Lovin' this SoCal weather

Hi all...this is my first post here, so if I break community rules (which I hope I'm not), please be gentle.

We had our little freeze and managed to lose a lot of plants. Most of what we had at our apt. that we moved to our new house. I've spent the last few weeks buying up all my dream plants but this heat is killing them. Actually, I can't say that...it could be a combination of me over/underwatering some plants AND the heat. All that being said, I'm pretty lost. As I mentioned we moved from an apt. where we lived for 8 years and everything was in containers. We had no sun on one side and too much sun on the other so now I'm trained to plant that way. I need to relearn how to garden with all these different areas available and figure out water needs. I'm hoping someone can give me some pointers.

1. Plectranthus - I planted this on the north side of my house because of the shade. What I stupidly forgot was that a) my house is only one story and b) the west side still gets afternoon sun for a couple of hours. Now the leaves are losing their purple and some are burnt on top. Suggestions?

2. Primula malacoides - Planted in the same area as above, I think they're getting too much water, but not sure. The leaves are wilted and yellow and the soil is moist if I stick my index finger in. I'm still getting some new blossoms, but they're much smaller and tend to last only a few hours.

3. Viola - These things are weirding me out. I've never had a probably growing them before. Every morning when I wake up, the plants are all wilted and just laying there looking sad. I mist them, and they perk up, but with this heat I'm out there spraying them about 4 - 7 times a day. I may move these to where our water fountain will go. Will that be a better solution?

4. Australian Tree Fern - Sigh...this thing is killing me. We had it delivered a week ago. I had it in the shade and it immediately started to wilted. Moved it to a partial sun spot where I thought it was doing better, but it was really playing a trick on me and slowly wilting anyway. Now I have it in the middle of my back yard where it gets full sun all day long. So far no wilting, but none of the frond thingies are uncurling. I water it throughly in the morning or late evening and mist it throughout the day. Is it safe to assume it needs full sun? I've seen these things all over Los Angeles in the shade and out in the sun and they've always just been there. I can't believe I'm having this much trouble.

5. Shaded yard: My front yard is east-facing. Nice in the morning, very nice on hot days, but what can I grow there. I had intended on putting some jasmine and calla lilies there, but I think maybe there's not enough sun. Are there any vine plants beside vinca that can grow in the shade?

That's about it. I've been lurking on other forums for help, but for whatever reason feel like this forum is 'home'...probably because I've spent so much time lurking here.

TIA
fabooj

Hi fabooj!

I planted garden-variety jasmine at the southeast corner of my house (around the east side). It has covered the east-facing side of the house (I did give it starting vertical help with a piece of garden-netting nailed to the eaves, but no more that 5 or 10' of it) for at least 25'... ~18" out from the foot of the house-wall has been turned over and some parts +/- improved, and this plant has rooted itself the entire length thereof. When it started advancing beyond the fireplace/chimney (with eyes on the front door, I believe!) I spent a day whacking and digging at its roots... but believe me, no one who ever owns this house is going to be entirely rid of it.

This is from a no-more than gallon size plant (and possibly smaller, it's a long time ago that it was planted), planted in a hole no more than twice the size of the pot, with improvements i.e. fertilizer, only at the time -- ~15 years ago.

Now, after no more than 6-8 feet north up the side of the house, and maybe as little as 4 (too lazy to go look) -- this wall is facing another house wall about 8-10 feet distant -- off-white stucco, so there is possibly considerable reflected light here... many of the other plants that are quite successful in this "aisle" are allegedly sun-lovers -- Lavenders, artemesias, pelargonium/geraniums... I do have two azaleas north of the fireplace, but they are not all that happy.

Also, I have never grown calla lilies, but my late MIL did, in Westminster, and where she had them was at the foot of a north-FACING wall, and close enough to a large plum tree that they must have gotten ADDITIONAL shade (deeper shade) at least part of the day. So worrying about too little sun is probably not necessary.

Of your other questions or numbered areas of inquiry, I can only comment lightly about #1, also have planted pleckies at the north side of house. I think the few hours of sun is good, they get more leggy without it (times of year they don't get it). But I never had a type that I was trying to keep purple color...

~'spin!~

If your weather is hot, that could be your problem with a lot of the things you planted--it's really hard on plants to plant them in the heat especially if they're in the sun. Their roots aren't established yet, so they're not able to take up as much water as the plant needs during the day while the sun's beating down on them--even if there's plenty of water in the soil which there probably is since you've been watering a lot. So then what happens is it looks like they need water, and you water them some more, and then the roots can end up rotting because they're sitting in all this moisture that they haven't been able to take up. So for watering, I would advise you to not water unless you stick your finger down an inch or two into the soil and it feels like it's getting dry. And ideally if you can rig up some shade cloth or something to put over them for a little while that should help with them wilting during the day.

And on your last question for vines in shade...if you have morning sun then you could plant star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides). I had this at my old house in a place that got a bit of morning sun but then none in the afternoon, and it did great.

Now that you have a real garden, you can't go wrong by getting Southern Califoria Gardening, A Month-by-Month Guide, by Pat Welsh. It's excellent, and you can find it at HD or any bookstore, right next to the Western Garden Book. All the problems you listed are discussed in this book, plus lots more.

That's true, star jasmine did fine in that north-south 'aisle' of mine, for many years. I just didn't think of it as a vine! it was more a "mounder" for me... although you can train it up a trellis.

Where are you exactly?

~'spin!~

Thanks to all of you!

Missy, thanks for the tip. I was checking out that book and kept thinking about how I already have a million gardening books...then I thought, "Well, what's one more?" So I'm going to order it tonight.

spin I'm in El Sereno, in Northeast Los Angeles. My friend lives in Mt. Washington (also NE LA) and she has calla lilies in her front southwest facing yard and on the west side of her back yard. She probably waters them like 3 times a week and they're taking over her yard. I spoke with her today and she offered me some. I just assumed because she has them in the sun, that I needed to put them in the sun! Thanks for all the other tips.

ecrane thanks for the watering tips. When I planted everything, we had just had rain and it was about low-70s. This heat wave came up out of nowhere! I'm known as a drowner so I really need to be reassured with my watering. Right now, I'm working on getting a good watering system so that I can't possible drown any more plants.

I'm having the same problem here with the temperatures--seems like we went from winter to summer with no spring in between! I'd been delaying planting some things because I was so afraid we were going to have another freeze, and now it's almost too hot to plant. But I'm doing it anyway because I spent last summer nursing hundreds of container plants that I couldn't get into the garden because the landscaping wasn't done yet, and I'm not going to do that again--they need to go in the ground! Fortunately I've perfected the art of summer planting over the last few years, I know you're not supposed to do it but I always find things that I just must have so I plant them, sometimes I lose a few but most of the time after the first few weeks where it's touch and go they end up fine. You have to get the watering right though!

fabooj, did you do any mulching of your new plants?

ecrane: you and I are thinking the same thing. I've got a bunch of tomato seedlings and stuff I mail-ordered over the winter that's been sitting in the greenhouse waiting for the freezes to be completely over, and it was 100 in the greenhouse yesterday! And of course the beds aren't ready....they've been too cold and wet to work.....by the weekend when I have time it will probably be raining again! And everyone else in the country things we CA gardeners have it easy!!!

I see nothing but sun and mid 70's in the forecast here and you're not that far from me so I'm sure it'll be about the same for you this weekend. I've been frantically planting things the last couple days and I also need to empty the greenhouse before things in there start to really fry (even with the doors open during the day it's been getting to 100 in there, some plants are perfectly happy with that but some of them are probably going to die on me if I don't rescue them soon! Unfortunately that's more of a weekend project rather than something I can do in an hour or two after work

imapigeon: yes, I mulched the plants with some organic mulch that has lots of wood pieces. I was thinking of using stones around some of them to keep in moisture, but my husband is convinced the rocks will be too hot.

I use very light-colored pea-gravel 1/2" to 1" deep, on all my front beds. Water soaks in good, doesn't get perceptibly hot, relatively cheap, and discourages cats from using as litter box (they don't like it between their toes).

I put the bark-chips (bark-slag) on the parts I walk on, not where the plants are.

Just one method.
~'spin!~

I know it sounds like a lot of work, but I think my mulching technique is one of the most important elements to improving my soil structure and having success with plants.

We have really heavy clay soil, and I've experimented for years with different techniques. I have had my best luck with an underlayer of 4-6 sheets of dampened newspaper, which I top with a single layer of 2 to 3" river rocks; and then I fill in the "blanks" between the rocks with a mixture of 3 bagged products: redwood compost, cocoa hulls, and a dash of corn gluten (sounds like it ought to be in the recipes forum!~~).

The newspaper suppresses existing weed seeds, and encourages worms. The rocks keep the soil cool (but they warm up slowly during the day to keep it a more even temperature at night); and they're big enough that the cats don't dig stuff up---or make deposits! The corn gluten keeps the weed seeds that fall on the ground from germinating, and the cocoa hulls add a nice smell and help annoy snails---but they're really expensive, so the redwood compost makes them go farther.

I love the look and feel of gravel, but it drives me crazy in my planting beds, because when I need transplant something, it all falls in the hole. So I decided the larger stones, which are small enough to move easily when I want to plant something, were a better solution for me.

That does sound like a great mulching technique, I bet over time your soil will become really wonderful! But a word of caution about the cocoa hulls in case people aren't aware--don't use them if you have dogs, they are poisonous. It's really too bad because I love the chocolatey smell!
http://www.snopes.com/critters/crusader/cocoamulch.asp

The peagravel piles to the side fairly easily (when I am replacing bedding plants e.g.) and if some fall into the hole(s), I figure it can only help the micro-fine clumping clay in the long run.

I also have an area (my Chinese or oriental 'garden') that is entirely black river rocks (aka Mexican pebbles) -- there is a river-shaped swath through it that is mid-size angular rocks the color of caramel -- and the bottom of my little fountain is the multi-tans river rock (around in the back, not it the same visual scene as the Chinese garden) -- I like different textures!

The chaparral bed and the herb garden get the sand-colored peagravel also -- the former GOOD AND DEEP, because it is the closest thing we could find to the scree the stuff grows on in the wild, and the latter just deep enough to let water soak in without carrying off the dirt, and to discourage the cats.

Ima, that doesn't sound like THAT much work, as long as your stones are clean to start with! I think in the next year or two, I am going to move all the black Mexican/Chinese stones on to the sidewalk (temporarily) and replace the weed-cloth under them (which although the commercial weight, is not particularly effective) with those layers of newspaper... maybe the weedcloth back over THAT as it is black and keep the newsprint from being an eyesore if some "pebbles" get kicked.

~'s!~

The newspaper idea was floated by me a few weeks ago, but at the time I was feeling a little lazy and didn't want to do it. I do need to get some more weed barrier down. Maybe I'll do the newspaper thing on a few beds and see how that works. I did buy a bag of cocoa husks ($10 for the huge bag that covers 125sf!), but they're sitting the garage. I have the 2" - 3" Mexican pebbles right now and am kinda hesitant to use the smaller ones because they get in the way. But if they keep the cats out, I should do that. There's about 8 cats roaming our neighborhood during the day and I see them in my yard all the time. One cat keeps eating my cilantro as it pops out the ground and immediately throws it up by the garage. Nice. :-/

For the cats, you don't even have to mulch with the pea gravel, just sprinkle it liberally enough that it gets between their toes. Learned this from a book on rockgardens (the DK one, I think). It's in the cement and concrete mixing aisle at the hardwares, not in Garden... different stores will have different colors... be sure it's the PEA gravel (size of peas, or peppercorns) and not larger.

Of course, it may not keep the cat from EATING your cilantro... maybe it thinks it's catnip or catmint? For that matter, are you sure it's not?
~'s!~

fabooj, I am not sure anyone has mentioned this to you already but on your Australian Tree Fern make sure you water the trunk as it is made up of roots and it needs to be watered well too.

Congratulations on your new house. I bet by next year you will have the gardening there all figured out.

Kell, I'm glad you posted that information about the tree ferns---didn't know that, and it's probably why mine doesn't do as well as it could!
crystal, your gravel/rock combo sounds nice! Can you post a picture? I have places where I've used 1/2-inch golden quartz about 3-4 inches deep over weedcloth, but it's not what I would call peagravel---I think what you're talking about is the kind with sharp edges? If yes, it probably would be much more cost-effective, and keep cats out---but it would also keep me out, as I have a bad habit of running around barefoot.
ecrane: thanks for the reminder about dogs----I don't have one any more, but I need to remember that when I'm raving about cocoa hulls to others.
I've read that cats don't like the cocoa hulls, but when I tried either those or the redwood compost alone, my cats just gravitated to the fresh mulch. It was like "thanks for the BIG new catbox, Mom!" The rocks put a quick stop to that! I love those black beach pebbles contrasting with the reddish mulch. Then I throw a little of the golden quartz gravel on top to "lock" the beach pebbles....OK, gotta go to work now and stop thinking about gardening!

kell...thanks. I do water it the trunk (picked that tip up on this site) and it seems to be doing a little better. I'm actually on my way outside to see if it's okay.

I'm trying to take it easy on the gardening because I'm not quite sure of all the zones on my property. My husband is the one we need to rein in. He wants all kinds of stuff and he wants it all big RIGHT NOW! So tomorrow we're going to the growers to see if they have some large hedges he can buy. Sigh.

LOL! He is my kind of guy!