Re: interesting plants


--- Nan Sterman <nsterman@plantsoup.com> wrote:
> Hi everyone
> 
> I am working on presentation on new and
> underutilized plants for 
> Southern California's Mediterranean climate gardes. 
> I have a huge 
> list of my favorites but I wonder what you all
> think.  What 
> Mediterranean and arid climate plants do you think
> could be used more 
> in gardens, especially if you've visited or live in
> Southern 
> California.
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> Nan

Nan,

Rather an open ended request!  Maybe you could share
your list of proposed plants with the group,
especially for those who won't be able to make your
presentation?  My own list would probably emphasize
plants I have seen at some of the local southern
California Botanic Gardens, and are not generally in
the nursery trade, or only occasionally available at
Botanic Garden sales.

Not all of these may fit into your category, as they
may be more subtropical than arid/mediterranean, but
they all grow well in southern California as well as
here in the SF Bay Area, and many are surprisingly low
water use in the right location:  

Talking about showy flowering trees, several examples
come to mind. The pink flowered form of our native
buckeye, Aesculus californica 'Canyon Pink' as seen at
Rancho Santa Ana or Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. 
Another hybrid tree, a cross between Tabebuia
chrysotricha and T. impetiginosa is worth seeing when
they bloom at the Los Angeles Arboretum or Alice Keck
Park in Santa Barbara.(All of the locally hardy
Tabebuia's deserve wider use as well). Delastoma
integrifolium(syn rosea) is another showy, virtually
everblooming small tree with deep purple trumpet
flowers and evergreen avocado-like foliage from
Ecuador, and is showier in bloom(in my opinion) than
the recent Pacific Plant Promotion relative D. lobbii
which Kathy Musial recently wrote about in the latest
issue of Pacific Horticulture Magazine.  I remember
first seeing this at Steve Brigham's nursery, Buena
Creek Gardens, and having to have it immediately.  It
is currently blooming here in my own garden, and has
proven to take light frosts without problems. 
Cussonia paniculata and C. spicata(Cabbage Trees) are
two South African palm like trees that are becoming
more popular, but deserve a wider audience.  I would
also add Trevesia palmata(Snowflake Tree) from Burma,
all because they have such interesting foliage and
form, and are also low water use plants.  Calodendrum
capense, although slow if not difficult to bloom here
in the SF Bay Area, is stunning when in bloom in Los
Angeles.  A 25 foot tall specimen has never bloomed
here at Strybing.  Arbutus 'Marina' is not rare or
difficult to find, but is also deserving of much wider
use, as it is the equal of our native Madrone in
beauty, and very much more adaptable to garden
conditions.  It also has much showier trunks/smooth
cinnamon colored bark than the ubiquitous Tristania
conferta/Brisbane Box planted all over southern
California.  Acmena smithii, for the brilliant fuschia
berries.

A few shrubs; Tecoma x smithii, Tibouchina organensis
and T. lepidota 'Alstonville' and Luculia
intermedia/gratissima/pinceana,(again, best along the
milder/more humid coast), Illicium mexicanum, Gnidia
polycephala(squarrosa), Dianella ensifolia, Justicia
rizzinii, Malacothamnus fascicularis, Heteromeles
arbutifolia 'Davis Gold' to name a few. 

A few vines, including a flowering vine from New
Caledonia, the seldom seen Oxera pulchella, was
another plant from Steve's nursery that I was glad to
purchase, and is uncommon in gardens.  Beaumontia
grandiflora is another very tropical looking vine that
is not widely planted, and even blooms well here in
the SF Bay Area with a warm wall to grow on, and
always looks stunning in bloom every spring at the
Lake Merritt Gardens, adjacent the greenhouse/lath
house area.

Regarding palms, it sure would be more interesting if
rareties such as Parajubaea cocoides and the various
Rhopalostylis species from New Zealand were more
available,(especially as larger sized plants), but
these are less useful to anyone not located close to
the ocean. Brahea species and Butias are also
deserving of much wider use throughout the parts of
California where they are well adapted.  With its
immense blue palmate leaves, Bismarckia nobilis is one
palm I wish took the cooler conditions here in
northern California, and has proven adaptable in
balmier parts of southern California. 

Utilitarian garden performers for shade such as
Asparagus retrofractus and A. reflexus are two species
that are as attractive and easy as A. densiflorus, but
seldom seen in nurseries.  Crassula multicava is
another great drought tolerant shade plant that is
highly useful, but uncommon in nurseries.  Cautleya
spicata is a deciduous ginger relative very showy and
useful for mid summer flowering in deep shade.

Don't get me started on bromeliads, but for those who
don't mind their plants viciously thorny, the various
Puya species are wonderful silver foliaged accents as
well as great barrier plants, and combine wonderfully
with Aloes and other succulents, as seen at the
Huntington Botanic Garden, or here at Strybing or UC
Berkeley Botanic Gardens.  Dyckias and Hechtias should
be included here as well and again, most of these are
very difficult to find at nurseries. 

By chance, are any of these on your own list, Nan?



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