Cosmos 'Double Click'

Marigolds offer months of blooms. Flagstaff grows to 4ft.

Marigolds are often the first flowers to be grown by children but rarely grown by many gardeners because they are considered too simple.    Marigolds have a very long bloom season provided they are deadheaded. I selected three varieties to add to the border along the western porch.

‘Cottage Red’ is a French style heirloom variety with deep rust red blooms edged with orange. It grows to about 24 inches forming a large multi-branched plant with the substance of a shrub.  I used this variety last year among the tomatoes, this year I paired it with Rudbeckia ‘Moroccan Sun’. Rudbeckias are another great annual for sunny spots. This mix from Burpee has sunset color double quilled blooms growing to 20 inches.

Rudbeckia 'Moroccan Sun' has long stems for cutting.

I prefer tall growing annuals such as Cosmos that are ideal for cutting.  I choose another double flower in ‘Double Click’ with mixed shapes of pink, coral, red, and white. Cosmos are ideal for mixed borders backing roses.

A less common cut flower is Celosia ‘Kurume Corona’.  This heat lover has unusual crested velvety flower heads that are both irridescent red and yellow.  Each head lasts for weeks on end in the garden, in a vase or even dried.  The plants themselves are a bit stiff and awkward, so place this 45inch grower at the back of the border.

Kurume Corona has velvet two-tone blooms.

You are probably thinking that my choices seems to tend heavily towards orange and that would be right, but hear on the coast, oranges, yellows and reds stand out well on grey foggy days.  My last choice, Marigold ‘Flagstaff’, offers deep orange blooms until October. It is another heirloom  variety with large blooms on a massive branched plant to 4ft tall. That is alot of blooms!

I did choose one lower growing flower that I have grown for years. Godetia ‘Satin Mix’ can be direct sown in January for a flush of poppy-like flowers in April and May.

Godetias bloom in a solid mass of satiny blooms.

The blooms are solid or splotched in pink, white, red, or salmon. I have not found seeds lately so I special order starts from my local nursery.

All the varieties I mentioned today are available from Burpee Seed at www.burpee.com

Lean, Clean and Green: the first 30 feet.

Lean: *Create an open area near the house free of fuels, woodpiles, and clutter.

*Ideally have a solid paved or clean, raked gravel walkway that allows room to walk the entire perimeter of the home.

Clean: *Instead of decks and wood patio furniture create flagstone patios, textured concrete driveways, and ramps.

*Use built-in seat walls, decorative rockwork, and built-in bbq’s with open spaces for entertaining.

Green: *Create an edible garden!  Cluster plants according to water use with edibles, flowers, roses, and small manageable turf areas closest to the home.

*Use masses of groundcovers, flowering drought tolerant perennials, irises, and succulents to add visual interest.  Mass shrubs in groups spaced at least 8ft apart.

*Place small ornamental or fruit/citrus trees 15 feet or more from house, thin branches to keep an open, attractive look!

*Make sure that plants are groomed and irrigated regularly to encourage healthy, green growth.  Remove dead or dry stems.

Deer: The only effective way to deal with deer is with fencing.  In the fire safe garden, try a pair of parallel 4ft post and rail fences in-filled with wire, 4 feet apart.  Use self-closing gates at entry points.  If you need height, think of topping the fence with a decorative pergola to support native vines like pipe vine or clematis.

Privacy screens or view blocking:

Use the rule of thumb: place single specimens or small groups of trees or tall shrubs directly in front of what you want to screen.  Just like holding your thumb in front of your face to hide an object in the distance.   Don’t plant a flammable “fuse” of hedging material that costs too much money, requires too much maintenance!

Be a good gardener!

Healthy, fire-safe plants thrive on good soil preparation, mulching and deep, water-wise irrigation.

*Start out right with lots of compost and organic matter tilled into the soil at planting time.

*Build the soil by adding compost and mulch to top-dress the garden in spring and fall.  *Use drip systems set to irrigate DEEPLY each week to keep plants looking their best!

*When plantings become woody or overgrown, Let’s Face it, Time to Replace It!  Old dry shrubs burns easily, no matter the type of plant, so recognize old shrubs that need to be replaced with something new and vigorous.

Learn More: http://www.fire.ca.gov/communications/communications_firesafety_100feet.php

Gaillardia shines in the center of this fire safe combo

The combo features Aloe x nobilis with red blooms, purple flowers from Teuchrium, Scarlet Flower Carpet rose, Gaillardia Goblin, Gold strap leaves of Phormium, plus blue Perovskia Longin, and the purple leaves of Prunus cistiana, the native Sand Cherry.

A low carpet of purple flowered hardy iceplant, Delosperma cooperi, and Santa Cruz oregano fill out the edge.

The combo provides nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds, while being very drought tolerant for sunny spots. There is lots of interesting foliage to keep the look strong all year.

Learn more about Fire safe plants by picking up Douglas Kent’s excellent book, Firescaping.

Preview the book online by clicking the bookcover:

Climbing 'Polka' will climb the stone face of the entry

Polka is a climbing rose developed by the French grower, Meilland. It has peach pink blooms and a dense habit. Polka will clamber up and over the entry.

Othello has a strong "Old Rose" scent

Othello is a David Austin English Rose that has stood the test of time. Deep red, densely-petalled blooms have a cupped shape and heavy “Old Rose” scent according to Mr. Austin. Introduced in 1986, Othello is an outstanding example of the Austin ideal.

Crown Princess Margareta is a new

CPM offers a more compact habit in keeping with smaller spaces and pots

English rose that I was unfamiliar with but it received a good review on David Austin’s own website.  It has a mix of yellow, pink and peach that worked well with the blues and purples I used in the bed.  She is a more compact rose planted between two English Boxwoods.  The box will give the garden substance in winter when the roses are dormant.

The last two, Abraham Darby and Graham Thomas, are both English roses that are favorites of mine. Graham Thomas is a shrub rose that is so robust I grow it as a climber.  It offers heavy heads of large yellow blooms with outstanding disease tolerance.

A lady that had come to my fire safe garden talk in San Diego recently contacted me.  She had not spoken to me in person at the talk but had waited and emailed a few days later.  She was indignant.  “How could you, Mr. Egbert, recommend roses as part of a water wise, fire safe landscape?” she lectured in her lengthy email.  “Modern roses” I countered, “are much more hardy and drought tolerant than we are led to believe.” 

In fact I wanted to go much further with my discussion, but of course, like lots of fussy self –righteous garden experts, she wanted none of it.  “Natives are the only answer!” she stated in no uncertain terms and promptly blocked my further emails.  Now I love natives as well but I also understand that roses are the most loved of all garden flowers.  And many roses trace their roots (literally) back to wild ramblers growing in the mountains and plains of Asia. 

There, they adapted to harsh conditions, cold winters, and drought.  When modern rose breeders looked to expand the uses of roses beyond the cutting garden hybrid tea, they turned to those wild roses for inspiration and genetics.  The result was the landscape roses.  Full of flowers but tough enough to live almost anywhere, landscape roses like the Flower Carpet group and many others have expanded the range of roses out from the garden bed into the harsh modern landscape of parking lots and freeway onramps. 

I admire these roses for their disease resistance and repeat bloom but can be amazed at how tough they really are.  I snapped these photos of some landscape roses growing in a very harsh environment indeed. 

A landscape rose begins to stir in it's harsh suburban surroundings.

On a cold day in Wichita, these specimens are showing new growth even though it has not rained in months.  The drying cold wind is constant in this exposed median strip and in summer the sun bakes the impoverished sandy soil while reflected heat from the concrete and asphalt roasts them all around.  They all had strong green canes and evidence of a strong bloom last summer.  So, roses are hardier than you think!  Give them a try!!

Remember that the idea of pruning is to encourage strong new growth, remove old weak stems, and clean away any old foliage and debris.  So in mild winter climates, this sort of action can happen at any time.  Just remember that the longer you wait to prune, the later in spring the first flush of blooms will be.

Not all roses need the heavy duty, down to 5 canes pruning we are used to with hybrid teas.  Some, like the David Austin English roses do best with more selective thinning to encourage strong arching canes. With them, removing the skinny weak twigs is often enough.  With groundcover roses, like Flower Carpet, an overall shearing to clean off last year’s hips is all that is needed.

At this point, follow up your pruning with a good dose of balanced organic rose food. And in a few weeks the first roses will be bursting forth into the April sun!

Lady Banks rose needs very little pruning to keep it blooming.

Lots of us have limited time to spend out in the garden and we need roses that will perform, giving us masses of blooms, but without lots of work.  Of course, roses are an ideal additional to the fire safe garden. They are actively growing in summer, have high moisture content, do not develop masses of dead wood and can be somewhat drought tolerant when grown properly

One new rose, Pink Drift, from the Drift series by Meilland seems to stand out, literally!  I picked it out initially because, even though it is only February, Pink Drift was in full leaf.

The label describes it as a repeat blooming ground cover rose ideal for hanging baskets and pots. This suits me fine since I am always looking for places to add easy, color without a lot of fuss. In Big Sur, I tend to prefer my roses either very compact, as the Drift Roses claim to be, or long and arching like many of the David Austin English Roses are.  So I will try Pink Drift and see how disease resistant and tough it really is and report back. Mine is newly potted in a large terra cotta pot at the edge of the vegetable garden path.