If you enjoy 
and beautiful blooms, you can have them both when you plant vines. Vines use little space, add color to bare walls and fences, cover free-standing arbors, provide shade and extend the garden skyward. Vines are amazing plants.
If your trees aren’t big enough to provide shade yet , vines on a pergola or lattice work can cool a west facing patio. They can also block the wind making your garden more comfortable. Vines with large, soft leaves can soften sounds that would otherwise bounce off hard surfaces. Birds will love you for your vines. They offer shelter for many species and nectar for others.
Creating an outdoor room with vines can make your yard feel cozy. They readily provide the walls to enclose the space. Views from one part of the garden may be partially open, framed by vines or blocked entirely. Shrubs can also be used to create garden rooms but vines form a thin living wall that is quickly established. Creating boundaries with vines also adds vertical design elements to an otherwise flat landscape.
Hide something unattractive with a covering of vines. A dog house, old stump, or rock pile can become a pleasant view when covered with vines. Disguising a concrete block retaining wall with a climbing hydrangea will reward you with a great show of flowers each spring. A native vine like Roger’s Red wild grape or Boston ivy will provide fall color on the same wall.
Planting vines in containers or planters on a deck, balcony or paved area can add beauty to these areas. Remember that large containers offer more root space than small ones and require less frequent watering and transplanting. Vine need support for them to climb. A small lattice structure or netting stretched between posts works well for vines such as clematis and pink jasmine. The structure doesn’t need to be in the container.
Combining vines can have twice the effect. A classic combination is to plant a large flowering clematis like Jackmanii with a rambling rose. I’ve seen these on arbors and split rail fences and the look is breathtaking.
For a vine with long lasting interest, try trumpet creeper which blooms from midsummer to early autumn. Hummingbirds love it. Growing in sun or shade, it can tolerate wet or dry conditions and is generally pest free. Give it lots of space to grow.
Climbing hydrangea has showy white spring flowers and bright yellow autumn color before the leaves fall. During the winter months the peeling bark provides interest. It thrives with a bit of shade and regular moisture. This is an excellent choice for masonry walls and the trunks of mature trees. It will clothe a wall with white flowers and turn a dull trunk into a floral masterpiece.
Plant vines for fragrance in your garden. Evergreen clematis bears showy white fragrant flowers clusters above shiny dark green leaves in spring. Clematis montana is covered with vanilla scented pink flowers in spring also. Carolina jessamine‘s fragrant yellow flowers appear in masses throughout late winter into spring.
Star jasmine is a wonderful vine for sun or shade and it’s intense fragrance near a patio or open window will delight you. It is easy to grow and is generally not troubled by pests. Pink jasmine blooms mostly in the spring but sporadically through fall with showy, sweet scented pale pink flowers. It grows fast to 15 feet and is tolerant of drought. It can also be allowed to cascade over a wall or from a hanging basket.
Other vines that are beautiful and easy to grow are the native honeysuckle, lonicera hispidula with its translucent red berries in the fall. Violet trumpet vine, white potato vine, passion flower, Lady Banks rose, hardenbergia, Chilean jasmine and wisteria.
The above vines are just a few of the wonderful vines that do well in our climate, in a wide range of soils and conditions. They are pest resistant and need little fertilization or care other than pruning to control size if needed. Look around your garden for a spot that would be enhance by a beautiful vine.
Quail Hollow & the Gene Pool
Few things can compare to walking on a scenic woodland trail lined with wildflowers. Now that it’s officially spring I recently took a hike in Quail Hollow Ranch County Park to see what I could find. One of the unique aspects of this park is the number of rare plant and animals that make this valley their home. It didn’t take long to find the threatened Silver-leafed manzanita although it wasn’t blooming yet. The sandhill ecosystem where it grows among ponderosa pine is found in Santa Cruz county and no where else in the world.
Once upon a time, this land was under water, part of an ancient ocean, which uplifted to form the Santa Cruz Mountains about three
million years ago. According to the Santa Cruz Department of Parks, the silt, sand and mud that had been deposited in that shallow sea later turned into the shale, sandstone and mudstone that make up Quail Hollow today. The diversity of this special place is mirrored in the patchwork of 15 habitats that are located in this small, secluded valley. Mixed evergreen forest, redwoods, grasslands, and a pond with surrounding riparian ecosystem mix with hot, dry chaparral and sandhill environments. The sandy soils here have eroded from the Santa Margarita sandstone and serve as an aquifer for the San Lorenzo Valley.
Hiking the trails among the blooming mimulus ,large-leafed lupine, Western Hound’s Tongue, manzanita and ceanothus made me think about the impact of our own gardens on the populations of native plants like those here.
Are we contaminating the native gene pool if we plant a mimulus, for instance, from southern California or a hybrid in our own garden?
The genes of all native plants have been sorted out over a very, very long time scale and they’re finely tuned to their environment. When you introduce an exotic gene – exotic meaning not of this place- it could be from a neighboring county, we don’t know the long term effect they’re going to have. If you live next to a wild population of a certain plant, like ceanothus, you should try to plant locally collected and propagated plants and seed. They are harder to find but local growers do collect seed and identify the source. On the other hand, ceanothus is a fire-dependent species and does not regenerate from seed except in the presence of fire or some other disturbance. If in doubt you could substitute a drought tolerant Mediterranean shrub that wouldn’t interbreed with local native plants.
It is probably not a problem for the home owner who lives in a neighborhood and wants to plant a couple of those cool, new sticky monkey flower hybrids in his own garden. If they do interbreed with the native population, in time whatever genetic pollution there is will probably die out. The home gardener is not planting fields of one type of plant that will interfere with the wild population.
There are many philosophies about planting California natives. There is no one-size-fits-all when it comes to this subject. One thing for sure, we all want to preserve our wild areas like Quail Hollow.
Garden Tips for March
Spring is in the air. It’s always exciting to see
the plants in the garden come to life. I’ve been invited to tour a garden in Scotts Valley in April when many of the early flowering plants will be in bloom. I’ve been to this garden before and there’s always an interesting tree, shrub or flower to enjoy.
One of my long term goals is to view the great gardens in the Santa Cruz Mountains. If you have a garden that you think others would like to hear about and you are willing to share it with me, please contact me. I’d love to spend time with you in your garden.
There’s so much to do now in the garden. If you are feeling overwhelmed here are some suggestions for the more important to-do’s.
* Check drip systems for leaks or clogged emitters. Flush sediment from filters and check screens for algae. You may need to add emitters if plants have grown significantly.
* Finish pruning and clean-up of trees, shrubs, vines and perennials. This includes fireblight die-back on pears, apples, hawthorn, pyracantha, photinia, crabapple quince and toyon., Prune out and discard diseased branches making the cut at least 6-8" below blighted tissue. Clean the pruning blades with alcohol or a 1:5 solution of household bleach to prevent spread of the disease. Also finish pruning and cutting back perennials and ornamental grasses. Go ahead and give grasses a 3-5" crewcut so fresh growth can emerge. Cut back old foliage of maiden hair ferns to allow new growth to take center stage. If you have Western sword ferns or another type that has winter or thrip damage, remove shabby looking fronds. Even if you have to cut back the entire fern it’s OK. It will regrow in just of couple of months. Prune any other frost damaged plants when you see new growth begin.
* Spread fresh compost around all your plants. Good soil is the secret to successful gardening. The first principle of organic gardening is to feed the soil and it will feed the plant. Remember that all gardening used to be organic. Layer compost and or mulch on top of the soil and let it slowly decompose and filter down into the earth.
* As you plant new additions to the garden add organic matter to the soil. If your garden’s soil is sandy, organic matter enriches it and allows it to hold water more efficiently. If your soil tends toward clay, organic matter will loosen it up and improve drainage. In well-amended soil, plants grow deep roots, are hardier and more resistant to disease. Organic matter, such as compost, planting mix and well-rotted manure, boosts nutrition and improves soil structure.
* Fertilize if you haven’t already done so. Citrus, shrubs and fruit trees just emerging from dormancy are begging for their first meal of the season. Lawns begin their spring growth now also and benefit from a boost of nitrogen. You can also spread a thin layer of composted manure over you lawn. Leaving you grass clippings on the lawn will benefit it by shading the roots as it get warmer and as they break down they help feed it, too. Perennials benefit from both a fresh layer of compost or manure and a light application of balanced fertilizer. They respond to phosphorus especially in the spring for root growth, stem sturdiness and flower development. Wait until azaleas, camellias and rhododendron have finished blooming before feeding them.
* The most important to-do for March is to take time out and enjoy your garden and our beautiful surroundings. Those last few weeds will be there tomorrow but you’ll never get another today.