Volunteer day pruning bonanza

Amanda!

I was away the last two weeks, so didn't think we had much time to promote this month's workday. However, a great team joined Matt and I and we accomplished so much: you just never know!

The day turned into quite a pruning exravaganza. Everyone got a crash course in how to prune or cut back various species, and the pile at the top of the garden awaiting pickup is quite huge now.

Gina!

Gina got stuck in cutting back a lot of dead Chasmanthe leaves in clumps around the garden.

This plant comes up every fall and flowers in winter, which is fabulous as everything else is pretty much dormant then. That makes the work of cutting back the dried up leaves in summer totally bearable, and once removed the garden looks 100% tidier.

Josh!

Josh spent his time on the front bed, rescuing various Agaves from the weeds and generally being detail oriented and cheerful as usual.

Matt moved some Agave attenuata to widen a path, and pulled scads of weeds, and I cut back almost all the Euphorbia characias in the garden and for the steps mostly weeded too.

Leslie!

Leslie attacked some of the Echiums with verve, removing dead flowers and making the paths more accessible. Matt deadheaded the Echiums in the middle back bed too, and that's made a hugh difference to the garden right away.

Amanda told me she doesn't have much in the way of gardening chops. Disagree! I showed her how to cut back the Romneya coulteri (Matilija Poppy) and she did a perfect job.

Sarah!

Sarah cut back Chasmanthe, then turned to the Blue Potato Bush (Lycianthes rantonnetii) which hasn't had a trim in literally three plus years. Working around the bay laurel (Laurus nobilis) she got the potato bush whipped into shape right quick.

Plant profile: Lycianthes rantonnetii (Blue Potato Bush)

 Latin name: Lycianthes rantonnetii (pronounced "lie-see-AN-thees rat-oh-NETT-ee-eye")
Common name: Blue Potato Bush, Paraguay Nightshade

Originally from: Brazil, Bolivia, Argentina and Paraguay

Blooms: Absolutely covered in purple flowers that have a little yellow eye. Flowers a lot. Relentlessly? Shamelessly?
Light: Full sun to part shade
Water: Drought tolerant
Drainage: Excellent
Height x width: 4-6' x 4'-6'
USDA Zones: 8b-11
Where to find in P. Garden: In the left bed by the steps

Lycianthes rantonnetii is a species of flowering shrub in the family Solanaceae.  Cultivated as ornamental the world over, you might deem it boring and decide to pass it over. But you'd be wrong.

The blue potato bush is one of about 150 species in the genus Lycianthes, which are found mostly in tropical regions of the Americas, with others in the Asia-Pacific region.

The species is named after Barthélémy Victor Rantonnet, a 19th-century French horticulturalist, who thought at first that it should be lumped in with the nightshades (Solanum) - the same genus as potatoes, hence the frumpy common name: Blue Potato Bush.

Unfortunately, after that got sorted out and it was moved to the genus Lycianthes the Potato Bush name had stuck. Several other little-known Solanum species probably should be included with Lycianthes but there you go.

I got this plant as a freebie left on the street by a random Craigslister. It consisted of two twigs and a few rumpled leaves, so not much hope was given to it. However, tough as an old boot, it sprang to life and is now a handsome flower-covered shrub 6' tall. It looks ratty in the dog days of summer, but a quick sprinkle of rain and pow: loaded with flowers again.

You can train it into a little tree, or let it be shrubby. It's easy to prune an doesn't care much when you do it. The flowers don't have a scent but aside from that it's a great little plant that handles all sorts of abuse cheerfully.

Oh, and boring? More like dangerous. Like most nightshades all parts of this plant are poisonous so keep your kids and dogs out of the flower beds people. A source of psychoactive alkaloids, they will cause a nasty upset stomach and worse.

After the rain, the weeds

 

Matt and I headed up to the garden to do an hour of weeding today. The garden is in full bloom!

You can see a lovely Kniphofia flowering in orange here, with an Echium in blue, and an Agave gypsophila and some red Dyckias in the foreground. 

I pulled all the weeds on the steps, and we planted a Yucca whipplei there, with the three others.

Matt pulled weeds all over the garden - we hauled 5 tubtrugs full to the compost bins, which are very full and need to be turned.

I cut back a Romneya coulteri (Matilija Poppy) at the bottom of the steps , and the Leucadendron salignum "Golden Tip" and the Lycianthes rantonnetii (Blue Potato Bush) at the top of the steps.

There's so much weeding to do - come on out to the Friday April  22nd Earth Day volunteer event to help us weed this place up!

Break in the rain

Arctotis "Cherry Frost"

Last night it rained hard. Torrentially. The sun came out today and Matt and I ran up to the garden to see what it looked like. Damp!

We did some quick planting a tasks to get plants off our patio and into the ground:

1 Puya berteroniana

1 Beschorneria yuccoides 

3 Yucca flaccida "Garlands Gold"

2 Coprosmas - "Sunset" and "Evening Glow"

4 Agaves replanted from yesterday, when I'd had to dig them up to avoid being squashed by the chipper. 

Lycianthes rantonnetii
(Blue Potato Bush)!

We weeded about 4 large tubtrugs of weeds out too, and dumped two loads of mulch on the path below the steps. We also planned a path from the bench to the top of the garden so people can make a loop there. 

The Bronze Loquat (Eriobotrya deflexa) trees are flowering in the gardens now - they smell amazing. Drop by and have a sniff!

Warm + overcast = perfect gardening weather!

Mulch Master Matt

We had a great volunteer day today - thanks to everyone who came out to help! Matt and I were joined by Iris, Francisca, Josh, Cosmo, Amata, Jo, Carlin, Leigh, Tanya and Nate.

We powered through a bunch of tasks and I only hope I gave all our determined volunteers all the help and attention  they deserved. though I was rushing around a bit!

Francisca mulches.

First off, Amata deadheaded the daffodils and moved the pile of branches up to the dog area - a long overdue job.

After that, she thoroughly weeded behind the bench and, joined by Matt and Francisca, mulched the area too. That spot is won't need to be touched for probably 6 months now - can't wait till the Clivias start flowering.

Nate and Leigh
eradicate Cannas.

Nate and Leigh took out ALL the Cannas by the wrong way sign. They have been infected by the Canna virus so sadly we had to throw them all out, which was a massive task.

Completing this task does make room for some lovely, xeric plants though - I am imagining Leucadendrons and Aloes and Agaves as that spot is so desperately dry.

Carlin chops Cannas

Tanya and Francisca ripped out loads of Nasturtiums in the surrounding beds, hopefully ending the evil reign of Nasturtium once and for all.

Carlin (who I keep wanting to call Curlin - this is a compliment coming from me, believe it or not) pruned the potato bush (Lycianthes rantonnetii) - she'd pruned the Bolivian Fuchsia (Fuchsia boliviana) last week too so clearly she has skills in that department! Later on she took all the Cannas that had been dug up and chopped them into the compost bin.  Despite the sad demise of those plants we will at least be able to use them to fertilize other plants.

Josh pots cacti

Josh potted up a great number of cacti that had been languishing under the loquat trees. I bet those poor plants were really grateful! It was such a relief to see them all lined up with their roots in dirt at last - they may be tough but there's only so much they can take. These cacti are getting ready for a new life on the SPUR project (now known as the Pennsylvania Railroad Garden) down the street so they do need to get ready for some harsh conditions.

And Cosmo... well, Cosmo is a dog so he did all manner of doggy things. Watch out for some very cute pics of him coming soon on the blog.

Mixed bag

Today I went back to the same Mission alley as last week to pick up another bunch of plants from a Craigslist posting. This time what had been left on the street was an unidentified shrub* (apparently it has blue flowers?) and a trash bag full of bits of succulent. Hey OK, it was free!

I went home and pruned and planted the sad-looking shrub (good luck, mate!) and then went through the bag. It yielded 3-4 types of Aeonium, various Crassulas (including a "Gollum" and a Crassula falcata!) a Sedum, a Euphorbia cactus (I think) 2 Aloes and a variegated Agave! All tiny, but rooted and ready to rock. I poked them into various niches, admired several types of butterflies in the garden (above, Swallowtail with Buddleja - sorry for the low resolution; butterflies are twitchy), and went in to escape the sun.

Later this evening Matt and I watered everything thoroughly for the week, still a 2 hour job despite the efforts of Caltrans workers (who opened up the bubblers that all now leak rather impressively, effectively watering some areas....)

The smell of a lone Brugmasia bloom was perfuming the air, and our neighborhood mockingbird was warbling his head off in a quite melodious way. The first day of summer. Ahhh!

*This has gone on to reward my efforts to save it and grow some new leaves and a blue flower - it's a Lycianthes rantonnetii (Blue Potato Bush)!