Plant Notes

January 2008 Plant Notes

Arctostaphylos

Manzanitas seem like the answer to the California gardener's prayers. Here is a plant that can not only survive without summer water but looks good doing it. But only the most ecologically virtuous among us are willing to forego a mixed landscape that requires summer water, and for many manzanitas this presents problems. Death comes to most garden grown manzanitas in the form of water-borne fungal diseases, but among this large and diverse family there is variation in the degree of tolerance and Betsy Clebsch shared with us her experience in growing some of these.

	Arctostaphylos densiflora "Howard McMinn" is a tried and trusted manzanita of moderate size, (5' x 6') of a mounding habit with glossy, mid-green leaves and pink-tinged white urn-shaped flowers. One of its most attractive features is its smooth, dark mahogany bark. "Howard McMinn" has been a long-lived cultivar for me; several that I planted 45 years ago are still alive and healthy.
Arctostaphylos densiflora "Howard McMinn"

Arctostaphylos "Sentinel" is a variety closely related to "Howard McMinn" but taller, (6' x 8') and more upright. It may be trained as a small tree that shows off the smooth mahogany bark to advantage. Its leaves are light green and downy.

Arctostaphylos edmundsii var. parvifolia "Bert Johnson" is one of the "Little Sur" manzanitas, native to the Monterey area, and characterized by a prostrate, spreading habit that make them useful as groundcovers. The variety parvifolia is even flatter than the species with dense foliage of small gray-green leaves, the new tips of which are bronze colored.

Perhaps the most frequently planted manzanita is "Emerald Carpet", popular for its adaptability to a wide range of growing conditions. It will tolerate summer water if the soil is well drained and thrives in hot, sunny exposures, the bright green foliage staying fresh and attractive all year. It is considered a hybrid between A. uva-ursi and A. nummularia, and is low and spreading (1 'x 5'), matting or mounding in habit.

Rancho Santa Ana Botanical Garden has been responsible for many new introductions suitable for the home landscape. A."Pacific Mist" is described by Nevin Smith in his book, "Native Treasures" as "a billowy groundcover making a variable, widely-spreading mound". It has proven to be consistently tolerant of summer water. The narrow gray-green leaves contrast well with the smooth dark bark of the branches.

The selection that most intrigued members was A."Winterglow", whose new foliage is so bright a bronze that the plant appears to be covered in red flowers. The leaves are small (1/2"), light green and densely set on a two-foot neatly mounding plant. Pink flowers followed by red berries round out its attractions.

Arctostaphylos "John Dourly" is a mounding species, 3' tall spreading to 6 to 10'. Its gray-green foliage is bronze-tipped when new, its flowers white with a pink tinge. It is considered one of the most tolerant of garden watering.

Cissus striata, an evergreen vine in the grape family (Vitaceae), is a slender but vigorous climber, attaching itself by tendrils. Its palmate compound leaves have three or five small (1"-3") glossy, dark green leaflets. In summer small clusters of greenish flowers are borne opposite the leaves and are followed by shiny black berries. The berries are edible, at least by dogs, according to Nancy Schramm, from whose garden it came. She finds that it makes a nice tracery against a wall. It is native to South America, from Brazil to Chile, which would raise concerns about its hardiness but Nancy Schram says hers survived last winter's coldest spells.

One would not normally think of papayas as suitable subjects for bonsai with their long leafless trunks and bushy clusters of oversized leaves, but this is what Katie Wong has managed. To be sure, she used Carica quercifolia, "Oakleaf Papaya", a somewhat smaller species than the papaya of commerce, but still not tiny by any means. Katie grew her plant from seed and now, after two years, it is only a few inches high, its few leaves miniature versions of the sinuately lobed and toothed papaya leaf. Most striking, however, is its caudical stem, swollen at the base and tapering toward the top.

Carica quercifolia, "Oakleaf Papaya"

Kerry Barr had a couple of miniature specimens to share (of course!). One was a dwarf mondo grass, Liriope (Ophiopogon) japonica "Nana", only a few inches high but forming a dense turf, making a slowly creeping groundcover. The pale violet flowers often do not grow as high as the foliage and are easily overlooked, but they are followed by shiny blue-black berries that cover the plant in the fall.

Kerry's other plant was the amazing Rosa minutifolia, which must be the world's smallest-leaved rose. The perfectly-formed, typical rose leaves are only 2 cm. long, the toothed and incised leaflets, 4 cm. They are densely set on the stems but still leave room for a thick growth of formidable spines. This is a serious plant as it has to be, making its home on the Baja Peninsula where life is not easy. Kerry's plant was dwarfed by being grown in a pot but in nature it may grow to 8 feet.

	I was given a cutting-grown orchid, Dendrobium nobile, by Dick Dunmire who is propagating some for our spring plant sale. I was surprised by its precocious blooming, four flowers while only 6 inches high. The flowers are white with a soft yellow center and pink tips, the pale pink suffusing the flower with age. They are quite fragrant with a narcissus-like scent.
Dendrobium nobile

I was quite satisfied with this until a few days later when I saw it in, of all places, Safeway supermarket where there was a full-grown specimen 18" high profusely blooming at every node. Something special to look forward to! This is a cool-growing species from the Himalayas, in fact, Dick says it needs cold to bloom.

E.C.G.