Winter Color for the Gray, Wet Days Ahead

The weather forecasters have been teasing us for a couple of weeks lately, predicting the “chance of rain”. So far…not much. However, The Old Farmer’s Almanac is predicting a wet Thanksgiving. The publication, which bases its weather predictions partly on sunspot activity, says the November rainfall will be about three inches above our normal amount of two and a half inches. Overall, however, they are calling for a below-average amount of rainfall for the fall and winter months.

Predictions aside, the persistent Central Valley fog with daytime temperatures hovering in the 40’s is a regular winter visitor to our area. Now's the time to perk up your yard with colorful, easy-to-grow, cool season annuals for these cold, gray months ahead. All of these choices are available now at area nurseries:

Snaps, Iceland Poppies, white alyssum

• Snapdragons. One of the best cold weather bloomers for sunny areas. Available with yellow, red, pink, or white flowers. A good choice for use as cut flowers. Come in sizes ranging from six inches to 36 inches tall.

• Iceland poppy. These delicate looking flowers can withstand our harsh fall and winter winds. Iceland poppies get one to two feet high with flowers available in yellow, white, orange, salmon, pink, and cream colors. Needs lots of sun for best bloom.

Too Pretty to Whack

• Alyssum. This ground cover, which is in bloom nearly year-round, is an easy-to-grow perennial. Give it full sun or light shade, along with moderate water during dry spells. It can self-sow in adjacent areas without asking permission. It also thrives in poor, rocky areas (witness the alyssum that pops up on its own in the sand joints of our brick walkways).

Calendula

• Calendulas. Sometimes called the pot marigold, calendulas need lots of sun for their big, two to four inch blooms. Flower colors available include yellow or orange. Calendula plants get from one to two feet high, and make good cut flowers.

• Stock. This fragrant winter annual comes in a wide array of colors including yellow, orange, red, pink, blue, purple, and white. A good flower for cutting. Varieties range from 12 to 30 inches high. Plant in full sun to part shade.

Pansies

• Violas. A large family that includes pansies and Johnny jump-ups. These do well in shady areas and grow six to eight inches high. Available in a multitude of colors, many violas will self-sow year after year.

• Cyclamen. Technically a tuberous-rooted perennial, florists' cyclamen produces star-shaped, red, white, or pink flowers above deep green leaves during the winter. The plant dies back in warm weather, but resprouts each fall. Best in shady areas. Great in pots, in combination with summer bloomers such as impatiens or tuberous begonias.

• Primroses. A perennial in milder climates, best treated as an annual here. The fairy or baby primrose and polyanthus primrose are proven performers for shady areas in the Valley. Primroses produce flowers on 12-inch stems in many hues, including white, pink, rose, red, and lavender.

• Ornamental kale. As pretty as it is tasty, kale resembles a brightly colored head of cabbage. But it is the green leaves of kale that have the sweet, nut-like flavor. Give them full to part sun as well as regular water.

Random Garden Thoughts and Pictures

Cottony Cushion Scale on a Mandarin tree

A favorite pest of citrus, pittorsporum and nandina here in California: cottony cushion scale. This sucking insect protects itself from most predators with a cottony covering. Also guarding the scale: ants, which harvest the secretions of the scale for food. Control the ants with ant bait; control the scale with either a blast of water from the hose or an application of horticultural oil. Avoid harsh chemical insecticides which may deter one of the few beneficial insects that feeds on this scale: the vedalia beetle.

According to  the UC Davis Integrated Pest Management website: do not apply imidacloprid (Merit or Bayer Advanced Citrus Fruit and Vegetables) for cottony cushion scale control. Although imidacloprid has scale insects listed on the label, it doesn’t kill cottony cushion scale. 

The Tumbling Event at the Scale Olympics

To make matters worse, imidacloprid is very toxic to vedalia beetles. The beetles are poisoned when they feed on cottony cushion scale that have ingested imidacloprid. Cottony cushion scale outbreaks have been observed following use of this insecticide because the vedalia beetles were removed and the insecticide didn’t control the pest.

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Magic Kingdom Beehives?

Seen at Disneyland. Clever use of alyssum in the shape of a lantern or beehive.

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Easy source of baby greens? Start them from seed in smallish containers (3" pots, perhaps). Keep them on an outside table near the kitchen window for an easy meal reminder. Snip 'em as you need 'em!

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As seen at the National Heirloom Exposition, Sept. 2011:

The National Heirloom Exposition and Pure Food Fair in Santa Rosa last September was Disneyland for Grow-it-Yourselfers. Here, the Redwood Empire Chapter of the California Rare Fruit Growers had this beautiful pear on display, the Conseiller de la Cour.

From the book, "The Fruit Manual: Containing The Descriptions And Synonyms Of The Fruits And Fruit Trees Of Great Britain" comes this description of the Conseiller de la Cour: "Fruit, large, sometimes very large, being near four inches and a half long, and three inches and three-quarters wide; oblong pyriform, pretty even in its outline, but slightly undulating. Skin, thickly covered with cinnamon-coloured russet, so much so as to be encrusted with it, and permitting only very little of the pale yellow ground to show through it. Eye, large and open, with long, stout, and somewhat woody segments, set in a moderate depression. Stalk, from an inch to an inch and a quarter long, inserted on the wide, blunt apex of the fruit without depression. Flesh, yellowish, very tender, melting, and buttery, with an abundant richly flavoured juice, which is sweet, sprightly, and with a fine perfume.This is one of the finest pears in cultivation, and ripens about the end of October and beginning of November. The tree is hardy, vigorous, and an abundant bearer, forming fine pyramids and standards. Mr. R. D. Blackmore says it is 'a very fine pear. Coarse from a wall. I have grown it to weigh 18 oz.'"

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 Also from the National Heirloom Exposition at Santa Rosa last September: this first place winning tomato, Pink Berkeley Tie-Dye. Annie's Annuals describes it: "With metallic green stripes this port-wine colored beefsteak (avg size: 8-12 oz) boasts an excellent sweet, rich, dark tomato flavor. Rated higher than ‘Cherokee Purple’ for taste & HIGHLY RECOMMENDED  FOR THOSE OF US WITH COOL SUMMERS. Alice Waters of Chez Panisse calls them 'Tomatoes you’ll never forget!'”

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Here's a red meat watermelon radish, from Heirloom Organic Gardens in San Benito County. It was a crowd stopper at the National Heirloom Exposition. They sell their fresh produce at Farmers Markets in the Bay Area.

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All gardening is local; so, be wary of falling in love with a plant when you're on vacation. This stunner is the Pink Rice Flower (Pimelea ferruginea), an Australian native plant as seen at Cambria Nursery and Florist, in Cambria, CA. Cambria is located in California's Garden of Eden, also known as the Central Coast, near Morro Bay. Frosts seldom happen there. Unlike here, in the Sacramento area.

From the online plant description: "The Pimelea ferruginea needs a minimum temperature superior to 15°C." 

For us Fahrenheit heads, that translates to 59 degrees F. Considering that our average nighttime low temperature is below 59 for 8 MONTHS A YEAR, this would not be a good choice as a perennial for Sacramento. Summer annual, perhaps.

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Pictures do not do justice to the brilliant hues of red-orange on this Chinese Pistache, "Keith Davey". On a clear, fall day, you can see this tree a mile away.

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I was impressed with the performance in 2011 of the Shock Wave Coral Crush Petunia. A great cascading plant with no insect problems (at least here!) with an extended bloom season. Even better, the petunia plant in that container with the Kumquat tree survived our freezing winter, and is greening up again.

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Garden quiz time. 

The reason winegrape growers place rose bushes at the end of their vineyard rows:

a) To alert them to a powdery mildew outbreak;

b) To alert them to an insect infestation;

c) Red roses mark the rows of red winegrapes; white, the white wine.

d) They're pretty.

 d) is correct. Different strains of powdery mildew attack roses. Insects that bother both would attack the grapes first. And if the color of the rose indicated the varietal, then an apricot colored rose would mean that they are growing Boone's Farm Strawberry Hill wine!

Sacramento County Farm Advisor and Viticulture specialist Chuck Ingels says the practice may have been tried in France a long time ago to detect powdery mildew early, but it doesn't work because the mildew of grape is a completely different species from that of the rose and they have different temperature requirements.  And roses get aphids but grapes don't.

Powdery mildew on grapes: Erisiphe necator.

Powdery mildew on rose: Sphaerotheca pannosa

Downy Mildew On grapes: Plasmopara viticola

Downy mildew of roses—Peronospora sparsa

Viticulture instructor Andy Walker at UC Davis says that roses are planted strictly for aesthetics.

One blogger took a trip to the vineyards of Italy where the winemaker discussed the issue:

"Singore Razzi explained how they grow the grapes for their wine. We wondered why there were rose bushes at the end of  each row of grapes and found out that very sophisticated tests were done by scientists on the soil and after those tests the rose bushes were  planted to tell the wine master how the soil is doing. If the roses stay fresh and perfect they know the grapes are doing just as well...when a bush is 'sick' they know those grapes growing in that row are 'sick" also.'
No winemaker is going to rely on roses to tell them about the quality of the wine. But it certainly impresses visitors; and, they probably bought more wine because of their sophistication!"

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Old broccoli that should be pulled? A closer look...

Bees in Flowering Broccoli

This is why I take my time before yanking out spent winter vegetables that have bolted. The flowers attract beneficial insects, such as honeybees and bumblebees. And that flowering broccoli comes at a time (early spring) when you want a lot of bees in your yard for pollinating fruit trees.

Here's more on attracting beneficials to your yard.