Design trends

Fragrance in the Garden

This dwarf butterfly bush called Buzz Hot Raspberry attracts
butterflies and smells delicious.

A couple years ago I bought a dwarf butterfly bush and planted it in a pot near my entry. It’s one the plants that came back from the roots after the fire and it now lives on my deck but in a new pot. I’m not sure if it’s a Buzz Hot Raspberry or a Lo & Behold Pink Microchip but it’s in full bloom and will continue through fall if I keep it deadheaded. The swallowtail butterflies love it and the scent is so sweet and so strong I can smell it through an open window.

Fragrance in flowers is nature’s ways of encouraging pollination. Just as it draws you to take a deeper whiff, it lures insects to blossoms hidden by leaves. Some flowers are fragrant only at night and attract night-flying pollinators like moths, while others are more fragrant during the day and attract insects like bees and butterflies. The fragrance itself comes from essential oils called attars that vaporize easily and infuse the air with their scents.

Aroma chemistry is complex and the smell of any flower comes from more than a single chemical compound. These molecules are present in different combinations in different plants, but often they are markedly similar which is why there are irises that smell like grapes and roses that smell like licorice. Our noses can detect those chemical compounds that have a major impact on the aroma. Often a particular molecule will make a large contribution.

Some roses, for instance, derive their scent from rose oxide and others from beta-damascenome or rose ketones. These molecules are detectable by our noses at very, very low concentrations. Carnations, violets, lilies, chrysanthemums, hyacinth- all have their own set of compounds that contribute to their scent.

It’s interesting also that as we become accustomed to the same smell our brain phases it out. A compound called ionones, found in violets and rose oil, can essentially short-circuit our sense of smell, binding to the receptors. This shut down is only temporary and the ionones can soon be detected again and registered as a new smell.

Place sweet-smelling plants where you can enjoy them throughout the season. The potency of flower scents varies greatly, so consider the strength of a fragrance when deciding where to put a plant. Subtle fragrances such as sweet pea. lemon verbena, scented geranium and chocolate cosmos smell wonderful right outside the back door. Add stronger scents by your deck, pool, spa, dining area or gazebo. Stargazer lilies, jasmine, lilacs, daphne, citrus and peonies will make you want to stay awhile.

Several easy-to-grow shrubs have fragrant flowers as an added bonus. Mexican Orange (choisya ternata) blooms most of the year. Pittosporum eugenoides, tenuifolium and tobira all have tiny blossoms that smell like oranges. too. The tiny flower cluster of Fragrant Olive (osmanthus fragrans) have a delicate apricot fragrance.

Other fragrant plants include California native Philadelphus lewisii (Wild Mock Orange). Calycanthus occidentals (Spice Bush) is native to our Central and Northern California mountains. Their fragrant burgundy flowers smell like red wine. Ribes viburnifolium, carpenteria californica and rosa californica are mildly scented, too.

In spring there may be nothing quite as spectacular as a wisteria vine, loaded with fragrant purple, pink, blue or white flower clusters, covering an arbor or pergola. Pink jasmine is another vigorous vine with intensely fragrant flowers as is Evergreen Clematis.

Old fashion carnations double the fragrance of nemesia.

I can’t leave out the old fashion border carnation or dianthus. Their clove-scented flowers are born in profusion making them a nice addition to the mixed flower border and containers.

The list goes on and includes scented plants such as nemesia, wallflower, Japanese snowbell, hosta, coneflower, vitex, viburnum, nicotiana, phlox, rose, sweet pea, hyacinth, lilac, flowering crabapple, heliotrope, lavender, sweet alyssum, peony, moon flower, southern magnolia.

Be sure to include fragrant plants that release their scent in the evening, especially in the areas of the garden you most frequent after dark. Since the majority of night-scented blossoms have white flowers, these plants also light up the landscape at night. Angel’s Trumpet (brugmansia) is one such plant as is flowering tobacco and night blooming jessamine.

Plant vines for fragrance in your garden. Evergreen clematis (clematis armandii) bloom with showy white fragrant flowers clusters above dark green leaves in the spring. Clematis montana is another variety of clematis that’s covered with vanilla-scented pink flowers in spring also. Carolina jessamine’s fragrant yellow flower clusters appear in masses from late winter into spring.

Ideally, when you’ve finished, your garden will smell as intriguing as an expensive perfume. The top note will be floral- jasmine, honeysuckle, rose. The middle register will be spicy, such as the vanilla of heliotrope or purple petunias or the clove of dianthus. Finally underneath, the tones that give perfumes their vigor, like artemisia, sage and santolina.

Not every inch of the garden needs to be fragrant but a waft or two of fragrance from the right plants can turn a garden from ordinary to enchanting.

Design trends

Growing Bearded Iris

This Zebra variegated bearded iris was blooming at my old house last year. The foliage is growing back since the fire. Their fragrant flowers smell like grape Kool aid.

If you’re in the hunt for an easy-to-grow, drought tolerant, fire resistant, fool proof plant with a flower of such exquisite color, form and knock-your-socks-off beauty, look no farther than the bearded iris. And this is the perfect time to add one or two or twenty to your garden because the Monterey Iris Society is holding their annual sale at the Cabrillo Farmer’s Market this Saturday and next, August 7th and August 14th from 9am – noon.

Several years ago I was fortunate to be able to spend the morning in Scotts Valley painting the tall bearded iris growing at the Cummins Iris Garden. They grow hundreds of varieties on their property. Jim and Irene welcomed my group of fellow artists sharing the history of their property and growing tips. Amidst the beds of prized bearded iris is an impressive antique farming implement collection. This historic property dates back to 1849 when an older house was built as a stagecoach stop where a fresh team of horses could be changed out.

Tall bearded iris grow by an antique farm wagon at the Cummins’ Iris Garden with the watering can collection.

Jim told me that considering the history of the property he and Irene started displaying the old stuff they had and decided to add more by going to auctions and yard sales. Everywhere you look they have created an interesting vignette of plants and artifacts. Displayed on the old barn is an impressive vintage wrench collection as well as dozens of spigot handles. Antique tractor seats, watering cans, washing tubs, rusted bed frames, wagons, old kiddie cars- you name it, Jim and Irene have collected it.

Due to the abundance of old wood on the property Jim said he started building Irene birdhouses. With so many interesting things to enjoy I had a hard time deciding what to paint. I took dozens of photos but settled on capturing their magnificent tall bearded iris in full bloom.

Jim is on the board of the Tall Bearded Iris Society (TBIS) and is also active in Historic Iris Preservation Society. As I walked around the blooming iris beds I noticed many had the name of Joe Ghio as their hybridizer. Some of the Cummins original rhizomes were collected from him as well as other iris gardens in the area. Early on they could only afford to buy a few of the older and less expensive offerings but as their garden began to grow they joined the Monterey Bay Iris Society.

The Cummins iris farm has been so successful that in 2019 the National Convention was hosted at their garden.
When I asked Jim for the growing tips that make his iris so spectacular he told me he mostly uses lawn trimmings and tree leaves along with their native sand to break the soil down. “Iris don’t seem to care much as to soil type, they just need good drainage”, he said. He fertilizes with a balanced granular 15-15-15 fertilizer, using only an 1/8 cup or less sprinkled around each clump around Valentines Day and again in August or September. Another tip he told me was to be sure to plant the rhizomes real shallow with the tops showing and about 12-18 inches apart. They water every 2-3 weeks although he says they can go longer between irrigations.

Every gardener I know raves about their bearded iris collection. By planting early, mid and late varieties you can extend their colorful show for several months. Iris also make good cut flowers and many are fragrant.

Design trends

The Dog Days of Summer

Swallowtail butterfly- a regular summertime visitor.

They’re called the Dog Days of summer. You know, those sultry days with the hottest summer temperatures. The name “dog star” comes from the ancient Egyptians who called Sirius, the dog star, after their god, Osiris. His head in pictograms resembles that of a dog. When the Dog Star rises in conjunction with the sun some felt the combination of the brightest luminary of the day – the sun – and and brightest star of the night – Sirius – was responsible for the extreme heat experienced during the middle of the summertime. Since Sirius is the brightest star in the night sky it’s reasonable to guess that it adds some heat to the earth but the amount is insignificant.

The Romans associated the hot weather from 20 days before to 20 days after the conjunction “the dog days of summer” because it coincidentally fell at the time of year when it was very hot. This falls between July 24th and August 24th. The Old Farmer’s Almanac uses slightly different dates but the Dog Days of summer are definitely here.

We now know the heat of summer is a direct result of the earths tilt, but now you know… the rest of the story.

As summer rolls along you may become more aware of the different microclimates in your garden. With the drier and hotter weather this year, some of your plants that used to get along just fine might be showing signs of stress. Taking note of these changes in the performance of your plants is what makes for a more successful landscape. When the weather cools towards the end of September you will want to move or eliminate those plants that aren’t thriving. Be sure to keep a thick layer of mulch on the soil around your plants to conserve that precious water you do allocate to each of your irrigation zones.

One thing I notice when I visit gardens for a consultation is the existing drip system has not been modified for many years, if ever, to allow for the growth of the plants. The emitters which were originally placed at the base of each plant are not even close to covering the current size of the root zone. The crown of the plant is getting overwatered with each cycle but the rest of the plant is bone dry. Time to add more emitters and move them away from the middle of the plant. No sense wasting water that’s not doing the plant much good.

Add the soothing sound of wind chimes to your summer garden.

The dog days of summer may be affecting our gardens but it doesn’t have to stop us from being out in the garden. . The joy of gardening can take many forms including adding a wind chime, bird feeder or bird bath. Groom plants that need some cleanup. Many perennials benefit from a little haircut at this time of year to extend their blooming into the fall season. Santa Barbara daisies fall into this category. Lavenders will keep their compact shape by pruning a third of their branches now. This forces new growth in the center so the plant doesn’t get woody.

Deadhead flowering annuals and perennials as often as you can. Annuals like marigolds, petunias, zinnia and cosmos will stop blooming if you allow them to go to seed. The same is true of repeat blooming perennials like dahlia, scabiosa and lantana. These plants know they’re on this earth to reproduce. If they get a chance to set seed, the show’s over- they’ve raised their family. Try to remove fading flowers regularly and you’ll be amply rewarded.

Swallowtail butterflies are regular visitors to the garden at this time of year. They especially like butterfly bush as well as zinnias and many other flowers. They are easy to photograph if you move slowly.

Design trends

How Plants Survive in the Heat

Growing back after the fire this California fuchsia is hoping to attract hummingbirds, bees and butterflies.

What happens to a plant when the thermometer tops 100 degrees ? Planning for more hot weather this summer is a requirement for a successful garden. Are there some plants that can survive tough times more easily?

Photosynthesis is one of the most remarkable biochemical processes on earth and allows plants to use sunlight to make food from water and carbon dioxide. But at temperatures about 104 degrees the enzymes that carry out photosynthesis lose their shape and functionality. A garden that provides optimum light and water but gets too hot will be less vigorous. Tomatoes, for example, will drop blossoms and not set fruit if temperatures are over 90 degrees. Plants that endure high heat can be stunted, weakened and attract pests and diseases even if water is available.

Plants do have natural systems that respond to heat problems. Some plants are better at this than others. Plants can cool themselves by pumping water out through the leaves for a kind of swamp cooler effect. They can also make “heat-shock” proteins which reduces problems from over heating. All these strategies do take resources away from a plants other needs like growth, flowering and fruiting.

It’s no surprise that many California natives are adapted to high temperatures. Walking my old property the other day I noted which plants are regrowing after the fire, despite little winter rainfall. Every plant burned to the ground. The climate is much hotter up in Bonny Doon now that the tree cover is gone. The redwoods are trying to regrow but it’ll be decades before they provide shade again. Those plants that have regrown the best include California fuchsia (epilobium canum). They spread by underground rhizomes so it’s not surprising they survived. I didn’t see any bees or hummingbirds around but one of these years they’ll return. Another survivor is hummingbird sage (salvia spathacea). They are just starting to regrow and were not in bloom.

The Bees Bliss Sage, a low groundcover that can reach 6-8 ft wide is another plant that I used to enjoy. It has an extended bloom time from mid-spring to early fall with whorls of lavender-blue flower spikes. Bees, butterflies and hummingbirds all find it attractive. The jury’s out whether it’ll return or not.

Another plant that can handle high temps is salvia clevelandii. Their blooming cycle of electric blue-purple flowers will last through the summer. This salvia survives without any supplemental irrigation but if you give it an occasional deep watering and wash off the foliage every so often it’s much happier.

Who doesn’t like color in their garden? Mimulus or Sticky Monkey Flower blooms are showy and the hummingbirds love them. The Jelly Bean series has added bright pink colors in addition to white, orange, red and yellow but the traditional aurantiacus types are the most tolerant of drought.

Other California native plants that can handle the heat with little water include eriogonum, manzanita, artemisia, California milkweed, ceanothus, mountain mahogany, bush poppy, bush lupine, native penstemon, monardella, mahonia nevinii , fremontodendron and holly-leafed cherry.

Non-native well-adapted plants that are known to be more tolerant of heat include butterfly bush, germander, rosemary, smoke tree, rudbeckia, coreopsis, lantana, plumbago, gaillardia, lilac, sedums, oregano and verbena.

This New Zealand tree fern although not a native is growing back after the fire with no water. Nature is resilient. I thought it deserved some recognition.

These plants can be the rock stars of your garden. Some natives that are able to survive with no irrigation after 2 years may look more attractive with a few deep waterings per summer. And don’t forget the wood chip mulch to encourage the soil microbes and keep the soil cool.

Design trends

Fun Facts from the Garden

Bob, the hosta seboldiana in bloom.

I confess, I’m not one who talks to plants. Although I have a huge hosta seboldiana named Bob as well as an offset that I cleverly named Bob the Second, I don’t address them personally. Maybe that’s going to change. I was very intrigued reading a recent article in Audubon magazine by Nathan Ehrlich. Scientists have discovered that plants give off electrical impulses in response to threats. Polygraph expert and former CIA interrogation specialist Cleve Backster confirmed this when, on an impulse, he hooked up a tropical dracaena to a polygraph and threatened the plant with a flame. The dracaena displayed the same electrical signals that people do when they lie. From lettuce to bananas, the results were similar.

Biologists Baldwin and Schultz have published work suggesting that some plants can communicate through the air. When the researchers threatened poplars and maples they found that nearby trees, with no physical contact, released defensive chemicals that inhibit digestion, thus hindering predators’ ability to consume the trees leaves or bark.

Plants have many ways to defend themselves. One common way is by being poisonous or irritating. You can get severe eye burn if you get the toxic sap from a euphorbia in them. You just have to accidentally rub some sap near your eyes to trigger a reaction that will require a trip to Urgent Care. The pain can last for days and has been described as a very painful experience. Euphorbias are very deer resistant and drought tolerant and are being used more and more in gardens. Great plant that requires respect.

Many of us are growing milkweed (Asclepias) to attract monarch butterflies. The milky sap from this plant protects the monarch from being eaten and can cause the same painful burning of the eye. I read of a case where a gardener’s clothes brushed some stems while she was tending the garden. Later she wiped the sweat out of her eyes and didn’t realize she had also touched her pants. She ended up with cornea burn causing temporary blindness and had to take strong pain relievers and steroids to elevate the pain. Yikes.

One of my favorite classes when I attended Cal Poly San Luis Obispo was Plant Taxonomy. On the surface the subject sounds a little dry but the professor was all about plant reproduction which is quite exciting and more varied than you think.

It’s fascinating to mark time with events in the botanic world. There’s even a word for it- Phenology. Websites like USA National Phenology Network offer lots of information on the subject. Visit http://www.usanpn.org/

Phenology is the study of plant and animal life cycle events and how these are influenced by seasonal variations in climate. When do they occur each year? Phenology is a real science that has many applications. In farming and gardening, phenology is used chiefly for planting times and pest control. Certain plants give a cue, by blooming or leafing out, that it’s time for certain activities, such as sowing particular crops or insect emergence and pest control. Often the common denominator is the temperature.

Indicator plants are often used to look for a particular pest and manage it in its most vulnerable stages. They can also be used to time the planting of vegetables, apply fertilizer, prune and so on. Record your own observations to start a data base for our area.at https://budburst.org/ Another great site is National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service at https://attra.ncat.org/ Sites like these can also help you design orchards for pollination and ripening sequence, design for bee forage plantings, design perennial flower beds and wildflower plantings as well as plantings to attract beneficial insects and enhance natural biological control. How cool is that?

But back to plant reproduction. Mosses reproduce from male and female mosses which produce spores. Conifers produce two type of cones on the same tree. Wind blows the pollen to another cone which combine to make a baby conifer which lives in a seed inside the cone.

Flowering plants like this Princess Flower have both male and female parts in each flower.

Then there are to most advanced plants – the flowering plants. Some flowering plants have both male and female flowers. They are monoecious meaning “single house”. Dioecious plants have male flowers on one plant and female flowers on another. Plants that rely on flowers for reproduction are very dependent on outside help such as insects and animals which is where we come in. Be a citizen scientist in your own backyard.

Design trends

Celebrating 800 Columns

The author in her old garden in Bonny Doon before the fire.

Since writing my first column in October 2005 I have shared with you, my good readers, many a gardening tip, confession, aspiration, resolution, success story and utter failure in my garden. We live and learn from our mistakes. We gardeners love to swap stories and sometimes I learn as much from you as you do from me.
We gardeners are eternal optimists. Why else would we plant a tree, a seed or a garden?

With Guatemala and Honduras in the news I recall my trip there in 2007. On Utila, an island off the coast of Honduras, I noticed plants growing in washing machine baskets. I thought it was a clever way to re-use old appliances but wondered why there were so many old washing machines on a tiny island. A local laughed and told me the baskets protect their plants from the big blue crabs that come out at night. Seems the crabs will sever the stem right at ground level and drag the whole plant into their hole. Also the baskets protect the plants from the iguanas who will eat anything within two feet of the ground. And you thought deer, gophers and rabbits were a problem?

Sherman is caught red-handed licking the buttermilk/moss mixture from the wall.

I lost my dog Sherman recently but one of my favorite anecdotes about him involved a wall and some buttermilk. The interlocking paver wall at my house in Bonny Doon stood out like a sore thumb and I wanted moss to grow over the concrete blocks like it did on the fieldstone retaining walls. I still remember looking back at the wall after painting on the moss/buttermilk mixture ala Martha Stewart’s instructions and seeing Sherman licking it all off. Even adding hot sauce to the mixture didn’t slow him down but I guess enough moss spores survived as the wall looked pretty good during the wet season before last year. Now I’m not so sure what survived on the wall since the fire but I’ll check on it next winter after the rains start – fingers crossed .

Like everybody else I didn’t go many places in 2020 during Covid times so I fondly remember my trip to Poland years ago. I did a lot of bird watching, hiking and punting. The gardens in eastern Poland were spectacular. The soil there, deposited by glaciers, is rich with sediment and nutrients. Sunflowers border neat plots of cabbage, beets, potatoes, cucumbers, lettuce and leeks. Black-eyed Susan cover the hillsides with swaths of gold blooms. Berries such as currants, blueberry, blackberry and raspberry are grown in large plots and fenced with wire. Every 10 feet or so plastic bags are attached and wave in the breeze. I was told this keeps the wild boar, roe and red deer at bay.
Sure looked funny, though.

This is my 800th column for The Press Banner. The first came about this way. I typed up a sample column and marched into the editor’s office. I’ve forgotten his name but little did I know that he had taken horticulture classes himself and so had a soft spot for my idea to write a weekly gardening column. Next thing I know he says he wants 5 columns, 400 words each, excluding prepositions, on his desk by Friday and the column would be called ‘The Mountain Gardener’ and not ‘Ask Jan’ which I had suggested. I knew my father who always encouraged me to write would be proud. I was now a newspaper columnist.

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