Clash

A few days ago I went to a local nursery with my mother: Bad idea!

When something manages to catch my eye, I decide either it’s too expensive, I need to know more about it, there must be a native that has a similar effect, or that I simply need to think about it. She, on the other hand, likes anything with color, especially what matches her "house colors." And unlike me, she hardly blinks at the thought of spending. Our missions were supposed to be separate: I'm planting the fountain, she's planting the window boxes.

After an hour and half of debating ceramic pots and primroses, I find a plant that takes me off guard. It’s bold and all silver and green. Astelia chathamica“Silver spear.” Mm hmm, the name conjures up endangered Hawaiian silverswords and dark forest myths.

I make sure it can live where it’s going to be planted: in a dry fountain with full sun. Here on the coast, it can do just that. Eventually it may out grow it’s space, but this is a plant I would be happy to divide into two, one for my garden some day…

My mom wasn’t going to let me leave without getting flowers to put in the fountain. I’d already planned on putting Epilobium canum (which I already have) in there for some fall color (and to keep it contained). I was willing to try a crimson lotus cultivar 'Amazon Sunset' because they were unusual to me and my mom liked them. I also broke down and bought some Triteleia “Queen Fabiola” bulbs, even though they’re cultivars (of native T. laxa). See, I can compromise.

So that's what's going in the fountain: Astelia in the middle; triteleia, lotus, epilobium on the edges--with variegated lemon thyme as a green filler. But they're not going to be evenly distributed along the rim. It's going to have a clunky jungle look. Eventually I'd like some big silver dudleys here and there.

Risky color combo for sure. I think red, silver, and purple look good together, but they have to be the right shades, you know? Will the Triteleia be dark enough? Will the lotus be too orange? And then there's the outside paint color and the plants in the bed behind it. I'm getting nauseous thinking of the possibilities.

Since the container will be draining into the bottom pool, I also need to make sure to keep the soil on the lean side, so we don't get lethal algal blooms below. Last year there were many many tadpoles.

In the pool we’re going to put (in pots) pygmy white (?) water lilies in the front (need to order), cattails in the back (already have), and hopefully, someday, some native Sagittaria or Alisma on the sides.

With enough green in the mix any colors can look good together, right?

Work Thoughts

These are just some random, and somewhat obvious, thoughts I've had while working at the nursery. (Many thoughts have had to be cut. I'm trying to stay positive here.)

Skunk cabbage has a tuberish thing with long roots that are mostly unbranched, rubbery things that have rings like annelids, but more closely spaced. Reminds me of mandrake (isn't that the screaming plant in the first Harry Potter movie?).

Weed pots, especially weed out alders and willows before they become full size trees! The trees can be salvaged, but the root systems are bound and usually lopsided, while the intentional plant is nearly dead or dead.

Wind barriers are very important at a nurery with trees. Stakes are important too, but make sure you don't buy stakes that need support themselves. Oh and invent something that will keep treepots reliably upright. Unless you are going for bonsai materials, don't let young trees grow crooked. And nearly all trees should be single-trunked, if you ever want to sell them.

Soil sterilizer, I wish I had one. But is there not a low-tech alternative? My faith in the composting process isn't that strong. I have a compost pile that I completely neglect. Composting is a real weakness of mine!

Seed propagation. It surely must be the noblest form of propagation. Must become a seed master. I do not like wild collecting, especially on a large scale, especially for profit. I don't mind taking a snip here or a seed capsule there.

Wouldn't it be cool to have woven old-english stlye fences everywhere? With a hedge of wild roses and hazels behind it? And geese running around keeping the grass down? Old England meets native California culture and plants. This is the Garden of La Mancha.

Organization on the grounds and in the books is "importante" for a business. So are clean, sharp, tools. Yes tools. You know, I really would like a scythe. Why don't we use them anymore? I also would like a pruning knife. And a watering can with a rose attachment.

All by-products need to become products. When I coppice my grasses and rushes this year I'll have native straw for mulch. Some of the "weeds" (only the natives) can be potted up. Things must be reused. Close the loop!

More Lilies

The other day at work I grabbed a couple of the ripe seed pods from some of our native L. pardilinum spp. pitkinense plants. The Lily lady (see previous post) had told me that they would be hybrids between the ssp. pitkinense and ssp. pardilinum because our spp. pitkinense were all clones (grown from bulb scales) and they can only be pollinated by a genetically-different individuals. They were next to ssp. pardilinum, so it's fairly safe to assume...

Anyway, I've always admired Lilium pardilinum for the red turban flowers. There was one flowering in our garden ths spring (the only lilium on the property). Very beautiful. Tomorrow I'll pot up these seeds and cap my lily acquisitions.

This Lilum pardilinum photo is from the Lily Society website.

Lilies

A lady came into work today asking about a native lily and it turns out she is a lily afficianado. She grows them and sells the seeds and bulbs online. Here is her website. You should look at her online gallery of all the lilies native to the pacific northwest (the pics on this page are from the gallery). Amazing and very diverse. Besides buying over a dozen lilies from me, she told me a bit about how to grow them and gave me two free packets of native lily seed! It just happens to be the time to plant lily seeds and that these can go directly outdoors in pots (no greenhouse required) and will sprout this spring. Very kind. It's good too, because I've been trying to get into seed propagation. I've never sown seeds with confidence. But a few weeks ago I planted some Clintonia andrewsiana (Bead Lily, it would make a great houseplant) seed I collected from the forest, and now I have seed for...

Lilium rubescens (above) and Lilum washingtonianum spp. purpuratum (below)

I planted the seeds right when I got home. Two 1-gallon pots for each species (densly planted). They'll sprout in the spring (did I sound confident?), then a couple of years later they'll be large enough to flower.