Design trends

A Rose by Any Other Name

‘Compassion’ – my favorite rose

When Juliet tells Romeo that “a rose by any other name would smell as sweet” she must have been referring to the Compassion rose. Actually, this line is not in the original version of Shakespeare’s play but was an edit in 1599 according to Wikipedia but if you’ve ever smelled the Compassion climbing rose you’d not quibble over semantics.

Roses are the flower of love. Many of us have wonderful memories of favorites from past gardens or lovely bouquets that we were given or received on Valentine’s Day. It’s dormant season for roses which is a good time for adding a new one to your garden. And if you haven’t already pruned those in your own garden it’s not too late.

Roses, whether bush types, climbers or carpet varieties use a moderate amount of water similar to echinacea, hellebores and heuchera. Some roses like Cecile Brunner and rugosa need even less irrigation similar to cistus.

New this year from Week’s Roses is a shrub rose that can be trained at a climber. Cosmic Clouds has rich purple flowers with a white reverse and has a strong, fruity fragrance. This rose has a high disease resistance to powdery mildew, downy mildew and rust.

Another new rose from Week’s this season is Quest for Zest. A medium tall grandiflora, this double yellow rose with lighter yellow outer petals has both a strong citrus scent and is highly disease resistant. If only I had more sun I’d want this one, too, in my little garden.

It’s not too late to prune your roses if you haven’t already. Here are a few tips.

Most of us want our rose bushes to produce lots of roses on a compact shrub and not just a few exhibition size blooms so prune your shrubs moderately. The goal is to keep the center of the plant open for good air circulation aiming for a vase-shaped bush with an open center. Cut out canes that cross, appear weak or are diseased, spindly or dead. Healthy canes appear green or reddish while old and dying canes are brown. Cut back the remaining stems by about one third. When pruning, cut canes at a 45-degree angle just above an outward facing leaf bud or a swelling on the cane Slant the cut away from the bud to encourage growth outward. Clean pruners after every use to prevent the spread of disease and keep your pruners sharp.

Heirlooms roses such as David Austin, other old antique garden roses, and floribunda roses require less pruning because their open look is part of their charm. Keep this in mind and prune lightly. Old garden roses that bloom once in the spring should be pruned after flowering.

‘Compassion’ trained as a climber

Same goes for climbing roses. Cut out extra stems if there are too many and also cut back long established canes to about the place where they are slightly thicker than a pencil. Then cut each side stem down to several inches. This will make the cane flower along its complete length for a beautiful spring display.

It’s best to prune your roses before they start leafing out or some of their energy will be wasted. Pull off and rake away any old leaves. They can spread fungal spores. Consider spraying dormant plants with a combination of organic horticultural oil and copper soap or lime-sulfur. If you usually only have problems with black spot you can use a mixture of 1 teaspoon baking soda with a few drops of light horticultural oil in 1 quart water and spray every 7 to 10 days during the spring.

Prune your roses throughout the growing season, too. Deadheading, or cutting off spent flowers, encourages plants to re-bloom. Mulch around your roses to conserve water and encourage soil microorganisms.

Don’t worry whether your pruning job is perfect. Roses are super forgiving and you can always trim them up again later.

Design trends

Bare Root Edibles – Invest in the Future

An apple tree planted now will live in your garden for 60 years

It’s not too late but time is running out if you’re looking to add fruit and nut trees, berries and vegetables to your garden while they’re still available in bare root. Did you know just how long that new fruit tree will be around if you plant it now? If you like figs or walnuts, you can expect your tree to live for 100 years. Apples and pears have a life expectancy of 60 years while plums, pluots and prune trees will be around for 40 years. Love cherries? Your new tree will be in your garden for 30 years. Invest in the future and plant a fruit tree now while they are still in bare root and oh, so easy to plant.

Jeff at Mountain Feed & Farm Supply in Ben Lomond recently showed me around all the edibles available at the store. I’m always on the look out for something new that I might recommend to a client for their garden and I found some good ones in addition to the classic fruit, nuts, berries and vegetables.

If you grow in containers or small spaces try the dwarf thornless Blackberry ‘Baby Cakes’. You’ll get two crops of large, classic, sweet tasting berries per season. Or you might have your eye on a multi graft peach, pear or cherry or a “fruit salad” multi grafted tree. Maybe a weeping Santa Rosa plum would look stunning outside the kitchen window? So many choices.

Jet, my go-to expert at Scarborough Gardens in Scotts Valley, had many great fruit trees still available in bare root. Because they are so beautiful in bloom, I’ve always wanted a dwarf peach or nectarine. From world famous Floyd Zaiger, Arctic Babe, a genetic dwarf white nectarine is a first of its kind. It’s a reliable self fruitful, delicious nectarine ripening late May to early June. Of course, there are apricots, pears, plums, apples, peaches and nectarines also available.

Planting a bare root tree is easy. In most soils, even sand or clay, bare root trees are best planted in your native soil. Less is more when it comes to amending your soil. You want our tree’s roots to reach far into the surrounding soil, and if you have added too much amendment, the roots will tend to grow only in the richest soil right around the tree. You can add a starter fertilizer like Dr. Earth Root Zone or E.B.Stone Sure Start with mycohizzal organisms and micronutrients.

Don’t plant in heavy saturated soil. If your soil drains poorly it’s best to place your tree at an angle in a trench and cover with soil or place it in a can. Wait to plant until the soil is crumbly and friable. Digging in waterlogged soil is one of the worst things you can do for your soil’s health.

What fruit trees can you grow here in the mountains? Well, almost everything. Most of us get 700 hours of winter chilling where the temperature is below 45 degrees. Even with climate change the chill hours add up. And we can still grow fruit like a Fuji apple that doesn’t require this much chill.

What if you don’t get full sun where you’d like to grow fruit trees? Apples, pluots and plums are good choices for an area that gets at least 5 hours of sun a day during the growing season. The ideal is full sun but these trees will still set and ripen some fruit in partially shaded conditions. With peaches, nectarines or apricots it’s a different story. These fruits need hot sun to develop sweet, tasty fruit. Too little sun and they will not deliver anything close to what you have in mind.

With a little planning you can have fresh fruit 7 months of the year. By growing your own fruit you’re not at the mercy of mechanical harvesters and shipping practices. You can grow fruit and harvest it when the time is right. Homegrown fruit is a world apart from agribusiness and much less expensive than the Farmer’s Market.

Design trends

Living with Houseplants

Houseplants like Peace Lily clean the air of pollutants in your home.

I’m embarrassed to confess that I don’t always take my own advice. Take my houseplants, for instance. Decades of research have shown that houseplants reduce stress and anxiety. They can sharpen our attention, make us more productive and give us a happier outlook. They can fight indoor pollution and add moisture to the air in our homes. So why do a few of mine look so sad?

First a typical house plants lives in the understory of a tropical rain forest where it gets bright filtered light. They’re used to warm rain and perfect drainage. I’ve moved mine to the best light I have but it’s not enough for a few of them. I might have to find them better homes.

I also had a problem last year by fertilizing a little too much. I could see the edges of some leaves were brown which was probably from over fertilizing but also could have been lack of light or too much water. Skip fertilizer in December and January and start up half strength mid-February.

Water just enough to keep the soil from going totally dry allowing oxygen to move back into the root zone. Houseplants are resting at this time of year and don’t use as much water as when they are actively growing. Let the soil in a 4-6 inch pot dry half an inch down between watering then water with room temperature water. And don’t let the pot sit in a saucer of water or the roots will rot. If your plants is in a larger pot let the soil dry down a couple inches.

Don’t re-pot a plant in winter when they are slow to grow new roots. I’m really anxious to transplant a couple of mine into more decorative pots but I’m going to hold off until March.

Plants that I have had good results with in lower light are philodendron, peace lily, Chinese evergreen, cast-iron plant, schefflera, arboricola, ferns and palms. Hanging plants that grow well in low light are hear-shaped philodendron, pathos and grape ivy. Most of these house plants grow naturally in low light areas of the jungle. Don’t overwater and they’ll be happy.

So far, this winter hasn’t been as rainy as last but still it’s been cold and my home is closed up to keep the heating bill down. Without doors and windows open to circulate fresh air, toxins such as benzene, formaldehyde and trichloroethylene can be realized from furniture upholstery, carpets, cleaning products, paint, plastics and rubber can build up inside. Carbon monoxide from the incomplete burning or wood and vehicle exhaust can also be present in indoor air.

Biological pollutants include bacteria, viruses, animal dander, house dust, pollen and dried cat saliva. What? Cat saliva? Do you hear that Archer? House mites, the source of one of the most powerful biological allergens, grow in damp warm environments. Mold and mildew grow in moist places like central heating systems and are just one more source of indoor pollution.

NASA researchers suggest that the most efficient air cleaning occurs with at least one houseplants per 100 square feet. Even the microorganisms in potting soil removes some toxins.

Some of the easiest houseplants to grow are some of the best to have in your home. Any of the plants listed above would fit the bill. If you have a cat or dog that nibbles, however, it’s best to stick with spider plants, palms and orchids, African violets, aluminum plant, bromeliads, peperomia, cast iron plants, Christmas cactus, chenille plant, creeping Charlie, false aralia wandering jew, piggy back plant and succulents like donkey’s tail and echeveria.

With a little planning you can clean the air in your home while keeping the pets safe.

Design trends

Flowers Adapt to a Changing Climate

These cultivated violas look similar to the field pansy in the study.

On this rainy day I’m picturing my garden and deck this summer filled with colorful flowers. The bumblebees will be happy, the hummingbirds will be happy, I’ll be happy. Or will I?

I recently read about a study in France that suggests that humans are quickly altering the way flowers are reproducing and it’s happening in just 20 generations. Toxic pesticides and vanishing habitats have driven down the populations of bees and other pollinators so some flowers have evolved to fertilize their own seeds more often than the seeds of other plants.

Bumblebee populations have declined and it may be that the field pansy flowers in the study are investing their energy into using their own pollen to fertilize their own seeds more, rather than produce big flowers that lure pollinators.

The researcher in the study, Dr. Cheptou an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Montpellier, was inspired to carry out the study when it became clear that bees and other pollinators were in drastic decline. How would flowers adapt? Would they find another way to reproduce?

The field pansies have always been able to reproduce using both methods. But a selfing flower can use only its own genes to produce new seeds. Sexual reproduction allows flowers to mix their DNA, creating new combinations that make them better prepared for diseases, drought and other challenges that future generations may face.

Tracking the evolution of the field pansy was made possible by the cache of seeds from the National Botanical Conservatory in France collected in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The researchers compared these old flowers with the new ones found in the countryside. After growing the new and old seeds side by side in the lab under identical conditions, they discovered that selfing had increased 27 percent since the 1990s.

Other changes of note were that although the new field pansies had not changed in their overall size, their flowers had shrunk by 10 percent and produced 20 percent less nectar.

So this change in reproduction may be making a bad situation worse for pollinating insects. The genetic limitation of selfing could put plants at risk of extinction.

Flowering plants are dealing with other issues such as global warming which speeds up the growth of the flowers and shrinks the window of time before the flower wilts and has nectar for pollinators.

Another study, however, on morning glories in the southern United States, found that between 2003 and 2012, the flowers became bigger, not smaller. Is this a strategy to keep attracting bees as they become less common?

Being an optimist I’m hoping that nature will adapt and figure out how to keep everybody happy.

Design trends

What’s New in the Garden in 2024

The flower buds, petals, young shoots and tubers of daylily are edible.

Gardening trends come & go. Who doesn’t love to read garden magazines with all those beautiful photographs during the winter and dream about your garden’s potential. Ditto for all the gardening blogs on the internet that are written by some very talented people who seem to have more free time than most of us. Here are some of the trends for 2024. You might already have incorporated some into your garden so pat yourself on the back and read on.

Like last year, enhancing your garden with edibles is again at the top of the list although now it’s got a fancy new name – Edimentals. Coined by writer Stephen Barstow of Norway edimentals are plants that are both edible and ornamental, therefore serving more than one function in the garden.

My friend Joy has foraged in her garden for years. You never know what’s going to be in one of her salads or soups. She would know that Pineapple Sage (Salvia elegans) is not only a fantastic fall-blooming perennial, but its scarlet flowers are great in salads, herbed cheeses and dressings.

Here are more reasons to add edimentals into your garden. Edimental plants are easy to care for. Perennials, shrubs and trees have fruiting times throughout the year rather than all at once. Their deeper roots make them hardier than annuals and better able to deal with drought or the occasional pest infestation. And when sprinkled throughout the entire garden, edimentals are a great way to draw kids out of the house and into the garden, encouraging them to forage while they wander. The flowers and tubers of both Dahlias and daylillies are examples of edimentals.

Another trend for 2024 isn’t really new. Naturalistic gardens consist mainly of native plants with drifts of flowers and grasses that look like a prairie that appears to have naturally re-seeded itself but in reality plants are carefully placed and chosen. The focus of a naturalistic garden is on a diversity of plants that blend with the surrounding nature and welcomes wildlife and pollinators. It’s neither manicured nor neglected. Sounds easy, doesn’t it?
Rethink that lawn this spring for a truly stunning yard.

Rain gardens are again trending. Around here it’s always a good idea to preserve runoff. Slow it, spread it, sink it should be our motto: catch the water, hold it on-site and get it back into the ground and out of storm drains. Roof and driveway pollutants from rain runoff are filtered by plant roots in a rain garden. Plants chosen for rain gardens need to handle the feast or famine amounts of water. Many native plants, grasses and sedges with their long, deep root structures.

The 4th trend for 2024 is learning to love bugs. While I can see that a few aphids, spider mites and whiteflies are not going to keep me up at night as long as the infestation isn’t too bad, I’m not sure about slugs and snails. The Royal Horticultural Society recently declassified slugs and snails as pests. The skunk and raccoon who frequent my garden will be happy to learn this. Me? Not so much.

Another trend is adapting and growing with a changing climate that is becoming hotter/colder, wetter, drier. Here are a few things you can do:
Choose the right plants that are more heat, cold, drought and pest resistant. Adjust your watering practices. Shift planting and harvesting dates and be prepared for extreme weather with row covers to protect from unexpected frost, shade cloth for excessive heat and materials for wind breaks.

Personally I embrace the smaller garden. You can create an instant meditation garden that encourages you to stop and sit for a couple minutes by placing a small bench where you can view something interesting in your garden. Small gardens are not only compact, they are easier to care for. Containers on the patio or deck allow you to grow plants for food as well as for the birds and the bees. There are more new dwarf vegetable, herb and flower varieties being introduced every year.

It’s always a good idea to remove overgrown shrubs and replace them with water smart, easy-to-care-for plants that will stay the right size in a smaller space. There are new compact and dwarf versions of old plants that have been garden favorites for a very long time. The reason they have endured is because they are reliable. Good reason to look again at some old favorites.


Everything old is new again.

Design trends

The Pantone 2024 Color of the Year

The Pantone Color of the Year for 2024 is… drumroll, please… Peach Fuzz. I like it. It’s a light, delicate shade that sits between pink and orange. I rarely get a request for orange flowers to be included in a garden so peach is a good compromise.

This year’s color is an easy one to include in the garden. Many of our favorite plants have peach colored blooms and it combines well with cornflower blue flowers. Softer shades of yellow and apricot also blend well with peach and add a wonderful feeling of warmth to the garden.

The UCSC Arboretum and Botanic Garden grows many kinds of leucospermum or Pincushion protea. One of my favorites is a lovely peach shade. I’m not sure of the name but it’s a beauty. David Austin offers several English shrub roses in shades of peach while Week’s roses offers the floribunda ‘Jump for Joy’ in a peachy shade. Several aloe varieties also come in peach toned flowers.

Warm colors tend to be more stimulating, dynamic and noticeable from afar than cool hues which are more calming and understated. Warm colors advance visually, cool ones recede. So to make a small garden appear larger use cool blues and lavenders in the back with just a touch of scarlet, orange or yellow up close for contrast. Do the opposite to make a large space more intimate – position warm colors at the back, cool colors in front.

Garden colors aren’t static either. They vary with time of day, the season, the weather and the distance from which we view them. Also color perception varies among people and not all people with normal vision see color the same way. Since color and light are inseparable, white, yellow and pastels seem more vivid in low light. In overcast or fog, soft colors like pink, creamy yellow, pale blue and lavender come alive. As night approaches and the earth is bathed in blues and violets, those colors are the first to fade from view.

So don’t forget white, cream and silver flowers and foliage to brighten up the night garden. White combines nicely with both warm and cool colors so it’s easy to place. It’s an effective peacemaker between colors that would clash if placed side by side. In shady gardens, plants like white bleeding heart, wavy cream-edged hosta, white browallia, white hydrangea, lamium and white calla lily pop at night. Gardens in more sun can plant Holly’s White penstemon, silvery bush morning glory, dichondra Silver Falls, fragrant Iceberg roses, white sweet alyssum and Whirling Butterflies gaura.

Have fun with color. don’t be afraid to try new combinations. I often hear people say “I like all the colors except orange”. Orange naturally combines with blue as these ‘sunset’ colors are opposite each other on the color wheel. Think how nice bright orange California poppies look with blue marguerites or peach Iceland poppies with blue violas.

Foliage is a rich source or garden color. You can find plants with yellow, red, purple, blue or gray foliage as well as shades of green with variegated, marbled or streaked leaves.

Plants grow and gardens change over time. Realize that you’re embarking on a journey that may take many years. Don’t be afraid to play with color even if you don’t get it right the first time. Just learn from your mistakes and make adjustments. And have fun getting there.

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