Spring 2013 San Diego County Garden Events

A hillside butterfly garden on display in the 2012 Clairemont Garden Tour

It is officially Spring and it’s time to think about attending one or more of this season’s garden events. I encourage you to attend a tour and plant sale in your neighborhood or explore a new neighborhood! Here is a list of events for the San Diego county area:

Through May 12: Visit the Flower Fields in Carlsbad, CA – See the Ranunculus flowers bloom in patterns yet unseen in the 15 year history of the event. Cost $11 for adult, $6 for child. Event website

March 22 - 24, Orchid Show at Scottish Rite Center in Mission Valley. Event website

April 6, 9 AM to 4 PM San Diego Horticultural Society 25th Annual Garden Tour of seven diverse Poway gardens sponsored by San Diego Home and Garden Magazine. Rumor has it that this is one of the best garden tours in the county. Event website 

April 6 - 7, Southern California Plumeria Cutting Sale at Room 101, Casa del Prado, Balboa Park. This free admission event is a cutting sale (cash and check only) with demonstrators and vendors on hand to offer advice on caring for plumeria. Event website

April 13,  9 AM to 3 PM, Fallbrook Garden Tour displays seven gardens featuring water conservation and native vegetation. Tour begins at Fallbrook Historical Society. Event website

April 20, 9 AM to 12 PM, Point Loma Garden Club Annual Plant Sale at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Event website

April 20 - 21, San Diego Rose Show at Liberty Station, Point Loma. Amateur and expert presentation of roses. Cost is $5 per adult, children under 12 are free. Event website

April 20, 10 AM to 4:30 PM, 8th Annual Encinitas Garden Festival and Tour displays eighteen gardens focusing on the use of space. Gardening Sale and exhibitions will take place as well. Event Website

 April 21,  2 PM, 11th Annual Seaside Native Plant Garden Tour, St. Mary's School, Oceanside. Tour will showcase eighteen front yard gardens that focus on native plants. Event website

April 27, 10 AM to 4 PM, 12th Annual Point Loma Garden Walk will feature ten neighborhood gardens and a large plant sale. Event Website

April 27, 9 AM to 3 PM, Friends of East County 18th Annual Garden Tour features six gardens and a craft show. Event website

April 27, 9 AM to 3 PM, 6th Annual Ramona Garden Club Tour and Sale, Ramona Library. This tour will feature six gardens and a large Plant Sale. Event website

April 27,  9 AM to 4 PM, 19th Annual Spring Garden Festival, Cuyamaca College. Learn about urban farming and sustainability. Loads of activities for all ages and gardening skill levels. Please review website because there is some discrepancy between on-line resources of the actual date. Some sites say April 27, others April 28. Event Website

May 4, 10 AM to 4 PM, Clairemont Garden Tour. This 17th Annual event features twelve homes in Clairemont, Bay Park, and Bay Ho. Check out the cool gardens in central San Diego, in the neighborhood I call home! Event website

May 4, Master Gardener Spring Seminar, County of San Diego Operation Center, Kearney Mesa. Take a class from the San Diego Master Gardeners, view demonstrations, and purchase items at the garden market place. Event Website

May 11, 10 AM to 4 PM, Mission Hills Garden Club Walk, Mission Hills Nursery. One of the most highly regarded garden tours in the county in the area of historic Mission Hills. Information is currently forthcoming on garden club website.

May 18, 10 AM to 4 PM, 15th Annual Secret Garden Tour, La Jolla and Muirlands features six secluded, old-growth gardens. The garden locations are a tightly maintained secret until the day of the tour. Event website

May 18, San Diego Floral Association Historic Garden Tour  and Plant Sale will showcase eight gardens in the eclectic and historic neighborhoods of Burlingame and North Park. Event Website

Take a stroll through the garden gate - you'll never know what you'll find!

June Maintenance Mode

June is an anticipatory middle month. The early spring blooms have burnt away to allow the mid season blooms a place in the sun: large sprays of roses, colorful salvia, yarrow, lavender, and other assorted butterfly-loving flowers. The early wildflowers have recently been removed to may way for the squash and pumpkin. The tomatoes are flowering and bringing forth hard, green fruit. There are no tomatoes to eat just yet and I hope today's sunshine is evidence of more warmth to come.

This odd lull in the garden has left me with only the simplest of tasks, mainly deadheading. Many would ask: Why cut the blooms off a flowering plant? Truth be told, a gardener who removes the almost spent blossom encourages the plant to produce a bevy more of them. I have deadheading my roses down to a scheduled science. On days I water (usually Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday) I remove spent and on the cusp of spent blooms and remove leaves infested with orange rust. I think I will be forever doomed to fight orange rust, but I find that if I attack in short battles over the course of time, I have more success (and more beautiful roses) than if I try to wage an epic battle once a month. As with all work in a garden, it is a war of attrition, the pests and blight never truly defeated but rather staved off for another day. Deadheading isn't just for roses; I use the tactics on annual flowers, lavender, salvia, and yarrow. The tactic does not seem to work on jasmines; they bloom profusely, then like a switch, shut down for the season, leaving me to miss their lovely scent.

The Yellow Pear (left) is taller than me!

Other simple June task include (as always) weeding, watering, and checking for powdery mildew and treating it, THE EARLIER THE BETTER. And yes, I am shouting that last provision. I didn't treat my yellow crook necked squash early enough and now I am afraid they cannot be salvaged (into the dumpster they go)! The tomatoes, zucchini, and pumpkins will take their medicine on a regular basis. There are many options to choose from at your local nursery and many of them are organic. Weeding is still necessary but begins to lull after the end of the spring rains. I am fighting spotted spurge and spider grasses rather than thicker stemmed varieties such as dandelions. Weeding is another war of attrition, the more weed-free the garden, the less likelihood of weed seeds spread far and wide. But vigilance always, for the next infestation is on the wind.

Butterfly Garden

Watering responsibility requires keen observation in June. The overcast marine layer of “June Gloom” blots out the sun in the mornings (and sometimes all day). I still usually water 3 days a week, but I skip a day as needed if the ground still looks damp. Over watering can kill just as much as under watering, and it brings a higher risk of powdery mildew.

My happy place

After puttering in the garden in the cool weekend mornings, completing these smaller tasks, I can afford to relax in the afternoon, sipping an iced coffee underneath my new patio canopy. I enjoy whiling a way an hour or two reading my gardening magazines or watching the birds, waiting in anticipation for the tomato crop to turn to the magic colors of ripeness: red, orange, yellow, and purple.

Dreaming in the Color of Roses

Hubby and I are now proud members of the San Diego Rose Society and last Sunday we were treated to a tour of some of the most beautiful private rose gardens in San Diego County. We have determined that we must make some mandatory additions to our seven going on six rose bushes: Fourth of July, Fame, Memorial Day and Rock N Roll. I also must find a Koko Loco and a replacement for my Ketchup and Mustard - it sadly does not look to be surviving the transplant process. I have a lot of catching up to do before I can deem my garden in the same class as these loveliest of lovelies! Also, a reminder that this year's Clairemont Garden Tour will be held Saturday, May 5, starting at 10 AM. For more information or to purchase tickets, please go to Clairemont On-line. Now, on with the roses!

Ruth Tiffany Rose garden:

Fourth of July - must have!!

Whole wall of Roses in partial sun

Rock N Roll - must have!!

Linda Clark Rose Garden

Koko  Loco - must have!!

Dick and Sue Streeper Rose Garden

Fourth of July and Day Breaker

More Rock N Roll

Hot Cocoa - just planted one in February

In Like a Lion . . .

Mother of Pearl Rose

Time to end this blog hiatus! April has been so very busy with Passover and Easter celebrations, huge deadlines at work, and a bout with a nasty strain of head cold. To top it off, the early spring-time weather has truly followed the old adage, "in like a lion." We usually end our rainy season in March and have increasingly warmer days April into May. Not so this year! We've had late season rain and thunderstorms from mid March through late April. 

The late season showers delayed my anticipated tomato seedling planting time, pushing planting until the first weekend in April. The tomatoes are none the worse for wear; I babied them by placing them outside for the day and in for the night for a week, then hardened them up by leaving them outside the following week. We planted April 1st, no joking!

Step 1: Place the tomatoes. I placed 6 plants in 2 rows of 3 in a large bed. I opted to increase density this year, but I left plenty of space for basil and marigolds to be interspersed between the tomatoes.

Step 2: Dig a hole with a spade 1-2 inches deeper than the seedling container. Add 1 crushed, clean egg shell to hole for added calcium for tomato. Tomatoes love their calcium!

Step 3: Gently remove the seedling from the container. First, squeeze the pot to loosen the soil, then gently grasp the stem and pull. Do no force! If the seedling does not budge, continue to loosen soil around the pot and try again.

Stem 4: Place seedling in hole about 1 -2 inches deeper than it was in its pot. Maintain the integrity of the root ball if possible. Remove bottom leaves from plant if they are dragging in the dirt. Press the soil firmly around the plant for support.

Step 5: Cage the seedling. Don't wait until later - do it now! Center the cage around the plant and press down hard. Be careful not to snag the stem or leaves. Water the seedling with a watering can on a hose on low. Label the seedling using the plant tag; I use string to tie it to the top of the cage for easy reference.

My roses are coming into full bloom and I am able to cut roses for bouquets every week. I am able to enjoy the gentle scent of my Double Delights when I walk into my family room. I have been fighting orange rust on my roses. I had an angry moment and removed every last leaf from one of my Mother of Pearls. A word of warning: Don't prune angry, it can have bad results. I kept cursing my sixteen going on thirty neighbor for reinfecting my plants. I did not have the stones to ask if I could prune his roses back in February and now I am reaping the reward of his overgrown monstrosities spewing their diseases downwind to mine. Perhaps the San Diego Rose Society can help me with a solution to get me through this season.

Left to right: My Mother of Pearl and Double Delight roses before my pruning spree.

Yay! My California Poppies are in bloom - Love!

Bare Root Season, Camellias, & Rosie Temptations

Winter months are usually slow in the Victory Garden - not so this year! My gardening New Year's resolution for 2012 is to fill in the naked spots in my garden, using gardening time table specific to Southern California. (I have discovered my time tables have been off in some cases, specifically when I pruned my roses.) Over the course of the year, I will be following Pat Welsh's Southern California Gardening: A Month by Month Guide. I adore Pat Welsh; her advice is excellent and her approach is green. Be on the look out for book reviews of both the gardening guide and memoirs!

See the tiny stick in the back? That's my new Mission Fig!

January is the start of bare root season, so now is the time to get bare root deciduous fruit trees and roses in the ground. Hubby and I went to our local Walter Anderson Nursery and picked up another Mission Fig. We placed it on the north wall of the garden in the number six vegetable bed, just to the right of the plumeria. It should receive plenty of sun in that location and extra warmth from the cinder block fence. 

Camellia japonica ready for planting

Now is also the time to plant camellias and azaleas. I chose to plant two camellias in the semi-shade of the eastern side of the garden near the garage. I choose two camellia japonica, one is a brilliant red bloom variety called Bob Hope and the other is Carter's sunburst, a variegated pink with both light and dark striations. They are very small right now, but I hope they grow and bloom profusely. Camellias bloom from fall to early spring and are a wonderful source of color and flowers in the winter months.

My roses are coming back nicely but earlier than expected after their pruning. I still am fighting orange rust thanks to my neighbor's infested roses being upwind of mine. Perhaps I can offer to prune his roses for him? I originally did not plan to plant any bare root roses this year, but I am sorely tempted to do so since I've seen some of the new offerings with gorgeous variations of color. I want to plant a Ketchup & Mustard and a Koko-Loco. (Please click here for images.) I have room for one more in my rose bed, but I may have to sacrifice space in my sweet pea bed for the second.

I have added a number of cool season annual flowers for added color and have planted some extra lettuces to augment our salads. Hubby is trying out artichokes in the empty spaces of the mini-orchard on the east side of the house. Artichokes are supposed to grow profusely and become tall, but right now they look half eaten by pests. We continue to harvest tangerines, savoy cabbage, and radishes. I am at a loss on how to serve the radishes. My recipe round-up will take a hiatus this month as I perfect a cabbage recipe and figure out what to do with radishes. Please let me know if you have any suggestions!

Colossus White with Blotch Pansy

Angel Tiger Eye Viola

Anna Apple blooms - I hope I have more fruit this year!

Weeds are flowers, too, once you get to know them. - AA Milne

Pruning Roses in the Inez Grant Parker Rose Garden

The gorgeous roses in the Inez Grant Parker Rose Garden in Balboa Park got some expert and novice TLC this weekend during its annual pruning. The San Diego Rose Society generously donated their time and expertise to teach beginners to successfully prune roses. I had previously pruned my roses back in November, a time frame that I later discovered was way too early for Southern California roses. November is the appropriate prune back time for much colder climates (say East Coast). When I did the pruning I did so without much confidence in my cuts - was I doing this right? What if I kill my precious roses?

Turns out, you really have to work hard to kill roses. At the bare minimum, if you don't damage the root ball/ bud union as the base of the plant, the rose will come back and bloom in the spring. The tools of the trade are hand pruners, longer handled pruners, a small saw for cutting back thick, dead wood, and a heavy duty pair of garden gloves rated for use with roses. There are differing techniques among rose enthusiasts, but the San Diego Rose Society taught the following process for Southern California gardens:

1. Remove the access height, trimming the plant down to about 2 feet tall.
2. Remove the dead branches and branches that are smaller that a pencil in diameter.
3. Remove canes that branch over the middle of the plant, creating a bowl-like shape.
4. Remove canes that cross one another; choose the more dominant cane to keep.
5. Most plants will have 4 -5 dominant canes remaining per root ball.
6. On the dominant canes, you will see small buds, you want to cut right above this small bump, at a 45 degree angle. Please ensure the bud bump faces outward. New growth will move outward from this point.
7. Remove all leaves. At this time in the year, many leaves are diseased. Complete removal ensures new growth will be clean and healthy.
8. If pruning in January, your first blooms should arrive in March.

I begin trimming the canes down to 2 feet tall. Notice my heavy duty gloves - I went home with no injuries!

A San Diego Rose Society member removes dead wood at the root ball.

Hubby removes crossing canes and begins to create a bowl shape in the remaining canes.

This is a good example of a pruned rose bush. 4 - 5 canes remain with no canes in the middle of the plant.

A San Diego Rose Society member demonstrates where to cut the canes, right above the new bud growth.

The finished product - we made it through a whole rose bed! The leaves will need to be raked up and removed to prevent orange rust, black spot, and other rose diseases.

I completed pruning the year old plants. I had to be careful not to over prune these delicate roses!

Hubby and I worked for 3 hours pruning roses - Hubby estimates he completed pruning of 60 plants! We will have to return in late March to see if our handiwork was helpful to the plants. If you visit this rose garden any time soon, please remember that this is dormant time. The pruned plants make looks stark and dreary, but they will return in full glory in a few short months. 

Lastly, this entry is my milestone 100th post and I am so excited to continue building on my gardening knowledge and sharing it on this blog. I encourage you to show your support and sign up to follow my blog using Google Connect - all you need is a gmail account!  Thank you again for all you support!

Companion Plants for Roses (October Bloomday)

Roses are such a romantic addition to a garden; they remind me of a more genteel and gracious time. But the question becomes, what the heck can I plant along side them? Most tradition rose gardens are strictly roses, with no other ground covers, companion plants or other color around them. While allowing the roses to take center stage, this can create a stark effect in private gardens, especially during roses' dormant winter period.

I have discovered that the best plants to intersperse among the roses are hardy perennials and annuals that can take full sun to partly filtered shade. My favorite rose companions are the following:

1. Catmint - Not to be mistaken for catnip - they are in in the same mint family, but are entirely different species; catmint is a perennial ornamental while catnip is edible for humans and their feline companions. Catmint has mint-like leaves and has lovely purple flowers that attract beneficial bugs.
2. Nasturtiums - These annuals do well in the shadier parts of a rose bed. Seeds germinate without much attention other than watering and will continue to germinate year after year if you let them go to seed. They will need to be trimmed to keep them off the rose bushes. At the end of last spring, my nasturtiums were eaten by aphids, but I count my blessings the bugs did not attack the roses.
3. Pansies  - I love to mix warm and cool colors in my garden, and blue and purple pansies help provide the cool colors I love, especially in the cooler months. The do well in filtered sunlight as well. Keep in mind, they will last up to 2 seasons at the most.
4. Alyssum - Once established, this hardy annual does well in both cool and warm weather. These small, white (other colors available) flowers act as a ground cover and is another enticement to beneficial bugs. It does not create too thick of a ground cover, making it easy to remove rose debris such as petals and leaves from the rose bed.

A word of warning about placing edibles near roses - roses have a tendency to develop blights such as mildew and gold rust infestations and consequently, they will need to be sprayed to ensure their health. Chemical pesticide sprays and edible plants do not mix and for safety's sake, I recommend separating roses and edibles. I did plant lettuce in my rose bed last winter, but I was not able to eat the lettuce due to spraying my roses for orange rust. Orange rust spreads on the wind, so in the event of an infestation, keep the rose bed clear of rose debris, mainly infested leaves. I have trimmed back my companion plants to make this process easier. Companion plants should never grow so think around the rose bush that the rose bush is stifled. Airflow through the rose bush is necessary for good health. Be wary of over large and invasive root structures, since those can stifle the rose bush as well (all of the above plants have not invasive root systems).

Roses at the Inez Grant Parker Rose Garden in Balboa Park. Notice there are no companion plants.

My double delight roses back in April with nasturtium and alyssum.

Rose bed in September before clean up. Catmint is in the bottom right corner.

Rose beds in September after clean-up of dead leaves and fallen petals. New nasturtium growth and experiment in  planting annual dianthus & impatiens. Note the thinner ground cover; this makes it easier to remove rose debris.

In the Inez Grant Parker Rose Garden

That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo & Juliet (II, ii, 1-2)

You are responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose.    Antoine de Saint-Exupery 

The aristocratic rose always imbues romance and culture. It captures our imaginations with its deep fragrance and beautiful blooms. It punishes the beholder with its vicious thorns, symbolizing the dichotomy of pleasure and pain. Yet the rose is also delicate, requiring almost daily care in order to produce its heady scent and signature flowers.

On the east side of Balboa Park, across the Park Avenue pedestrian bridge, is San Diego's most beautiful and extensive rose garden, named for philanthropist Inez Grant Parker. There are approximately 200 varieties of roses here, carefully tended by a staff of volunteers. I can only imagine the amount of tending these roses need. I have 5 plants and two hybrid variety roses in my garden, and it is a constant fight to remove spent blooms, prune, and fight rose blight. Orange rust spores continue to be a problem for my Mother of Pearl and Double Delight roses and I can see evidence of the scourge at the Inez Grant Parker Rose Garden as well.

Roses are beloved, favorites of florists, brides, and sentimental romantics. So, we continue to tend them, nurse them through sickness, and create new varieties to grow in our private and public gardens. They will forever adorn our bouquets and pique our memories of romance and days gone by.

For more rose pictures, please click here.