Deodar Cedar

Just one more post about the effects of the high winds a week ago.  

Every single job site we drove up to last week was a disaster.  Some worse than others, but all required twice the amount of time to clean up/maintain than usual. 

The messy job sites set us back, especially the ones with Deodar cypress trees.  This tree could be as far away as 3 houses down, but the debris from it had made into the garden we're working on.  For such a lovely tree,  even if it is maintained, it will drops limbs, cones and needles everywhere!  This lovely tree needs a lot of room and in my humble opinion, it's not a suitable tree for a city, anything less than a half of an acre is a bad idea.  If one person has one in their garden, so do the neighbors on each side and even across the street.   There are many trees out there to choose from, and there are certainly some that are smaller and more conducive to a neighborhood. 

The Deodar Cypress is graceful, blue/silver needled and fast growing. It's name, Deodar, derives from Sanskrit that translates to "timber of the gods."  It has graceful pendulous branches. Pyramidal form when young, wide-spreading and flat-topped in old age.  
Most cypress trees have an exceptionally long lifespan, living hundreds of years. These relatives of redwood trees can grow to be quite large, reaching heights of 50 feet or more. Some of the oldest cypress trees have be known to reach heights of more than 250 feet. While these trees are quite sturdy, careful consideration is required when choosing a good spot to plant a cypress tree.  The cypress you plant today could possibly still be standing long after you're gone.
 
Aside from it's massive size, another issue we've found with this tree in a small garden is how much water it takes up leaving little for anything planted below it.  Finding plants that will thrive under this cypress is tricky.  Characteristics we look for in an under planting are usually arid/acidic tolerant.  

If you inherit a deodar cypress naturally, like it came with the house or through a neighbor, all you can do is love it and appreciate it.  It is a truly majestic, specimen tree.

It looks so sweet and small in this picture.  :)

80 year old deodar's lining a street in San Jose

Deodar in it's native country of the Himalayas

 

Cercis occidentalis

It's a beautiful day to be planting a Cercis occidentalis, Forest Pansy.  This is a such a delicate and lovely tree.  We are planting this tree today in a Hayward garden, replacing a Mimosa tree that was messy, too large for the space and the biggest reason; it had fallen over.  We are also planting many other flowers and native shrubs to the landscape too.  It's going to be a fun day! 

Best Day Ever

Don't hate me, but I'm off the the wholesale nursery!  Yep, me, a truck and freedom to buy whatever is needed. 

My head is spinning!

Big Winds

The news for today and last night is, high winds.  In elevations above 900 feet, the winds were gusting up to 68 mph.  These winds caused the death of 2 people, one was electrocuted by a downed power line and the other was killed by a falling tree branch.  

You could hear limbs cracking and sirens going off all night.  Winds so strong they cleared old palm tree fronds off the incredibly tall palm trees around the corner from my house and made a huge mess of the streets.  All the people driving their Prius's were definitely irritated.   Their cars sit so low to the ground, it seemed to me it was impossible to navigate through the littered street. 

I know this hardly compares to the people who lost their lives on Thursday night, but a third, not so tragic tragedy;  the winds whipped my tree Dahlia into a pained horizontal position, instead of the stately upright one it had grown into. 
 I was out in the winds trying to secure it, but me, a tall post, and a sledgehammer in the high winds was almost comical.  The post is actually visible in the pic.  LOL  I didn't think it would stay in place, but it did.  However, it was a quick fix that clearly didn't solve my problem.

Succulents = Love

 

This is a garden that I helped to plant and design.  I think, aside from the cat shit you can't see, it's one of my favorite gardens.  It is small, maintains itself, requires minimal water and it's simply lovely.  Succulents have been of interest to me for over a decade and I still am not bored with them.  They continue to create cultivars to keep my curiosity piqued, plus they are so easy to grow.  They make me smile.  

 This house has recently been sold, so I won't be maintaining this beauty anymore.  I also won't be seeing a lovely friend on a weekly basis either.  

Citrus Leaf Miners, ugh!

So, within the past month or two, there has been a new pest on our job sites;  Citrus Leaf Miners.  Every site we maintain, where there are Citrus trees, there are CLM.  We never thought it would be so prevalent, but they're everywhere.  CLM is a very small, light colored moth that arrived in southern California from Mexico in 2000.  This is what UCD has to say about them.  

Adult citrus leafminers are tiny moths about 2 mm long (less than 0.12 inch) with a wingspan of about 4 mm (or about 0.25 inch). They have silvery and white iridescent fore wings with brown and white markings and a distinct black spot on each wing tip. Moths are most active from dusk to early morning and spend the day resting on the undersides of leaves, but are rarely observed. Soon after emerging from the pupal case, the female emits a sex pheromone that attracts males. Females lay eggs singly on the underside of leaves. Newly emerged leaflets (flush), particularly along the mid vein, are the preferred ovi-position site.
Eggs hatch about 4-5 days after being laid and newly hatched larvae begin feeding immediately in shallow, meandering mines in the leaves. As a larva increases in size, the mine becomes more visible and larval excrement forms a thin, central frass trail within the mine. Larvae molt 4 times over a 1 to 3 week period. Mature larvae pupate within the mine, rolling the edge of the leaf and protecting the pupa with silk. The entire life cycle of the insect takes 2 to 7 weeks to complete, depending on temperature and weather conditions. The activities of citrus leafminer vary somewhat with location in the state because of differences in climatic conditions and flushing of citrus trees. In general, citrus leafminer is active from mid-summer through fall and early winter.

What I have noticed is they give the citrus tree leaves an almost metallic look.  The small tunnels that the moths create, look like scribbles all over the leaves.  The citrus leafminer damages citrus by mining the underside of young citrus leaves; the fruit is rarely mined. Leaf mining results in leaf deformation, partial leaf chlorosis, necrosis, and some leaf drop, which ultimately results in a reduction in the tree’s photosynthetic capacity. Additionally, the mines provide an entry point for a number of plant pathogens including citrus canker.  Citrus leafminers are attracted to new growth on trees. To help reduce the effect of infestation, do not prune live branches more than once or twice a year.  Do not prune leaves that have been damaged because undamaged areas of the leaves continue to produce food for the tree. Citrus Miners are not able to mine leaves once they are hardened. Do not apply nitrogen fertilizer at times of the year when leafminer populations are high, as flush growth will be severely damaged.

Most people say they do not cause any problem with fruit production, especially on mature trees, and to leave them alone.  I find this hard to do.  I have read and plan to implement this treatment;  

A combination of Neem oil and Spinosad.   Since you are only supposed to use Spinosad no more than 6 times per year.  My plan is to alternate spraying, at 1 week intervals, for 3 sprayings of each in the Spring and then again in the Fall.  I will spray in the evenings because although Spinosad is considered "organic", it is not completely safe for bees, or praying mantis.  It was discovered by as doctor vacationing in the Carribean, who toured an old rum factory and took samples of the rum soaked dirt underneath.  What he found was fermented bacteria that will over stimulate certain pests causing their death. 

I will keep you updated with the outcome. 

Once a year. . .

It's fitting that my first post is of my tree Dahlia.

It started as a 1.5 foot piece of Dahlia stalk.  I took the piece of it home because we were in the midst of a huge garden clean up, we had way too much debris, and I brought some home to my green waste can.  The Dahlia wouldn't fit into my green bin, so I stuck it in the ground.

I thought, eh, it might make it or it might not.
Look at it now.....