Emergence

A lot of plants in my garden are now responding to the rains of the last month. Here's a sampling:

Mission Manzanita (Xylococcus bicolor). This shrub had a a lot of dead branches on it after this brutal summer. About 2 weeks ago I pruned off most of the dead stuff, and now it is rebounding with new leaf growth and flowers. The flowers are the typical upside-down urn of the Ericaceae family.



My Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman' also suffered quite a bit this summer, and I had to prune away a lot of dead branches. Fortunately, it is also coming back strong. When these buds open up, the fragrance will be fantastic. The local pollinators will go nuts.

Verbena lilacina 'De la Mina'. A cultivar of a rare species from Cedros Island, Baja, this plant has become quite popular with many gardeners. It's an early bloomer and has a long blooming season. I don't know how it would do in inland gardens, but it's great in coastal gardens where you can create a microgeography to mimic the conditions it would have enjoyed in its place of origin.

 A plant I have mixed in with the Verbena is this member of the Asteraceae, Sea Dahlia (Leptosyne maritima). It is pretty much limited to the coastal strip of San Diego County, except for a couple of odd reported observations in LA County and on Santa Cruz Island. As a garden plant it has some drawbacks. When green, as at this time of year, it is rather weak stemmed, causing it to flop over or break easily. In the dry months, it sheds its leaves and the stem turns woody and dry, becoming stronger but less attractive. However, the flowers are great, and the dry stems pop back to life readily with Fall rains. It also seeds itself readily, which you may either like or hate. I like it because it is one of the plants that was probably on this site in pre-European times. In fact, I'm going to try something new here and inset a link to the Calflora interactive location map for this species:
 http://www.calflora.org/entry/dgrid.html?crn=10954. You'll have to zoom in to San Diego County to see the locations, and I think it helps to select "Show Individual Observation Points."

Above is Wart-stemmed Ceanothus (Ceanothus verrucosus), a somewhat rare shrub that is a member of the Southern Maritime Chaparral community. It grows near the coast in eroded sandstone soils from Pt. Loma through Carlsbad. In Encinitas it is found along El Camino Real. Here's the Calflora location map: http://www.calflora.org/entry/dgrid.html?crn=1837
Although Ceanothus verrucosus might not have been found growing on the site where my house is, I'm glad to see that it is happy here. It's about 3 years old and showed no sign of distress this past summer.

Winter Currant (Ribes indecorum) is also blooming like crazy right now. I guess that would explain the common name. Like other members of the Grossulariaceae (gooseberries) it will produce berries that are favored by birds.

This Lance-leaf Dudleya (Dudleya lanceolata) is doing really well in a container. I have a couple of others in the ground but none of them is doing as well as this one, which is starting to put up an inflorescence now. I find that D. lanceolata needs a bit more moisture and shade than some of the other Dudleyas, such as pulverulenta. By accident I seem to have put it in the perfect spot.

Another Dudleya that is putting up an inflorescence now is D. candida from the Coronados Islands, just a few miles below the border and just offshore from Tijuana. This is a really nice, compact Dudleya that is only available from Grigsby Cactus Nursery in Vista, and they don't have it all the time.

Moving slightly farther afield now, the Cliff Spurge (Euphorbia misera) has become fully leafed out and has produced a few flowers. The reason I say this is farther afield is because it is not clear whether this plant ever occurred in significant numbers north of the border. While it becomes quite common from Tijuana southward, there are only a handful of current locations in Pt. Loma, Torrey Pines, Otay Mesa, and scattered other spots. http://www.calflora.org/entry/dgrid.html?crn=3558
On the other hand, it is possible that it was previously more common on the coastal bluffs and around the lagoons. Like Coast Barrel Cactus (Ferocactus viridescens) it would have been considered worthless, and its removal by early farmers would have been scarcely noticed.

Another species that seems to barely cross the border is Small-leaved Rose (Rosa minutifolia). Known from only a handful of locations in the Otay area and threatened in Mexico by the rapid spread of agriculture into formerly unspoiled habitat, Rosa minutifolia has been propagated for the garden as a way of trying to preserve it. The simple pink flowers are clearly roses, and it blooms profusely in response to the rain. I think it works great in the Baja section of my garden.

Since I am on to Baja plants now, the Bursera hindsiana is putting out new growth. This surprises me somewhat because I did not expect it to respond to winter rain. I guess some of the Baja species are able to take advantage of rain at any season. Rebman and Roberts say it is found along almost the entire length of the peninsula, so that would mean the northern populations would be accustomed to receiving winter rain.

The last selection for this post is Burroughsia fastigiata (no common name). Another Baja plant, this one is rarely seen in gardens. It forms a shrub 4-6 ft, in height, relatively upright and narrow. The flowers look a bit like Lantana. I haven't noticed them attracting any particular butterflies, but it may be attracting smaller, less conspicuous pollinators that I just haven't been paying enough attention to see. Or it may be that the preferred pollinator is not around here. If anyone knows more about this plant, let me know.

And More Rain

The plants are REALLY responding now. The rain we have been getting is in nearly ideal amounts and interval to get everything greening up fast. Here's what's been happening in the last week.

Mystery Mushrooms

I moved some trash cans that I use for yard waste, and these things were underneath. Very interesting because the cap is asymmetrical. This area is always in shade and has a couple inches of d.g. on it. Usually only stray weeds pop up there. These mushrooms show that there is organic material in the soil that is feeding this fungus. I love these because it shows the presence of a mychorrhizal network.

Miners' Lettuce

A few years ago I sprinkled some seeds of Miners' Lettuce (Claytonia perfiolata) under the oak tree in the front yard. They germinated quickly and really liked that spot, so now they are re-seeding themselves every year. They look like a grass at this stage, but later they will develop a single round, clasping leaf that looks like a tiny water lily pad. Miners Lettuce is edible and is common in oak woodlands and other shaded places throughout the state.

Soap Plant

I have a number of corms of the geophyte Chlorogalum pomeridianum which is commonly known as Soap Plant, Amole, and a few other names. The name Soap Plant comes from the fact that native people used the corm to make a soap. They also used the fibrous outer coating of the corm as a brush or whisk broom. It isn't often grown in the garden because the flowers are really tiny and hard to see. However, I wanted some as part of my ecosystem approach to gardening. I always forget where they are until they start to come up, as below. Overall, this plant tends to hide among other plants, making itself known only to its preferred pollinators which are most likely a very tiny insect.

Silene Laciniata

Commonly known as Catchfly, this plant is the opposite of Soap plant in that it proclaims its presence in the garden or the wild with stunning red flowers. This is a flower that apparently wants to look beautiful for people. It has a lengthy bloom time, from now through April. I got two of them from the last Recon plant sale and I want more, more, more. Perfect for a border in front of more rugged chaparral plants.

Ribes Speciosum

Commonly called Fuchsia-flower gooseberry, this rather brambly vine is a great one to have if you can give it some space. It goes totally dead-looking dormant starting in late Spring, but with the first rains it starts shooting out green leaves so fast that it seems like you can watch it happening. A month from now it will be covered with red, tubular, pendant flowers that have a sort of firecracker look.

Cochemia Halei

One of the most unexpected results of this rain is that one of my Baja cacti has decided to bloom. I can't really explain what's going on here because its sisters only a foot away are not blooming. It just shows once again that plants don't tell us what they are doing or why. They just do it.

Native Plant Wreath

Anyone that knows me will testify that I am not a holiday lover. However, my wife (Sheila) likes to do Christmas decorating. This year she made a wreath for the front door from springs of plants from the garden. I must admit that it's a nice idea, even though I think wreaths are generally stupid. It smells good because it has some white sage and cleveland sage in it, so it's not all bad.

Let It Rain

Photo: fir0002

As I write, it is raining again in Encinitas. This is welcome news. It appears we are on our way to at least a "normal" rainfall year of about 10" or perhaps even a little better, thus alleviating the effects of the drought for this year. It also means we should have good flowers in the Spring. Some of my plants have immediately responded by putting out leaf sprouts - and I mean immediately. Below is a Giant Coreopsis (Leptosyne gigantea) before the rain and about 24 hours after it started.

This plant from the Channel Islands and Pt. Mugu area looks completely lifeless in the drought of summer, but it is merely leafless, not lifeless. As soon as the rain got to its roots, its stored energy in the stem started pushing out leaves from the top. The Halloween rain probably primed it for action, and this storm set it in motion. Another islands plant that is very happy with this rain is Munzothamnus blairii (Blair's Wire Lettuce) which is found on San Clemente Island and a weird, disjunct population on the mainland in Alameda County. Both the Leptosyne and Munzothamnus are members of the Aster family, though one would never know it by looking at them. It is only by examination of the flowers that the family resemblance becomes evident.

In my last post I showed Blue Dicks (Dichelostemma capitatum) sprouting up. Now the Thread-leaf Brodiaea (Brodiaea filifolia) is following suit. This species is listed as Endangered by the State and Threatened by the Federal government because it occurs in a very limited distribution in coastal southern California in precisely the places where people want to build houses. It is often said to be a vernal pool species, but I have also seen it extensively in grasslands in Carlsbad. Although it is a listed species, you can obtain the bulbs legally from Telos Rare Bulbs: (http://www.telosrarebulbs.com/).

Some of my plants don't want to get too wet. This is especially true of the Baja cacti. They have a tendency to rot if they get too wet, and I have lost a number of them that way. So I covered them before this storm. They will still get plenty of water from underground. They just won't get too much water directly on them.

Dudleyas are also picky like that. They don't want to have water standing in the center of the rosette. The vast majority of wild Dudleyas are found on slopes, and in the garden they should be planted on a slope or at an angle to the ground so water can drain off of them. It doesn't have to be a lot of slope, just enough so the center of the rosette can drain.

I used to not have any rain barrels. I just let the water run into the soil, and I have a few decorative pieces at the bottom of some of the downspouts.

Recently I got an email from a local nursery called Barrels and Branches (www.barrelsandbranches.com) telling me that I could get a rain barrel for $75 and I could get a $75 rebate from SoCalWaterSmart (http://socalwatersmart.com/index.php/home/?p=res). I went to Barrels and Branches and bought the rain barrel. I don't have a rain gutter in the location where I decided to put it. I just let the water run into the opening at the top of the barrel. I got a totally full barrel out of this storm.

Some insects had their own reactions to the weather. This butterfly, possibly an Orange Sulfur male, found himself a spot to hang out on the trunk of the oak tree. Not a bad spot to stay out of the rain.

I picked up a pot and underneath it was this Jerusalem Cricket. It didn't like being disturbed so I covered it up again. These things are harmless but they look positively evil.

Let's hear it for winter in So Cal.