Home Improvement / Gardening : Delicate Geranium Complements Pastel Roses
Although the pansies and other bedding plants put in during the autumn months have been blooming for a while, there are finally a few blooms on the bulbs and a little life among the roses and perennials.
One deserves special mention. It is a true geranium (not a pelaragonium, which are commonly called geraniums), named “Biokovo.” Last year it flowered into June when it march planted in March, sending up spike after spike of inch-wide pale pink flowers in a mostly sunny spot with good soil.
Put in front of some pastel English roses, it makes the perfect foreground, delicate in color and texture, one of these complimentary combinations so hard to come up with.
The plant stays less than a foot tall and spreads to about two feet. Like all true perennials, it is easily divided. In fact, I managed to get three plants out of the little quart pot I bought by pulling the clump apart before it was even planted. In common with other perennials, it doesn’t look like much in winter, but it doesn’t completely die back.
Batty about bacopa
On recent trips to the nursery, I keep seeing a tiny flower that nursery people tell me is enchanting customers, selling out everywhere. It’s called bacopa, though its real name is Sutera cordata. It’s originally from South Africa, via the nursery trade in Israel and then Europe, where it’s a favorite spilling out of window boxes.
Here, gardeners are using bacopa as they would alyssum, as an edging in front of taller flowers or as a filler in pots. In one garden, I saw a pretty planting of the white-flowered form swirling around some stepping stones.
There are two kinds, both low and spreading--one with tiny white flowers and the other, “Mauve Mist,” a slightly taller plant that looks a little wispier. Both stay less than six inches tall but spread to two feet and bloom for most of the year, though they seem to prefer the cooler weather of winter and spring.
Unlike alyssum, it is a perennial and, although not long-lived, should last several years (of course, alyssum may last many years, coming back from self-sown seed).
Tolerating sun or partial shade, bacopa does best with regular irrigations (growers suggest as many as three a week in summer) as long as the soil doesn’t get soggy. Don’t let it completely dry out and wilt, because some of the branches will not recover.
One gardener discovered that it does best for him when mulched so the branches don’t touch the ground but rest on an inch or two of organic matter such as compost or shredded bark.
Just plain batty
I keep seeing bat houses in gardening catalogs. If they worked, they would be a real boon to gardeners because bats are voracious insect eaters. But Diana Simons of Pasadena, an Eaton Canyon Nature Center docent and bat expert, says it’s unlikely you’ll attract bats to your garden, at least in Southern California.
She says bat houses are quite successful in other parts of the country and that, though there are 15 or so insect-eating bat species native here, the ones that can tolerate people and their activities have plenty of existing homes to choose from.
If you live in a rural area, or in an area that abuts wildlands, you can always try, but expect even less success than with a bird house.
Bat houses, skinny wood boxes hung upside down, should be mounted on trees or the sides of houses at least 15 feet above the ground; they should get no more than a couple hours of sun a day. You can make your own by calling Bat Conservation International at (800) 538-2287. A plan book costs $6.95.
Cure for eugenia curling
A minuscule control for the tiny psyllids that curl and buckle eugenia foliage has been found in Australia, so eugenia plants and hedges are beginning to return to their normal healthy states.
It’s an almost invisible wasp (don’t worry; it doesn’t sting), less than 1.5 millimeters long, and it preys exclusively on the aphid-like psyllid, Trioza eugeniae. Reducing psyllid populations also lessens the black sooty mold that grows on the psyllids’ sugary excretions.
If you have been spraying with an expensive chemical named Mavrik, or with Orthene, this might be the time to stop, because the wasps are also killed by spraying. Sprays work for only about eight weeks, while the wasp will permanently keep the psyllids under control.
