Sanhedrin Nursery – Garden Blog

• Holland flower bulbs are now available for fall planting. These lovely gems will bloom for you next spring.

• Protect the pond from the worst of the leaf fall with a fine-mesh net over the surface of the pond.

• Fragrant Paperwhite narcissus will bloom indoors by Thanksgiving if planted now in rocks and water.

• Pansies, snapdragons, stock, calendulas and primroses can be planted now to replace summer annuals.

• Garlic should be planted now for an easy crop that you can harvest next spring. Choose from Early White, Late Pink, Spanish Roja or Elephant Garlic.

Using Native Shrubs in the Landscape

Our climate here in Willits consists of cold, wet winters and hot dry summers. As every gardener knows, this is a very challenging place to garden. However, there are a number of plants that are native to California and accustomed to this extreme climate that will grow here with minimal care.

One of the best known natives is Manzanita, or Arctostaphylos. This plant comes in many different forms from large shrubs down to low-growing ground covers. The ground cover plants are fast-growing and make a rich green mat, 6 to 12 feet across. Their pretty pink bell-shaped flowers hang from the ends of the branches in spring.The low-growing ‘Emerald Carpet’ is a particularly fine plant with a dense, spreading habit and pleasing flowers in the spring.

Bush Anemone, or Carpenteria, is a large, evergreen shrub with attractive leaves and showy, fragrant white flowers up to 3 inches across in early summer. They can be used as a specimen or in groupings, and will grow well under native trees.

Ceanothus, or California Wild Lilac, is well-known for its display of rich blue flowers each spring. (Actually the variety that is native to this area has white flowers.) With its dark green foliage, varieties such as ‘Dark Star’ grow 5 to 6 feet tall and 6 to 8 feet wide. Ceanothus ‘Concha’ makes a handsome 4-ft. round shrub with bright, cobalt-blue flowers. ‘Yankee Point’ is lower growing to 2 feet high and 10 feet wide. It covers the ground quickly. Plant them where they have room to grow.

Heteromeles is known as Toyon or Christmas Berry. This large shrub can grow 6 to 10 feet tall and as wide. It makes a find background or screening plant and the berried branches can be used for winter decorations.

There are two kinds of Ribes that are useful landscape plants in partial shade. The Pink Flowering Currant is a deciduous shrub to 6 feet or taller. It has attractive pink flowers in 6-inch-long clusters in March. Hummingbirds love the flowers. It is drought tolerant but grows faster with some summer watering.

Evergreen Currant makes a fine, shrubby ground cover in dry, shady areas. It grows 2–3 ft. high and can spread to 8 feet wide with glossy, dark green leaves. It works very well under native oak trees.

White sage, Salvia apiana, is a 5-foot shrub with soft grey leaves. The flowers emerge in summer and are white with a little lavender. It is a fine shrub for hot, dry banks and needs no summer water once established. Use it to make your own smudge-sticks. It has many medicinal and sacred uses.

When planted in the fall, native shrubs will become established over the winter and be able to withstand considerable drought by next summer.

• Garlic cloves can be planted now. Keep them watered and weeded through the winter and you will harvest healthy large bulbs next June.

• If you have dogwood, walnut, birch or maple trees that need pruning, now is the time to do it because they will not bleed sap when pruned in the fall.

• Naked lady amaryllis have lovely, fragrant pink flowers that bloom in late summer with little or no care. Plant the bulbs, available at local nurseries, now.

• Divide overgrown water lilies and irises. Repot using heavy soil with no organic matter or packaged Aquatic Planting Medium.

• Fall is for Planting! Trees, shrubs, lawns, ground covers and bulbs get a jump on spring if you plant them now.

Spring Miracles

Spring-flowering bulbs are such a welcome sight when they begin blooming in early February. But although these bulbs produce their flowers in the spring, they must be planted in the fall. Tulips, hyacinths, daffodils, crocus and fragrant narcissus bulbs must be planted now so you can enjoy their profusion of color next spring.

Plant bulbs in borders, or tuck them in amongst your shrubs for colorful accents. Using tulips, daffodils or hyacinths, plant 6–12 bulbs of one variety in a grouping for outstanding color effects. With some planning it is possible to enjoy their beauty and color from January to May.

Crocus offer some of the finest early spring color. Dutch Crocus have large flowers and begin blooming in late February. Colors range from white, lavender, purple and yellow to striped white and lavender. They grow to only 4–6 inches tall and are effective in borders and groupings, and they come back year after year.

The bright yellows, whites, and pinks of Daffodils are outstanding in the garden or on the hillside. When used among evergreens, in naturalized plantings or in combinations with crocus, they are truly outstanding. They are extremely easy to grow, requiring very little care after planting, and they multiply and bloom again each spring. As a bonus, deer and rodents don’t eat daffodil bulbs.

Fragrant Paperwhite Narcissus can be grown indoors or out in the garden. They come up very early and can be forced to bloom by Christmas. The large clusters of pure white flowers will scent the whole room.

Hyacinths add beauty and fragrance to the garden. Their sweet, penetrating scent wafts through the garden on even the faintest breeze. Hyacinths look best when planted in clusters toward the front of a border. They are also wonderful in containers, so you can enjoy them near the entry area or indoors where they will perfume the entire room.

Tulips are among the most popular spring flowers of all time. They they come in an incredible variety of colors, heights, and flower shapes. Plant them in borders, in rock gardens, or in containers. Most tulips bloom well for only one or two years. So you will probably want to dig up the bulbs and put in new ones after two years. However, Darwin Hybrids and Emperor Tulips will come back looking great year after year. There is a variety to match every color in the spectrum.

There are a number of low growing early spring bulbs make great companions in the flower bed or under spring-flowering shrubs. The little blue flowers of Chionodoxa, “Glory of the Snow”, and Muscari, “Grape Hyacinths”, make a carpet of blues as they naturalize and spread. Iris reticulata has large, fragrant flowers on dwarf plants and Puschkinia has little tiny star-shaped flowers in palest blue clumped on one stem. Use these smaller bulbs for little spring blankets under trees and in the grass.

Look forward to the beauty of spring and the miracle of flowering bulbs.

• Chrysanthemums come in bright fall colors to give you instant color in flower beds and containers.

• Divide Astilbe and Oriental poppies now. Replant healthy roots and add some bonemeal in the bottom of the hole when you replant.

• Pansies and snapdragons can be planted now to replace summer annuals. They will give you color this fall, winter and next spring.

• When lily flowers fade, remove the flowers but don’t cut back the stems until leaves have yellowed in the fall.

• If your bearded iris blooms were sparse this year or the plants are more than four years old, now is the time to divide and replant them. Mix some bone meal into the soil, and plant the rhizomes just beneath the soil surface.

Fresh Vegetables from the Fall Garden

September is a great month to spend some time in the garden. Mornings and evenings are cooler and a delightful time to harvest the summer crops and set out some new plants for fall vegetables.

Broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, kales and collards can be planted now. And so can spinach, Swiss chard and Asian greens.

Try growing some Chinese cabbages now. Although related to cabbage, they don’t taste much like cabbage. They are more sweetly flavored, with large, crisp, lettuce-like leaves. They are used in salads, sautéed, or pickled in Kimchi.

Pak choy is a popular Asian vegetable which belongs to the loose-leaf cabbage family and resembles Swiss chard. It develops large, glossy dark green leaves with wide white celery-like midribs. It is tender and delicious either cooked or quick fried in oil. It is used extensively in Chinese restaurants in Chow Mein, Chop Suey and soups.

Baby Bok Choy has become the most used vegetables in various Asian dishes due to its excellent flavor, texture and size. This fast-growing vegetable can be ready for harvest in 3-4 weeks. Young leaves and petioles are very tender and crisp, and they are good for stir-fry cooking.

There are many other interesting Asian greens. Nappa cabbage, or Wong Bok, makes large, cylindrical tight heads with broad round smooth leaves. It is very tender with a mild flavor. Tatsoi is a loose-headed variety similar to Pak choy with a large, bulbous celery-like base. It produces well into winter. Mizuna is a Japanese non-heading leaf type with narrow, dark-green, feathery leaves. It is very decorative in salads and popular in stir-fry.

You can also plant turnips now. Plant seeds up to 50 days before your first fall frost. Purple Top White Globe is an old-fashioned variety that will also give you tasty greens through the winter months.

Many types of lettuce will grow well now. They prefer the cooler weather of fall to the heat of summer, so they will make nice heads for you in the weeks to come.

Leave room for garlic! Sets will be available later in September. By planting them in the fall, you will be harvesting fresh garlic next June.

Onions can also be planted now. Green onions can be harvested in 3-4 weeks by pulling up the entire plant or just by cutting the green leaves off with a pair of scissors, leaving an inch or two of growth so the onion can continue growing. Larger varieties will grow through the winter and produce big bulbs next spring.

This is also a good time to set out artichoke and rhubarb plants. They will grow vigorously in the cooler weather and be ready to produce next spring.

Make the most of cooler days in your garden. By setting out new plants now, you will extend your harvest season into November.