Judging from my mail, there is – some confusion among West Coast gardeners concerning tritonias, tritomas, and tecomas, and this is a good chance to straighten it out for the three are very different.
Tritonia is a South African bulb particularly well suited to fry. warm places on the Pacific Coast.
For me, the bloom comes in March and April and often lasts into May. Eight-inch, orange-red Tritonia crocata is the one usually offered on the West Coast, though by sending to South Africa for the seed you can get other interesting species.
Tritonias need a period of drought after flowering.
Tritoma “Kniphofia”
Also an African and is now called kniphofia. Its common names are the following:
- Poker plant
- Red-hot poker
- Torch lily
Some West Coast nurseries now carry seven or eight varieties of this striking perennial, which is hardy except in the extreme north.
The colors of the close flower spike are usually a combination of red and yellow.
It includes:
- Crown of Gold is yeImi and green, 3’ feet tall
- Houtrouge is bright red, 6’ feet tall.
Star Of Baden
Yellow and tan, is much shorter, a profuse bearer which flowers twice during the summer.
A collection of kniphofias will, in the southwest, give blossoms almost year-round. The next few years will doubtless bring us hybrids in new color combinations.
Kniphofias have long narrow leaves which are evergreen except where the winters are very cold. They need sun but are not particular about soil.
Tecoma
The orange-scarlet trumpet vine is growing wild in many southern states, including Kansas, Texas, and even north to southern Pennsylvania, where it is not indigenous but an escape.
In the garden, it can be pruned to present a less muddled object than it does in its native moist thickets.
You will find this vine cataloged as Tecoma radicans, Bignonia radicans, or under its latest name, which is correct, Campsis radicans.
Hearing this you may get bogged down on Tecoma even though you have been straightened out on the three T’s.
Another question which I feel hasn’t been fully answered by letter is about the moving of heaths and heathers, both of which come under the head of erica.
The true heather is Calluna vulgaris, a native of Europe, and all the rest are heaths.
The Ericas Hardy Against Cold
Calluna vulgaris, the summer heather, and Erica carnea, the spring heath (also from Europe), each have many varieties, are hardy against cold, are much used in the northwest, and are easier to move than the South African ericas;
The South Africans do not like to be moved after they are fully grown. I know this because I have raised several hatches from seeds sent me by African collectors and have lost some good ones when I tried to move them.
All ericas should be moved only after blooming and the smaller the plant the greater your chance of success.
As there are over seventy species of erica (to say nothing of the varieties derived from there.) and as each has its own time of flowering, no month can be called an erica-moving month.
Here’s what you need to do:
- Choose a cool cloudy day for the moving, dig a hole at least 18” inches deep and quite a foot wide, and fill it with water.
- When the water has soaked away put in some of the soil your erica likes.
Most European erica’s ask for peat and want it wet, while South Africans prefer sandy soil, and I have one erica from that land that demands heavy soil such as the red clay we find in the Sierra foothills.
As a rule, the Africans should have better drainage than the Europeans, and I water my Europeans ten times as frequently as I do my Africans.
If your soil is heavy and your ericas are African, it would be safer to put a crushed stone at the bottom of the hole.
Before moving an erica, a ditch should be dug, around it and filled with water to ensure a damp root system.
Interfere as little as possible with the roots when digging, and when you see the size of the root bulk you can tell whether or not to put more soil in the hole.
The plant should be placed so that it is no deeper in the ground than it was before if it is an African, but if it’s a European, it will not hurt to go deeper.
Tamp around the plant and water well. Shade and keep damp until it is evident that your erica is established.
The tall slender Africans should be cut back to half their height, leaving plenty of foliage.
Xylosma Sentosa
Xylosma Sentosa commonly grows in Southern California. If you are casting around for good foliage shrubs for this fall’s planting, go to the nurseries and look at Xylosma Sentosa.
This shining 5-foot Chinese bush will be used more in southern California when it is better known.
It needs pruning only when you wish to train it against a wall and the number of willowy branches is to be reduced; left alone it takes on a mound-like shape.
Michelia Fuscata
Michelia fuscata is another desirable shrub for the Southland. I have had the best results with it on the north side of a building.
It is a dwarf evergreen magnolia from China and comes by its common name of a banana shrub because the single, yellow flowers with dull red edges have the exotic fragrance of that fruit.
The blossoms come in late February and April and the glossy leaves show up well when the shrub is used semi-espalier.
California Fog Belt
Tuberous begonias are still in flower. All you can do for them now is to see that they do not want water and that they do not get mud or sun.
If you are going to save your seed, begin now to keep an eye open for it. The pods must be brown and dry, but the very fine seed escapes readily.
With the summer’s fog beginning to lift and warm days ahead, it isn’t easy for the Fog Belt gardener to pin his mind on next winter’s vegetable garden.
But unless something is done about it now—or next month at the latest—there will be no winter vegetables.
November planted vegetables will make a brave start and you will think how grand the kitchen garden is going to be.
Then in late December will come to a storm so devastating as to wreck the too-young plants.
Sacramento And San Joaquin Valleys
Begin to help your plants get ready for winter frosts by tapering off the water.
Do this by following these steps:
- Mulch the perennial phlox with manure after it is cut down—3” inches isn’t too much.
- Sow seed of pansy, winter sweet peas, and campanula.
- Divide and replant Japanese and Siberian iris, giving them enriched soil.
- Clean away all bloomed-out annuals.
- Cut down spent perennials.
- Take diseased branches from shrubs.
If you keep on watering the crape myrtles, they will bloom into November.
When choosing your bulbs, don’t forget that Dutch and English iris do well in the Big Valley, so well that they increase in size and vigor.
Pacific Northwest, September is a good month to go poking in the garden for “self-sows” and moving them to the places you would like them to be or else taking them to a sheltered part of the garden where they can be nursed into strong plants.
Self-sown seedlings of hollyhocks and foxgloves are usually worthwhile, but those of sweet-williams are likely to revert and produce only magenta flowers.
Primulas are early spring bloomers, and if they are to be planted or moved the work should not be put off any longer.
As you plant them, naphthalene flakes into the soil of each plant as a deterrent to weevil larvae.
44659 by Lester Rowntree