Tom Karwin, On Gardening | Garden priorities for the fall

We are well into garden planting season. This is the season of the year to install new plants or relocate current plants, to provide time for plants to develop roots for spring growth, and for gardeners to benefit from the rainy months.

Scarlet Bermuda Squid +Lobelia aguana+. A native of the Mesoamerican Cloud Forests of Central America, this plant grows to 5 feet high and wide, with long deep green narrow foliage and clusters of well-displayed, exotic, bearded, 2-inch flowers almost year-round, with the heaviest bloom occurring in summer and fall, and continuing through winter. Loved by hummingbirds. (Tom Karwin) — Scarlet Bermuda Squid (Lobelia aguana). A native of the Mesoamerican Cloud Forests of Central America, this plant grows to 5 feet high and wide, with long deep green narrow foliage and clusters of well-displayed, exotic, bearded, 2-inch flowers almost year-round, with the heaviest bloom occurring in summer and fall, and continuing through winter. Loved by hummingbirds. (Tom Karwin)

Today’s photo gallery includes examples of seasonal projects in my garden. Gardening is always about the future, so all gardeners could use the current planting season to prepare their gardens to emerge with new greenery and blossoms.

Here are some of the garden priorities for the fall.

Dig and replant Pacifica irises

There are 13 species of irises that are native to California, referred to collectively as “Pacific Coast Irises.” Local iris expert Joe Ghio, who has earned a long list of awards for his iris hybrids, recommends planting Pacific Coast irises during late October and November.

For an introduction to these plants, visit the Pacific Horticulture Society’s article (pacifichorticulture.org/articles/pacific-coast-iris-2/). For more about 11 species, visit wikipedia.org and search for “Iris ser. Californicae.” The Society for Pacific Coast Native Irise has an online list of sources of these plants: www.pacificcoastiris.org/gardeniris_nurseries.php.

One of the widely grown species is the Douglas Iris (Iris douglasiana), named for 19th-century botanist David Douglas from Monterey.

These plants need no irrigation during the summer and develop new roots when the rains begin. Ghio recommends, “When you dig Pacificas replant them right away or ‘hold them over’ in a bucket of water until you’re ready to plant them. Also, if you get some like at auctions, soak them in water for at least a day or until new white roots develop (takes about seven days). Once planted keep them well watered until the winter rains take over.”

Plant bulbs for spring show

Acquire spring-flowering bulbs from your local garden center or mail-order nursery, and plant them now, during the fall months. A wide range of attractive, easily grown plants is available. For a helpful article on popular spring bulbs, visit Garden Design magazine online (www.gardendesign.com/bulbs/spring.html). For less common varieties, visit the website of Easy to Grow Bulbs (www.easytogrowbulbs.com/collections/shop-all-weird-strange-hard-to-find).

Pacific Coast Iris (Iris douglasiana 'Canyon Snow'). This horticultural selection of the I. douglasiana species was introduced in 1978 from the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens. It has shiny upright green foliage that spreads slowly to form clumps up to 4 feet across. In spring, it has a show with a sea of white flowers with a splash of yellow in the center. (Tom Karwin) — Pacific Coast Iris (Iris douglasiana ‘Canyon Snow’). This horticultural selection of the I. douglasiana species was introduced in 1978 from the Santa Barbara Botanic Gardens. It has shiny upright green foliage that spreads slowly to form clumps up to 4 feet across. In spring, it has a show with a sea of white flowers with a splash of yellow in the center. (Tom Karwin)

Additional mail-order sources include Brent & Becky’s Bulbs (brentandbeckysbulbs.com/), Longfield Gardens (www.longfield-gardens.com/), and K. van Bourgondien (www.dutchbulbs.com/category/flower-bulbs-spring). Search the internet for “spring bulbs” for other sources!

The new spring bulbs added recently to my garden include Allium stipitatum ‘Mount Everest” (36 inches tall, with round, white globes) and the “curiously beautiful” Allium bulgaricum (24 inches tall, with sprays of cream and burgundy bells).

I anticipate new plants from last year’s bulbs of Allium Giant Schubertii (18 inches tall, with 1-foot diameter flower heads with star-like florets). I also planted seeds of this plant, hoping for a small grove of this “spectacular” plant.

Add plants to the garden

My fall planting projects have already begun. Here are three projects “in the mix.”

Replacing plants in the space between the sidewalk and the curb. (The “road verge” has dozens of names, e.g., “hell strip”). The Serbian Bellflower (Campanula poscharskyana) failed in this strip, possibly because of gopher action, so I replaced it with a low-growing cultivar of California Fucshia (Epilobium canum ‘Everett’s Choice’). This plant’s previous name, Zauschneria, honors 18th-century Prague botanist Johann Baptista Josef Zauschner. I had installed this plant in this strip many years ago but removed it for spreading over the sidewalk. The current plan is to trim it regularly to avoid a tripping hazard.

Replacing border plants in the front yard. The previous plant, Sweet-scented Bedstraw (Galium odoratum) failed, probably due to insufficient irrigation. This plant succeeds in moist, shady areas, but not in my drought-tolerant garden. In its place, we installed 24 Hardy Geraniums (Geranium × cantabrigiense ‘Biokovo’ and ‘Karmina’) in 4-inch containers. These cultivars have blossoms that are, respectively, white, tinged with pink, and carmine red, so the spring display should be striking.

Source: santacruzsentinel.com