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Hot tropicals on a water budget – xeriscape landscaping with brilliant color

June 22, 2012 By Christiane Homquist Leave a Comment

Bright summer light washes out the colors in the drought tolerant landscape

Bright intense light and June haze over drought tolerant landscape

What comes to your mind when you hear the term ‘xeriscape landscaping’?  Drab, color-less expanses of thin blades, sharp spines, gravel and dusty mulch? Blue-gray foliage with some pale shriveled-up flowers?

I exaggerate of course. But have you noticed how in our lovely county, when it’s summer in earnest, and especially around noon, many plants seem to “hold their breath”?  Their colors look faded and washed out in the glaring sunlight; some stop blooming, curl their foliage or actually shed it. In my garden, my very controlled watering régime is only half to blame (after all, I’m gardening with drought tolerant plants); for many of my Mediterranean plants it’s summer dormancy, their genetic response to the intense light, extended drought and heat.

So I was excited when I got an invitation from  Waterwise Botanicals in Bonsall to visit their growing grounds:  Tom Jesch introduced us to some traditionally considered “tropical” plants with their expected attributes: Lush foliage, glossy leaves and brilliant, intense color, but that perform, with clever irrigation practices, like drought resistant plants:  After planting, you water deeply and then repeat the cycle on the same day or the day after. Re-water about 10 days later (or earlier, depending on how much water your soil retains). When the establishment phase is over (usually 6-9 months), you can stretch the period between waterings to greater lengths (again, this depends on how well drained your soil is or how much water your soil can hold; a good amount of organic matter increases its water holding capacity…)

If you are looking for some strikingly colorful additions to your low water landscaping, check these plants out.  I, too, look forward to incorporating them into my landscape designs:

Royal Queen Pereskia grandiflora violacea drought tolerant tropical shrub

Royal Queen Pereskia grandiflora violacea gives a punch of color to the xeriscape design

Royal Queen is an attractive answer to our water crisis. With glossy evergreen foliage (that hides its thorns – it’s in the cactus family after all) and clusters of orchid-like purple flowers from late spring to fall, this shrub lends our low water landscaping a colorful and “royal” touch. It likes regular watering but is equally tough in dry conditions, partial or full sun.  It’s partially deciduous in winter and tender to freezing temperatures.

Uses:    With its size of 3 to 4 ft in height and width, I’d use it as center of a flower bed design, as specimen, (in winter, when it’s partially deciduous, I’d distract from it with other green or flowering plants); or I’d use it in mass plantings where its sparser look in winter is not a problem. I’d also use it in a container if it can be rolled out of sight in winter.

 

Variegated Brazilian  Skyflower Duranta repens variegata as tropical addition to xeriscape designs

The Variegated Brazilian Sky Flower Duranta repens variegata lends a tropical touch

Shiny leaves with bright green and cream variegation, drooping clusters of lavender blossoms in spring to summer make the Brazilian Skyflower an attractive large shrub that grows to 12 – 15 ft tall by 8 ft wide but can also be trained into a small tree.  It thrives in the heat, sun or part sun. It needs regular water (as in every 10 days or so), and it’s hardy to the high 20’s. A note to gardeners with children:  This plant produces yellow berry-like fruits (the plant is also called “Pigeon Berry”) that are toxic if ingested.

Uses:  I’d use it as screen, or train it into a small attractive evergreen patio or container tree.

I’m excited to have found more plants that are suitable for the drought resistant landscaping, and I look forward to using these when I need to give my xeriscape designs more punch.  And there are quite a few more to cover –  look for them in my next post.

Filed Under: Container Gardening, Drought Resistant Landscape, Gardening tips, Landscape Design, Trees, Xeriscape designs Tagged With: drought resistant landscaping, drought tolerant plants, flower bed design, low water landscaping, xeriscape designs, xeriscape landscaping

My “Fun-tainer” plants – as seen at the Del Mar Spring Home Garden Show 2011

March 23, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist Leave a Comment

succulents and perennials in hypertufa containerAt the heart of my considerations for this container display was my desire to create a composition of beautiful yet tough plants that would delight their owners for a long time without being too fussy or difficult to replicate. They would need to tolerate exposure to drying winds, intense sun, month-long temperatures in the upper nineties or low hundreds and occasional light frost, periodic neglect (and no watering), and a lot of competition for space, both above the soil level as well as for the roots.  And they would have to like living in my hypertufa troughs (see my previous post), at least for the next 2 or even 4 seasons, to be “sustainable” (at least as far as a container-existence is concerned).

I already had a few suitable plants: Leucadendron discolor, Aeonium Sunburst, Firecracker Broom, Crown of Thorns, String of Pearls… These are all drought tolerant shrubs, perennials and succulents whose adaptation to prolonged container life on my deck in Ramona I had been admiring for a couple of years.  I only needed to find complementary plants that would offset or enhance their qualities and allow me to juxtapose textures, forms and colors.

Yellow Bird Pincushion Although my intended “pièce de résistance”, the Leucadendron discolor, had clearly proved that it can survive a container-existence (mine is now some 6 ft tall and 3 years old) it was too big for my trough.  I chose instead a close relative, the Pincushion Yellow Bird, Leucospermum cordifolia ‘Yellow Bird’ that drew lots of admiring comments at the fair.  This beautiful South African shrub is related to Proteas and reminds me of the flowers of thistles – without the bristles.  Sunset gives the growing zones as 15-17, H1 and  21-24. It grows to 4 ft tall and wide and can take several degrees of frost; the side buds will produce flowers even if the main flower buds freeze.  

The nodding Pincushion is the best species for cut flowers with blossom clusters that are about 4 inches across, borne at the branch tips.  The bloom peaks in late winter or early spring and can last for 6 months but can start earlier in mild winters.  It is supposedly difficult to grow because it needs perfect drainage, protection from drying winds but good air circulation.  It requires full sun, regular water only in the beginning until establishment (several months to a year depending on planting season) when it needs water only every 2 to 4 weeks.  Selections of this plant in other colors include ‘Flame Spike’ (salmon red) and ‘Red’ (orange red).

Sunburst Aeonium as container plant Because of the Yellow Bird’s gawky and gangly form I decided to place a “counter weight” next to it, and the appropriate one had to be the Sunburst Aeonium.  This succulent grows leaf rosettes at the branch tips that reach a foot across, to form plants that can be about 2 ft across and of about the same height.  The fleshy leaves have a delightful variegation that makes the plant very attractive.  It blooms after several years only and will then die, but the new  “pups” or side shoots will replace the mother plant.  With age, these plants become leggy but you can keep them bushy and encourage branching by cutting back branches several inches below rosettes.  These cuttings can then be used for easy propagation:  let them dry for a couple of days, then set in sandy soil kept barely moist until new grow emerges.

With its low watering requirements and equal sun tolerance it will make a good companion to the Yellow Bird.

Purple Heart Tradescantia Setcreasea pallida   Now, on the side of the Protea, I needed something softer, preferably in a complementary color, and draping over the edge of the container. For this I chose Setcreasea pallida (Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’) or Purple Heart (also called Purple Queen):  This creeping plant has only moderate water requirements, is tolerant of some frost  that might kill the tops but recovery is fast in warm weather.  It will reach 1 to 1 ½ ft height and about 1 ft wide, and needs to be pinched back after bloom.  The stems tend to flop which makes a good container plant if combined with an upright ‘partner’.  (In parts of this county it can be unattractive in winter, but it seems well worth the try.)

Firecracker Broom or Coral Fountain as container plantIn the rear container one you can see the red and purple companions:  Crown of Thorns, Coral Fountain (also called Firecracker Broom), Geranium ‘Vancouver Sentenniel’ and Statice.  The Firecracker Broom, also aptly called Coral Fountain, is a good container plant:  Here it keeps a much neater and smaller form than in the ground where it can reach to 5 ft high and wide;  if the green, almost leafless stems of my container get too long they are easily shortened without loosing the graceful drooping form.  On my deck in Ramona it has continuously produced a profusion of bright red, narrowly tubular flowers since last year that attract hummingbirds. This shrub needs regular but small applications of fertilizer to keep blooming.  It tolerates partial shade or bright indirect light and needs only moderate to regular watering.

container succulent Crown of ThornsNext to it, producing an attractive contrast with its sturdy, upright form I planted Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii.  It, too, hasn’t stopped flowering since I planted it in the previous container about 2 years ago.  It doesn’t seem to mind that I uprooted it from its previous home…  It’s a bit thorny but can be handled easily with leather gloves that will protect your hands also from the milky sap that can cause skin rashes and is toxic if ingested.

It also requires excellent drainage and has very low water demands. It grows 1 to 4 ft high and about 1 ½ ft wide which makes it an excellent upright narrow accent in a container.  Many varieties and hybrids of this one exist in colors of yellow, pink and orange.  In windy or frost-prone area it is best grown against a sheltered wall.  Salt tolerance makes it ideal for seaside plantings!  It tolerates partial shade or full sun, and as indoor plant it needs bright light.

All these plants are set into a fast-draining succulent soil mix.  The two troughs, displayed at the fair back to back, are now back at my house and adorn my front door and my deck.  I doubt that I will need to keep an eye on them for the last days of “winter” and a possible frost.  And for next winter I’ll keep an old bed sheet handy in case a strong frost is in the forecast.  From now on my main concern will be not to overwater, and to not forget to feed the plants occasionally, and to keep the ants from raising a colony of aphids on them.

 And if you need sources and would like to share your own container-stories with me, please let me know!

Filed Under: Container Gardening Tagged With: container design, containers with succulents, diy landscape design, drought tolerant gardening, drought tolerant plants, drought tolerant shrubs, dry climate design, hypertufa containers, hypertufa troughs, perennials, planter design, sustainable container design, sustainable container designer, sustainable containers, sustainable garden design, Sustainable landscape design, sustainable planter design, Water Conservation, water-wise container gardening, water-wise landscape design, xeriscape plants

Fun-Tainer (how much fun can you have with containers?) or Love on the Dry Side

March 4, 2011 By Christiane Holmquist Leave a Comment

  How exhilarating it was today to put my plants into the hypertufa troughs that my husband and I made (he did help me with this –  see my earlier post on this subject).  It was a sunny day, and we worked, together with a few other designers and their hubands, sons or ‘significant others’,  at the entrance to the Del Mar Spring Home Garden Show that starts tomorrow, fitting one plant after another into our containers, critiquing our friends’ creations, moving pots and screening plants back and forth to find an angle that would most enhance the display.  There was a very congenial atmosphere, and we were all stoked to be showing off our creations as “design experts” of APLD  (Association of Professional Landscape Designers) that were invited to create a display of containers for the entrance to the fair.  We’ll also be on-hand to answer questions about plants, design, gardening, and how to save water in the landscape.   Check us out – the creativity and talent of these people is contagious, and I hope it will infect and inspire many.

 Mine is a collection of ‘dry climate’ plants, all sun-lovers, low in maintenance requirements and unthirsty, perfect for our sunny region where water is so precious.  It’s amazing how satisfying even a mini-garden can be, and when I was putting together my selection for these two containers, I noticed that it is reveals where my heart is:  A profusion of textures, vibrant colors, plants in close proximity contrasting or complementing each other.  All evoking the warmth and richness of perennials, grasses, trees and privacy hedges in my mother’s garden where I spent so many beautiful summers.

To see so many exceptional plants close up is exciting, again and again.  (The word is getting a bit overused – but I haven’t found another one that expresses what I feel when I see beautiful plants).  The sunny, warm colors, the contrasts of foliage and form… A balanced design can enchant for a long time.

Here the plants that I used  (it’s difficult to see – but there are two containers  –   one in front of the other):

(front container)                                        

Aeonium ‘Sunburst’

Tricolor Geranium Pelargonium hortorum ‘Tricolor’

Protea Yellow Bird Leucospermum cordifolium ‘Yellow Bird’

Statice Limonium perezzii

Echeveria ‘Metallica’

Purple Queen Setcreasea pallida

 

 (back side)

Crown of Thorns Euphorbia milii 

Firecracker Broom Russelia equisitiformis

Pelargonium ‘Vancouver Sentenniel’

 ‘Flambe Yellow’ Chrysocephalum apiculatum ‘Flambe Yellow’                       

Zwartkop Aeonium Aeonium arboreum ‘Zwartkop’ 

Crassula perforata N.C.N.              

Portulacaria afra’ variegata’

String of Pearls Senecio rowleyanus        

 

Check in for photos of these plants  to comes soon!  And here a link to the fair:

http://www.springhomegardenshow.com/Pages/ShowFeatures/EntryGarden.htm

 And a  link to APLD:  http://apldca.org

 

Filed Under: Container Gardening Tagged With: container design, container gardening, design expert for container gardening, design for containers, diy landscape design, drought tolerant plants in containers, hypertufa containers, hypertufa troughs, landscape design for containers, low-water use plants for containers, mini-gardens in containers

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Christiane Holmquist

Christiane HolmquistLandscape Designer
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I'm published in Home and Garden Lifestyles Magazine!

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