The Coastal Gardener - May, 2004
Plants in and out of fashion
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Plants come and go out of fashion just like hemlines, jeans cuts and hair length. If you leaf through old Sunset magazines from the 1950's you'll notice bold foliage plants such as castor bean, fatsia, philodendron and loquat feature prominently. The contemporary architecture of the times called for strong shapes to juxtapose against the wide low form of a modern ranch-style house. The importance of bold foliage forms can be seen in an Emil Norman ornamental screen featured in Craft Horizons 1949. He encased the leaves of native plants, plus ivy, fatsia, fern, aralia and grevillea within a frosted plastic field, where bereft of their parent plants, the leaves must stand on their strong silhouettes.
A plant that grows in my garden today would have been right at home with any mid century modern. Melianthus major is often called Honey Bush for it's long, brown- tinted flower heads dripping with sweet nectar. It's blue-tinged compound leaves consist of 6 to 8 serrate leaflets that look sharp but are actually soft to the touch; the leaves are held on purple-tinged upright stalks that can grow to 10 feet tall. Spectacular against a blank wall, Melianthus grows best in full sun or part shade. A hard pruning each spring will keep the plant bushy and low, remove the tallest stems regularly, leaving the shorter new stalks.
One of the best effects I ever saw with this plant was where it was kept short and lush then paired with grasses and autumn sage. The blue, bold foliage contrasted well with arching stems of bronze carex while a nearby sage picked up the purple notes of the Melianthus stems.
In my garden, Melianthus erupts unexpectedly alongside the orchard path. It was a remnant of an earlier planting of ginger, cannas and red leaf banana, but this tropical combination didn't meld with my overall low drought tolerant look. After it's spring pruning, I moved it to the side of the cabin across the path, whose blank wall needed the softening provided by it's bold form. Melianthus is showing up again in garden magazines and nurseries, bold tropical foliage is very popular in combinations of colorful perennials and grasses.
Regular pruning of shrubs to reduce their size does not have to mean shearing. Many spring flowering shrubs such as lilac and spirea benefit from a removal of older stems after flowering. Cistus and ceanothus can be kept low effectively by removing upward tending branches cleanly at a joint with a spreading branch. Make the cut deep within the foliage to keep the plant low without stimulating new rampant growth, which will also reduce their fuel load in case of wild fire.
Drought tolerant does not have to mean desiccated as my own garden can illustrate. True, I do water regularly but only a tiny fraction compared to the irrigation of an average 1000 square foot lawn each year. Most suburban gardeners shiver at the mention of drought tolerant, haunted by parched plants in a dreary landscape. And many native and drought tolerant specialists do little to alleviate this image. A recent brochure from a local nursery referred to "sere, senescence and dormancy" as positive attributes for the plants on display there. They seem to think, since a plant can survive all summer without water, going dormant and looking dead, that this is preferable. If they only realized that the average homeowner cares only that their garden looks green, colorful and healthy, and if it happens to be water thrifty, great. Then the native plant enthusiasts would have many more converts to the low water landscape movement. Many natives do go dormant in summer, but just as many stay green, even flower, sometimes with just a little extra water, and it is a balance of these plants that can create a pleasing palette. I enjoy walking on the dry August hillsides, but I certainly do not want my garden to look the same!
*Dead head roses to keep the flowers coming. A dose of balanced fertilizer this month should encourage new buds for July.
*If your zucchini or pumpkins have not set fruit yet, try hand pollinating with a soft water color brush. Dust around inside a newly opened flower picking up pollen grains, do the same in the next plant. Plant a selection of pollinator-attracting plants such as Cleome, Salvia, Comfrey and Achillea so that next time the bees will do the work for you.
Enjoy! Dave Egbert
