My friend, Keri from Animalbytes, joined my wife and I for a trip to the Southern California Spring Garden Show in Costa Mesa, California last Friday. She has written up her recap of the show and included her own pictures of the event.
Check out Keri’s recap and photos
Bolting
“Bolting is when agricultural and horticultural crops prematurely produce a flowering stem (or stems) before the crop is harvested, in a natural attempt to produce seeds[1] and hence reproduce. These flowering stems are usually vigorous extensions of existing leaf-bearing stems, and in order to produce them, a plant diverts resources away from producing the edible parts such as leaves or roots, resulting in a poor quality harvest from the grower’s point of view. Plants that have produced flowering stems in this way are said to have bolted. Crops inclined to bolt include lettuce, beetroot, brassicas, spinach, celery and onion.[1] — Wikipedia.org
Unfortunately, living here the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, I am very familiar with bolting in plants as our long periods of high heat can cause cold crops to bolt to seed almost immediately. Here we must grow out lettuce and kale in what other parts of the US would consider deep Winter — January through March. I often joke that we only get about 2 weeks of nice Spring weather before the Summer heat arrives and any of the last cold weather plants in the ground will quickly bolt. Even worse, you can’t really predict when the heat will arrive, so you play a bit of a gambling game with anything planted later in the season.
You can recognize bolting by flower stalks arising from plants you normally raise for leaves of root. With many plants, bolting takes energy from the formation of roots and leaves and, in the case of lettuce and other leaf crops, it can turn them very bitter and inedible. While you can recognize bolting, there is nothing you can do to halt the process as far as I know. You can only try to plant with the proper season for your area and hope that the weather cooperates. Of course, this is true with everything in gardening, isn’t it?
Photo of bolted lettuce
Photo used under Creative Commons from Filckr User paix120
More information on Bolting:
This Garden Vocabulary series seeks to introduce and explain to you — and in many cases, myself — words and terms associated with gardening. Please let me know if there are any terms you would like me to explore. You can leave your ideas in the comments section and we can learn together!
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Merry Christmas Photo
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Frieda, from Frieda’s Garden on YouTube has just posted a host of videos from her day at Fullerton Beautiful’s 2013 Garden Tour. I am working my way through the videos, but what I have seen so far looks quite amazing. Join Frieda as she tours some of the finest gardens Orange County, California has to offer.
See all the videos from Fullerton Beautiful’s 2013 Garden Tour on Frieda’s Garden via YouTube
Interesting Plant: Sedum sarmentosum
Via Brenda Draeger on Pinterest
Interesting Plant: Sedum sarmentosum
Sedum is a large genus of flowering plants in the family Crassulaceae, members of which are commonly known as stonecrops. It contains around 400 species of leaf succulents that are found throughout the Northern Hemisphere, varying from annual and creeping herbs to shrubs. The plants have water-storing leaves. The flowers usually have five petals, seldom four or six. There are typically twice as many stamens as petals. — Wikipedia.org
I am increasingly looking for ground covers that can tolerate the dry shade in the woodland area of the garden, so when I saw this sedum I knew I needed to get more information. It is rare for a plant to grow in both full sun and shade, but my reading seems to show that this does. I assume it will be slower growing in the shade though, but I don’t care about speed of cover as much as ability to survive in a relatively harsh environment.
More information on Sedum sarmentosum:
Previously in the Interesting Plant series:
Garden Inventory: Paperwhites (Narcissus papyraceus)
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I plant some lemon thyme we picked up at the Southern California Spring Garden Show, we check on the frugal lettuce and see why it failed and I fix up my make-do potting bench in the back yard.
What’s happening in your garden? I’d love to know! Leave your questions and comments here or on any of the web and social media sites linked below!
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Music: “Whiskey on the Mississippi” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) – Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0
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Garden Inventory: Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia)
Ulmus parvifolia, commonly known as the Chinese Elm[1] or Lacebark Elm, is a species native to China, Japan, North Korea and Vietnam.[2] It has been described as “one of the most splendid elms, having the poise of a graceful Nothofagus”.[3]
A small to medium deciduous, semi-deciduous (rarely semi-evergreen) tree growing to 10–18 m (30–60 ft) tall with a slender trunk and crown. The leathery, lustrous green single-toothed leaves are small, 2–5 cm long by 1–3 cm broad, and often retained as late as December or even January in Europe and North America. The apetalous wind-pollinated perfect flowers are produced in early autumn, small and inconspicuous. The fruit is a samara, elliptic to ovate-elliptic, 10–13 mm long by 6–8 mm broad.[2] The samara is mostly glabrous, the seed at the centre or toward the apex, borne on a stalk 1–3 mm in length; it matures rapidly and disperses by late autumn. The trunk has a handsome, flaking bark of mottled greys with tans and reds, giving rise to its other common name, the Lacebark Elm, although scarring from major branch loss can lead to large canker-like wounds — Wikipedia.org
This tree dominates our front garden and, if left un-pruned long enough, can obscure the entire front of the house with it s large, heavily leaved and somewhat weeping limbs. We let it go far too long and just recently had it pruned back. Each time we have it pruned, I am reminded of how much I like it. The particular specimen was badly abused when we moved in 16 years ago, being nothing much more than a large trunk and nothing else. Luckily, after many years of proper pruning I think it looks like an elm once again. It has a nice habit and is truly a showpiece in the garden.
Chinese elm are a common “street tree” here in the San Fernando Valley, but I think it might be possible that are a few American Elms scattered about. I have noticed trees with similar stems and leaves, but with a completely different bark and it had been confusing my identification. Now I am going to go back to those tress and see if, perhaps, they are the American Elm.
Other than regular pruning, our elm requires almost no other care, which makes it a great tree for my garden.
Photos of Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia) with closeups of leaves, bark, and growing habit.
More information on Chinese Elm (Ulmus parvifolia):
Previously on Garden Inventory:
Garden Inventory is a series where I begin an inventory of all the plants and trees in my garden. Along with some of my own pictures, I will link to various sources of information about each plant and tree so we can learn a little more together.
I would also like to highlight your special plants and tress. Pass along your favorite plants in the comments and I will use them for future Garden Inventory posts. — Douglas
Video: In the garden…Sunnylands Center & Gardens in Rancho Mirage, California
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Garden Alphabet: Acanthus
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Garden Alphabet: Squirrel
A montage of scenes from the Southern California Spring Garden Show in Costa Mesa, California. For links and all my still pictures from the show, visit this post, “Photos: Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013.
Watch “Scenes from the Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013” on YouTube
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Gardens of LA – Greystone Manor
Photos: Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013
Garden Alphabet: Orchid from the Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013
Photos: Engaging Nature Design Garden at Southern California Spring Garden Show
Garden History: “The Appletrees,” Henry Eugene Coe house, Southampton, New York
Here are my photos from yesterday trip to the Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013 in Costa Mesa, California.
I will have a montage video coming soon, too, so look for that here and on the YouTube Channel.
Click the slide show to play/ Click any photo to see it in full resolution or watch the full-resolution slide show here.
Previously:
Garden Alphabet: Orchid from the Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013
Today’s photo comes from our visit to the Southern California Spring Garden Show 2013 in Costa Mesa, CA. The show runs through Sunday, so you still have a chance to make it to the show. As usual, there were tons of plants on display including large collections of orchids of all shapes and sizes. The shocking contrast of this purply-pink, white and black grabbed my eye as I walked past. Orchids, in general, are amazing plants, looking more like an alien species than something to be found here on Earth.
I’ll have a lot more photos from the Garden Show up soon and I will be highlighting them here on A Gardener’s Notebook in the coming days and weeks.
Orchidaceae
The Orchidaceae are a diverse and widespread family of flowering plants with colorful and fragrant blooms, commonly known as the orchid family. Along with the Asteraceae, they are one of the two largest families of flowering plants, with between 21,950 and 26,049 currently accepted species, found in 880 genera.[1][2]
Selecting which of the two families is larger is still under debate, as concrete numbers on such enormous families are constantly in flux. Regardless, the number of orchid species equals more than twice the number of bird species, and about four times the number of mammal species. The family also encompasses about 6–11% of all seed plants.[3] The largest genera are Bulbophyllum (2,000 species), Epidendrum (1,500 species), Dendrobium (1,400 species) and Pleurothallis (1,000 species).
The family also includes Vanilla (the genus of the vanilla plant), Orchis (type genus), and many commonly cultivated plants such as Phalaenopsis and Cattleya. Moreover, since the introduction of tropical species in the 19th century, horticulturists have produced more than 100,000 hybrids and cultivars.– Wikipedia.org
Previously in Garden Alphabet:
