cut flowers

Cut Flowers on a Shoestring

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It’s rewarding to grow your own fruit and vegetables, but more and more of us also want to grow flowers that can be cut and , too. Growers are taking notice of this trend and there are more cut flower varieties available today than ever before. Now you can create your own landscaping masterpiece, a Monet’s garden, with a little planning and some jumbo packs. Here are some new and old favorites to try this year.

Ageratum Red Sea. Showy, burgundy-red flower clusters bloom summer to fall on long stems. Grow in full sun to part shade. This beautiful cut flower reaches 30" tall by 15-18" wide. Ageratum Blue Horizon is another great variety.

Celosia Spiky Purple. Deep purple flowers are crowded onto terminal spikes, opening slowly from the base. Blooms all summer long in full sun. 12-16" tall. Spiky Pink is a beauty, too.

Calendula Pink Surprise. Ruffled 1" flowers are orange at first and then take on a tinge of pink as they age. This plant grows 18" tall in full or part sun.  Great in containers or the flower bed as well as a cut flower. Often reseeds itself.

Larkspur Giant Imperial mix. If you want long spikes of soft lavender, blue and pink in your flower arrangements, grow larkspur. Flower stems are long and dense on 36-48" tall plants. Grow in full sun. Also good for drying.

Crespedia Billy Buttons or Drumstick Plant. This offbeat Australian daisy sends up 2 ft tall stalks topped by globes of bright yellow flowers. Bloom may occur at anytime of the year. Flowers are good fresh or dried in arrangements. Self sows freely.

Bachelor Buttons or Cornflower. The Centauria family of plants also includes Dusty Miller among other common plants. Blue Boy has double blooms in a stunning shade of deep blue. Great plants for the cutting garden or flower border, this wild flower is well suited for cutting, drying and pressing. Self sows. Did you know this plant’s common name, cornflower, refers to the fact that it was once typically found growing amid corn in Europe? Other plants named for their association with grain fields are corn cockle ( agrostemma ), corn poppy and corn marigold.

Aster Matsumoto. The Matsumoto series is known for disease resistance and superior cut flower quality. Semi-double blooms are borne on long, strong stems that are very long lasting in the vase.  Blooming begins in mid-summer and doesn’t quit until late fall. And the best part is, the more flowers you cut, the quicker new buds arise. The large, yellow center is surrounded by layers of bright purple, pink or white petals and is eye-catching even from across the garden. They thrive in any sunny garden spot or container. 24" tall.

Gomphrena Las Vegas mix. Draw hummingbirds and butterflies to your garden with this heat tolerant cut flower. The pink, purple, and white clover-like flowers may also be dried quickly and easily, retaining color and shape for winter arrangements. Plant this 16-20" tall plant in a container for a long-lasting living bouquet.

Statice Supreme Blue. A hardy, low maintenance annual, this deep blue cut flower is drought, heat and pest resistant. They even thrive in poor soil conditions and bloom continuously from late spring until first frost. Cut statice just after they have begun to open for the most vibrant, lasting color. Ideal for dried arrangementslike celosia and gomphrena.

These are just some of the affordable and easy to grow cut flowers available. Think of all the bouquets you’ll be able to  make this year from your own garden grown flowers.

 

berries, birds, butterfly plants, California Native Plants

Native Plants for the Santa Cruz Mts

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In celebration of Native Plant Week earlier this month, let’s talk about using . How do you pick the best ones for your situation and what do they need to grow in your garden?

California is a vast domain when it comes to natural features and different soils. From hills to mountains to deserts to valleys and ocean bluffs, there are 6000 plus plant species within our borders. Hundreds of these are showy and useful plants worthy of cultivation in our garden. Some, like ceanothus, have already been cultivated for a century or more, both here and abroad.

There are features of the California landscape that present a certain flavor and seasonal progression, quite distinct from that of the subtropics and year-round, moist forests that many traditional garden plants come from. Plants of hilly and mountainous areas are often found in rocky or sandy soils and require well-drained garden soils. Many plants of the chaparral have poor resistance to the root pathogens that thrive in a warm, moist soil and may not tolerate typical garden style irrigation in summer.

Matching or creating the right conditions is the key to success to grow California natives. Planting on a raised mound or berm, for instance, is one way to drain water away from sensitive crowns. Knowing where in California a given native plant comes from can help you make the right decisions.

That being said there are many natives with an amazing broad tolerance of different conditions. Heteromeles arbutifolia or toyon grows in both sandy and clay soils as does Achillea millifolium or yarrow which is also a good cut flower. Carex grass and Erigeron glaucus or Seaside daisy also do well in most soils.

If you garden in clay soils,  good native shrubs are Western redbud, manzanita, spicebush, bush anemone, ceanothus, garrya, Pacific wax myrtle, western mock orange, blue elderberry, mahonia, California wild rose and snowberry. Native perennials for clay soil include coral bells, sticky monkeyflower ( a good cut flower ), salvias, deer grass, rubus and Dutchman’s pipe vine.

Sandy conditions require California natives that are decidedly drought tolerant. You may already grow many of our manzanitas and ceanothus. But do you also have lupine, lavatera, coffeeberry, buckwheat, fuchsia-flowering gooseberry, purple sage, wallflower or the beautiful Douglas iris?

Then there are the folks that live in the shade. Native plants from canyons and riparian areas will do well in your garden. They require some summer watering but that’s all. Native shrubs that tolerate bright shade are manzanita, spicebush, bush anemone, ceanothus, mahonia, Ca. wax myrtle, any of the ribes, wild rose, snowberry and huckleberry. Perennials for color are columbine, Western bleeding heart, Ca. fuchsia, Douglas iris and coral bells.

Where ever you garden, to provide food and nectar or berries for our winged friends be sure you have some flowering currant, sticky monkey flower, coffeeberry, salvia clevelandii, Dutchman’s pipe vine,wax myrtle, Ca. fuchsia, aster chilensis or seaside daisy.

vegetables

Vegetable Gardening in Spring

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April is a month of change in the garden.  The word originates from the Latin aperire which means to open and refers to this month being the season when trees and flowers begin to open. Thanks to abundant rainfall this winter I see trees, shrubs and flowers blooming profusely. They appreciated last season’s rain but this year is the icing on the cake and everything wants a part of it. 

If cool spring weather has kept you from planting your vegetable garden, don’t worry.  As night and soil temperature warm, newly planted starts and seeds will grow quickly. Don’t plan to plant the whole garden at once. Make a drawing so you can leave space for the veggies that like it warmer.

Remember that cool season vegetables include beets, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, carrots, kale, lettuce, onions, radish and spinach.  These don’t mind cold soil and chilly weather. Crops that prefer night temps of 55 degrees and over but will tolerated an occasional light frost are tomatoes bell peppers, corn beans, squash, cucumber, muskmelon and pumpkin. Distinctly warm weather, long season crops that need temperatures in the 70’s are watermelon, eggplant and chilies. You can’t rush Mother Nature.

You can raise the temperature of the soil by laying clear plastic (not black ) over the surface. Be prepared to protect plants at night with row covers, hot caps, cardboard boxes or anything that will trap heat during the night until temps are right for your crop.

Rotate the beds when planting your vegetables to avoid a build up of diseases and insects that can survive in the soil or on plant residue.  Don’t plant the same or closely related vegetables where they grew in the last 2-3 years. 

Pay attention to the watering needs of each kind of plant, otherwise you might plant high water use vegetables beside ones that need need less water.   This can not only waste water but can actually harm plants.  A good guidelines is to group plants by how big they get and how fast they grow. The bigger and faster they grow, the more water they’ll use.  Plant heavy water users at one end of the garden, light users at the other. For instance, plant shallow rooted beets, bush beans, carrots, lettuce, spinach, radishes and other greens together as they grow at about the same rate and use similar amounts of water.  Corn, cucumbers, melons, tomatoes and squash combine well as they all grow rapidly and need lots of water.  Another tip is not to mix new (successive) plantings of carrots, lettuce and other crops with existing ones as water use changes as the plants mature. 

Vegetables at maturity that root over 48" deep are tomatoes, watermelon, pumpkin, winter squash, asparagus, sweet potatoes, and artichoke.  When watering wet your soil to this depth to keep them happy.  Moderately deep rooting veggies ( 36"-48" ) are beet, beans, carrots, chard, cucumber, eggplant, muskmelon, peas, pepper, summer squash and turnip.  Shallow rooting ( 18" – 24" ) veggies include broccoli, cabbage, celery, corn, garlic, lettuce, onion, parsley, potato, radish and spinach.  Water less if your plants aren’t full grown yet. 

Vegetables in containers are a great solution if you don’t have much space in the ground to devote to them. They warm up quicker in the spring, too. Just about anything that grows in the ground can also grow in a pot or half barrel. This includes vegetables, herbs and even small fruit trees.

Small plants like lettuces, spinach, swiss chard and herbs grow nicely in smaller pots near the back door while large edibles like tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, squash, cucumbers and melons need more room like a half barrel or large 7 or 5 gallon pots.

It’s important to use fresh planing mix in your containers each year.  Heavy producers  need fresh nutrients and deplete the soil by the end of the season. Also feed your containers for the best tasting fruit and vegetables and water on a steady basis. Skip a day of watering when larger plants are at their peak and you can lose your crop. There’s no such thing as dry-farmed tomatoes in a container.

Plant something edible. You’ll be glad you did.
 

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