September 2015 – Page 2 – Gardeners Tips

Avocado – Root and Branch Review

September 16, 2015 hortoris

Key Features of the Avocado

Latin name Persea Americana
Other common names Alligator Pear or Avacado Pear
Height up to 60 feet 18m
Type of tree – Evergreen
Leaves – Glossy dark green elliptical shaped
Flowers Fragrant racemes in yellow-green. Three petal like lobes with nine stamen
Fruit – Green to black containing a large oval stone. Oval shape 4-6 inches long
Bark Dark grey-brown
Family Lauraceae along with cinnamon and camphor

Origins and Distribution of the Avocado

Origin in central America.
Cultivated in USA, Australia and the Canariesetc.

Uses and Commercial Attributes of the Avocado

Fruit has the highest protein and oil content of any fruit.
An important food crop and source of energy.
Used to make Guacamole or ahuaca-mulli

Gardeners Tips for the Avocado

The flesh has a smooth buttery texture when ripe
Grows in a climate without frost and with little wind.
Avocados are picked when mature but before ripening. To ripen keep at room temperature. Avocado will ripen faster if stored with apples or bananas
Can be grown as a leafy houseplant from a stone. Suspend the stone over water to start the roots

Other types of Avocado

There are over 500 varieties some with hard black skins and others with thin light green skins
Pinkerton with large fruit and small seed has green skin thas deepens in color as it ripens.
The populas Hass variety can stand relatively low temperatures and has ovate fruit with a black pebbled skin

Avocado comments from elsewhere

‘The flowers are bisexual. The male floral organ, the stamens, occur in three to four trimerous whorls (Persea three), with the innermost whorl sterile and the third whorl having a pair of glands at the base. In Persea the nectaries are at the inner fertile whorl, and filaments are longer than the anthers. A characteristic feature of the family is the presence of flaps (Persea four) on the anthers, which open from the base upwards and pull out the pollen as they open’ University of Florida read more

Credits
Avocadoes Camknows CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
“avocadoes by Elsa4Sound CC BY-NC 2.0

Further Cultivars from California Rare Fruit Growers

Anaheim
Origin Otto Keup, Anaheim, 1910. Guatemalan. Tree columnar, productive. Fruit very large, to 24 oz., elongated glossy green, seed small, oil 15%. Tenderest of cvs. for coast only. To 32Â° F. Season July.
Bacon
Origin James Bacon, Buena Park, 1954. Hybrid. Tree broad, productive. Fruit small to medium, to 12 oz., round-ovoid, smooth green. Flesh only fair, almost colorless,seed cavity molds rapidly. Hardy for Bay Area, Central Valley. To 25Â° F. Season December.
Creamhart
Origin Orton Englehart, Escondido,1969. Hybrid. Seedling of Reed. Tree open, upright, branching. Fruit medium, to 14 oz., skin green flesh extraordinarily pale,buttery, nearly fiberless. Not alternate bearing. To 30Â° F. Season April – July.
Duke
Origin Bangor (Oroville), 1912. Tree vigorous, open, resists wind. Fruit small, 12 oz., elongated pyriform, waxy green, skin paper-thin. Flesh excellent, oil 21%. Seeds commonly used for rootstocks, resist root rot. Extraordinarily hardy, recovers quickly from freeze, to 22Â° F. Season October
Fuerte
Origin Atlixco, Mexico, intro. Carl Schmidt, 1911. Hybrid. Tree open, spreading, tall. Fruit large to very large, 16 oz., elongated pyriform, skin dark green with numerous small raised pale spots, waxy bloom, skin thin. Flesh good, oil 18%, seed medium. Formerly standard cv. of California industry. Tends to bear in alternate years, unproductive near coast or in north. To 26Â° F. Season December.
Ganter
Origin Albert Rideout, Whittier, 1905. Mexican. Tree tall, spreading, open. Fruit small, to 8 oz., long pyriform, skin paper-thin, pale waxy green. Flesh good, oil 18%. Oldest avocado cv. in California. Quite hardy, for Central Valley floor and far north. To 23Â° F. Season October.
Gwen
Origin Riverside, Robert Whitsell, 1982, patented. Seedling of Hass. Tree dwarf, to 14 ft., low vigor. Fruit small, to 8 oz., a Hass look alike, elongated green, flesh good. Most productive of dwarf avocados, best dwarf for outdoor use, also for containers, greenhouse. Not hardy, to 30Â° F. Season February – October.
Hass
Origin Rudolph Hass, La Habra Heights, 1926. Seedling of Lyon. Guatemalan. Tree rather open, not tall. Fruit medium, to 12 oz., pyriform, skin thick, pebbled, coppery purple. Flesh good, oil 19%, seed fairly small. Currently the standard of the industry. To 26Â° F. Season July.
Jim
Origin John Reinecke, San Diego, 1939. Hybrid. Tree upright. Fruit small to medium, to 10 oz., olive green, with long neck, oil 12%. To 26Â° F. Season June.
Lula
Origin George Cellon, Miami, 1919. West Indian. Tree dense, broad, prolific. Fruit round, slightly pyriform, to 20 oz., slightly rough glossy green, oil 12%. Only West Indian type recommended for California, rather hardy, to 28Â° F. Season April.
Lyon
Origin R. Lyon, Hollywood, 1908. Central American. Tree columnar, slow growing, difficult to propagate, often scion incompatible. Fruit commonly over 24 oz., dark glossy green, rough, pyriform, oil 21%. High quality. Tender, to 30Â° F. Season April.
Mexicola
Origin Coolidge, Pasadena, 1910. Mexican. Tree tall and spreading, vigorous. Fruit small, 5 oz., round pyriform, skin paper-thin, purplish black, waxy bloom. Flesh highest quality, seed very large. Hardiest cv. known, seedlings useful as rootstocks in far north. Recovers rapidly from freeze. Defoliated at 20Â° F, trunk killed at 17Â° F. Season September.
Mexicola Grande
Seedling selection of Mexicola. Mexican. Tree tall and spreading similar to Mexicola. Fruit 15% – 25% larger than Mexicola and somewhat rounder in shape with better seed/flesh ratio. Skin paper-thin, purple-black. High quality flesh with high oil content. Hardy to about 18Â° F.
Murrieta Green
Origin Colima, Mexico, intro. by Juan Murrieta, 1910. Hybrid. Tree slow growing, easily trained. Fruit large, to 18 oz., oblate, green, resembling Fuerte. Flesh exceptional, oil 18%. Only cv. readily adaptable to espalier. For coast and intermediate. To 27Â° F. Season September.
Nabal
Origin Antigua, Guatemala, intro. by F.W. Popenoe, 1917. Tree dense, columnar. Fruit handsome, large pyriform, to 17 oz., green, skin resembles Fuerte. Flesh exceptionally high quality, oil 16%. Young trees require pinching to force low branching. Tends to bear alternate years. To 27Â° F. Season July.
Pinkerton
Origin John D. Pinkerton, Saticoy, 1972, patented. Guatemalan. Tree dense, productive. Fruit variable in size, 7 to 12 oz., skin thick, pebbled, green. To 30Â° F. Season November.
Queen
Origin Antigua, Guatemala, intro. by E.E. Knight, 1914. Guatemalan. Tree broad. Fruit exceptionally large, to 24 oz., elongated, purple, flesh excellent, oil 13%. Fairly hardy for large cv., worth trying in Bay Area. To 26Â° F. Season August.
Puebla
Origin Atlixco, Mexico, intro. by Carl Schmidt, 1911. Mexican. Tree broad, high branching. Fruit beautiful, medium to large, to 18 oz., ovoid, skin thin, lacquered maroon purple. Flesh excellent, oil 20%. Least hardy Mexican type, to 29Â° F. Season December.
Reed
Origin James S. Reed, Carlsbad, 1948. Hybrid. Tree columnar. Fruit large, to 15 oz., round, skin thick, pebbled, green. Flesh good. To 30Â° F. Season August.
Rincon
Origin Carlsbad, Sam Thompson, 1944. Hybrid. Tree small. Fruit small to medium, 10 oz., green, resembling Fuerte. Flesh good. For coast, Santa Barbara and Ventura. To 27Â° F. Season January.
Ryan
Origin Albert Rideout, Whittier, 1927. Hybrid. Tree low, spreading. Fruit medium, to 14 oz., elongated, otherwise resembles Hass, skin thick, pebbled, purple. Flesh good, oil 25%. For Inland Empire, Bay Area. To 26Â° F Season August.
Spinks
Origin E. Bradbury, Bradbury, 1911. Hybrid. Tree spreading. Fruit medium, to 15 oz., round with small neck, tangelo shaped. Lacquered, coppery purple, outstanding flavor, oil 16%. To 27Â° F. Season April.
Topa Topa
Origin E.S. Thatcher, Ojai, 1912. Mexican. Tree columnar, vigorous. Fruit handsome, elongated pyriform, small to medium, 8 oz., smooth dark purple with white waxy bloom. Skin paper-thin. Flesh rather poor, oil 15%, seed elongated. Seedlings commonly used for rootstocks. Hardy, for far north. To 23Â° F.
Whitsell
Origin Robert Whitsell, Riverside,1982, patented. Hybrid. Hass seedling. Tree dwarf, to 12 feet, low vigor. Fruit small, 6 oz., elongated Hass look alike. Flesh good. Bears in alternate years. For containers and greenhouse only, not hardy. To 30Â° F. February to October.
Wurtz (syn. Littlecado)
Origin Roy Wurtz, Encinitas, 1935. Hybrid. Tree prostrate, difficult to train, low vigor. Fruit dark green, medium, to 10 oz. For containers and greenhouse. To 26Â° F. Season July.
Zutano
Origin R.L. Ruitt, Fallbrook, 1926. Hybrid. Tree columnar. Fruit small to medium, to 10 oz. elongated smooth green, resembles Fuerte but inferior, has fibers. Hardy for Bay Area, Central Valley. To 25Â° F. Season November.

Horse Chestnut – Root and Branch Review

September 15, 2015 hortoris

Conker collecting has encouraged many a stick to be thrown into a Horse Chestnut tree. The candle or flower heads are even more spectacular than the crop of conkers that they give birth too.

Key Features of the Horse Chestnut

Latin name Aesculus Hippocastanum buckeye in USA or Conker tree
Height up to 130 feet
Type of tree – deciduous –
Leaves – Large green palmate with 5-7 fingers or leaflets
Flowers White or pink candle shaped upright panicles
Fruit Green spiky spherical husks containing a glossy brown inedible seed or conker
Bark Dark brown, coarse and scaly when mature
Family Aesculus has about 20 species

Origins and Distribution of the Horse Chestnut

Native to the Balkans.
Planted in temperate zones as an ornamental specimen.

Uses and Attributes of the Horse Chestnut

Distilled the conkers make acetone.
The seed extracts were used for fulling cloth and whitening hemp, flax, silk and wool.
Herbally used to treat varicose veins and haemorrhoids.

Gardeners Tips for the Horse Chestnut

Used along avenues, parks and in churchyards.
Horse Chestnuts can make large bonsai.

Other types of Horse Chestnut and key species

Texas, californian and other american buckeye or Aesculus species.
Aesculus Ã— carnea the red horse chestnut.

Horse Chestnut comments from elsewhere

In Britain, the return to school after the summer holidays is synonymous with conkers. Originally played with cobnuts or snail shells, the use of the horse chestnut in the popular children’s game was first recorded in 1848. Since 1965, the World Conker Championships have taken place every year in Oundle, Northamptonshire. Kew.org

The fruits of this tree vaguely resemble those of the (Sweet) Chestnut tree but they are not related. They develop in prickly cases, and are ripe in September and October – the ‘conker’ season.

Read about our series on British tree reviews with a bakers dozen fact sheets

Credits
“Horse Chestnut tree by JeanM1 CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
“Conkers by MamaPyjama CC BY 2.0

Olive – Root and Branch Review

September 14, 2015 hortoris

Key Features of the Olive Tree

Latin name Olea Europaea
Height up to 50 feet 15m
Type of tree – evergreen dictoyledons
Leaves Dark green with silvery green undersides. Leathery, lanceolate or ovate leaves –
Flowers Small white borne in axillary clusters.
Fruit Egg shaped or ovoid drupe green turning black
Bark Grey with gnarled ridges and appearance
Family Oleaceae

Origins and Distribution of the Olive

Dating back at least 4000 years in tablets written in Cretan 2500 BC.
Cultivated in the Mediterranean where it flourishes.
References in the Bible to olive branches an anointing oil

Uses and Commercial Attributes of the Olive

The fruit is a staple part of Mediterranean cuisine.
The fruit is crushed or pressed to make olive oil.
The oil is used in cooking and historically as a fuel.
Olive is now recognised as a colour a dull grey-green or green-grey.

Gardeners Tips for the Olive

Olives are used to hot mediterranean climates and do not thrive in the UK
Recent attempts to make them specimen plants are led by the avaricious side of the horticultural industry and great conditions are needed for your Olive to survive.
Olives are often grown in groves although most varieties will self pollinate.

Other types of Olive and key species

There are thousands of cultivars of the Olea europaea olive tree.
The Iberian olives are usually cured and eaten after being pitted and stuffed with pimentoe

Olive comments from elsewhere

‘The older an olive tree is, the broader and more gnarled its trunk appears. Many olive trees in the groves around the Mediterranean are said to be hundreds of years old, while an age of 2,000 years is claimed for a number of individual trees’

Credits
“Olives by wollombi,CC BY 2.0
OLIVES by Sara Maino CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Sausage Tree – Root and Branch Review

September 10, 2015 hortoris

An unusual tree with even more unusual fruit.

Key Features of the Sausage Tree

Latin name Kigelia Africana other common name kigeli keia
Height 30-50 feet high 12m
Type of tree – deciduous but evergreen with adequate rainfall
Leaves Pinnate with 3-6 pairs of lenceolate green leaflets
Flowers Large, dark red, strongly scented, bell flowers hanging in panicles
Fruit Pendulous grey-green sausage shaped unpalatable fruit that give the plant its common name
Bark Rough grey-brown
Family Bignoniaceae.

Origins and Distribution of the Sausage Tree

Occurs throughout tropical Africa.
Sausage tree in Arabic means “the father of kit bags” .

Uses and Commercial Attributes of the Sausage Tree

The tree is grown as an ornamental for flowers and seed pods.
Medicinal uses include treatment for abscesses, rheumatism and venereal disease
Beer can be brewed from the fruit
The many seeds are good parrot food.
The tough wood is used to make dug out canoes

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Grow Abeliophyllum White Forsythia for Spring Scent

September 8, 2015 hortoris

Abeliophyllum distichum also called White Forsythia is more refined than traditional yellow Forsythia to which it is distantly related, both being part of the Olive family.

Growing White Forsythia

Abeliophyllum distichum AGMÂ is native to Korea and produces clusters of fragrant, creamy white flowers which emerge in late winter or early spring before the leaves.
Trained against a sunny wall,Â Abeliophyllum distichum will grow 3-6 feet tall. It can be rather untidy and lax if grown in a border
Prune after flowering to within 2-5Â buds to make a permanent framework and encourage new wood for flowering next year.
Grow in full sun or light shade in average soil 3-4ft apart. Feed with a balanced fertiliser once a year in early spring
Can be underplanted with Scilla sibirica, Muscari or species Crocus for a lovely early spring display.

Abeliophyllum distichum roseum group is the seldom seen pink form. According to Junker’s nursery ‘It is sometimes called “Pink Forsythia” but this reflects more its time of flowering than either its colour or parentage! A very pretty plant that stays quite small, rarely more than 3 feet tall’.

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Seedheads Worth Growing

September 7, 2015 hortoris

Decorative gardens can benefit from growing seedheads for their own sake.

Flowers With Seedheads

The clematis family produce a variety of interesting seedheads. Shortly after flowering the above heads looked truly golden in the afternoon sunshine. The fluffy seeds will eventually be dispersed from a ball of seeds that looks just as wooly.
Honesty is aka Lunaria after the moon shaped seedhead. After the purple flower the green seedhead, shaped like an old penny or halfacrown in old money, looses the green covering to reveal a translucent white disc and ripe seeds. Even more decorative than the flowers and they can be picked as dried flowers.
Rosehips make some of the most startling seedheads but then again berries are all seedheads of a sort. Below is a photo of Skimmia berries the main reason for growing these small shrubs

Grasses and Other Seedheads

The natural look from planting a range of different ornamental grasses for their seedheads has become very popular.

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Majestic and RemarkableTrees

September 6, 2015 hortoris

New Trees: Recent Introductions to Cultivation by John Grimshaw, Ross Bayton and illustrated by Hazel Wilks. Amazon

A good reference work or wonderful coffee table book can be costly but the joy of a book on your favourite subject may be a great investment. I adore Trees and wish I could own and plant up my own Arboretum. Unfortunately I have to be content with good books, regular trips to sites of interest and a small number of trees in my own garden.

If I was looking for something different then this book would be amongst my first reference work from Kew and Royal Botanic Publishers. I have made plans to have a trip to Kew gardens to check out one or two ideas that I have been accumulating through winter.

Another series of books I like to browse are the ‘Remarkable’ series by Thomas Pakenham

Meetings With Remarkable Trees starts “The two largest Common Oaks (Quercus robur) in Britain and probably Europe, too – are the Fredville Oak in Kent and the Bowthorpe Oak in Lincolnshire”. In Meetings with Remarkable Trees Pakenham assembles a beautifully photographed gallery of 60-odd trees of Scotland, England and Ireland, and magnificent trees they are. One is a 600-year-old king oak that looms large over Charleville, Ireland; another is the yew tree that Wordsworth called the “pride of Lorton’s vale”; still another is a sequoia brought from the United States and planted in a Herefordshire grove in 1851. Amazon

In ‘Remarkable Trees of the World’ there are sections entitled, Giants, Dwarfs, Methuselahs, Dreams and an exceptional section about Trees in Peril. Amazon

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Growing Cannas – Facts and Fancy

September 5, 2015 hortoris

You don’t need global warming to get a warm glow in your garden if you plant some Canna. The fiery hot flowers and leaves on some Cannas are hard to beat and are worth a place in any passionate garden.

What other plant starts flowering in June and keeps flowering right through until the first frosts. Do not deadhead the flowers at any price as new blooms arise from the center of old ones. They flower in shades of red, orange, pink and yellow often bi-coloured with blotches, spots and streaks. The foliage is also a most attractive feature, and can be shades of purple/bronze, red, green and striped.

Growing Canna

Rhizomes have to be started into growth in February and you can be certain that if you see a new root, then a new shoot will soon follow. Start them by putting them in a hot place in a poly bag. An airing cupboard is ideal.
Part fill a 2 liter pot with peat based compost improved with slow release fertilizer and insecticide and lay the rhizome on the compost. If any shoots are growing, place these pointing upwards. Be very careful with any shoots because they break off very easily.
Fill the pot, affix a label showing the variety and the date of planting. Give the compost a good drenching, and sprinkle a few slug pellets around.
Place the pot in a warm frost free place. They will grow much quicker if heat is provided.
They can be planted out in June in sun, shade or preferably semi-shade.
Cannas prefer a damp soil but can survive some drought conditions. Some varieties grow well in bog gardens.
Large clumps can be divided in Autumn when the rizomes are stored in a frost free environment. Keep slightly damp.
Canna are very strong and sturdy and do not require staking. They are generally insect free in the UK.

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Marijuana Growers are Potty

September 3, 2015 hortoris

One weed that some gardeners wish they were able to grow – well then can but not always legally.

A form of grass that if you water it with neat whiskey it comes up half cut!

Cannabis the easier name to spell than Marijuana is typically considered to be one of two species Cannabis indica and Cannabis sativa.

Skunk and not Skunk cabbage but with an aroma to be sniffed at.

Humidity, temperature and ventilationÂ are all vital to getting your grow right.

Hash is concentrated resin produced from the flowers of the female cannabis plant or hash is the mess I make of sowing very small seeds.

Marijuana Grower’s Handbook is a perennial favourite on marijuana cultivation. Ed Rosenthal’s popular marijuana advice column and helpful web links are included as Rosenthal delivers all the basics needed for a novice plus advanced research useful to the more experienced grower. Buy from Amazon

Get a Joint to easy your joints or call it a spliff, bone, nail or, when smoked down to the end, a roach.

Mistakes Making Compost

September 2, 2015 hortoris

Another wet and rainy day and all I can think about is the compost heap (well may be not all).
We all slip up, drop clangers and get it wrong so I thought I would list some of my own compost errors or lash-ups.

Gardening can be like that so I try not to beat myself up when things go wrong. There is always another season and a worse clanger elsewhere.

Soggy Compost Mistakes

An over wet compost heap will smell something rotten, really stink and I mean badly.
Nutrients will be washed out at the bottom of the heap and lost.
The composting process will be slowed almost to a stop.
I wish I had covered my heap before all this heavy rain.
Good compost needs air so it may help to turn and drain the wet heap.
Belatedly I have been putting some torn up newspaper in the heap as roughage and to soak up some excess fluids.
Because this time I have built the heap on soil I can reclaim some of the goodness by taking a level of soil when I spread the compost.

Construction Mistakes

In the past I have relied on a heap with no sides just a pile. This flattens out and spreads without ever getting to a good heat except perhaps in the center
As you may see from the picture below some wood has rotted. You need to use tanalised or treated wood to prevent the structure from rotting.
A plastic bin where ‘you can draw clean compost from the bottom whilst refilling at the top’ was an unmitigated, uncomposted disaster but I may not have followed the rules
For the first time I have two discrete piles. For too many years I made do and mended with one. Now I wish I had three piles – ho hum!
Compost heaped on a concrete base is easy to work, turn and collect for spreading.
Leave room for your barrow so you can unload and reload comfortably
Do not build too near your neighbors kitchen window or cover your own air grates (mistakes I have previously made).

Compost Content Mistakes

I do not put meat products on the heap but last winter a family of rats made a nest in the warm pile
For several years I did not compost rhubarb leaves as I heard they were toxic. Of course they rot down and are quite safe.
Everyone must have tried to compost too much of the same vegetation and I have had too many grass mowings in a dry clump or a wet mess more times than I should mention. I now try to aerate the pile or turn it over regularly.
Leaves from trees take longer to rot, contain less nutrients and are better in a leaf pile or punctured plastic bag. Twigs need to be shredded or cut very small.
Seeds from weeds and plantsÂ including fox gloves and forget-me-nots do not rot they survive
After the mistake of too much water do not forget a dry heap will not rot either – you need some damp or add water when very dry.

Compost Mistake Elimination

Good compost starts with a range of good materials from a mixture of green plants and shredded brown matter.
Fungi and creepy crawlies breakdown the material and they need air and moisture to do their best
Heat helps kill pathogens and unwanted seed so keep a lid on a good sized pile and insulate the sides.
Turn the pile for even rotting as this stops the edges rotting more slowly