Premature Spring

It was 80°F for the second day of this weekend. I had to spend some time outside in Pergola-tory. I trimmed the creeping thyme (Thymus serpyllum) back from the stones in the back yard, sprayed my golden shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea) down to kill some extra mealy bugs, sucked up some black widows with the shop vacuum, and chopped back the neighbor's bougainvillaea which was encroaching on my yard over the fence and loaded with aphids as I discovered. I didn't even bother pulling the aphid covered boughs through my yard to the trash can. I just lopped them off at the fence line, and let them drop into their yard, which is over grown and not often used except as a parking lot for a motor cycle. I don't think they'll even notice, and I will protect all my hard work and investment from pests. The shop vacuum has been more useful than I even imagined. After I trimmed the thyme, I sucked up everything that I couldn't grasp to throw away. For an urban garden, I highly recommend a powerful shop vacuum.

While I was surveying the yard, before I started any of the aforementioned chores, I noticed that the chocolate vines (akebia quinata) had little buds at each of their nodes. I was really happy to see that. They're in pretty rough shape after the pests, chemicals, and lack of sunshine during the Fall and Winter months. But, they're alive! And, even the one in the far corner that gets blasted by dryer vent heat and the least amount of sunshine has a couple of partly green leaves. I think now that they're established and the sun is moving back North, that they'll be great! I also have an indigofera in pot with much of the same issues. But it too has some life peaking forth.

It was such a nice day that I continued my gardening in the front yard. I propagated some bromeliads that had sizable pups on them and pruned the hibiscus. I felt bad doing it because there were buds ready to bloom in a could of days, but they were getting leggy and out of shape. That's tough love. I'll definitely share more of the front yard once the bromeliads start sprouting their inflorescences. I assume that they will since some of the pups that propagated a few months back have themselves started sprouting pups. That says to me that they're doing well, but I don't know for sure. The three original plants went in having already sprouted theirs, so all I can do now is feed, water, and wait.

It's Gettin' Hot Out Herrrrrr

I've had this idea for awhile now. It took awhile to come to fruition because it took some research and monetary commitment. But, I went for it, as I suppose I knew that I would.

Believe it or not, it gets pretty cool some evenings in Redondo Beach. Being so close to the ocean means that things don't really heat up too hot during the day. That part is great. But, when the sun sets it gets a little cooler. And, to be honest, I'm acclimated to very small temperature fluctuations (aka thin blooded). So to keep Pergola-tory enjoyable at night, I put in a heater. It's a electric radiant heater that I hung from one of the pergola cross members with some bits of chain. I was a tad concerned that the Passiflora wouldn't be able to grow anywhere near it (for fear of flames), but I was able to touch the top of it which gave no indication that the unit was turned on. That made me happy indeed.

I plugged it in and it was warm really close to the heater, but with little difference from the seating. That may have been because it was 75°F outside when I hung it. I'll update once I get a cool night to test it...with a glass of wine in hand of course!

Passiflora and Impatiens...er...Impatience.

It's the middle of January, but it feels like the beginning of Spring. It was in the upper 70's yesterday. My passiflora (which survived the miticide), all have buds and nice new green leaves. It seems as though the crinkling and chlorosis is gone with the mites. To say that I'm happy about that is an understatement. The picture on the left shows some older chlorotic leaves that were infested with mites at one point. Interestingly, and somewhat of an annoyance, is the fact that the dead mites seem to cause a little fungus to grow on their exoskeletal corpses which causes a brown dead spot on them. Between the chlorosis and fungal spots, I really want to clip off all of the old leaves...but it's not Spring yet, and I don't want to cripple my plants. For now I will just have to settle for the new sprigs that are shooting out everywhere. The picture on the right is new growth on the same vine as the chlorotic leaves. It's very satisfying to see the new leaves grow perfectly instead of malformed and diminutive. I think it's going to be a great Spring!

Soon it will be Spring, but I am impatient. I'm really hopeful for fruit this season. I will have to count on the hummingbirds because I can't count on the bees...they seem to have all gone mad. Every now and then I'll find a little dead one, or one that is soon to depart for bee heaven. Last year there was a bee swarm in my front yard. There must have been a queen in the mass somewhere.

Here's the list of the passiflora that I have on the way this season. It has a few small free-flowering varieties on there, as well as some rare species and new hybrids. I pretty much have the whole color spectrum accounted for now. Except for yellow. I've tried to get P. cintrina to grow twice now, with no success. I'm going to try again after this season if all goes well with the pests.

•     P. cyanea
•     P. holosericea
•     P. nephrodes
•     P. parritae
•     P. alata
•     P. sanguinolenta
•     P. serratifolia
•     P. coccinea
•     P. 'Manta'
• xiikzodz × coriacea
•     P. 'Jennifer Grace'
• quadriglandulosa × poslae
•     P. 'Sunburst'
• gilbertiana × jorullensis
•     P. 'Exoniensis'
• antioquiensis × tripartita var. mollissima

A-Wop-bop-a-loo-lop a-lop-bamboo

In addition to passiflora, I realized early on that I could plant bamboo. There was a lot more to learn about this grass than I anticipated. Rhizomes really amounted to much of the learning, but because I intended to place them in confined spaces, I wasn't much concerned about the tendencies for some species to run for miles. I first planted some black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) along the fence in a brick planter to see how it would do. It was pretty weepy for awhile, but then in my first Spring at the new house the shoots came up. It was amazing to watch them reach for the sky. "Grass grows fast" as they say. (Or maybe they don't say it, and I just said it).

The new shoots eventually reached above the original height, were more rigid, larger diameter, and turned black quickly. I was both impressed and thrilled. This meant that I could search out a new bamboo for the other side of the yard. I eventually settled on Spectabilis (Phyllostachys aureosulcata) from Bamboo Garden. It hasn't seen a Spring yet, but it did send up some shoots at the end of the Summer that were nice and rigid. Again, the original plant is weepy, and I'm not sure why. But, once I have enough new growth, then I'll cut all the old down and let the tall large culms dominate.

Once the new growth is in after this Spring (March is when the black bamboo grew last season), then I'll post some solid pictures. Hopefully, the plants can screen my neighbors without blotting out the sun. I'm anxious as always. And, did you know that those plants offered as "curly bamboo" or "lucky bamboo" are not bamboo at all? They're (Dracaena sanderiana) part of an aquatic family of plants consisting of asparagus; plants native to Cameroon and West Africa.

Where's the Beef?

My Xmas grill gift arrived last night! It was too dark to tackle it as soon as it was delivered, but I really wanted to. I managed to wait until this morning though. It's a Weber Spirit S-320, 3-burner, LP beauty. My grill cover should arrive in a few days to keep the dust off, but until then I'll just admire its shininess. I'll probably head to the store soon to pick up some grill-ables. Chicken, ground beef, some veggies...I better stop before I get too hungry to wait until dinner time.

Included with this gift was a little can cradle over which one puts a whole chicken. If I use a Mountain Dew, maybe I can get my protein and caffeine both in every bite!

The Good, the Bad, and the Bugly

This last summer I had a few non-pest visitors in addition to the white flies, fungus gnats, and spider mites. Living in an urban city, close to the ocean, one doesn't see too much in the way of wildlife unless one counts the sea gulls and pigeons (I don't). The hummingbirds did start to come around, and I hope for many more tiny terrors this coming Spring, but the majority of the other visitors were even smaller.

I found a praying mantis skulking about. I was happy to see him, but I was pretty sure it'd move on as most of the lady bugs, and green lace wings had after I released those in the yard in an attempt at biological control. Nonetheless, I really like praying mantises. They have a way of capturing the imagination. If only this one had stayed longer and captured a few most pests.

 

There were a few small white cabbage butterflies (dixeia) flitting about. They're pretty common coast to coast. There were a few butterflies that I wasn't able to easily identify. My guess is that they're a dixiea species as well, but I'd love to have them positively identified by an entomologist or enthusiast.  At first I thought they could be heliconius butterflies which had found my passiflora, but the shape is all off and the habitat is too high in latitude. Whatever species they are, they're fun to watch while they lay their eggs. They pop over the fence, bop around from leaf to leaf, dipping their abdomen down to deposit one little egg at a time. I suppose it's an evolutionary case of "not putting all of one's eggs in one basket". I'm guessing that the pesticides that I had to spray, plus the hard pruning probably removed any chance of having caterpillars come Spring. (Update: They're almost certainly a Gulf Fritillary! (Agraulis vanillae))

The last invertebrate was a fancy European garden spider (araneus diadematus) that showed up one day and was gone as quickly by the evening. I wasn't familiar with this arachnid at first, but as long as it wasn't a black widow or a brown recluse, I was content to let it hang out. If you're one to be intimidated by spiders, then it can look pretty menacing, but I'm fairly certain that I've identified it correctly and that it's harmless to humans and pets. I included both sides in the pictures because the eyes are quite large, but you can see the spinnerets on the ventral side.

In case you're wondering, I didn't get the order wrong per this post's title. The good (mantis) eats the pest insects. The bad (butterfly), lays eggs on my passiflora, which turn into caterpillars, which eat up my plants. The ugly (spider)...well, ugly is in the eye of the beholder.

Lights, Camera...That's it.

The Christmas lights came down recently. While I was removing the strings around the pergola, I took down the canvas shade that was filled with leaves after some recent wind storms. I washed it and packed it up having decided that I didn't really care for it. When I'm out in Pergola-tory during the day, it's usually to make some vitamin D. When I'm out there at night, I don't need a tarp hanging down distracting me from my passiflora. In fact, when I'm out there at night, I would prefer to better see my passiflora.

It just so happened that I had some party lights tucked away in the closet. I pulled them out, tied them up on the pergola, and voila! I also decided to add some foggers to my sprinklers on top of the pergola. That took some time and patience. I haven't tried them out yet, but as soon as the winter is over, I'll have an excuse to create a cloud forest on my patio. P. parritae should like that!

Passiflora!

Well, I think I've established enough background to finally write about something I'm...passionate...about.. Here it goes!

It was actually my mother's suggestion to find a passion flower vine. In CO it's rare to come across one in the usual botanical markets. She had seen one and planted it outside, knowing that it was doomed come winter. It did very well while it was alive, and of course if you've seen any passion flower, it's hard not to be impressed. So, after some searching at my local garden center, I found one. It wasn't marked with a name tag, so all I knew was that it was healthy and that I would give it a shot on the pergola.

Well, it didn't take long to get established, and then it rocketed up the leg of the pergola. And shortly after that it bloomed profusely. I was thrilled with the new greenery in an otherwise brown, tan, and red brick patio space and I purchased a book to do a little research on my new interest. I picked up "Passiflora: Passion Flowers of the World" by John M. MacDougal. It's hard to imagine a more complete reference. From this book, I think I properly identified my first passiflora as caerulea x belotii.

After looking at all of the different species and hybrids available on the market, I soon had passiflora planted at each of the four supports to the pergola. Logee's Greenhouse supplied me with several healthy specimens. I keep meticulous records in a spreadsheet, so here is everything that I've planted to date:

• P. incarnata (Maypop)
• P. edulis (Possum Purple)
• P. quadrangularis
• P. triloba
• P. piresii 
• P. 'Blue Boquet' 
• ((amethystina × caerulea) × (amethystina × caerulea)) × caerulea
• P. 'Moniker Fischer' 
• (incarnata ×  amethystina)4n × (kermesina x caerulea)4n
• P. 'Blue-Eyed Susan' 
• (incarnata × edulis) × (incarnata × cincinnata)
• P. 'Star of Surbiton' 
• 'Amethyst' × caerulea
• P. 'Lady Margaret' 
• coccinea × incarnata
• P. 'Coral Glow'
• manicata? × ((mixta × tripartita var. mollissima) × (mixta × tripartita var. mollissima))
• P. 'Anastasia'
• gritensis × caerulea 'Constance Elliot'
• P. 'Pura Vida'
• 'Amethyst' × racemosa
• P. 'Saphire'
• edulis × caerulea
• P. 'Warmlands'
• vitifolia × macrocarpa

Now after the pest episode, I know I lost P. quadragularis. I may have lost 'Pura Vida', 'Anastasia', and 'Coral Glow'. They took it pretty hard and are without leaves now. P. piresii and P. incarnata have a couple of leaves between them. I remain hopeful that they recover now that I have the pests at least under control. The weather in addition to being foggy has been exceptionally warm (in the upper 70's, low 80's), so that may help. All of the other plants are looking good and getting better. I had to cut them back pretty aggressively in order to get a handle on the spider mites, but they're climbing back up the pergola again. I can't wait for Spring!

That brings it up to speed except for my new plants on order. I went a little bonkers and picked up some pretty special plants that should be delivered in March and April. I'm most excited about P. parritae, P. cyanea, 'Manta' (xiikzodz  × coriacea) coming from Grassy Knoll Exotic Plants. If I don't have hummingbirds squabbling every day this Spring, then I will be surprised. Here are some photos from last Spring and Summer before I had to hack everything back to control the mites.

Compare these pictures to the very first picture of my blog, and try to tell me that it was better with that stupid tree. I'm hoping that the neighbors have seen the light (figuratively and literally).

Pests

Let me begin by saying that I like insects, and arachnids, and all kinds of creepy crawlies. When I was little, I was happy if you put a butterfly net in my hand and told me to go run amok. Lately though it seems like the smallest critters are the biggest problems. First, it was white flies that were annoying, but they were rather easy to wipe out with a conventional pesticide. Next the fungus gnats drove me crazy. The tree stumps which had to be left because of their locations, and rotting tree stumps combined with shady areas and moisture equal fungus. I did a number on them with the yellow sticky traps, and the cool weather lately hasn't produced any, but I fear when the spring gets here I'll be back to square one with those. The mealy bugs were next to make gardening rough. I think I killed those off for the most part now. They were on my golden shrimp plant (Pachystachys lutea) and threatening to bring it down. Last and most difficult were the spider mites.

I think I had a few different species, and I was at a loss for what to do. I did my share of research, and found out that they are notoriously difficult to eliminate. The first thing I tried was Neem oil. I sprayed, caused some plants to drop their leaves, and gave up on that. I searched for predator mites online and couldn't come up with a single distributor of the species that seemed to be most appropriate for me. Everyone says, "natural predators - not chemicals". Well, in my experience, lady bugs, praying mantises, and green lacewings fly the coop as soon as their released. So, I turned to something a little more toxic (i.e. functional) - abamectin. After the first couple of sprayings (following the directions), I started to notice that the red dots on the under sides of leaves were now black. Victory is mine! I've kept up the weekly sprayings to kill the hatchlings which are unaffected in the eggs. Since then, I've noticed that some of the plants have regained their vigor. New buds are emerging, and the general chlorosis seems to be stagnant. In December and early January it has been extremely foggy (aka humid), so that assists me as well in fighting off any stragglers. I've read that spider mites can become resistant to miticides and that one is supposed to switch chemicals, so I'm really hoping that this won't happen. A mite free Spring is all I want for 2012.

Back "Yard"

The back "yard" is really just a 5' wide strip behind the house, between some fences. My mother had a pretty good idea to change it from bark chips to something more appealing. So I dug right in, literally. I bought a rake with which to clear out the bark chips which were old, moldy, and generally just gross. After day of work I had nine 30 gallon trash bags filled with the stuff. Next came the digging, so I bought a shovel and turned over the dirt. This was to serve two purposes. First, I needed to get all of the rocks and root balls that had been left there after who knows how many years. Second, I needed to uncovered the sprinklers which were a few inches deep now.

With all of the dirt tilled and leveled, I replaced the sprinkler heads with efficient rotary sprinklers and prepared for my parents arrival. They're the type of people that want a project when they visit. So, when they visited we went to the quarry, picked out some flag stone, and laid it down. Next, we planted creeping thyme in the crevices, and then came the waiting. A year later...

 

The back yard is on the North side of the house, so the thyme doesn't bloom, but it does grow. In fact in order for me to walk on the stones I had to take some scissors and reveal them after the summer. The little trellises have chocolate vines (Akebia quinata) which are alive...barely. Again, this is an issue of sunlight. I do plan on hiding the water supply and control valves at some point. I just haven't decided how.

Pergola-tory: Origins

Whenever I read a blog that has a title with a made up word or acronym, I always want to know the origin. That information can be surprisingly hard to find. So without further ado, the story of how Pergola-tory came to be.


I moved from Denver after graduate school in Atlanta in February 2007 to Redondo Beach, California. For the first couple years I lived in an apartment, on the second floor, of a sea-side complex. The sunsets were spectacular, but the salt air was hell on my one little bougainvillea. In Denver (Zone 6), one didn't buy tropical plants and expect them to live outdoors for more than the spring and summer (with profuse watering). But in Redondo Beach, I thought it would be simple. Sadly, a wind-whipped balcony wasn't amenable to horticulture, and my one green roommate died a slow salty death.

After those first two years of apartment living, I moved inland just a bit to a free standing town home. It came complete with a tiny little front yard furnished with some clumps of grass to prevent the dirt from sliding off into a parking spot, an enormous palm tree, and a robust ficus - more on those elements later. The back yard was little more than a fenced in alley filled with bark chips where the previous owners' dog used to defecate. The attached patio area was where I saw a ton of potential. When I moved in, it was completely unmaintained. A very large deciduous tree of an unidentified species shielded the neighbors from my view, and me from theirs, but also had the nasty habit of dropping little seed pods which would explode in warm weather to create a lovely slime all over the patio. There were two other large trees that were jammed into the small yard too, which like the first, were hacked down as soon as I could arrange it. Removing these didn't go over perfectly with the neighbors who didn't have to deal with the rubbish and the swarm of gnats and flies that accompanied it no matter how many times that I swept. Nevertheless, it was nice to have a clean slate.

I could really see the potential after the tree removals. It wasn't ideal that I had three stumps and a busted brick planter to contend with, but I was excited. Before purchasing a single plant, I bought the pergola. I had hemmed and hawed about it for a few weeks, before finally breaking down to buy it. It was 10' x 10', black powder coated aluminum, and quite the commitment. My buddy from CO who also lives in CA these days came over to help me put it together in an afternoon. It was just like the old Construx or K'nex sets that I used to play with when I was small. We had a great time erecting it and placing it on the concrete pad that was miraculously the perfect fit - it seriously looks like the pad was poured intentionally for the pergola.

I already had the furniture to place under the pergola, and when my buddy and I were finished building it, we grabbed some drinks, sat down to admire our work, and he coined "Pergola-tory" as a fitting name to a place that was waiting to be filled with the plants that I could never grow in CO and that would need more care than I realized in the apartment. Eventually I would fill it with plants, and it would become the place that I would go to just be - with sunshine on my face, green leaves all around, and all the joys that come with waiting for the potential in the flowers and fruits to come.

 

I was able to find a picture of the patio with the rubbish tree still in place. Mind the dresser.