I have the nightmare elms which will be a full on tree in 2-3 years too if you want those darn messy things.

Are they fruiting mulberries? I really like those.
They are called Navajo willows, too? Cool. Fitting as you say.
I have been encouraging DH to get the drip irrigation functioning properly again. He did work on it over the weekend and it is better. Gave me some time to transplants some things to share with others at the RU.
Nightmare elms give me nightmares! : - 0
Okay, you've got me picturing a frozen ring of water surrounding the sprinkler, you got to get a photo of that! LOL! I have my own trials but I'm dealing with them. Hang in there, and try not to let the tree killers get to you.
You do know that Mark Twain said that the coldest summer he ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. I may be paraphrasing and that may have been the year without a summer.
We share water pressure with our rental house, our house, Mom's place, and the Bee Barn. We use well water to irrigate the pine trees. So I try to have those timers going off in the middle of the night so it doesn't evaporate immediately during the summer heat. Or cause trouble for the others using the line.
WIB,
SW

If anyone is out and about the nurseries in the next couple of weeks before the swap and
happens to see a 1 gallon Capparis spinosa aka caper bush could you please pick one up for me?

This message was edited Mar 30, 2010 1:03 PM

I'll keep my peepers open for you Marie.
WIB,
SW

QG,
This is a photo of the tree I was telling you about. They grow like weeds around here, even without water, once established. I have a bunch of sprouted seedlings if you want them. We got to dig them up, but if you want them, LMK, and I will start digging them up and potting 'em up.
They are behind the fence, in this photo growing in a line. While they are just starting to put on leaves in the photo. They send seeds everywhere, so don't plant them near a water source. They don't get thick trunks but they do grow fast. You'll get shade usually within 2 or 3 years. They grow fast but mine are about as tall as they are gonna get. They were planted about 6 years ago.
Just let me know if this is something you are interested in.
Thanks,
WIB!
SW

Does anyone have a California Lilac (Ceanothus impressus) tree? I wanted to know because they are so beautiful.
Let me know, please.
Thank you,
WIB!
SW

Someone was going to bring me cuttings, not rooted. Kathleen, I think, but I forgot who.

I don't have the 'impressus' but lots of other Ceanothus. C. Ray Hartman and C. arboreus can be shaped into a tree, also (I don't have those, either).

The tallest one I have is C. Tassajara blue, which is big, but I haven't read anything about shaping it into a tree. We're using it for screens in between trees. This page has a couple more it says can be trained as trees.

http://www.suncrestnurseries.com/descript/ceanothus.html

Also depends on where they are planted.

All this rain has made my weeds run a mock. Good grief, if it is not one thing it is another.

Thanks KC, for the info. I'll take a look at those site, and if need be wait til next year.
I wanted to send you a photo of the area that needs a tree or three for privacy screening.
This is the slope that looks up toward the rental. Just below the slope on one side is a very busy road, and down below on our place is the woodlot. Lots of traffic from the tree farm in season too.
This view is looking toward the shed the house, the chicken pen and the place where my friend the elderberry used to grow.
I'm standing on the old wagon road to take the photos.
WIB,
SW

This eyesore belongs to the former tenant who is supposed to come and get it really soon, like this week. He'd better take his motorcycle fuel out of the shed too! He wasn't supposed to store it there.
Before the elderberry was cut down you couldn't see the container at all. The City, has been trying to make people get rid of their containers because they don't like them. I'm not happy that it is now visible from the main road, and the graffitti is ugly, not to mention I don't like some of them words.
So this is part of the reason why I want to plant trees and bushes for privacy screen for my friend.
Even when the container is gone, she will be able to have some privacy.
One more to come in this series.
WIB,
SW

I am standing at the top of the road cut on our property looking down at the road and the wood lot. Just to my left is a sheer drop off of about 30 feet. I will have to go across the street to get a good photo, and I'll be taking my life in my hands to do it. Those people are driving way too fast!
This is the last one for the trees, but I have to show you what they did to that poor china berry tree.
WIB,
SW