Garden Notes: Jan 2013

Sacramento Garden Notes
January 2013
Written & Published by Robert B. Hamm
2443 Castro Way #1
Sacramento CA. 95818
gardennotes@sbcglobal.net
Volume 16 Number 1
Treteleia, formerly known as Brodiaea, are native
California wildflowers (bulbs). They take dry
conditions well and are late spring bloomers, often
blooming as the leaves are dying back. They flower
on foot tall spikes, with clusters of blooms. They do
well under low ground covers such as creeping
thyme, delosperma, sedums etc, which help show off
the blooms. Imagine these flowers against the gold or
lime green of some of the lower growing sedums.
Long lived and multiply, they like sun to part shade.
Saturday Sacramento Bee or with your local
nursery.
b) Bare-root and Dormant plant material is
coming into local nurseries this month and it is
a good time to get many items into the ground
and save a bit on them over potted plants later.
HOWEVER some warnings are in order.. bareroot material should not be dried out or
sprouting into early growth.. a major problem
with packaged material in many box store
retailers. Get in and get your material EARLY
for best selection and quality.
c) Please note that the bare-root that will be at
the Jan, Feb and March sales is FRESH for
each sale, unlike at many nurseries, I get in
FRESH material for each sale.
d) Certain summer bulbs are received early in
nurseries but HATE chill, never mind cold.. so
if your getting the following either plant
indoors, in a greenhouse or hold off till the
weather is warmer: Caladiums (need
WARMTH or will just rot), colored tropical
Callas ( not quite as sensitive but want
warmth) and Dahlias which are often hardy
here, but if you put new tubers out too early
you risk them rotting before they sprout.
--------------------------------------------Garden Notes: Jan 2013
January is a month for a number of
garden chores and a few warnings:
a) Pruning of roses and many shrubs and
trees, however check the notes on what
NOT to prune in the last issue (Dec 12) so
you don’t cut off the blooms of early
bloomers. There are a number of free
pruning classes this month, check the
Home & Garden calendar section of the
Tradescantia 'Blushing Bride' has new foliage that is
brightly colored in green, white and pink during the cooler
seasons and green in heat, though it may not be evergreen
if we get hit with frost. Frost causes it to die back to the
ground to re-sprout in Spring.
Above, a perennial species tulip, T. clausiana
‘Lady Jane’ Pots of this will be available at
the January Sale.
Two Columbines (Aquilegia) now available. Above is
A.'Clementine Dark Purple' and below is A 'Songbird
Cardinal'. I only have 16 4” pots of each of these, so let
me know if you want them so we can arrange a time for
you to pick them up.
Hyacinthoides hispanica (formerly Scilla). This is an
easy to grow woodland plant that is late spring
bloomer and multiplies. It especially looks good
planted around the edges of shrubs such as the gold
leafed Spirea below.
e) If planning on moving plants or digging and
dividing perennials, early in the season is
better as it allows them to establish before our
hot dry summer hits.
f) Remember the sun changes with the season
when planting. That area in shade now may be
full scorching sun in midsummer. The 20 ft
shadow the house casts now may only be 2 foot
come June. This is a common mistake people
often make by not stopping to think about how
high or low the sun is at different times of year.
Early Seasons Sales (Jan&Feb) Since the weather is uncertain, and since
David, owner of The Gifted Gardener will
again be looking to move the store after the
first of the year, any sales during these
months will have to be on short notice
depending on weather forecasts and
circumstances. However, I will be available
at the growing area at Cynthia’s by
appointment if its not raining, and it only
takes me 10-15 minutes to walk to her house.
My cell # is (916) 617-7516.
Oxalis “Grand Duchess” grows to about 6 inches
tall in the ground or in pots, and comes in white,
lavender and pink flowered forms. It is a great
spot of color from Fall through spring. This is a
winter grower and in summer is dormant to the
ground. Flowers are large and showy and it will
do well in even dry sunny spots, even in poor
soils.
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Garden Diary:
Heuchera 'Hercules' – this hybrid combines
good foliage variegation, strong growth and
colorful blooms. The variegation grows
stronger as the plant matures.
Dec 3rd- with unusually warm temps through all
of November, and daytime highs till running
around 60 degrees, compared to early November
freezes in 2010 and 2011, many things are still
blooming long past regular times.
Dec 9th – the first of the Daffodils are budding
and should be open by the end of December. This
variety is known as ‘Rejevelts Early Sensation’
and normally blooms (once established) by
Christmas time in Sacramento, thus being the first
Daffodil to bloom.
Walking home from Cynthia’s today, I noticed a
star Magnolia starting to bloom, a good 6-8 weeks
early. Another effect of the warmer than normal
weather.
Also, the above normal temps have kept many
things growing far later into the fall than normal,
and is really helping get many things started for
next year, since cuttings and divisions are rooting
faster than normal.
Some plants, like Columbine (Aquilegia) are
sprouting at the same time as this years foliage
dies back.
Digitalis mertonensis - “Strawberry
Foxglove”, a true perennial species for sun to
part shade and regular to moist conditions.
Grows 24 to 30 inches tall and about a foot
wide. Evergreen unless we have hard freeze,
then deciduous.
Youth vs Maturity: a reprint of an
article from 2008 for newer readers.
Snap Quiz!! Which recovers from minor
injuries and changes in surroundings better?
a) A toddler
b) A young adult
c) An older adult
The answer obviously is a toddler, since
children grow, heal and adapt to changes
better than adults.
What does this have to do with gardening?
It puts a simple fact into perspective. That is
that smaller, younger plants ADAPT to
change easier than older mature plants and
having adapted, grows much faster.
This is why, for a gardener with a bit of
patience, a young starter is often the better
investment than a larger, and more mature
plant
Not only does it adapt better to new
conditions and have more resistance to
infection and stress, but grows faster
naturally and has a root system that is larger in
proportion to the plant size, which allows it to
take off growing faster than a larger plant that
often has to sit a year or two to develop a good
root system.
This is why planting a smaller perennial, shrub
or tree often outstrips a larger version in a
relatively short period of time. As an example a
gallon size tree and a 5 gallon, at the end of 3
years in the ground, the odds are the original
gallon size will be larger than the 5 gallon you
planted. This is because the larger size has to
grow a root system in proportion to its top size
before it will take off, while the smaller one will
take off immediately. In many perennials and
shrubs the difference is even sharper, since those
small starters in spring are what a commercial
grower would put in a gallon or even 5 gallon to
sell you at a much higher price in as little as two
to 4 months.
Each year I have a number of new people at
the Benefit Sales express doubt about buying
starters or bare root plants (bare root scares many
people because they have had such poor luck with
packaged bare root bought in retailers and they
can’t tell if it is really alive or not) yet if they do
buy bare root, dormant pots or smaller plants, they
often come in later express pleasant surprise and
shock at how that little nothing”, ”empty looking
pot”, “little stick” or “dried up looking root”
became such a nice specimen plant so quickly.
I don’t see why they are so surprised, except
maybe they don’t remember how fast their kids
grew, or perhaps they have been mislead once too
often with dried up material at one of the retail
outlets. Of course another thing smaller plants do
is save you money compared to their older, bigger
siblings. I do have to say that you have to start
out with healthy youngsters, and not some of the
over fertilized, chemically growth retarded items
often found in the big chain retailers ( I refrain
from calling them nurseries, they never GREW a
plant, they are retailers plain and simple). So
don’t be afraid to try that small starter, or bare
root, you may be surprised!
Unfortunately, most of the new patented varieties
HAVE to be bought as starters from licensed
propagators.
Ipheion 'Wisely Blue' is a small growing (46”) bulb that starts blooming in early spring
and continues for a good while. It is often
seen naturalized in lawns in some older parts
of Sacramento. It puts up foliage in fall, is
green all winter, is very drought resistant and
can be planted in with grass or low ground
covers, in sun or part shade, to grow and
bloom through them. I will also stand being
dry in summer. A good filler under
deciduous shrubs also.
Garden Diary Continued..
Dec 13th – finally normal temperatures with
lows in the 30's and highs in the 50's the next
week here in Sacramento. Maybe it will slow
the early stuff down and get us back towards
normal. Most of the stuff that is trying to
bloom early will slowdown with the lower
temperatures.
The first of the seedlings for Spring 2013
are up, and will be planting more seed under
the lights over the next week. The lights add
to the electric bill, but even with that, starting
seed is cheaper than buying starters of many
things. It also has the advantage of being able
to do small numbers of plants, rather than
having to buy 72 trays of starters, plus many
older and rarer varieties are available as seed
that can't be found as starters.
Above is Lobelia speciosa 'Queen Victoria' one of
the tall growing perennial Lobelias with red
blooms and dark bronzy red foliage that attracts
hummingbirds and butterflies. This group of tall
perennial Lobelia comes in flower colors of red,
blue, mahogany and other shades, with foliage
that can be either dark green or bronze depending
on variety. Flower spikes can reach 3 ft. tall. The
plants prefer sun and moist soil (regular water)
and also make great specimen pots.
Dec 14th – saw another Star Magnolia coming
into bloom today, again way early. The Watsonia
coccineus 'Orange' is still sending up flowers, not
only on my plant, but on a plant I often pass going
downtown. While I've often had a few fall
flowers on this variety, the clump has been
blooming for months this fall. This variety also
tends to have bloom spikes that curl rather than
going straight upward as most do. See picture on
next page.
Trends and looking ahead – with the 2013
Above – Watsonia coccineus 'Orange'
I put down seed for Tuberous Begonias,
Knautia, Dianthus and Saponaria today under
the lights. Also up potted some Begonia
starters under the lights.
Dec 16th – The Bletilla in the front yard
haven't even gone dormant yet, and its
putting up a bloom spike! Months ahead of
schedule.
To All Who Helped!
Thank You all! - Again this year we
managed to cover all the kids (with toys and
a hot meal) from both Sunburst Client base
and those referred to Sunburst Projects by
other agencies such as CARES, Breaking
Barriers, RX Staffing etc.
Plant Catalogs coming in, its obvious the dual
trends of lots of new patented varieties, with
raising prices is continuing. While oil prices keep
bouncing, they still trend higher over time, and so
does the cost of plastic pots, fertilizer, shipping,
greenhouse heating and most other plant
production costs. This will probably continue for
all phases of agriculture, be it food or ornamental
crops.
Unfortunately, I do note that a lot of great plants
seem to be dropping out of culture in the constant
quest for new “patentable” plants that a big
producer can make more money off of. At times,
I've found the new so called improved patented
variety does no better, or at times worse than the
old standby form. A good example is in Phlox,
where the newer form “David” has become the
standard, yet many people here tell me the older
variety “ Mt Fuji” does better for them yet it has
almost disappeared from the market.
Downtown /midtown is now without a nursery,
with the closest now being Talini's Nursery on 58th
Street and Folsom Blvd, Hopefully it will
continue since it has such a great selection of
unusual stuff.
Green Acres is now the big full service Nursery
in the area, but it isn't convenient to many in the
downtown Sacramento Area, the closest being in
the College Greens area. Plus, with the closing of
the area Capital Nurseries, it will be interesting to
see if Green Acres prices rise now that its main
competitor is gone. True, there are still the big
box stores such as Home Depot and Lowe's but
they don't carry the range that a full scale nursery
does, and the quality is often lacking.
It will be interesting to see if the void in the
midtown area will be filled with a more city
center type nursery/store like some of the ones in
San Francisco that are aimed at small yards,
containers and house plants, rather than large
landscaping projects. It would seem a viable
proposition with the amount of new in fill
housing, condos and apartments in the midtown
area and the increasing use of container
gardening.