Protea Archives - Oceanside Garden

Gardener’s Log – September 2021

The first signs of fall are here. I am sure every gardener has a few tell-tail signs that they use, but one of the plants for me has always been the cyclamens, and in particular Cyclamen hederifolum. The bright little pink flowers push through the surface, just as leafless as any of the naked ladies.

A new one of those this year is Lycoris radiata, the spider or hurricane Lily. Its bloom spikes are 10″ to 12″ and much larger. The blossoms are quite a striking red.

As for trees, the first to start turning are always the dogwoods – Cornus ‘Venus’. They start to color up by the beginning of September, putting on their orange, then red and finally burgundy cloak. The only thing that stops their display being magical is that every leaf turns on its own schedule, meaning that the tree is a combination of all colors and not a single bold display.

Start of the Rainy Season

We have still to have the first rain of the wet season and much of the garden is looking totally parched. That rain is expected later this week and they say it could be 1″ to 3″, so quite a soaker. Let us hope that it starts gently so that it can properly wet the soil, because sand resists water.

Update – the rains came and we had 2.5″ – and at least some of it soaked in, but the soil still remains quite dry.

Lots of work over the weekend got the area between the Garden of the Giants / Whimsey Way and the next-door forest area cleared and planted. Some Woodwardias have gone in along with an Enkianthus, candelabra primulas (Primula beesiana), and other plants that should provide some interest throughout the year. They were selected to provide a transition to the more natural area, rather than a last hurrah. Everything was selected as being deer resistant, but our local deer aren’t very smart and cannot read labels. Over time, their aching tummies will tell them, assuming the plants survive.

Update – the deer have decided that they like Onoclea sensibilis – the Sensitive Fern

La Nina is supposedly forming in the tropical Pacific this year and that traditionally means a cooler and wetter winter. Given the dryness this year, that will certainly be a change, and most of the Gondwanan plants will probably appreciate it. It does mean that I will have to take special care to bring sensitive plants in for some protection because it may mean some arctic blasts.

Looking Back

Talking about Gondwana, my Facebook account reminded me about a photo I posted a year ago. The rock walls were still going in. I decided it would be nice to do a side-by-side to show the plant progress in a year.

It looks as if the Banksia specioca, that I grew from seed and was doing so well in Gondwana, has very rapidly croaked. The tips of the new growth curled and then the whole plant has yellowed. I am not sure it will re-shoot from the base when moisture becomes abundant, or if that is the end of story. It will be a shame if that is the case.

The rains did indeed come, and all the plants are much happier. It takes a lot of rain to completely re-wet our soil. After 2 1/2″, one of the outdoor moisture sensors is saying that the soil is at 76% saturation and the other one remains at 12%. My guess is that most of the water ran off in that area rather than soaking in.

Seed Starting

The latest batch of seeds arrived from South Africa this week and so there has been lots of activity getting those started. Most of the seeds are for somewhat diminutive bulbs and will take 3 years before they get to a blooming size. The others are seeds of Protea cynaroides, Protea lepidocararpodendron, and a yellow hybrid Leucospermum.

These need a little more pre-treatment before sowing. Some like a hydrogen peroxide treatment to loosen the other coating and then soaking in smoke water. I am trying to germinate them in a sterile condition by having them against a damp paper towel. That way I can immediately see if they germinate or if there are any fungal problems. That can be a significant issue because they may well take 3 or 4 months to germinate.

Gondwana Extension

Gondwana got a small extension. On the extreme left side, when looking up the hill, the juniper was pushing into the Grevillea and the retaining wall behind that had never been finished. That was corrected and then the nest tier above that was partially put in and the soil dug. Getting rid of all of the Salal root is important because that has a habit of sprouting for many years to come and I don’t want to be pulling out those roots after Protea family plants are in place. Three new plants were added – Protea eximia, which I grew from seed, Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’, and Leucadendron ‘Jester’. The variegated leaves of Jester should provide a good tie into the red flowers of Robyn Gordon and the bright yellow of the foliage across the stepping stone path into the conifer forest.

Leucadendron 'Jester' — Leucadendron ‘Jester’

Aloe Plicatilis

What a difference a year makes. I was going through plants looking to see what needed potting up and realized how much the Aloe plicatilis has growth since I got it earlier this year. The first picture was taken in February and the second in September.

This is exciting because I thought its growth was going to be a lot slower. I am not sure if that is its first branch developing in the center.

Weather Summary

This has been the end of a long dry spell and over the last few days of September we picked up about 4″ of rain to give us a total of 5.13″ for the month. However, that still left us with a deficit as compared to last year when we had 6.90″ and 8.99″ the year before. Temperatures were cooler by 3.2 degrees and along with that, winds were considerably higher accounting and more westerly – which explains being cooler.

General

Becoming a Plant Collector

I admit, I am not a traditional gardener. While I share some common motivations with other people, like finding gardening to be therapeutic, relaxing, a reasonable level of exercise, excuse for getting out of the house, etc. – I also see gardening as a challenge.

Gardens around the World have often seen the garden as man exerting control over nature – the more formal, the more controlled, the better. That is not me.

Gardeners are often corralled into using certain plants because that is what everyone else uses, so they are plentiful in the garden stores and that creates a self-fulfilling circle. That is not me.

Do I like a challenge – certainly, but not in the manner of trying to fight nature. I do not want to spend hours and dollars trying to modify my soil as we are told to do all the time in books, magazines, and TV programs. Oceanside Garden has very sandy, impoverished soil that holds almost no water.

Becoming a Collector

I have become a plant collector, but what is the point of a collection if it isn’t somehow special or has a certain level of difficulty associated with it? Perhaps no one initially expects to be a plant collector, but when you become hooked on something, it becomes a passion.

I am a believer in giving nature every opportunity to survive in a World of climate change. Nature evolves on its own. Plants can either move slowly towards the poles as the climate warms or seek out higher elevation. They can also become more tolerant of the changing conditions. But that takes time and climate change is moving at a pace never before seen on this planet. Evolution, quite frankly, doesn’t stand a chance right now. I can help with that.

Many of these factors drove me to look at a family of plants from South Africa. They have a climate very similar to mine on the coast, the plants are very happy in the type of soil I have, they are difficult to find in this country and plants from South Africa are under extreme threat right now. Not only climate change but also development of their habitat.

South Africa is one of the seven floral kingdoms of the world and the number of species in that kingdom exceeds the total number of species in the whole of the Northern Hemisphere. Those plants can’t gravitate towards the pole because there is only sea between it and Antarctica. Could they survive and thrive in Oregon? They grow in California and Hawaii, but they are both much warmer climates than here on the Oregon Coast.

I did have a few proof points. They do grow in San Francisco that tends to much cooler than most of California. There are some that exist in botanical gardens as far north as Seattle, but I am sure they are highly pampered. Then I found a nursery in Portland that did have a few members of the family in the genus Grevillea. That got me started. They not only survived in my garden – they thrived.

The Start

How perfect – a plant that loves impoverished soils, blooms almost year round, doesn’t need watering in summer, doesn’t need to be fertilized, highly attractive to birds, bees and other wildlife, disliked by deer, and very pretty!

That is when the collector in me kicked in. I wanted more. Not just Grevilleas but the other members of the family – all the way up to the amazing Protea. If you have ever seen one of these flowers you will know what I am talking about.

I started to import seed from South Africa and Australia, New Zealand and places in Europe that had similar climates. These are not easy seeds to germinate, and plants take years before they get to blooming size. That did not deter me. I did manage to find a few somewhat mature plants available online and gobbled those up. Earlier this year, I also discovered that UC Santa Cruz had an importation program with Australia to bring some of their hybrids and cultivars into this country for trials in California. I was a gardener in a plant store. You have never seen a car packed with so many plants heading up I-5.

But through all of this a few big questions remained. Does my garden have enough heat to get some of these plants to set flower buds? I also do not have any plantable areas that have full sun in Winter. Neighboring trees cast a lot of shade when the sun is not that high in the sky. When I asked in online forums, they were skeptical.

Early Success

One of the genera, Leucadendron, can be grown purely for their leaves, which are often multi-colored or variegated. Many of the Leucadendrons I have were cuttings obtained from florists stems. Just after Easter I noted that one of them had a single flower on it. Leucadendron’s actually have very small flowers and are surrounded by large bracts. That means they tend to be “in flower” for a long period of time and that one blossom is still on the plant in June.

Leucadendron floridum 'Pisa' — Leucadendron floridum ‘Pisa’

About a month ago, my Leucospermums started to put on their growth spurt for the year. Lots of buds started to form on them. It is often difficult to tell at first if they are growth buds or flower buds, but as they developed it was clear that on two of the plants, there were two different types of buds. I still didn’t want to get my hopes up because Protea are well known to drop their buds if they don’t like the conditions. Now, at the beginning of June I am the proud gardener of Leucaspermum ‘Scarlet Ribbon’ in bloom.

So, I can grow them, and I can get them to bloom. Two important members of the family have yet to tell me they can bloom here – the Protea and the Banksia, but I am now much more hopeful than I was. Now I know I am safe to collect more plants and that they will be quite happy here.

Calendar

Gardener’s Log – May 2021

May 1st

Well, May 1st is meant to be naked gardening day. First, the likelihood that it would be warm enough for that makes it very unlikely. Second, that may be fine for doing a little weeding, but clearing new ground – probably not a good idea. So, I did the second best thing – I went shopping!

I needed some edging material to go around Whimsey Way so decided to pay the Oregon Decorative Rock company a visit. Even if I didn’t find something suitable, there was other research to do there. I always need basalt for retaining walls, so I knew the trip would not be a waste. As it was, I picked up some quartzite blocks. They are about 1 1/2″ thick and has some nice colors. I think it will do fine. I also needed something for the mulch that will go in the row of succulents along the boardwalk. For that I selected a white crushed rock that is less than 1/4″.

Now, there is not way that the car is not coming home completely full! Even after getting food from two Asian grocery stores and some stuff from home depot – there was space on the back seat and so had to stop in a nursery. Picked up a couple of small banana trees (already planted), a staghorn fern – see if I don’t kill this one, and some other wonderful additions to the collection.

May 18th

Finally, in the middle of May, April has arrived. Temperatures in the low 50s, showers, but mostly sunny, no wind – this is what gardeners have been waiting for! It is planting time!! That, plus the local hardware store may be calling any minute to say they have two yards of bark dust on their way for me. Nothing like a deadline to make you get something done. A Callistemon ‘Cane’s hybrid’ has been planted in the Garden of the Giants. It will be the anchor plant in the first main detour that the boardwalk makes. In years to come, once it has matured a little, it will look obvious why the boardwalk makes a detour rather than going straight. Some Artichokes that Jesse grew from seed have gone behind the giant Alliums.

In the cutting garden, a couple of Sunflowers have gone in – Red Courtesan and Lemon Queen. The dahlias continue to get eaten every time them manage to grow a bit. Poor things. I am wondering if I should cover them with some light fabric until they become a little more established.

Gondwana had a couple of casualties over winter. The Protea repens that I grew from seed disappeared. I think deer probably took a munch on it and uprooted it. It has been replaced by Protea neriifolia x magnifica. A little lower down by the steps, Helichrysum coralloides (just learned that this is no longer its correct name – it is now Ozothamnus coralloides) now occupies an awkward spot in the steps and wall. A new Banksia replaces Birthday Candles that was struggling. Banksia spinulosa ‘Stumpy Gold’ now commands that front row seat.

May 30th

Unfortunately, not a lot has been happening in the garden this month. Each weekend has been wet – which has been great for the garden, but not so much for the gardener. In addition, getting a house ready for sale is a huge time hog, especially when everything in the house has to go.

But there are a number of things blooming in the garden and the dogwoods are putting on a nice show. We look down on them most of the time which maximizes the coverage of the blossoms – which are technically bracts. The blossom is that small bit in the middle and those large white ‘petals’ are modified leaves.

Weather Summary

Unfortunately, Weather Underground is showing a large gap in our May data, so it is difficult to get a comparison. Last May, the high was 89.4, low 41 and average temperature 54.8. We had 5.39″ of rain, 1.4″ of that came in one storm at the beginning of the month and the rest was evenly spread.

This May was definitely cooler with many fewer days where we reached 60F. The high of 70.3F was on the last day of the month and the average was 51.5F – more than 3 degrees cooler. Total rainfall was 2.65″, only half of last years total. Winds were much higher all through the month, which is partly the reason for the cooler temps as the on-shore winds picked up much earlier this year.

General

Breaking Seed Dormancy

Getting seeds to germinate can be as simple as showing them some soil and moisture, waiting for a couple of days and seeing fresh green sprouts. But not all seeds are this easy. Many seeds in the Protea family, for example, have specific needs that have to be met to break their dormancy. This includes subjecting them to smoke. Others require scarification, or having the outer coating of the seed removed. Some want to be soaked in water. The list of special treatments is almost endless, with many seeds requiring more than one type of treatment.

You may be wondering why I am writing about seeds and germination right before winter sets in and not in spring. Well, many of the plants that interest me do sprout in the fall. This gives them the best chance to get established over mild winters, put on a lot of growth in spring and then prepare for the harshness of summer. Plants need to have built up a good strong root system if they are going to survive months without appreciable water during the summer drought.

Find Help

I have acquired a couple of seeds recently where there are no serious suggestions for germination. One offered – we don’t know how to break their dormancy, so we suggest you buy thousands of seed in the hope that one or two may do something, sometime. They also added that it may take a few years. Another seed had the suggestion that putting it in Emu dung may help. Fat chance of me finding much Emu dung laying around in Oregon!

In both of these cases, it is not that they would be problematic in the wild. Seeds have dormancy triggers for very specific reasons. They make sure that when they do germinate, they have the best possible chance of survival. Perhaps Emu dung is a good idea. Perhaps it indicates to the seed that it has a supply of food, and that there is something specific about Emu dung that sends a chemical trigger. There are some seeds that require a particular animal or bird to have eaten it. As it passes through their digestive system, the acid probably gets rid of the outer coating and it is delivered with a food source.

Many times, we don’t understand the triggers, or have to find ways to make the seed think it has been eaten. For many years, it was thought that the Proteas needed fire, only to learn that it was in fact chemicals from smoke that triggered them. People are still not certain what chemical it is, and different plants do want smoke from different things being burned.

Experimentation

When starting plants from seeds, these are some of the challenges that we face. We basically have to conduct small experiments to try and find out what works and what doesn’t. Whenever I try seeds that are new to me, I tend to divide them up into several batches. This assumes I have enough seed. Then I can do things slightly differently for each, such as putting some of them on bottom heat or not. I may subject some to wider temperature swings by leaving them outside.

There are some other tricks that you learn along the way. For example, if a seed has a shiny, tough coat, it will not absorb water and thus the chance of success is very low in the short term. It is possible that if left long enough, that coating will break down, but that could take years. So, scarification can help. I have also been using hydrogen peroxide treatments more recently. It can really soften up a hard coating. A 1% solution for 24 hours seems to do the trick.

Another trick, especially for seeds that I expect to be slow in germination, is the use of fungicides. I have been trying two different techniques. The first is to dust the seeds in a powdered fungicide. The second is to water the plants in a liquid fungicide. The former is better when first planting the seeds. The latter really helps stop the onset of liverworts when germination takes a long time or the seeds are under mist.

Better Documentation

Both techniques are helping. I would often see dark patches forming in my nursery pots where a seed had been. Those had basically been attacked by mold. There is a lot less of that now. Results of my germination experiments will be included on the plant pages going forward, but not all of my previous attempts were properly documented.

Gardener’s Log – September 2021

Start of the Rainy Season

Looking Back

Seed Starting

Gondwana Extension

Aloe Plicatilis

Weather Summary

Becoming a Plant Collector

Becoming a Collector

The Start

Early Success

Gardener’s Log – May 2021

May 1st

May 18th

May 30th

Weather Summary

Breaking Seed Dormancy

Find Help

Experimentation

Better Documentation

Recommended Products