This is a public-interest archive. Personal data is pseudonymized and retained under GDPR Article 89.

Re: Toyon

Hi Mary Lou -

Partick gives you some good information but I thought I'd chime in also.

I can find no cases of Toyon poisoning, nor have I ever heard of any. Like many plant in the rose family, the fruit and seeds can contain cyanide compounds. Apparently the flesh of green Toyon berries contains levels of these compounds that could be toxic (if anyone actually ate a lot of them), which helps keep the birds at bay until they ripen. Then the cyanide moves to the seeds which helps protect the seed for germination after 'dispersal' via a bird's digestive track. I've known many a cat who has lived happily and unharmed around fruiting Toyon bushes and deer take care of themselves quite well here in California.

Toyon grows moderately slow while it establishes itself, then it can start growing a lot faster. If you plan to irrigate these Toyons, make sure they get a very slow drip for a significant amount of time, alternating with periods of relative dryness, so that there is good penetration to lower soil strata, causing the roots to follow deeply into the soil. It is common for newly plants shrubs such as these to become surface rooted on sloping ground, because of common shallow irrigation practices of many gardeners and irrigation installers.

Regarding the coyote brush - there is a lot of variation in size and shape in wild populations though most cultivated clones are more compact and low. No surprise to me.

Best of luck,
SeÃn O.


On Mon, Nov 15, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Patrick Albin <a*@thegardengeek.com> wrote:

Hi Mary LouÂ


Great question! I don't have any personal experience to share but I was able to find this information about Toyon, and from what I gathered (it being a CA costal native) it sounds to me that you will have no trouble at all getting this plant to perform as you hope in your garden. Â


Toyon is a common perennial shrub native to California all the way down to Baja California.

Toyon is a prominent component of the coastal sage scrub plant community, and is a part of drought-adapted chaparral and mixed oak woodland habitats. It is also known by the common names Christmas berry and California holly. Northern coastal scrub occurs along the Pacific Coast from the San Francisco Bay Area north to southern Oregon

Toyon typically grows from 6' â10'Â and has a rounded to irregular top. Its leaves are evergreen, alternate, sharply toothed, have short petioles, and are 6â10" in length and about 1" wide. In the early summer it produces small white flowers in dense terminal corymbs. The five petals are rounded. The fruit is a small pome, bright red and berry-like, produced in large quantities, maturing in the fall and persisting well into the winter.

Toyon can be grown in domestic gardens in well drained soil, and is cultivated as an ornamental plant as far north as Southern England. It can survive temperatures as low as -54ÂF. The bush is handsome all year round and the bright red berries in winter are showy, which birds often eat voraciously.

Like many other genera in Rosaceae tribe Pyreae, Toyon includes some cultivars that are susceptible to fireblight. It survives on little water, making it suitable for xeriscape gardening, and is less of a fire hazard than some chaparral plants.

They are visited by butterflies, and have a mild, hawthorn-like scent. The fruit are consumed by birds, including mockingbirds, American Robins, Cedar Waxwings.

It is characterized by low-growing aromatic, and drought-deciduous shrubs adapted to the semi-arid Mediterranean climate of the coastal lowlands. The community is sometimes called soft chaparral due to the predominance of soft, drought-deciduous leaves in contrast to the hard, waxy-cuticled leaves on sclerophyllous plants of California's chaparral communities.


I would also like to invite you to join The Garden Geek gardening community website, at http://www.thegardengeek.comÂ

It is a new online gardening community based in Oakland CA. You will notice that at this time most of the folks on the site are from N. CA which is great at this time for those of us growing here locally :) Âbut the reach of the site is intended to be world wide. So at some point in the future we envision a space where the community at large is able to share and learn from other gardeners who garden in the same climate but live in another parts of the world. Our main goal at The Garden Geek is to make the world a greener and healthier place to live, breath and eat, one garden at a time and we would honored to have you among our community.


Kindly

Patrick Albin

p.s. I am glad you were able to make it over to Annie's Annuals for Davids talk, and am sorry we were not able to meet. David is an amazing garden designer and one who's ideas are worth close examination for those of us who garden here in the Bay Area.Â

A few weeks back there was a garden tour of a number of the gardens he has designed over the years and one of the community members of The Garden Geek went and posted this blog story about it and has these wonderful images to share.

http://www.thegardengeek.com/content/tour-david-feix-designed-gardens


A



On Sun, Nov 14, 2010 at 8:06 PM, Mary Lou Loomis <b*@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm not sure if this post is appropriate, but if it isn't, a gentle reminder would be appreciated.
Â
I'm about to take a big leap and transplant a 2' toyon from a pot into the garden. My garden is on a W/NW facing slope in the El Cerrito hills. We get plenty of fog and wind... and afternoon soon can be brutal on sunny days. I have some coyote brush that has grown to about 8-10 ft. tall in the last three years or so. The coyote brush came as volunteers once we cleared the yard of all the juniper ground cover planted by previous owner. Never imagining they would ever grow so tall, I asked my landscape designer to leave them when she designed and planted my garden 3-4 years ago. SheÂdropped by recently and was amazed at their size. Andrea said she's never seen any coyote brush this size.Â
Â
Anyway, they have a habit of taking over and I would like to replace them with toyon.ÂMy property slopes down from the street. The coyote brushÂhas created aÂprivacy screen that provides a measure of privacy from passersby who can look down on my house. I would like to plant the toyon and gradually eliminate the coyote brush as the toyon grows.
Â
Oh yes, I forgot to mention that I have two cats that have free reignÂof the yard. ToyonÂberries areÂconsidered poisonous, but Indians cooked and ate them. Birds and some mammals also like them. However, I thinkÂthey need to be consumed in large quantities to be toxic. We also have deer that browse in our unfenced yard, as it is in their migration path.Â
Â
Does anyone have any experience with toyon? How fast does it grow? Any advice?
Â
Mary Lou
Â




--
Please Note: If you hit "REPLY", your message will be sent to everyone on this mailing list (T*@meetup.com)
This message was sent by Mary Lou Loomis (b*@gmail.com) from The Garden Geek.
To learn more about Mary Lou Loomis, visit his/her member profile
To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here

Meetup, PO Box 4668 #37895 New York, New York 10163-4668 | s*@meetup.com



--
Albin

Check out what's growing on in my garden @
http://www.thegardengeek.com





--
Please Note: If you hit "REPLY", your message will be sent to everyone on this mailing list (T*@meetup.com)
This message was sent by Patrick Albin (a*@thegardengeek.com) from The Garden Geek.
To learn more about Patrick Albin, visit his/her member profile

To unsubscribe or to update your mailing list settings, click here

Meetup, PO Box 4668 #37895 New York, New York 10163-4668 | s*@meetup.com
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index