Improper Pruning Is More Work Than Proper Pruning

Vine maples should be small trees, not . . . this.

In the short time it took me to run to the back yard to get some big stakes and something to pound them into the ground with, the unfortunate deed had been done. I had come home to find that one of my neighbor’s new Canary Island pine trees had blown down. I also noticed that the gardeners were there; so I wanted to get the tree staked properly before the gardeners got to it. Sadly, as I returned with stakes, ties and a mallet, I found that the gardeners were faster. Instead of standing the small tree up and staking it, they had already shorn the formerly well structured canopy into a globular mound that was about the same size and shape as most other items throughout the landscape, for no other reason than it was within their reach.

This same landscape had egg shaped African iris ‘bushes’ that only rarely bloomed if they happened to get an errant flower stalk out between shearings, and short, round trumpet vine ‘bushes’ in front of hefty  but bare trellises that they were never allowed to climb. Everything that was within reach was shorn, even the underside of an elegant Chinese elm that really should have been pruned properly by an arborist. The landscape was actually well designed, but could not perform as planned because of the shear abuse.

I really do not mind proper shearing of particular shrubbery that is intended to be shorn. I actually like old fashioned privet or boxwood hedges. However, even hedges need to be shorn properly; and realistically, not much else should be shorn as often. If it needs to be shorn regularly, but is not a hedge, it is probably not the right plant material for the job.

Properly selected plant material is proportionate to its particular application. This certainly does not mean that it does not need to be pruned. Most deciduous fruit trees and roses need to be pruned aggressively every winter, and almost all plant material needs to be pruned in some manner at one time or another. The difference is that shearing is indiscriminate pruning of outer growth without regard for foliage, bloom or branch structure. This is fine for hedges, but disfigures many other plants, and deprives them of their blooms and natural foliar textures that they were planted for.

For example, wisteria is an abundantly blooming robust vine that becomes a gnarled shrub that cannot bloom if shorn. Heavenly bamboo (nandina) is grown for its graceful and colorful foliage, but becomes a grungy rigid thicket of tattered leaves and stems with shearing. Although some shrubby junipers can make nice low hedges, frequent shearing deprives them of their feathery texture.   

This is why it is so important to know what the various plants in the garden need. They can only perform as intended with the proper care and maintenance, which includes proper pruning. Hedges may only need to be properly shorn, but almost everything else needs to be selectively pruned, thinned, elevated (raised), divided, groomed, trimmed, trained or even cut back. 

Horridculture – Redwood Fallacies

These coastal redwoods are very distinct from giant redwoods.

“Hidden giants: how the UK’s 500,000 redwoods put California in the shade” was published in the Guardian more than a month ago. It was amended to specify that it is about giant redwoods rather than all redwoods, as if that is a distinction that is easily omitted. Incidentally, it later mentions that, “For millions of years, the world’s tallest trees have graced California peaks and coastlines,” which is a reference to coastal redwoods, which are a different genus from giant redwoods.

What is worse is the claim that, “Researchers found that the Victorians brought so many seeds and saplings to Britain that experts say the giant redwoods now outnumber those in their US homeland.” More specifically, it continues to explain that, “The Victorians were so impressed that they brought seeds and seedlings from the US in such large numbers that there are now approximately 500,000 in Britain, according to a Forestry Commission estimate that includes coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods (a separate Chinese species) as well as the giant redwoods. Experts at Kew think most of the UK trees are giant sequoias, the official name for giant redwoods. California has about 80,000 giant redwoods, as well as also having coastal redwoods and a few ornamental dawn redwoods imported from China.”

Essentially, the article claims that this data demonstrates that there are more redwoods in the United Kingdom than there are here. Apparently, approximately half a million redwoods live there, and “experts” “think” that most are giant redwoods. Also apparently, only about eighty thousand giant redwoods live here.

Response to this is no easy task. It is a comparison of all redwoods in the United Kingdom to a very slim minority of redwoods here. About eighty thousand mature specimens of giant redwood live in the wild alone. Countless more immature specimens, including abundant seedlings that are only a few years old, live with them. Countless more giant redwoods have been installed into landscapes throughout areas of California that are collectively almost as large as all of Britain. Such trees have been getting planted here at least as long as they have been getting planted there. It is impossible to estimate how many giant redwoods are here, but there are many more than merely half a million. Furthermore, regardless of how the article was revised, the half a million redwoods of the United Kingdom includes coastal redwoods and dawn redwoods. There may be as many dawn redwoods here as there are there. More importantly, there are more than two million acres of wild coastal redwood forest here. In other words, for every redwood of any species there, there are at least four acres of wild coastal redwoods here. Many redwoods inhabit each acre of redwood forest. Also, many millions of coastal redwoods are planted into landscapes here.

Incidentally, the three species of redwood are actually three distinct genera, and the official name of giant redwood really is giant redwood. It is Sequoidendron, not Sequoia.

The article continues to say with complicated grammar, “Spurred by the climate crisis, devastating droughts and scorching temperatures have added new stressors for the redwood, particularly the famous giant sequoias, which now struggle to bounce back after big wildfires.” However, there is no climate crisis with devastating droughts or scorching temperatures here. Summers here are naturally dry and warm. That is simply how the climate here is. Most forests here burn at least every century or so. Therefore, redwoods that are thousands of years old have survived many fires. Now that some forests are allowed to burn as they naturally should, fires will not likely be so unusually lethal to younger redwoods in the future. Another claim that, “Vulnerable trees are also increasingly under attack from native bark beetles, insects that feed on their spongy red trunks until they topple.” is likewise inaccurate. Bark beetles rarely damage redwoods, and are no more likely to damage them now that they ever had been.

Dusty Miller

Dusty miller is strikingly silvery gray.

Of the few unrelated species of dusty miller, the most common here is Senecio cineraria. Like other dusty miller species, its foliage is remarkably silvery white. Its foliar tomentum can be so thick that it resembles fine felt. Individual leaves exhibit intricately deep lobes. They are about two to five inches long, but are smaller and simpler on upper floral stems.

Dusty miller blooms with floppy clusters of tiny but bright yellow daisy flowers. However, because the colorful foliage is more appealing, bloom might not be a priority. Removal of floral stems prior to bloom promotes denser and neater foliar texture. Within more severe climates, dusty miller is a warm season annual. It is a resilient shrubby perennial locally.

Mature specimens of dusty miller can get a bit taller than three feet with bloom. They are shorter with grooming and pruning to maintain compact form without bloom. If necessary, they are conducive to pruning to limit their height to about a foot and a half. This species tolerates a bit more partial shade than other dusty miller. Ideally, it prefers sunny warmth.

Colorful Foliage Without Colorful Bloom

Barberry can be bronze or gold.

Floral color gets most of the attention within home gardens through spring. It should. It is the most copious and most colorful of color. Though, it is not the only color. A few species that provide floral color, and more that do not, provide colorful foliage. Similar to Olympic Medals, this foliage can be bronze, silver or gold, or variants of such. Some rivals bloom.

Colorful foliage is not the same as foliar color of deciduous foliage as it sheds in autumn. Much is evergreen. Most is most colorful while it grows through warming spring weather. Actually, most fades through summer, and some becomes simpler dark green by autumn. Afterward though, some deciduous colorful foliage also develops foliar color for autumn.

The most popular colorful foliage is variegated. This means it is partly green with stripes, margins, blotches, spots, patterns or blushes. The color range of such variegations is as variable as its pattern range. Some foliage is variegated with a few vividly distinct colors. New Zealand flax, coleus, croton and caladium are some of the more familiar examples.

Of all unvariegated colorful foliage, bronze foliage is the most variable. It includes foliage that is brown as well as reddish, purplish or perhaps dark orangish. Some emerges pink before developing a darker shade. New photinia foliage is reddish bronze only briefly as it matures as dark green. Purple leaf plum and smoke tree are famously purplish bronze.

Silver foliage is the most useful colorful foliage in the wild. At high elevations, where sun exposure is harshly intense, it is selectively reflective. It absorbs sufficient sunlight for its photosynthesis, but not enough to succumb to scald. It is how Arizona cypress and some agaves survive in the high desert. Such foliage may be gray, pallid blue or almost white.

Many species with gold foliage are the same as those with bronze foliage. New Zealand flax, smoke tree, barberry and elderberry can be either bronze or gold. Since gold foliage contains less chlorophyll than green foliage, it is a bit less vigorous. Unlike silver foliage, it serves no natural practical purpose. It survives in landscapes for visual appeal.

More Bad Design

blindfolded house

The landscape in front of the home across the road from where I am staying in Arizona is weird. Like many of the landscapes here, it is simple, with only a few small shrubs and stone surrounded by gravel, but also includes this silly pair of purple leaf plum trees. They are pruned into symmetrically round form. The pruning keeps their canopies nicely dense with strikingly bronzed foliage. What makes them so weird is their location. Within the climate here, shade is an asset. However, these trees are not allowed to make much shade. The natural form of these small trees could frame the facade of this house nicely. However, they clash with it defiantly. With their profuse spring bloom and rich foliar color, these trees might enhance the scenery from within the windows. However, they subjugate it and exclude any other scenery, and likely exclude a bit too much sunlight without providing significant cooling shade through summer. I am certainly no landscape designer, but in my opinion, this landscape looks odd. The vegetation is of good quality and quite healthy. The stone and gravel is neatly arranged. The facade of the home is quite appealing. The problem is that the assemblage of the landscape relative to the home is awkward. The tree in the foreground is one of the first three mesquite trees that I ever met when I pruned them up for clearance last year. It and the specimen next to it are also awkwardly placed in front of their home, although the third is in a better situation next to the garage. That is precisely why these three trees were pruned up for clearance, and why they will be pruned higher as they grow. They already provide a bit of shade, and will provide more as they grow.

Ancient Ruins

Eight columns arranged in a semicircle behind the High Place garden at Filoli were found by excavation for the foundation of a skyscraper in San Francisco. The stone from which they were carved is European, but no one knows how or why they were buried under San Francisco. They could have been recycled into one of many buildings that were destroyed by the Great Earthquake and associated fire of 1906, and subsequently buried within landfill with tons of other debis. They were more likely recycled as ballast for a European ship that, as it deteriorated or became obsolete, was dismantled and buried within landfill in San Francisco. It is a mystery. They are in a formal landscape at Filoli now, and will likely remain there for a very long time.

Within a dumpster of recyclable broken concrete, I noticed this old concrete column. With a bit of investigation, I also found the base. Each component is very heavy. I have no idea what they were, but I suspect that they were the base of an elaborate birdbath. I did not find any associate basin within the dumpster. In order to identify their origin, I inquired about these items with those who disposed of them. At the location, I found a small portion of the column that fits between the base and the larger portion of the column, as well as another column that is identical to the original with the smaller portion attached, but no other base. Nor did I find any basin or other features that might have been supported by the columns. They are either already disposed of, or buried by earlier excavation. It is such a waste. Regardless, these items are here now, and will hopefully be incorporated into the landscapes, although I have no idea how.

Six on Saturday: Are We There Yet?

As expected, the second half of my vacation was delayed. Then, very unexpectedly, all of our delays worked out. Rhody, Carson and I left exactly on time. Then, as unexpectedly, and just an hour from our first destination at Brent’s Jungalow, we were diverted to our final destination near Buckeye near Phoenix in Arizona. The explanation is as tedious as the additional six hour drive, at night and partially through Los Angeles style traffic. We are here now but got almost no pictures yet. We stopped only briefly in San Luis Obispo, where Brent and I were in school from 1985 to 1990, and where a few of our friends live.

1. From his shelf in back, through the dirty windshield, and through the dirty window of a cafe, Rhody stared impatiently at me as I tried to enjoy a bit of coffee the day before we left. ‘Hot Lips’ Salvia microphylla to the left is the only vegetation visible in this picture.

2. Wile E. Coyote also stared at me impatiently, at the end of the same day, as I finished a last task prior to leaving. I can not identify the vegetation that is visible in this picture. I suspect that the tree to the left and above is a common Pacific willow, Salix lasiandra.

3. The hills have eyes. I have no idea what the pair of shrubs at the center of this picture are. I only know that they have not changed since I arrived at Cal Poly in 1985. I got this picture right outside of my classmate’s office in the Alan A. Erhart Agriculture Building.

4. Also right outside of my classmate’s office, several specimens of unidentified eucalypti were recently installed. I recognize none of them. This specimen exhibits remarkably big leaves for the genus. These trees are very close to where I first met Eucalyptus torquata.

5. Barrel cactus, Echinocactus grusonii, dies ugly. It looks like something out of a horror movie, or like it consumed a horror movie. I suspect that this and several other similarly imploded carcasses decayed because of automated irrigation that is intolerably frequent.

6. Is this good or bad landscape design? I typically prefer uniformity and symmetry, but this seems to be excessive. Several rotting specimens, mostly to the right, are disrupting the symmetry, but also leaving voids. I got this random picture as I left San Luis Obispo.

This is the link for Six on Saturday, for anyone else who would like to participate: https://thepropagatorblog.wordpress.com/2017/09/18/six-on-saturday-a-participant-guide/

Lilac

Lilac is splendidly fragrant!

‘French Hybrids’ are not fuel efficient European cars. (However, if there were a French equivalent to the old Japanese Datsun ‘Z’ that was instead named the ‘S’, we could really see the ‘S car go!’) ‘French Hybrids’ are varieties of lilac with single or double flowers in various shades of lavender, pink, pale blue, pinkish red, purple and white. Some have flowers that are two-toned. ‘Primrose’ is an interesting shade of pale yellow. All are strongly but elegantly fragrant. 

Even though ‘French Hybrids’ have the advantage of being better adapted to mild winters, the original species of common lilac, Syringa vulgaris, and its older varieties seem to do just fine locally, and actually seem to be more fragrant. The only disadvantage is that almost all bloom with lavender flowers. ‘Alba’, with white flower, is rare. ‘Descanso Hybrids’ were developed for even milder winters.  

The individual tubular flowers are actually very small, but bloom in dense conical trusses that are typically about three or four inches long, and possibly twice as long. Trusses develop on year old stems, so pruning should be done right after bloom only, although dead-heading (removing deteriorating trusses) without pruning can be done at any time. The soft and sometimes light green leaves are about three inches long. Mature plants are often eight feet tall and nearly as broad, and can get twice as large.

Unlike most plants that get suckers that need to be removed, most lilacs should instead be pruned to remove older canes and to promote healthier growth of suckers. This process of ‘alternating canes’ continually replaces less productive deteriorating stems with vigorous new stems. Old fashioned grafted plants are the only lilacs that should have their suckers removed; but they are uncommon, and do not sucker as much anyway.

Snail Season

Very fresh escargot

The problem with escargot that is too fresh is that it grazes – a lot! Snails, as well as slugs, lurk in our own gardens, waiting for nightfall, or sometimes not, to emerge and devour any tender plant parts that appeal to them. They tear apart large leaves and fresh flowers, and eat seedlings completely. They are particularly problematic this time of year, while the garden is still damp, but the weather is getting warmer, and especially since there is so much fresh new vegetation for them to eat.

The most effective means of controlling these troublesome mollusks is to eliminate their hiding places where they camp out during the day. This involves pulling large weeds and removing any debris that may be laying about the garden. Leave no stone unturned. Of course, this is not so easy in lush gardens with abundant or overgrown foliage, and features like large pots and statuary. In such situations, cunning and diligence are in order.

I have found bare copper wire wrapped around pots, planters and tree trunks to be an effective deterrent. Copper tape sold in nurseries and garden centers is probably better since it is wider. It can be self adhesive, or stapled to wooden containers or shelves. Snails can get past the copper though, on any plant parts than hang over where the snails can reach. Wire should be removed from tree trunks after ‘snail season’, or wrapped in a manner that accommodates for trunk expansion. For example, an ‘S’ shaped curve in the circling wire set flatly against a tree trunk provides enough slack for a bit of expansion.

It is also good to hunt snails as they come out after dark or before they go in for the morning. They are neither elusive nor fast. They are merely objectionable to handle. Laying a piece of cardboard or similar material out for them to hide under, and then surprising them during the day is a sneaky trick, but effective. Putting small puddles of beer out in shallow containers, such as saucers for potted plants, is more work, but not often as effective. It is sneakier though, since it entices the snails to stay out drinking until they die in the sunlight.   

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Physics of Exposure