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Hot Gardens Newsletter - August 2004
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Congratulations
Caesalpinia pulcherrima! This plant, commonly known as
the red Mexican Bird of Paradise, has recently achieved
"Highway Plant" status. The California Department of
Transportation has planted it along Interstate 15 near Barstow in the
Mojave Desert. That means CDOT thinks the Mexican Bird of
Paradise will survive exhaust fumes, dust storms, unrelenting winds,
little water and utter neglect! In the kinder, gentler conditions
of your desert garden it may quickly grow to a height of as much as 12 feet.
In summer this large, lacy-leaf shrub is covered with red and orange
blooms for months on end.
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Take the Screwdriver
Test. Not certain if you are watering your lawn too
much or too little? Well, here is an easy test. Take an 8
inch screwdriver and push it into your lawn in various locations --
close to and far away from sprinklers -- an hour after you have watered.
If it goes in all the way, you are irrigating enough and may even want
to cut back a bit. |
If you cannot push it in to that depth, you may
need to increase the water your lawn is receiving. One important
note -- if, an hour after your lawn has been watered, it is still
"squishy" you are irrigating way, way too much. (Note: since
we wrote this, we are now recommending that you remove and replace your
lawn altogether.)
Cool It. Do not fertilize the
plants in your desert garden during the hottest
summer months. Most of them are in a summer dormancy state and the
last thing they want is to be awakened by a jolt of nitrogen. You
may want to lightly fertilize plants in pots because daily watering
washes away all the nutrients in the pots. Avoid planting anything
but palms in hot months. It is better to wait until the average daily
temperature reaches around 90 degrees F. before you begin Fall planting.
Fads and Fancies. Over the
decades garden styles and preferred plants have changed and continue to
change. Once-popular plants get torn out, new ones are planted.
We became very aware of this one Spring several years ago during a visit
to Santa Barbara when we saw tall purple and blue spires of the Pride
of Madeira (Echium fastuosum) blooming spectacularly in
gardens which had been planted originally in the 1930s and 1940s.
This perennial resembles a 5 foot tall mountain lupine, loves sunshine
and will survive winter temperatures of down to about 20 to 25 degrees
F. It definitely deserves a place in drought tolerant gardens.
In this garden purple-leaf Cannas have been added to a
predominantly gray Mediterranean garden. A great
combination! |
Passion
for Purple. Judging from what is in garden
centers and retail
nurseries these days, a new plant passion has begun. Purple,
burgundy and chartreuse leaf plants seem to be the new garden
stars -- perhaps in reaction to the gray-leaf Mediterranean plants
that have been so popular for several years now. |
More
News on Global Warming. The hundreds of thousands of
birds who annually nest and breed in the Orkney Island have, this year,
failed to lay eggs and hatch chicks. The cause, according the a
report in the British newspaper, The Independent, is starvation.
The sandeels, a primary source of food for the birds, have disappeared.
The sandeels are a cold-water species and the water around the Orkney
Islands has become warmer. Once again, we
thank Dr. Joan Padro for bringing this to our attention.
Go to our Newsletter
for August 2003 or August
2005
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