Re: Brugmansia

Kurt,

Your last question first, the bulb in bloom in the lawns of your neighborhood is most likely an old timer called Ipheion uniflorum, or Blue Star Flower, from Argentina.  It is usually considered a very easy to grow bulb for naturalizing, and will form sizable clumps fairly rapidly, and can be transplanted even in full bloom, with the only detriment to the bulb being a shorter season of foliage when transplanted in full bloom.  I would suggest that you not plant it where it will compete with less vigorous growers, as it can be rather aggressive.

I also remember being told by the staff at the Huntington Botanic Garden in Southern California, that they consider it to be a weed in the gardens, and they are not able to easily eradicate it where it is not wanted.  In the San Francisco Bay Area it seems to be less weedy, and will thrive on natural rainfall alone, just going deciduous earlier rather than later in years of little rainfall.  There are also named cultivars with white or deeper blue flowers which are also very nice.  Even pieces of the bulb will grow on to form a new plant, as a potential warning to you.

Interesting that your Brugmansias are already blooming in Modesto, most years in Berkeley or San Francisco they will only keep blooming in the most sheltered windless and sunny locations, and look much better in the winter where they are so located.  Baiting for snails would be my recommendation for keeping the leaves intact, although in the warmer months they can grow so incredibly fast that the minor damage from snails seems negligible.

I can't answer your question about the Musa, but I would guess that most of the dwarfer varieties just sulk with night time temps below 50 F, the Dwarf Cavendish (M. acuminata) which I have grown, never did much of anything in Berkeley, nor much better in a much warmer garden in Oakland.  I attribute this to it preferring heat over cooler mild coastal climates.  Once the temperature really starts to warm up and stay warm, try goosing it with fertilizer, it couldn't hurt.  If you like the banana look, you might try Heliconia latispatha, which will easily tolerate your conditions of a covered patio, and will even bloom in late fall/early winter.  It's not one of the showier  flowering Heliconias, but for a northern California garden it can really give that look of the tropics.  If you are ever in Oakland, you can see clumps of this Heliconia in the Palm Society's Garden at Lake Merritt garden center. 

I find myself wishing I were back in the SF Bay Area for the Landscape and Garden Show and the spring weather, as here in Riyadh it is already pushing 100 F at 10 am.  It is somewhat spring like here in the sense that the Delonix regia and Plumeria obtusa trees are pushing new leaves out, and the things like Jatropha integerrima and Caesalpinia pulcherrima are also starting to come into flower.  The Plumeria rubra though is still dormant, and acts as though it will wait until it gets over a 100 F, thank you very much!!  I've got a question for anyone who knows: will Agapanthus africanus/orientalis, Tulbaghia violacea and other similar herbaceous south africans survive full sun in desert climates such as Riyadh's or Phoenix/Tucson?  Or will they burn up without shade protection during the mid summer months? 

K1MIZE@aol.com wrote:

All:

My Brugmansia x candida "Double White" has been blooming for over a month
now. Is this normal for our area (Central Valley of California)? I know we
had an exceptionally mild winter, and mine are in pots on a covered patio,
but it still seems rather early to me. A couple of plants that I started
from cuttings last summer are also blooming, even though they are only 18"
tall. The fragrance on my patio this morning was heavenly. I want to thank
Kemberly McLain, of Katy, Texas, for her cuttings. One of the plants of the
'fragrant yellow-flowered' variety I started from her cuttings is already
starting to bloom! My only problem with these beauties is that they seem to
attract every insect and molusc for miles around, and as a result are always
rather full of holes and covered with slime. Any suggestions?

I'm also wondering if my banan! a,! ! Musa sumatrana "Zebrina rojo," has bitten
the dust. I would have thought it could survive a mild winter on a covered
patio, but the leaves gradually shriveled up this winter, and the resulting
bare stalks are decidedly dead-looking. I'm interested in hearing about
others' experience with this plant.

One more thing. While walking through an older neighborhood in Modesto
recently, I came across several houses whose front lawns were covered with
lovely, pale blue flowers, no higher than the level of the grass. Upon
closer inspection, they were somewhat irregularly five-petalled, and about
2-3 cm across. They arose from small clumps of rather fleshy, dark green,
grass-like leaves, 6-7 cm in length. A very low-growing bulbous plant,
apparently. Looks like it thrives and spreads in lawns, and would be a
wonderful accompaniment to English daisies and other things that are blooming
in lawns this time of year. Any ideas? Thanks.!
Kurt Mize
Stockton, California
USDA Zone 9


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