July Tips For West Coast Gardening 2010

African torch lilies or kniphofias, known also as red-hot poker plants or tritomas, are hardy all along the Pacific Coast, although in the coldest sections it is safer to give them a winter mulch. Since they are swamp plants in their native land, they enjoy the moisture of the Northwest, where they flower in summer. Curiously enough, however, they will take the drought of the Southwest and may be seen there in abandoned gardens carrying on almost as well as they do when watered.

In southern California and north to some distance above San Francisco torch lilies begin to bloom in December and keep it up for most of the year, except for a lagging pause in late autumn. They have large, thick roots which can store water and increase rapidly. The leaves are long and grasslike, the thick, stiff flowering stems crowded with narrow flower tubes. These are usually in shades of red, but there are also pure yellow forms and various mixtures of red and yellow.

Southern California

Now begins the summer struggle with the lawn. Set the cutting blades of your lawnmower high; this helps to keep down Bermuda grass. Water in the morning. If the brown spots of summer fungus show up, water the places with a fungucide, we have also tried using 4 tablespoons of Clorox to a gallon of water for small spot treatments with success. Keep vegetables irrigated. See that carrots do not dry out, for drought makes the roots crack or send out side shoots and roots. A soaker hose is useful for watering a carrot row because the moisture must go deep, and slow watering is better than fast. Lack of water is accountable for cracked fruit on nectarines and peaches.

California Fog Belt

This is the month for making cuttings of your favorite pelargonium varieties. Tip cuttings or short side spurs 4 to 6 inches long will do. Strip the leaves off the lower two-thirds of the cuttings and insert them in pots of moist sand and peat. If you lack midsummer bloom plan to use Lychnis oculata (Viscaria oculata) next summer. Make a note now to sow it next March where it is to bloom. This lychnis, which is about 12 inches tall, is one of the best summer annuals for sun or half shade. It is hard to find seed of separate colors, but the usual mixture of white, blue and grayed pink gives a merry showing. I have taken to saving my own seed, cutting out all but the blues and whites. Keep on sowing small amounts of Bibb lettuce, for in Fogland it is a satisfactory year-round variety and one of the crispest and most tender of salad vegetables.

Sacramento and San Joaquin Valleys

If you have ever grown lachenalias, known as South African Cape cowslips or hyacinths, you know what cries of delight these unusual bulbs bring from the visiting enthusiast. The flower is neither a cowslip nor a hyacinth, however. Now is the time to order lachenalia bulbs. They are not as easy to obtain as they were ten years ago. You will be able to get only two or three of the 20-odd species and varieties. Among these you will find a tremendous difference in color and shape of flower and even of the arrangement of the bloom on the stem. If planted as soon as received, lachenalias give excellent winter color for indoors. They are not particular as to soil but must have good drainage.

You will get more brilliant autumn color from your nandina bushes if you do not overwater them. If you mass them, using both male and female plants, you will have a glorious show of berries. Put the shrubs on the east side where they will receive morning sun. Nandinas like soil which is on the acid side; cottonseed meal is a good food for them.

Pacific Northwest

The reason that alstroemeria, the Peruvian lily, is not more common is that it is-hard to get started. Each tuber (the size and length of a lead pencil) is attached to the crown by a long thread; if this is broken, disaster follows. But when the ordinary species are once established. they become rapid spreaders and are therefore not suited to. the perennial border. Grow them by themselves, among daffodils or tall grasses. When the stalks turn brown clean the bed and sow nasturtium seeds.

Some dealers furnish field-grown plants; others grow these lilies in pots for the trade. Give the plants well-drained soil rich in humus and a location in full sun near the coast and in part shade farther inland. Plant Peruvian lilies 15 inches apart, easing the tuber gently into a bole deep enough that the plant is covered 6 inches. The roots work downward to a depth of a foot or more. Because they are so difficult to plant intact. many gardeners grow alstroemerias from seed. As they hybridize readily, new shades may appear.

by R Rowland

Related Articles Of Interest:

• April Gardening On The West Coast
• July Tips for Northern Gardeners
• July Backyard Greenhouse Grower Pointers