In the gardening world, trap plants are the equivalent of that slow friend.

Trap crops have long been used by farmers to draw pests away from the main crop. Sometimes they are the same cultivar planted a few weeks earlier than the protected crop. This gives them a head start so the pest insects will start feasting before the main crop emerges. They are planted on the perimeter because the marauding insects will encounter them first before heading further into the field. Once the trap crops are covered in pest insects, they are either treated with pesticide or removed.

Trap crops can be useful to the home gardener as well. Perhaps you’ve noticed that out of maybe 12 kale plants, one will seemingly collect all the aphids in the neighborhood. Don’t try to figure out what that one plant did to deserve such a fate – just wait until it’s saturated before pulling it and putting it out of its misery. I recommend disposing of it in the trash rather than trying to compost it.

Trap plants can also differ from the protected crop. Planting these combinations can benefit your garden’s health as well as provide some interest. Here is a short list of some trap plants and the pests they protect against:

Hubbard squash attracts cucumber beetles, squash vine borers, and squash bugs.

Sunflowers attract stink bugs.

Nasturtiums, dandelions, and okra attract aphids. Keep in mind that while these plants bring in aphids, they will also attract ladybugs to eat the aphids. If you see a dandelion covered in both aphids and ladybugs, leave it until the ladybugs have finished eating and leave. You don’t want to throw away a bunch of perfectly good ladybugs.

Mustard attracts harlequin bugs.

Radishes attract flea beetles (a major pest of eggplants), harlequin bugs, and cabbage maggots.

Marigolds attract root nematodes and repel cabbage moths. They supposedly repel rabbits, but the rabbits in my neighborhood seem to be the exception.

Companion plants can be trap plants, but they can also be attractive to beneficial insects or repellent to pest insects. They are also used to improve soil conditions, either by breaking up heavy soil or, in the case of legumes, make nitrogen available to plant roots.

Some companion plant combinations include:

Corn, beans, and squash (a.k.a. Three Sisters)

Spinach and strawberries.

Dill and squash/cucumbers.

Alyssum is very attractive to beneficial insects, is low-growing, and re-seeds readily. I recommend planting it wherever you can fit it in.

Garlic and onions are repellent to a number of pests, and their seed heads are attractive to beneficials as well.

Los Angeles County

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; 949-809-9760; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-683-6491 ext. 231; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

It’s clear where his priorities lie.

To say Zeldin is a model of consistency would be an understatement. He has lived in the same house in Reseda for his entire 70-year life. His only job was as a substitute teacher. From the age of 22 to 55, he worked in this capacity throughout the San Fernando Valley. And then he retired, presumably to spend more time in his garden.

His roses are at their peak bloom right now and so I could not resist the temptation to pay Zeldin a visit, especially after such a rainy winter when roses and flowering plants of every description have never looked better. 

“The rain washed out the minerals in our domestic water, which inhibit uptake of the elements that plants need to reach their full potential,” Zeldin said. 

Zeldin’s garden is not limited to roses as he has a large collection of irises and many unusual plants you will not see anywhere else. One of these is the chocolate daisy (Berlandiera lyrata), whose small yellow daisies smell like melted chocolate. 

This is a backyard that deserves a prominent place on the bucket list of local plant enthusiasts. If you would like to arrange a tour of the garden, you can make contact with Zeldin at a meeting of either of the plant societies of which he is a member. You can find him at San Fernando Valley Rose Society (sfroses.org) meetings, held the second Saturday of each month, from 10 a.m. to noon, at the Wilkinson Multipurpose Center, located at 8956 Vanalden Avenue in Northridge, or at San Fernando Valley Iris Society (sanfernandovalleyirissociety.org) meetings, held the first Thursday of each month at 7 p.m. in the Canoga Park Women’s Club at 7401 Jordan Avenue in Canoga Park. 

In Zeldin’s garden, your breath will be taken away by a mountain of Lady Banks roses. There are several thousands of them – small, yellow, and slightly fragrant, all blooming on a single specimen (Rosa banksiae var. Lutea) that was planted there in 1971. Lady Banks, a climbing rose, has a reputation for longevity. In fact, a white Lady Banks (Rosa banksiae var. Alba Plena) is regarded as the oldest rose (and largest too for that matter) in the United States. It was grown from a cutting that was sent from Scotland to Tombstone, Arizona, where it was planted in 1885. That rose has grown into a tree covering 8,000 square feet with a gnarled trunk whose diameter is 14 feet. Bear in mind that Lady Banks roses are seasonal, blooming for around six weeks at this time of year.

Fourth of July is another heavy blooming climbing rose, but this one flowers from spring until fall. Zeldin extols his Fourth of July for its capacity to act as a privacy screen. It has grown along  his property line, reaching a height of 10 feet. The rose itself is variegated in red and white, while the similarly varigated flowers of  Purple Splash, whose growth habit and size mimics that of Fourth of July, are purple and white.

While most of Zeldin’s roses live for at least 20 years, not all those he plants are a success. He is not reluctant to “shovel prune” when necessary. Veteran gardeners understand this part of gardening all too well. It happens every now and then that you plant something and care for it according to all the best recommendations and yet, somehow, it flounders. There is the temptation to nurse it along despite its inability to perform as advertised. While it is true that certain plants take longer than we might expect to establish themselves, sometimes what we plant just won’t grow or flower despite our patience and best efforts. Such plants take up valuable garden space that could be better utilized by other garden selections too numerous to count. 

Some of Zeldin’s roses look especially beautiful when contrasted with the volunteer royal blue larkspur and white, pink, and red opium poppies that sprout up among them. I was especially impressed with orange nasturtium growing in his burgundy Iceberg roses. Orange and purple present an agreeable contrast and I have often seen beds of orange marigolds planted together with purple pansies over the years.

In the midst of my garden tour, which lasted about an hour until “sensory overload,” as Zeldin describes it, set in, we came upon what appeared to be the perfect rose, a hybrid tea with the appropriate name of Lasting Love. Although Zeldin did not explicitly label it as such, after seeing its flawless shiny, dark green foliage, inhaling the strong fragrance of its unblemished red flowers, which can reach five inches across, and learning that it is immune to powdery mildew and rust – to which most hybrid teas are susceptible – I felt that is was, indeed, as perfect as a rose could get. Lasting Love is one of over a hundred roses bred by Tom Carruth, curator of roses at the Huntington Gardens in San Marino.

While discussing the qualities of Lasting Love, Zeldin mentioned that in order to fully appreciate its fragrance, like that of any other rose, it should be smelled while its flower was yet to open completely. 

“By the time a rose is completely open,” he explained, “much of its attar may have already dissipated.” Attar is the essential oil of rose petals that gives them their fragrance. Another factor in the strength of a rose’s scent is the time of day, since fragrance weakens as the day progresses and the temperature warms.

As for winter pruning, Zeldin only cuts his back by one-third to one-half of their height. He does this in January and removes every leaf, disposing of them in the trash. 

“Do not compost these leaves,” he warns, “since they carry powdery mildew and rust fungal spores.” By being conservative in how much growth he winter prunes, Zeldin gets a lot more flowers in spring than those who cut back more radically, although their spring flowers will be larger.

Zeldin does not have a sprinkler system. Instead, he moves around an attachment at the end of a hose which soaks one area at a time. Roses are not especially water needy and Zeldin never waters his more than once a week, even in the hottest weather. As for insect pests, he has utilized Captain Jack’s Deadbug Brew, whose active ingredient is Spinosad, to deter chili thrips, which may decimate roses in hot weather. BioAdvanced All-In-One Rose and Flower Care is a more powerful granular product to achieve control of this insect. Be aware, however, that both spinosad and Bio-Advanced Care are toxic to certain beneficial insects and that multiple applications will be needed to achieve and maintain the desired effect.

Before leaving Zeldin’s roses, I would be remiss not to mention two of his cultivars that were developed by Jack Christensen, a hybridizer of 80 rose varieties. Christensen authored the “5 things to do in the garden” section of this column for many years; his Silverado, a mauve to purple hybrid tea, and Brass Band, an orange Floribunda, are among Zeldin’s beauties.

As to where to procure your roses, Zeldin – like most local rose growers in the know – recommends Otto & Sons Nursery (ottoandsonsnursery.com) in Fillmore, located 25 miles east of Santa Clarita off the 126 Freeway. 

California native of the week: Nine rose species are native to California and all have single pink blooms. Both California wild rose (Rosa californica) and Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana) appreciate a bit more moisture than other native plants. While growing in full sun near the coast, they will benefit from partial shade in hotter, more inland environments. They make a fine natural barrier because of their nasty thorns that will keep out meandering cats, for example. Individual plants will grow in a thicket, with each individual rose bush reaching over six feet tall with a spread of ten feet. Foliage, flowers and rose hips are all fragrant and the hips (fruit) are recommended for making tea. Nootka rose (Rosa nutkana) has the largest and deepest pink flowers of the native roses. On warm days, its foliage produces a migrant fragrance that is discerned at some distance. Baja rose (Rosa minutifolia) is an endangered spiny shrub with leaves that are smaller than those of any other rose species. 

Please write to me at joshua@perfectplants.com where your questions, comments, and plant photos are always welcome.

2. When it comes to pruning roses during the growing season, Zeldin is not obsessed with it. Yes, he deadheads his roses and cuts them back to a bud that will grow into a flowering stem but is not fanatical about cutting back to a five-leaflet leaf as is generally advised. He also notes that the first five-leaflet leaf down the stem may be flimsy and so cutting back further down may be necessary. Zeldin is more concerned about blind shoots. Blind shoots are shoots that grow without any flower buds forming. Such shoots should be cut back by half to a five-leaflet leaf and new growth that subsequently forms will bear flowers. The causes for blind shoot growth are not well known although fluctuations in temperature and water availability have been implicated in their development.

3. Utilize your abutilon, otherwise known as flowering maple or Chinese lantern, as a vine. Zeldin has a Tiger Eye abutilon several decades old that has vined 20 feet up into a Japanese maple tree (Acer palmatum). Tiger Eye has yellow flowers with a bloodshot look on account of being highlighted with deep red venation. This abutilon flowers year around and, like all cultivars, is not at all water needy. Watering it now, for instance, when the soil is still full of moisture from winter rain, could lead to its demise. There are hundreds of abutilon cultivars yet only a few are commonly available in the nursery trade. Victor Reiter is a noteworthy selection whose soft orange lanterns expand to three inches, while Moonchimes has two-inch lemon yellow blooms.

4. Ants bring sucking insects onto your plants. Ants are a double menace since they also fight off beneficial insect pest predators that would otherwise devour aphids, scales, mealybugs and thrips. Keep ants away by taking an old silk stocking and slathering petroleum jelly or Tanglefoot, a product made specifically for stopping ants dead in their tracks, and tie it around the plant a few inches above the ground. However, you will need to replace the silk stocking from time to time as the dead ants will eventually make a bridge over the sticky substance and this will allow their cousins to cross over and work their way up into the plant.

5. Before embarking on a weed removal project, soak the soil the night before. Weeds are more easily removed when the ground is wet. The classic garden hoe has a Ten Commandments-shaped blade attached to a wooden handle while a scuffle or hula hoe has a trapezoidal blade that moves back and forth to remove weeds just below the soil surface. These hoes are best used in somewhat loose soil. Where soil is extremely hard, pushing a shovel blade under weeds may be the easiest way to remove them. Keep in mind, however, that perennial weeds with deep roots will return unless their root is thoroughly removed or new growth of such weeds – sometimes over a few years – is immediately removed at the soil level as soon as it appears.

Please write to me at joshua@perfectplants.com where your questions, comments, and plant photos are always welcome.

This time of year can be a big gift-giving moment, with Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, graduations, weddings and more. And whatever the occasion, if the recipient enjoys spending time in the kitchen, then food and kitchen-related gifts are a natural place to start.

More and more of us are shopping and cooking with an eye toward sustainability and eco-consciousness. So here are some cooking gifts and tips that fit that bill:

You can start by doing a little homework on the company you’re purchasing from. That job has been done for you if the company has gotten a B Corp certification. It shows that a business is meeting high standards in supporting a variety of community and environmental markers, with measurable metrics. The certification lasts three years before needing to be renewed.

Another accreditation to look for is 1% for the Planet, which means the company has committed to donate 1% of annual sales to environmental causes, and is transparent in its efforts to operate sustainably. Climate Neutral is an organization that measure carbon accountability.

Beyond such designations, visit a company’s website and see what they have to say about their practices and how the product was made. Customers are increasingly demanding transparency and accountability in companies they buy from.

FOOD

Pantry staples like olive oil are a great present. Companies like Bona Furtuna are paying attention to nurturing their regions’ biodiversity. Their farm is fertilized entirely with organic matter, including compost created through the production of their olive oils. California Olive Ranch has committed to transparency and sustainable practices in both growing and packaging.

Brightland partners with small, family-run olive farms in California that grow without pesticides or chemicals and pay fair wages to farmworkers. The brand is helping to convert land use from water- and chemical-intensive crops to drought-resistant, low-impact olive production.

McEvoy Ranch has a wide range of flavor-infused olive oils and likewise aims to create a self-sufficient and balanced ecosystem. That includes tending orchards in accordance with organic regulations, and converting all ranch waste products, including spent olives, into compost that then nurtures the soil.

Buying meat and fish in a responsible way has become important to many of us. Luckily, there are companies like ButcherBox, which makes use of the whole animal. ButcherBox delivers grass-fed beef, free-range organic chicken, humanely raised pork and wild-caught seafood to your door. Crowd Cow, Porter Road and Good Chop are similar options, with no added hormones or antibiotics.

Awareness of how fragile our oceans have become has been heightened. Organizations like SeaChoice and the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch are good places to start investigating the sustainability of a particular kind of fish.

Think about buying a gift box or perhaps a monthly subscription to a company verified by one of these organizations. Vital Choice Wild Seafood & Organics says all its fish and shellfish are vetted and approved by a reputable third-party sustainability organization. Their orders are shipped with dry ice in corrugated cardboard boxes that are fitted with thermal liners made from recycled denim, which can then be recycled again. Offerings include a Wild Fish Monthly Subscription.

If you’d like to reduce food waste and also save money, consider another cool subscription gift: Misfits Market, which delivers produce and other healthy foods saved from going to waste.

How about a gift basket? Clif Family offers assortments of their small-production organic wines and specialty foods inspired by the flavors of Napa Valley, with a mission of bringing high quality with the lowest impact to the planet. Think honeys, wines, preserves and nuts. Frog Hollow Farm has lovely gift boxes filled with fresh fruits, sun-dried fruits, fruit spreads and more.

Or buy some pretty reusable jars and package up an assortment of granolas. Check out One Degree Organics from Canada (their motto is “all ingredients from farmers we know”) and Grandy Organics, made in small batches in a solar powered factory in Maine.

KITCHEN GOODS

There are companies producing beautiful and functional cookware and tabletop items with a focus on sustainability.

Tag Home Décor uses natural and sustainable materials in many of their products, such as a handwoven sustainable jute rug and upcycled, salvaged-cotton kitchen rug made on traditional pit looms. It cozies up a space and provides cushioning for a tired cook’s feet. They also have a hand-crafted, onyx-marble board made from natural stone.

Goodee works with artisans who exclusively use naturally occurring materials, and works to enable them to earn a sustainable living through their crafts. The company offers many items for cooking and dining, including lovely Oaxaca-made tumblers using locally sourced recycled glass and alternative energy. There’s also a beautiful pepper grinder made from sustainably sourced teak wood.

Loopy Products makes products from upcycled agricultural waste; their sustainable coffee mug, made with waste from coffee manufacturing, was a Global Innovation Award Finalist at the Inspired Home Show this year. Their coffee, flour and tea storage containers are an eco-friendly way to store staples.

For the cook who wants to compost, there’s the very affordable Bamboozle compost bin. The filtered lid helps to absorb any smells caused from off-gassing. It’s made from biodegradable bamboo fiber and dishwasher safe.

Need items for a little basket of eco-friendly items for a kitchen refresh? Consider botanically infused papers from The Fresh Glow Co,. which are designed to keep foods fresher longer, and are organic and compostable.

Everyone can use a spiffy new portable drink container. Klean Kanteen makes a ton of them, and the company a long-standing B Corp. and is certified by Climate Neutral (a carbon-accountability designation). Their products are made with 90% post-consumer recycled stainless steel, which results in a significant reduction in steel greenhouse gases.

Dish towels are always in short supply in an avid cook’s kitchen, and are a smart, reusable alternative to paper towels. Tag makes textured dish cloths in lots of colors, so you can add a bright spot to cleaning up. Atelier Saucier makes lovely table linens, all sustainably sourced, rescued or repurposed.

Material Kitchen’s reBoards are BPA-free cutting boards made of kitchen plastic scraps and renewable sugar cane. They come in a variety of beautiful colors.

Sustainability means different things to different people, but these days it’s easier than ever to shop with purpose and give gifts with meaning.

—-

Katie Workman, who writes frequently about food for The Associated Press, is a cookbook author and founder of TheMom100.com.

Recently I’ve been seeing quite a few ads for Kurapia, a new drought-tolerant ground cover that has been marketed as a turfgrass replacement. I was intrigued, especially since it’s been touted for its ability to outcompete weeds.

Kurapia (Lippia nodiflora) is related to verbena and is a low-growing flowering herbaceous ground cover. It tolerates partial shade, but when planted in full sun it will produce cute little white flowers tinged with pink or purple. It’s also tolerant of a variety of soil conditions, including clay, sand, loam, or even saline. If you live near the beach, this groundcover may grow where regular turfgrass can’t.

Regular, deep watering and monthly mowing is all the care it needs (once established). Roots that reach ten feet below the soil surface make it well-suited for erosion control, even on steep slopes. It spreads by runners that can become very dense once established – this is how it can choke out those pesky weeds. The commercially available varieties are sterile (don’t produce seeds), so it is unlikely to become invasive.

One of the major drawbacks is cost. Kurapia is sold as plugs, and each tray costs over $150. Site preparation is the same as any other plug-started ground cover. The soil must be weed-free and have a good irrigation system for complete watering coverage. Even, regular watering is important for the establishment of a healthy kurapia lawn. Due to its dense network of surface runners, Kurapia can be subject to fungal disease. Avoid overwatering and run irrigation only in the morning to give surface moisture time to evaporate during the daytime. Any fungal problems can usually be resolved by adjusting irrigation and applying a standard antifungal treatment.

Kurapia is suitable only in warmer climates. The foliage will die back when the outside temperatures fall to 38F or lower, and the entire plant will not survive a hard freeze.

If you live in a hot, dry region subject to watering restrictions, this ground cover may work for you.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; 949-809-9760; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-683-6491 ext. 231; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu

2. Greg Alder (gregalder.com), a pre-eminent vegetable and fruit gardener in Southern California, advocates the use of a Cinch trap for taking care of a gopher problem. He promotes the use of traps in general since only by trapping a gopher can you be sure it’s gone. Other traps work but the advantage of this one is that a minimum of digging is required to set the trap. All you do is excavate soil at the top of the tunnel with a trowel and set the trap inside. A shovel is not needed. Alder enthuses that “the Cinch simply catches gophers more often” than other traps.

3. You can plant almost anything at this time of year as long as you make watering your top priority. The smaller the plant, the more attentive you need to be to its watering needs. Plants of any description growing in five-gallon containers or smaller should be watered every day for the first two weeks after they are planted. If you miss a single early morning watering, you may see your new plants burnt up by the end of the day. Mulch, of course, will give you a reserve of water in the soil that can be your plants’ salvation on extremely hot days at any time of the year.

4. Zucchini squash is one of the easiest plants to grow. Many of the fruits and vegetables we harvest in our backyards are smaller than the versions we see of them at the grocery store. Yet without even trying, you can grow zucchini fruits far bigger than the grocery models. Yet zucchini is tastier when harvested earlier in its development, at about the size you see it in the produce department, at the stage where you can pierce through its skin with your thumbnail. If you see no fruit on your zucchini or other squash early in the season, this is due to all the flowers being either male or female. Later in the season, flowers of both types are formed. “Zucchini Love” (Storey Publishing, 2023), by Cynthia Graubart, features zucchini in the 43 recipes found in the book.

5. The following crops are reliably grown by direct seeding in the garden now: bean, beet, carrot, cilantro, dill, leek, radish, spinach, sunflower, turnip. Tomato eggplant, pepper, collard greens, rosemary, and lavender are best grown from transplants. Those that grow reliably in the garden from either seed or transplants include corn, bok choi, chard, cucumber, fennel, lettuce, melons, basil, fennel, squash of all kinds, and pumpkin.

Send your questions and comments about plants and gardening practices to joshua@perfectplants.com.

It’s an overabundance of so many good things that it makes it difficult to choose among them. In the case of Southern California, thanks to the rain this winter, there is an abundance of flowers that has not been seen in years and the plants that bear these blooms are all crying out for a place in our gardens. Unfortunately, virtually every square inch of space in the garden or on the patio or balcony of a passionate plant person is taken, so the choices to be made about what to plant next are limited.

In my neighborhood, pink is the dominant flower color at this time. Start with the largest variety of Indian hawthorn (Rhaphiolepis indica var. Springtime). It is a perfect sphere six feet in diameter that is presently a mass of flowers. On either side of Ventura Boulevard in Sherman Oaks, the pink trumpet trees (Tabebuia rosea), whose flowers precede their foliage, are at peak bloom. This is a medium-sized tree, 30 feet at maturity, with a lifespan of 50 years.

And then there are the George Taber azaleas, growing up to eight feet tall and six feet wide. Their pastel pink flowers with magenta throats will remind you of certain orchids. This azalea makes a wonderful hedge and grows well under pine trees due to its shallow roots and the acidity provided by the decomposing pine needles in the soil. Along the edge of my front yard, a hedge of butterfly roses (Rosa mutabilis) was planted more than two decades ago. This is a China rose that is drought tolerant and never needs irrigation. It makes a nice privacy hedge growing up to 10 feet tall and six feet wide. It’s flowers are changeable or mutable, as its species name indicates, emerging yellow, transitioning to apricot and finally turning various tones of pink – which is the main color that it exhibits – before dropping off. Butterfly roses, albeit of a single layer of petals, keep coming from spring until fall. Last fall, my hedge of them had become mildewy and were growing out of bounds so I cut them back to a height of six inches. They grew right back up, healthier than before, and are already six feet tall.

While at the Sepulveda Garden Center on the corner of Hayvenhurst Avenue and Magnolia Boulevard in Encino, I spotted crimson clover in full bloom in one of the gardens. I had never seen this plant before and I don’t think I have ever seen flowers – with up to 125 florets per bloom – that were a  redder red. Like all clovers, this species will enrich your soil with nitrogen, the principal constituent of a plant’s mineral diet. It is an annual, however, so you will only enjoy its charms until the end of the growing season although you can harvest its seeds to sow another crop next year. If you choose to dig it into the earth and can wait a month of days, the soil will be significantly enriched for the growth of vegetables and herbs which will not need any supplemental fertilization. You can order a large variety of clover seeds, including those of crimson clover and white clover that serve as a lawn grass supplement or replacement, from outsidepride.com, where you can find a variety of flower seeds as well.

I was visiting the Sepulveda Garden Center to enjoy the Drought Tolerant Plant Festival put on by members of the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society (LACSS) while strolling among the many members who had come to sell their plants. As for the succulents on display, I was most impressed by two specimens that made my jaw drop. One of them was a South African native known as Horse’s teeth (Haworthia truncata). It consists of straight-edged leaves in undulating rows that have a reptilian aspect to them. The other unforgettable succulent I espied was Pachypodium brevicaule, so uncommon that it does not have a common name. This plant has an elephant foot trunk from which butter-yellow flowers arise. If the pinwheel form of these flowers reminds you of the flowers of periwinkle (Vinca major), oleander, natal plum (Carissa spp.), and star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides), that is not coincidental since all of them, along with the Pachypodiums, are members of the dogbane family, so-called since they are the bane of dogs and, for that matter, people as well, due to the toxic alkaloids in their sap. Meetings of the LACSS are held on the first Thursday of the month at the ONEgeneration Senior Enrichment Center at 18255 Victory Blvd. in Reseda. Doors open at 6:15 pm and the meetings start at 7. New members are always welcome and receive a gift plant at their first meeting.

While at the Plant Festival I met Lili Costa, who represents a group of concerned tenders of garden plots at the Sepulveda Garden Center. Costa says she and her friends have been volunteering to fix up the cactus garden on site that has been neglected over the years. She wonders why the neglected plots have not been reassigned to those waiting in line to garden at the Center. To rent a garden plot costs $120 per year, which includes an unlimited supply of water and mulch.

Meeting the friendly members of the Geranium Society was a real bonus of my visit to the Garden Center. One of them was Jay Kapac, a foremost breeder of geraniums. A resident of Val Verde near Castaic, he informed me that his geraniums are especially tough because of the cold they must endure in his locale. Yet Kapac does not breed geraniums alone, but also roses. The most famous rose he has bred is known as Sweet Hips. Hips are rose fruits and Kapac’s are flavorful enough that they can be eaten like an apple. Sweet Hips is a rugosa rose cultivar and so it possesses significant cold tolerance, as large plantings in New York City, for example, demonstrate. Rugosas also tolerate inferior soil and, owing to their rough textured foliage, exhibit considerable drought tolerance too.

The Geranium Society meets on the third Tuesday of each month (except June and July) at 7 pm in the Bamboo Room of the Los Angeles County Arboretum at 301 N. Baldwin Avenue in Arcadia.

California native of the week: At the Los Angeles Cactus and Succulent Society exhibit at the Sepulveda Garden Center, I saw a wonderful specimen of Shaw agave (Agave shawii) in a terra cotta pot. This is one of the most unapproachable agaves due to its wicked spines. it is meant for container display or a section of the garden inaccessible to playing children. Nevertheless, it has an architectonic beauty that is also unapproachable by more gentle garden denizens. It spreads in clumps but is only fully appreciated when still a single specimen with its tight rosette of curvaceous, lime-green leaves.

If you have any noteworthy cacti, succulents, or geraniums you would like to share with readers of this column, please tell me about them by writing to joshua@perfectplants.com. Questions and comments about your plants and gardening practices are always welcome.

2. For the vast majority of ornamental plants, the best exposure for them in Southern California is half-day sun. Those living in a balmy coastal environment would be the exception and could grow most ornamentals in full sun as well. We often hear that since our climate is Mediterranean – rain comes only in winter and the rest of the year is hot and dry – plants imported from other Mediterranean climate zones are suitable for growing here. Yet Southern California heat generally eclipses that of other areas of the world with a similar winter-summer weather regime. Thus, plants that grow in full sun in Mediterranean countries, as well as in the Mediterranean climates of southwestern Australia, South Africa, and Chile, may need relief from full sun when grown here.

3. When planting seed directly in the ground, water at least once a day until three sets of true leaves (not cotyledons or seed leaves) have developed.  At this point, you can probably water every other day but keep an eye on the seedlings since sudden hot weather can dry them up in a hurry. It is also a good practice to water early in the morning, which will keep a reserve of moisture in the soil, to be taken up by roots in the case of an intensely hot day.

4. It is critically important to plant seeds as well as annual flowers and vegetable seedlings procured in six packs or plastic cells, in good soil with readily available minerals required for growth. It makes sense to spend on soil amendments and organic fertilizers to be worked into the soil before you plant because without proper preparation your seeds may sprout and your transplanted cell-grown flowers and vegetables may grow a little, but they will not produce the quantity and quality of flowers and crops that you desire. Of course,if you have regularly incorporated compost into your soil and mulched for many years or planted a leguminous cover crop last fall that has been dug into the earth a month prior to planting, additional soil preparation will not be necessary. 

5. Some succulents go dormant once May arrives so if you see no new growth in the coming months, do not despair. Still, you do not want to overwater them since this could lead to root rot. Some of the succulents that go dormant now include kalanchoes, sedums, senecios, dudleyas, aeoniums, and aloes. Once summer begins to wane, you will see them start to grow again.

Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com.

Regarding this irrepressible climber, the information provided by Sunset Western Garden Book is erroneous, as it claims that black-eyed Susan vine only grows as a perennial within a few miles of the ocean, but otherwise dies in the winter. Although this and other Thunbergia species are sensitive to cold, even if they suffer dieback when it freezes, they generally revive the following spring. Sometimes even Sunset Western Garden Book – known as the gardeners’ bible – can make a mistake.

Loren Zeldin, a master gardener in Reseda – in the heart of the San Fernando Valley – reports that his Thunbergia vines have flourished for decades and, even after being damaged by frost return robust as ever when the weather warms. In this context, blue sky vine (Thunbergia grandiflora) is also worthy of note. It has enormous deep lavender blue trumpet blooms and tough tuberous roots; it may die back to the ground in a freeze but then exhibit explosive growth of ten feet or more the next year.

Let me say another word about what attracted my wife to the vine she had to have: it was the sulphur or butter-yellow color of its blooms. Such a muted yellow is not often encountered in the plant world. In general, it seems that if a plant is going to produce flowers, it does so without restraint and brilliant colors are more commonly encountered than subdued ones. But a pale, luminescent yellow offers a powerful contrast to the bright pinks, reds, oranges, and blues of more common flowers, bringing out their flare all the more. You do see sulphur yellow in certain roses, irises, and Marguerite daisies and there is a new hybrid of a petunia and a calibrachoa from PanAmerican Seed — a so-called petchoa — that sports flowers in this same category of yellow.

Thunbergia vines – named for Swedish plant explorer Carl Peter Thunberg – belong to the Acanthaceae family of plants. Each member of this family has an alluring aspect that you will find it hard to forget once you have experienced it. Each plant is of a unique character, and all are highly worthy of taking up space in your garden. Most of them thrive in half-day sun, although they also do well enough in full sun and a species known as bear’s breeches (Acanthus mollis) actually prefers shady locations. Acanthus comes from a Greek word meaning thorn and references the spiny leaf margins, which may be soft to prickly, of this and other Acanthaceae species.

Much could be written to extol bear’s breeches’ virtues, but the most laudatory description would still fall short. It produces enormously lush emerald green leaves with deeply cut teeth on its margins. It thrives in shady locations and can grow for extended periods without water. Should the leaves droop, they can be revived with water but even should they die, you need only cut them down to the ground for new foliage to take their place. The secret of this plant’s resilience is its rhizomes which keep the plant alive no matter what; in other words, it’s impossible to kill it. Its flower spikes grow up to four feet tall or taller and consist of white to pinkish blooms hooded with purplish bracts.

Moving into the sun, let me sing the praises of shrimp plant (Justicia brandegeana), whose flower form matches its name and makes it the most easily identifiable plant in the Acanthus family. This is a three-foot-tall shrub that blooms nearly all the time with very little water and may be grown individually in pots to collectively in a hedge. Long-blooming shrimp plant relatives of similar stature include pink Brazilian plume flower (Justicia carnea), the orange blooming Mexican honeysuckle (Justicia spicigera), white shrimp plant (Justicia betonica), yellow jacobinia (Justicia aurea), and the yellow and pink Justicia ‘Fruit Salad.’ The related ribbon plant (Hypoestes aristata) blooms non-stop with lavender ribbons, while the polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) shows off pink, red, or what dots on its leaves when planted to a northern exposure outdoors or to a sunny exposure indoors.

California native of the week: Chuparosa means hummingbird in Spanish and so it is an appropriate common name for Justicia californica due to the love that hummingbirds have for this plant. It flowers heavily from fall to spring but goes deciduous in the summer unless watered occasionally. Flowering will also be enhanced with some irrigation although it can survive fine without it. Chuparosa can grow in full sun to light shade conditions. Red tubular flowers are typically seen when encountering a chuperosa but named cultivars such as Dick Tilforth and Tecate Gold with yellow flowers are also available. Since flowers are produced on young shoots, thinning out old ones as fall approaches will beautify and invigorate the plant. Old wilted flowers can be dispatched with a strong stream of water from a hose.

Please send questions, comments, and photos to joshua@perfectplants.com.

Hot peppers, or chili peppers, grow exceptionally well in Southern California’s hot, dry climate. Not only do they grow well, but they also develop more heat and flavor during the late summer. We’ve noticed that once daytime temperatures reach 100 degrees the peppers get especially angry (spicy). Whether you’d like just a bit of warmth, something to burn the inside of your ears, or something in between, there’s a hot pepper out there for you.

The heat level of a hot pepper is measured in Scoville Units (S.U.). The mildest chilis usually have less than 1000 S.U. and the hottest can reach over a million S.U. This unit was invented by Wilbur Scoville over 100 years ago. It’s based on how much a small amount of ground-up chili had to be diluted in sugar water for the heat to become undetectable. Of course, this method is highly subjective, since it depends on an individual’s sensitivity to capsaicin.

Today, we measure capsaicin content directly using chemical analysis. It’s not nearly as fun, but it is more precise.

The mildest varieties of chili peppers include Anaheim (500-2000 S.U.), Poblano (1000-2000 S.U.), Banana (0-500 S.U.), and Pasilla (250-4000 S.U.).

Fresno and Jalapeno (both 2500-10,000 S.U.) offer medium heat levels.

Bolivian Rainbow (10-30,000 S.U.), Cayenne (30-50,000 S.U.), and Serrano (10-23,000 S.U.) are considered medium-hot.

Habanero and Scotch Bonnet (both 100-350,000 S.U.) are pretty darn hot. Both have a citrusy flavor if you can get past the heat.

The hottest chilis are Ghost (a.k.a. Bhut Jolokia) and Carolina Reaper at over 2 million S.U.

In all hot peppers, the most heat is contained in the seeds and seed membrane, so if you remove these you can drastically reduce the burn. Always wear rubber gloves while handling chili peppers. If you handle chili peppers with your bare hands, you may not detect the heat right away on your fingers, but as soon as you rub your eyes or need to use the restroom, you will regret not gloving up.

Speaking of regret, if your mouth is on fire from eating a pepper above your tolerance level, a teaspoon or two of honey will calm the heat considerably.

Chili peppers can be frozen safely. Although they lose their crunchy texture and some of their flavor undertones, they will retain their heat. They can also be dried safely, either in the sun, oven, or dehydrator. Remove the stem and slice in half to hasten the drying process. Dried peppers can be ground into flakes or a fine powder using a blender or food processor and used like commercial hot pepper flakes.

Peppers can also be used to make jams or jellies, pickled, or canned. Always use a recipe from a trusted source like Ball/Kerr (the canning jar company), university-based cooperative extension websites, or the National Center for Home Food Preservation. Do not use random websites, Pinterest, or out-of-date canning cookbooks for recipe sources since these may be unsafe.

Los Angeles County

mglosangeleshelpline@ucdavis.edu; 626-586-1988; http://celosangeles.ucanr.edu/UC_Master_Gardener_Program/

Orange County

ucceocmghotline@ucanr.edu; 949-809-9760; http://mgorange.ucanr.edu/

Riverside County

anrmgriverside@ucanr.edu; 951-683-6491 ext. 231; https://ucanr.edu/sites/RiversideMG/

San Bernardino County

mgsanbern@ucanr.edu; 909-387-2182; http://mgsb.ucanr.edu