Frost Protection

Frosty nights are just around the corner so now is the time to get prepared to protect your frost sensitive plants. In San Luis Obispo, the first average frost date is right around Thanksgiving. Understanding how to protect your plants can save them from damage and even death.

On clear, windless nights when temperatures dip below 45 degrees at 10 p.m., it may be a signal to protect your plants before going to bed. Move any tender container plants under a porch roof or into the garage. Cover plants in the ground using burlap, sheets, blankets or specially designed Frost Protection Blanket. If possible, support the covering material so it isn't in direct contact with the plant. Freezing may occur where foliage touches the covering material. Remember to remove the covering during the day. Continue to water your plants as needed during the winter. Properly hydrated plants fair better during frosts than dry plants.

If plants have suffered damage from frost, it's best to wait to prune. Pruning too soon will stimulate new growth that can suffer damage from later frosts. Also, the already damaged areas still serve as protection for the undergrowth. It's best to wait until new growth begins to show in spring to determine what is clearly dead.

Continue to water your garden as you normally would during the winter but don't over water. Increasing the watering will not help your plants recover any quicker from frost. And don't feed your plants until new growth begins in the spring.

Topiary Gifts

With the many holiday dinners, gatherings and celebrations coming up, we often find ourselves in need of a hostess gift. One suggestion for a great holiday gift is a topiary. No longer limited to mere ivies, you may now choose from a variety of plant types in topiary form. Rather than give a mum or a poinsettia that will most likely be discarded after the holiday, give a lasting gift than can be used throughout the year.

Topiaries can make great accents to indoor decor. They can serve as a centerpiece during a holiday meal and then decorate a mantle the rest of the year. Some, like the Swane's Golden Italian Cypress (pictured left) can double as a small holiday tree. They can also be planted in the landscape and allowed to grow to their full size of 15'-20' providing a stunning golden feature.


For avid cooks, rosemary and bay topiaries make attractive and useful gifts. Small standards and globes are easy to keep on the kitchen counter and dining room table providing an elegant way to keep your fresh seasonings handy. Because they respond well to frequent trimming, using them just makes then more attractive.

Finally what could be more classic than a topiary olive? In their landscape form, Little Ollie Olives grow only to 4'-6' making them a perfect choice to be trained into globes or standard. And unlike their fruiting cousins, Little Ollie's are fruitless so their is no mess to worry about.



To care for your topiary place it in a location that will get several hours of direct sunlight each day or outside in location that will get full sun. Make sure to check the water needs often and keep the root ball moist. Most topiaries require a bit more water than their landscape counterparts because of the way they are trained. Never let the root ball dry out completely.

The Bones of the Garden

The phrase “good bones” often conjures up an image of a gorgeous model with chiseled features. But the phrase can also apply to garden landscape design as well. The bones of the landscape are the hardscape elements, (like pathways and decks) and plant elements like trees and shrubs that hold the design together. Without good bones, gardens lose structure and have a much less memorable impact on the viewer. Creating a garden without first considering its structure is like decorating a house before the framing goes up.

Once you have decided on what your hardscape will be, it is time to look at the placement of evergreen shrubs and trees. One way to think about the bones of the garden is to imagine how the garden will look in winter without all the flowers and deciduous foliage; much like imagining Las Vegas without all the lights. Once all the flash and color is gone, what will be left? Will the garden still be interesting or will it lack appeal.

Evergreens are important because they add interest and texture to the garden through all four seasons. Conifers make up a large group of evergreens that include trees like pines and spruces but also junipers and podocarpus. From giant redwoods to groundcover junipers, this group of plants can keep your garden interesting at all levels when the leaves have fallen and the blooms faded for the year.

Confiers come in a variety of shades and can add color when there isn’t a bloom in sight. The foliage of Gold Coast Juniper varies from a golden yellow to chartreuse and green. The foliage of the Blue Angel White Pine or Hoop’s Blue Spruce sparkles in shades of blue to almost grey. For the greenest greens, the Austrian Pine or Oriental Spruce can make a garden feel spring-like in the middle of January. Adding a variety of conifers and overlapping them in the landscape can add interest with contrasting colors and texture.

With a large range of sizes and growth habits, conifers can be used in almost every aspect of design. For easy care evergreen groundcovers select a Dwarf Japanese or Blue Chip Juniper. Both get a mere one foot high and can spread 6’-8’. For small to medium sized shrubs check out the Gold Coast Juniper at 3’-4’ wide and as high or a compact Little Gem Norway Spruce which grows a mere 18”. If a medium sized tree is needed, the Fat Albert Colorado Blue Spruce which gets only 10’-15’ high should fit the requirement. And if you need something really large, the Blue Atlas Cedar can get up to 50’ tall.

Conifers can also be planted and kept happily in appropriate sized containers. For exciting container interest, look for Feelin’ Blue Deodar Cedar trained as a standard or a staked Weeping Blue Atlas Cedar. With their needle like foliage and unusual shape, they can make a bold statement near an entry way or on a patio.

By adding conifers and other evergreens to your yard, you strengthen the structure which holds the design together and makes it cohesive. You also add interest and make your garden attractive all year long. Once you have added the bones, then and only then should you move on to the rest of the garden design.

Written by Kat White. All images are copyright Monrovia Nursery and used with permission.

Garden Bloggers Bloom Day November

To start off this month's Garden Bloggers Bloom Day post why not have something so vibrant it practically jumps out of the screen? This red flower carpet rose has been blooming since late March. Definitely a workhorse in the border.


This fuchsia autumn sage will need to be cut back pretty soon, but right now the hummingbirds are just loving it.



This is a great one to put on your wish list because it is normally only available April-August, but blooms here as long as it is warm. The Lotus Vine has lots to recommend. Bright unusually shaped flowers and flowing, delicate pine-like foliage. Great in containers.




Echinacea still going strong. Great combined with the red carpet rose.




Look at what a great pairing this pink carpet rose makes with this apple blossom penstemon.




Calandrinia spectabillis is a long blooming succulent. The bright violet/purple flowers are held high above the plant on almost three foot long stems. The grey/green succulent foliage stays low and compact.


And finally my assistant on every nursery photo shoot, Mama Kitty, is checking the light on these salvia blossoms. It's hard to believe that just a little over a year ago this beautiful cat decided to make us her family when she had her kittens in the barn. Her kittens have all gone to good homes within the county, but Mama remained as our resident mouser and photographic assistant (She likes to help with paperwork and computer work as well). If you stop by you will most likely find her in one of two places. Out in the nursery terrorizing the lizard population or curled up on some soft surface in the barn.

Saving Seeds

As we continue with fall cleanup here on the Central Coast, we find that many of our summer annuals and summer blooming perennials have gone to seed. Saving seeds is an easy, money saving way to increase the number of plants in your garden and now is the time to do it. Care must be taken, however, to harvest and store the seeds properly in order to assure successful germination.

1. First, you must be patient. Seeds must be fully ripe before harvesting. Usually this means that the flower head has completely dried and the seeds detach easily. Avoid collecting seeds that are damp because they will most likely mildew in storage.

2. Let seeds dry and keep them dry. Moisture will destroy a seed's viability so it is important to let them dry for about a week in a dry location, out of direct sunlight. Spread them out in pie tins or baking pans so that they will dry completely. Then store them in either an airtight mason jar or ziplock bag.

3. Keep seeds cool. Store seeds in a cool location out of direct sunlight. One place to store seeds is in the refrigerator (not the freezer as too low a temperature can kill seeds). Place the jar or ziplock bag inside until they are needed in spring.

4. Keep a record. It's easy to forget what seeds came from what plant, so it's best to fill out an index card or slip of paper with the plants name and cultural needs as you go. If you want to be super organized, keep a list of seeds that you have saved so you won't accidentally purchase something you already have. Plus, it's a good way to know what you have in stock should you want to share.

5. Share your seeds. One way to increase the variety of plants in your garden is to trade seeds with other gardeners. If you don't know any seed savers locally, check out online seed saving websites like Seed Savers Exchange.

And don't throw out any seeds you don't use next season. Seed will keep for more than one season. Seed viability doesn't just stop in a years time, but rather slowly decreases. You may have 90% germination the first year, 50% the second and so on.

The Gift of Fall Leaves

Fall comes slowly on the Central Coast, but it does come. And soon the autumn leaves that look so lovely on the trees will be covering our lawns & flower borders. Many of us are in the habit of raking up our leaves and sending them off in the green waste containers. But did you know that leaves can actually be a source of nutrition for your soil and plants?

In her recent blog on Leaves and Mulch, Catherine Dougherty calls leaves the "final gift of the season" and she couldn't be more correct. If added back to the soil as composted leaf mold, this fall's leaves will break down and add nutrients to the soil for seasons to follow.

Leaves, however, can take a long time to break down and must be shredded before being added back to the soil. One can either process the leaves through a shredder or simply rake them onto the lawn and run the lawnmower over them. Once shredded the leaves can either be added directly to the flower beds or the compost pile. Either way in several seasons time they will completely break down and become nutrients for the plants from which they came.

If you would like to learn more about composting, please check out The Art of Composting for easy steps to create one.

Catherine Dougherty is an avid, experienced gardener living in rural Oklahoma where Halloween barn dances are still quite common. You can read more about her gardening experience and wisdom on her blog In the Garden and More.

Cyclamen Combos

Although cyclamen are showy enough to hold their own in the garden as a mass planting, I think they are particularly lovely when grouped with complimentary plants. In the container left, we have a gorgeous Laser Scarlet cyclamen combined with a Frosted Velvet Heuchera, Snowstorm Bacopa and a yellow variegated ivy. Done as a hanging basket, this combo would also work well in an urn or tall pot. The grouping could also be planted in the ground in a spot that gets filtered light during the day or just a bit of morning sun then shade (in the ground I would substitute glechoma or more bacopa for the ivy so you don't have to worry about it becoming invasive).










This combination also works very well with white cyclamen and white variegated ivy giving it a very classy look. The coir lined hanging baskets work perfectly for these combos because although cyclamen like adequate moisture they don't like sitting in water logged soil. A long lived combination of perennials and tender perennials, this grouping will flourish and bloom for you from fall until next spring when only the cyclamen will go dormant. At that time, the cyclamen can be replaced with some tuberous begonias to keep the planting going.