Bush Allamanda

Today is the last bush/shrub that I am going to write about for this month.  Okay.  I've written a lot about yellow and orange bell plants this past week.  This is a yet ANOTHER plant that produces beautiful yellow bells with lush dark green leaves.  HOWEVER, this plant is not as hardy as the Tecoma Stans or Trumpet Vine.  I have seen people place this into their landscape but this past winter killed many of these plants along with the hibiscus bushes.  This plant for me grows similiar to that of the hibiscus and therefore, I recommend that you only place this very lush and green plant in pots or planters.  It loves sun and heat and grows quickly, but do be careful as freezing temps can kill this plant to the ground or entirely kill it.   It sometimes is called Yellow Bell, Golden Trumpet or Buttercup Flower. It is part of the dogbane family and is considered a weed in tropical countries.  Here in Tucson, it makes a nice ornamental plant for your garden.  I have written 2 posts on Tecoma Stans and Trumpet vine because they can confuse gardeners....especially newcomers.  This is yet another one to add to the group.  Many times people think they are buying a Tecoma Stans when in reality they've purchased the Allamanda.  If you have a hard time seeing the differences in these very beautiful hummingbird type plants, read the label as they all grow very differently.  Tecoma Stans is usually used for the landscape.  Trumpet vine is used as a sunny vine. And Allamanda should be used for pots and planters.  Did you get all of that?:) All of these plants are loved by butterflies and hummingbirds. I hope you enjoyed this series.  We will take a break this week from the garden journal and get into some fun I had with my camera several weeks ago.  Our focus will be on the Boyce Thompson Arboretum.  I was really happy with the pics...especially the hummingbird close-ups which was a first for me.  There's a lot more coming up so stay tuned to Las Aventuras Garden and Travel blog.

Paraguay Niteshade

A really green and lush bush for the Tucson area is the Paraguayan Niteshade.  This plant needs a little bit more water than some of the other shrubs I've written about over the past several days, but it's a great plant for a planter or pot.  It has a lovely open habit that will produce small beautiful purple flowers.  I put this plant in morning sun with afternoon shade.  During the winter, it loses its leaves and doesn't look very attractive.  Many people will cut it down to the ground, and in spring it will come back up again. It can dominate a space so be careful where you place this tropical looking plant. It loves the heat and will grow in full sun(no strong summer afternoon sun)....just make sure it gets regular watering. The niteshade can grow up to 6-8 feet tall.   Do not let this plant sit in water as it will die quickly......good drainage is important.  It's a great plant for your pots as a bush.  It's a great plant trained as vine on your trellis.  Or it can make a great tree if pruned properly(in a pot).  It's one of those unique plants that you can trim into whatever your heart desires.  I grew it as a bush and vine and it looked great both ways.  One more bush/shrub to go......

Heavenly Bamboo/Nandina

So you may see a theme this week:)  That's right....I'm presenting shrubs from my garden journal.  From all the plants covered in my series, the shrubs are some of the hardiest and best lived plants in the desert that require almost absolutely zero maintenance once established.  Most of these require some sort of pruning, but other than that, they do well with or without that extra watering.  Nandina, or Heavenly Bamboo, is a lush and green bush that is a great plant to use in either repetition or sporadically throughout the garden as a reoccurring  plant.  At El Presidio, it's used in our northern borders as a hedge and in our courtyard as a green background to accent the focal plants.  Here are some tips on pruning because I think it's important.  It can grow slowly at first so be patient.  But once it gets going, there's no holding this beast back.  It loves a springtime haircut and will get bushier. If you want a lush and tropical green look, make sure you include this plant in your landscape.  It stays green all year round.  During winter, it will turn purplish under extreme cold temps.  It will develop red berries that birds eat.  Sticking with Cathy Bishop.....here is her write on this amazing plant.....

"What is green and bushy and red all over? The answer is one of my favorite plants – heavenly bamboo (Nandina domestica). Not a bamboo at all (and I’m not so sure why it’s heavenly), this is one of the greatest no-prune, low-care shrubs of all time! There are numerous varieties, each with its own characteristics, and once you have chosen the correct one for the place you intend to plant, the hard part is pretty much over. The most important characteristic to start with is how big do you want it to become. If you want to screen out the view of your neighbor’s yard from your patio – go for the original Nandina domestica. This will easily become 5 feet tall or more and dense enough that you will never see into the next yard again. If the purpose is a foundation planting that will never edge above the window sills, then Nadina domestica compacta is the right plant for the job. There are a couple of splendid groundcover Nandinas – Harbor Dwarf and Harbor Belle – that will make a neat, carefree 18-inch planting. The next characteristic of importance has to do with their gorgeous winter coloration. This is where the entire genus really shines as they are one of very few plants that turn intense russet, scarlet or burgundy for the winter and then revert to green in the spring without losing a single leaf to do it. Some of the finest cultivars have turned this into an art. The cultivar Gulf Stream becomes sizzling scarlet, Moon Bay is a rich plum shade, Plum Passion is the darkest burgundy and Sienna Sunrise is perfect autumn henna. These are all varieties that are grown by tissue culture. Their color will be uniform throughout the series. If you like a tad more mystery and a bit more of the hands of nature in your plantings, the species domestica and compacta will give you a blend of all of these colors in a mix of the plants.  No matter which variety you choose, they are all easy-to-grow plants, with moderate water and nutrient demands. You will have virtually no pruning to do if you pick one that is the correct height for your desired use. " End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006/11/10/32001-low-care-no-prune-bamboo-heavenly-idea/

Rogue Planets

Not related to gardening but to the adventures that await us is an interesting article on Rogue Planets(or wandering planets).  Next weekend we are heading to ComicCon in Phoenix to meet Leonard Nimoy and crew. 

"Our Galaxy is Teeming With Billions of “Wandering Planets”, Says New Study
A new study published in Nature has detected the presence of billions of planets simply floating around in space, not bound to any host star, wandering through interstellar space. However, unlike the habitable rogue planet encountered by the crew of the NX-01 in the Star Trek: Enterprise episode of the same name, these are all Jupiter sized bodies. The study uses a technique known as “gravitational microlensing” (something that Bad Astronomer explains quite well on his blog), which basically scans the skies for changes in the brightness of stars that can indicate the presence of a planet and allow for the calculation of that planet’s mass. Scientists have found that there may be twice as many “wandering” planets as there are stars in our galaxy!
The current theory is that these “wanderers” are formed just like normal planets. That is, they form from the collapse of gas and dust in accretionary disks around stars. Then, for some reason, they are sent into unstable orbits where they fling themselves out of their solar systems. So long, star! It’s middle-of-nowhere or bust!
A note to science fiction writers, if I may: this does not mean that we are at risk for gas giant planets to collide with Earth, nor does it mean future space ships will have to navigate mine fields of random planets (I always laugh at the movies that depict the asteroid belt as some cosmic asteroid superhighway at rush hour). Space? It’s still just as vast an expanse as ever. So vast, in fact, that the addition of billions of giant planets doesn’t make it any more crowded. It just makes it more awesome.
*Writer’s note: The fact that the word “planet” comes from a Greek term meaning “wanderer” is just too fitting not to mention." End of article.  Source: http://trekmovie.com/2011/05/21/science-saturday-rogue-planets-pope-phones-iss-saturn-super-storm-lcars-like-laptop-more/  This is one of my favorite sites to read as I am a huge Trek geek:) ComicCon pics will be coming to kick off this summer!

Texas Ranger

This plant is wonderful. It's overused here in Tucson, but it is EXTREMELY low maintenance for your landscape. It is one of THE perfect plants for Tucson. For most of the year, it has a lovely silvery green glow to it, but it will also throw out some lovely purple flowers. It can be pruned or let to grow naturally. In a cold winter, the plant will die back until spring. New growth begins around March and into April. It's drought tolerant and NEEDS full sun. If not checked on a regular basis, this plant will spread out in your garden. I've had to pull several little Rangers out of the ground and keep the plant in check. Again, here is a report from Cathy Bishop on the Texas Ranger in Tucson.

"Oh, the joys of July! Let’s see, we have intense heat, microbursts of wind, threats of rain that don’t happen, sudden downpours that do happen. But, to make up for the weather not fit for man nor beast, we have Texas Rangers. What would summer in Tucson be without the seemingly miraculous displays of color popping up all over town with our many kinds of Texas Rangers? Where once there was a group of somewhat nondescript shrubs, the day after a storm turns them into balls of brilliant color. We are at no loss of fantastic choices to put to the test. The genus Leucophyllum has many species, which are known by numerous common names such as Texas Ranger, Texas Sage, Rain Sage, Cenizo, Silverleaf and more.  In the past 20 years since the original Texas Ranger (Leucophyllum frutescens) became a staple in desert landscapes, horticulturists rose to the challenge of making these plants better. There are enough kinds of delightful hybrids to make everyone happy; there is the perfect one for every landscape. What everyone wants, and what research and hard work have given to us, are shrubs with better shape, better flower color and more frequent blooming. Among the varieties are:

> Those that can take cold winter temperatures better, such as Leucophyllum langmaniae varieties Rio Bravo and Lynn’s Legacy.
> The small-leafed Leucophyllum laevigatum, most frequently called Chihuahuan Rain Sage, which fits well into landscapes that want to keep a natural desert look.
> Ones that stay compact for small landscapes, such as Leucophyllum zygophyllum Cimarron.
> One with fragrant flowers, Leucophyllum pruinosum Sierra Bouquet.
> Probably the most asked-for of the L. frutescens hybrids, Green Cloud and Heavenly Cloud, for those folks who want a thicker, greener shrub.

For all of the work that has been done in hybridizing Texas Rangers, the finest culmination appears in Heavenly Cloud. The shrub is well-branched and densely clothed with small, dark green leaves that hold well through temperatures even below 20 degrees. The shrub’s crowning glory is the full head of flowers that pops out with the slightest rain shower and glows with a color intensity not found in the other varieties. Somewhere in every landscape, there is a place for a Texas Ranger, so everyone can revel in the wonder of the day after the storm. Now, which one will it be?"  End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006/07/21/19495-texas-ranger-hybrids-grown-in-desert-hardy-varieties/

Another great choice for your landscape in Tucson, but be careful overplanting this shrub or your yard will look rather drab and dull.  I like it has an accent plant and untrimmed. Until tomorrow.....

The Large Family of Bignoniaceae

Esperanza, Yellow Elder, Ginger-thomas, Yellow Bells, Mayan Gold, Bells of Fire, Sunset, Jubilee, Trumpet Vine....well this list is endless.  For beginning gardeners, the name Tecoma stans and Campsis seem to be freely labeled on every plant in the nursery.  It's on vines, shrubs, and ornamentals....maybe even listed as a tree. What's worse is that they all kinda look alike!! The overwhelming question every gardener asks themselves is, "Well which one is the real Tecoma stans?" "Which one is the Trumpet Vine?" "How can you tell the two apart?  To add to the complexity of the Bignoniaceae family, there are different varieties of Tecoma stans PLUS on top of that, there is the common yellow bell variety that carries 4-5 different names for the same plant!!!  Talk about confusion!! Trumpet Vine falls under a different category completely, but here's a look into these "bell flower" plants.

Genus: Tecoma stans-This plant has a better habit and doesn't outgrow it's space.

The common traits for this plant family(Bignoniaceae) are the bell shaped flowers and their love of the intense heat and sun during our summer.  All of these plants are hummingbird magnets.  However, some of the hybrids or plants can be invasive and weedy like the Campsis or Trumpet Vine. Some have a better shrub habit while others will quickly outgrow their space and crawl into places you won't want the plant to grow.  We have several that got behind wires and electrical outlets at El Presidio.  Today I am still pulling runners out of planters of the Trumpet Vine.  It can be a very aggressive plant.   Here is a quick read on the description of the Tecoma stans. "Yellow Trumpetbush is an attractive plant that is cultivated as an ornamental. It has sharply-toothed, lance-shaped green leaves and bears large, showy, bright golden yellow trumpet-shaped flowers. It is drought-tolerant and grows well in warm climates. The flowers attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. The plant produces pods containing yellow seeds with papery wings. The plant is desirable fodder when it grows in fields grazed by livestock. Yellow Trumpetbush is a ruderal species, readily colonizing disturbed, rocky, sandy, and cleared land and occasionally becoming an invasive weed.  This particular group of plants aren't a weedy issue in Tucson.  Check out the plant pic below...that's the one you need to watch out for......

                     Genus: Campsis-Can grow out of control in Tucson and become invasive. It looks the same doesn't it?:)

While winter will kill the Tecoma stans to the ground, it doesn't seem to affect the Trumpet vine in Tucson.  It spreads like a weed.  It has an attractive dark green leaf with darker and smaller narrow orange flowers that are somewhat similiar to the Tecoma stans. The roots are monsters and will spread if there is disturbed soil. It's still a great plant for hummers and people love this plant, but it gets into everything!!  This plant IS invasive.  All of these plants are perfect for Tucson and do extremely well.  Hopefully this post will clear up any future confusion you may end up with at the gardening center.  I know when I first started shopping for these plants, it was an issue for me. They're all part of the same family, but their growth habits are a bit different.  Until tomorrow.......

Mexican Bird of Paradise

Ladies and gentelmen.....I present one of my absolute favorite shrubs in the Tucson area. Easy to grow. Drought tolerant. Beautiful. Ferny. Lush. And extremely sun friendly. When I first moved to Tucson in the 90's, I fell in love with this plant and today it's still one of my favorites. Two things to remember with the MBOP......it needs full sun or you won't get the brilliant blooms and secondly, it will look scraggly in the winter. Other than that, this plant is extremely easy to grow and can handle a bit of neglect. I added this plant to our fern garden at El Presidio and it makes a nice cluster around a desert fern. This is a fantastic plant for your landscape. There are 3 varieties....the orange and shorter variety, the taller,skinnier and yellow bloomed variety, and the very ferny taller and bushier with unique yellow and orange  blooms variety. Don't worry...the latin names are coming. Again, here is Cathy Biship about this group of plants.

Taken at El Presidio in the Fern Garden

"Visitors and natives alike are always impressed by the profusion of blooms produced by the numerous types of Caesalpinia in the Tucson area. Better known as Red Birds and Mexican Birds to name a couple, it is impossible to go a block without seeing their beautiful blooms. Though we get used to seeing them, visitors to the area seem to be quite in awe, and I’m not surprised. These plants may be one of our very best plants for Tucson landscapes. Though some of the species are a bit frost sensitive, others are not and even the most sensitive pop back up after being knocked back by the worst winter weather. Their best attributes include being very drought tolerant, having an extremely long and brilliant bloom period, they are totally happy in our alkaline soil and they get by on minimal care.  The best spot for these wonderful plants is in full, all day, bright, hot sun. They thrive on heat, truly coming on strong only after the temperatures have reached at least into the 90s and more. Though some believe that they need to be pruned every year, it is actually optional. There are some gorgeous shrubs in medians that rarely get pruned and the result is very large plants with extremely exuberant growth that start blooming as much as two months before their severely pruned counterparts. The reason one would want to prune back their Red Birds, would be to control size. If you need for the plant to remain no more than 4 feet high and wide, then yearly pruning will achieve that end. The best known of these plants is probably Red Bird (Caesalpinia pulcherrima). Sometimes it is mistakenly called Mexican Bird, though this common name rightly belongs to Caesalpinia mexicana, which can grow larger, can handle more cold, is more reliably evergreen in cold weather and is suitable for training into a small tree rather than just a shrub. The flowers of this bird of paradise are a bit smaller, but they are very bright golden yellow which shows up beautifully against the bright green leaves.
There is a gorgeous golden hybrid called the Phoenix Bird (Caesalpinia pulcherrima ‘Phoenix’) that has the exact same characteristics as the Red Bird but with golden flowers. Another yellow species is the Desert Bird (Caesalpinia gillesii) that has soft yellow flower petals with long red stamens that look like floral eyelashes. In addition to these species and hybrids there are also seedling crosses that show just how much genetic diversity can be made from two colors! In the tropics, these seedling plants are very common and give rise to many colors from peach and apricot shades to pinks and corals and even white. No matter which variety you opt for, you can be sure that even with the smallest care, the “Bird” of your choice will bloom and bloom and bloom from the time the weather heats up until the first frosty nights insist that it rest for the winter.
Cathy Bishop, co-owner of Mesquite Valley Growers Nursery, has more than 30 years of gardening experience. E-mail her at weekendplus@tucsoncitizen.com." End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2008/07/18/91268-cathy-bishop-red-birds-thrive-in-tucson-s-alkaline-soil-with-minimal-care/

Comet Hits The Sun

"SOHO (NASA-ESA Solar & Heliospheric Observatory) watched as a fairly bright comet dove towards the Sun in a white streak and was not seen again after its close encounter (May 10-11, 2011). The comet, probably part of the Kreutz family of comets, was discovered by amateur astronomer Sergey Shurpakov. In this coronagraph the Sun (represented by a white circle) is blocked by the red occulting disk so that the faint structures in the Sun's corona can be discerned. Interestingly, a coronal mass ejection blasted out to the right just as the comet is approaching the Sun. Scientists, however, have yet to find a convincing physical connection between sun-grazing comets and coronal mass ejections. In fact, analysis of this CME using images from the Solar Dynamics Observatory shows that the CME erupted before the comet came close enough to the solar surface to interact with strong magnetic fields."  Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mat4dWpszoQ

Orange Jubilee Esperanza

Taken in El Presidio Gardens last summer

Today it gives me great pleasure to introduce a Tucson favorite....the Orange Jubilee(or a variety of Tecoma Stans) This plant is commonly seen all over town during the hot and sweaty summer.  In fact, it seems to thrive best during our intolerable temps.  This plant is highly recommended and easy to grow.  Plant in full sun and make sure it gets regular watering......and you won't be disappointed.  The only "con" to this plant, if you can call it that, is that is will die back to the ground in winter.  Simply prune back to the ground in March. During the first signs of spring, this plant will rebound back bigger and better as if nothing had happened over the winter.  It's attractive to hummingbirds and the hornworm catepillar.  There are other varieties of Tecoma Stans, but I find the Orange Jubilee variety a much fuller and attractive looking plant over its' sometimes weedy looking siblings.  This plant has grown to a height of 10 feet in the fern garden and produces a lot of lovely orange flowers.  When it doesn't have orange blooms, it creates a lovely and lush green hue in the background.  It survived our freeze here and all I can say is.....get one if you have the space.  These plants make a great specimen plant in your garden or if planted in repetition.  I use this plant as a way to break the plant repetition in the gardens and have them sporadically placed around the El Presidio Gardens. If I had to label this plant, it would be a shrub as are most of the plants featured this week. Once again Cathy Bishop writes about this very low maintenance plant for the Tucson area.

Tecoma "orange jubilee"

Pic taken from the Tucson Citizen

"What is big and lush and flowers most of the year – and loved by hummingbirds? This is an easy riddle: It’s another of our candidates for plants that look great all the time, Tecoma “orange jubilee.”
Tecoma is a small family of plants that includes our native Arizona yellow bells (Tecoma stans angustifolia) and its lush hybrid, gold star Tecoma. They are each beautiful and carefree plants, but the one that has really been impressive since its debut is the orange jubilee.
Perhaps it is the incredible exuberance this plant’s growth exhibits, easily doubling or tripling in size over the course of one summer, that makes it such a winner. The flower show this plant puts on is awesome, with the first coppery-orange trumpets out as soon as the days warm up in early spring. This display continues, reaching a peak along with the summer heat and persisting until repeated frosts finally shut down the show.  For gardeners who appreciate the critters who come as much as the flowers themselves, orange jubilee is the ultimate reward! We can sight a dozen or more hummingbirds working a plant at any time during the day, and the glowing orange trumpets never seem to run out of nectar. Orange jubilee Tecoma is truly a diverse plant. By nature it is a huge, upright shrub, easily reaching 8 feet tall and almost as wide. It makes strong primary stems, which make it an ideal candidate for espalier or trellis as well. A spectacular method for growing orange jubilee is to train it into a tree form. This is a plant that will grow well in most soil types and requires just moderate watering. Regular fertilization will keep it in peak blooming condition, and it is equally content planted in the ground or in a container. The only minor downside to this lovely plant is that, in the coldest areas of town, it might get damaged or partially frozen if winter temperatures dip into the low 20s. But even then, after some pruning, this is a plant that responds vigorously to regain its majestic proportions. Try it. You’ll like it and so will your feathered friends!"  End of article.  Source: http://tucsoncitizen.com/morgue/2006/07/07/17983-orange-jubilee-asks-little-but-puts-on-quite-a-show/

There you have it. Another amazing plant for our Sonoran landscape.  I have one of my absolute favorite plants coming up.......and I think you may agree.  Until tomorrow.......

Pure Imagination

Sometimes I wonder what we would become without our imagination. At my school, I see kids full of it.  Most of their parents have lost it.  It scares me a bit as I'm the same age as most of their parents and yet I still feel like a kid at heart. When do people lose it?  Once they get married?  Or have children?  Lose someone they love?  Life would be a terrible thing without it and yet so many people just live the routine without blinking an eye.  Recently, I have watched some friends stumble in their marriage and it saddens me.  They're younger and in their early 30's and somewhere along the way, they got lost. I hope they will find their way back to one another and discover the reason they married each other in the first place. There was a spark there....and lots of laughter.  What happened?  Life can be an adventure alone, with a partner, or group of friends.  How do we become jaded?  How do we become saddened people? 

The sky over Gate's Pass

Normally this blog is about gardening and travel......but I feel like this is the other adventure we face daily....the one of life.  Last night, I heard the song of "Pure Imagination" and it made me smile.  As a child watching the original with Gene Wilder, I was in awe of how magical a space can be.  I've always seen the world as a great big mystery.  Today I fight the forces of the cynics and it's difficult not to get sucked into their negative vortex.  When I hear this song, all of that nasty stuff disappears and I have only happy memories.  At my work, there are so many unhappy people.  I want to help, but I don't know how......How do you fix something that has been built up over years and years of anger from inside? My thought is that you are the master of your own self.  No one decides for you how you will live your life.  The actions are your own.  We are prisoners of our own confines.  Life is short.....very very short.  We have to make the most of our daily lives.  One day I had a Grandfather and the next, he was gone. He never got to enjoy his retirement savings.  That's how life works.........so why live unhappy and put off until tomorrow?  The most difficult part for me is watching people make early decisions in their life because they feel they have to do it....like getting married, having kids, settling down, or buying a house.  Every one of those items requires responsibility, but not everyone is ready for these obligations.  Why rush it?

The cynics will view this post as cheesy stupidity.  Others will view this as optimistic and hopeful.  Others will click onto something else.....not important.  I don't know which of these categories I fall into, but I know that this is what's on my mind today after hearing that song. If it's one thing that life has proven over and over again is that it's unpredictable. Life is difficult enough......to lose one's imagination and creativity would be a sad thing.