Anti-Sneeze Landscaping Tips Comin’ Right Atchoo
In the back of my closet is a nylon carry-on bag that I keep packed with essential items, such as a roll of quarters and those sealed wet napkins, in case some airline decides to install pay toilets or serve barbecued ribs.
In the bag is also a package of Allergy Relief Medicine, in case I ever go back to Munich in June. The ARM is a concession to the horror of realizing, after years of unimpeded breathing, that there is something out there that can reduce me to paroxysms of scarlet-eyed sneezing. For hours and hours. And hours.
For me, the demon plant was Bavarian (it had to be a plant; I refuse to believe it could have been the beer or sauerbraten). It was lurking out there in all that gemutlichkeit, waiting for me to get off the train so it could aim huge clumps of pollen straight at me.
Whatever it was, it turned me into a bleary, puffy, incoherent, gibbering wreck.
Here at home all is bliss, sneeze-wise. But I now have acute sympathy with anyone who can’t mow his Bermuda grass without first putting on a spacesuit. Spending the weekend sneezing is slightly less fun than calling George Foreman a geriatric sissy and then sticking around to see what happens next.
Yes, even in Southern California, where seeing a daily pollen count on the news is about as likely as seeing a weatherman who doesn’t do shtick, those microscopic asteroids are out there, waiting to sneak into the noses of the susceptible.
If you’re one of the unlucky, I’ve already lit a candle for you, believe me. But I also have some good landscaping advice from a source that usually isn’t in the gardening business: the American Lung Assn. of California. It says that juniper bush in your back yard may be a delight to the eye but also the respiratory equivalent of Darth Vader.
In California, the pollen that causes most of the allergic reactions comes not from wild plants--such as the scourge of the Midwest, ragweed--but from between 25 and 30 varieties of landscaping plants. You may not be able to force the guy down the street to rip out his olive grove and plant roses, but you can feather your own nest with a good variety of what the Lung Assn. calls “sneezeless” plants.
Have a look around your yard. Take stock. If the grounds are a real riot of brightly flowering plants, you’re probably in good shape and can look forward to breathing easily in your own garden. Most colorful display plants are considered “safe” by the Lung Assn. because they are pollinated by insects and not the wind.
The pollens in bright flowering plants usually are heavy and sticky and have several surface structures, such as spines. Wind doesn’t carry them easily, but insects do.
On the other hand, the plainer-looking plants often are the worst offenders. Their flowers are usually drab and inconspicuous and often are gathered in clusters called catkins. The pollen on these catkins is easily dislodged and can be carried by the wind for many miles, although most of it usually remains near its plant of origin. For instance, an olive tree in a yard can expose the homeowner to 10 times more pollen than an olive tree a block away.
What if you have a yard filled with nothing but roses and you still sneeze? You may have run into one of nature’s inevitable Catch-22s: highly sensitive people may be affected not by a flowering plant’s pollen, but by its fragrance. Roses, star jasmines, citrus and eucalyptus trees, narcissus, rosemary and gardenia are among the plants that can trigger an olfactory reaction.
The worst offender, however, may be the lawn. In California, grasses have the longest pollen season of any allergenic plant, mostly because domestic lawn grasses are watered and maintained throughout the year. The ubiquitous Bermuda grass is the villain here because it can pollinate when the lawn is very short, sometimes as quickly as a few days after mowing.
Alternatives are blends of perennial rye grass, blue grass and tall fescue, as well as other varieties of bunch grasses. These won’t flower unless they’re allowed to grow to the height of a foot. Mow a lawn of bunch grass before it swallows the house and you can probably take extra Kleenex off the shopping list.
If even bunch grass still makes you nervous, plant dichondra. It’s not a member of the grass family and won’t produce pollen.
Finally, make sure your yard is weeded. Some weeds are highly allergenic. Some of the bad guys include nettle, dock, ragweed (which even sounds irritating), English plantain, tumbleweed, pigweed, lambsquarters and similar invaders.
The bad news is that you’ll never be able to remove all of the pollen from your yard, short of enclosing it in an airtight bubble and settling for plastic plants. The good news is that pollen season, technically, ends sometime around the Fourth of July.
And there’s always the pharmaceutical approach. Next time my train pulls into Munich, though, I’m holding my breath, at least until I get to the Hofbrauhaus.
On the Nose
ALLERGY PRODUCERS TREES--Acacia; Alder; Ash; Birch; Cottonwood; Elm; Mulberry, fruitless; Oak; Olive; Pecan; Poplar; Privit; Sweet Gum (Liquidambar); Sycamore; Walnut; Willow SHRUBS--Ceanothus; Elderberry; Juniper; Privit; Rhamnus; Thuja GROUND COVER--Juniper GRASS LAWN--Bermuda ORNAMENTAL FLOWERS--Amaranthus; Ceanothus
SNEEZELESS PLANTS TREES--Catalpa; Chinese Tallow; Chorisia; Coral Tree; Crape Myrtle; Dogwood; Fig; Fir; Jacaranda; Magnolia; Maidenhair; Mulberry; Orchid Tree; Palm; Pear; Pine; Plum; Podocarpus; Redbud; Redwood; Silk Oak; Silk Tree; Strawberry Tree; Tulip Tree SHRUBS--Boxwood; Grevillea; Hibiscus; Manzanita; Nandina; Oleander; Pittosporum; Pyracantha; Verbena; Viburnum; Yucca GROUND COVER--Cinquefoil; Sedum; Tradescantia GRASS LAWN--Bunch grasses (Rye, Blue, Fescue, etc.); Dichondra; Hippocrepis comosa; Irish Moss; Mazus reptans ORNAMENTAL FLOWERS--Azalea; Begonia; Bougainvillea; Bulbs (Tulip, Ranunculus, Iris, Daffodil, etc.); Camellia; Cymbidium; Pansy; Peony; Poppy; Solanum
Source: The American Lung Assn. of California
