We all approach the new gardening season with enthusiasm and optimism. Then the rain come down hard and pelts your new plants into the ground, the nights turn cold again and some of the plants in your garden aren’t so happy anymore. That’s when you need some tried and true plants to star in your landscape no matter what Mother Nature throws at you.

I’m often asked to give suggestions for resilient plants for a problem spot. These plants may have beautiful foliage, bark and texture, too, and serve two purposes in the garden. They may have flowers for some of the year to provide nectar for butterflies and hummingbirds or berries to feed wildlife. Most of all they are easy to care for and trouble free.

Snowberry gets an A+ for all of these qualities. A California native of shaded, mixed evergreen and oak woodlands, this 3-6 ft shrub thrives in a variety of locations including the dry shade under large trees like oaks. It tolerates poor soil and neglect and will grow well in full shade but blooms better and produces more berries if it gets some sun. Clusters of pure white berries appear in late summer and early fall and last through much of the winter. In late spring or early summer, its pretty blue-green leaves provide a nice contrast to the tiny pink flowers which hummingbirds love. Bees produce a white honey from their nectar rich pollen.

They can be pruned as a nice hedge providing twiggy, dense shelter for wildlife.Because of their vigorous root system, they are useful to stabilize banks and slopes. Maintenance is easy- simply prune away some of the suckers every few years to keep it in check. If it gets too tall,  shear it back in late winter to keep compact. The berries are not the first choice for most birds but thrushes will eat them if there isn’t anything else available. Other wildlife will eat the berries, too.

Lewis and Clark collected this plant and brought it back to Thomas Jefferson. It was sent to England in 1817 and became a popular garden novelty among plant collectors there.

If showy flowers are what you’re looking for in a specific spot, the perennial Phygelius would make a nice addition to your garden. This large 3-4 ft plant blooms from early spring into fall and you can grow them in full sun or light shade. Related to snapdragons and penstemon, the flowers also suggest fuchsias which is where they get their common name, Cape Fuchsia. Coral Princess is one of my favorites with lots of tubular, soft salmon and yellow flowers which attract hummingbirds.

In the same bed you might plant a few to fill and and add a nice contrast at the base of the Cape Fuchsias. This bright bluish-pink true geranium groundcover grows 8" tall and spreads slowly but widely. Easy to care for true geraniums are hardy in the winter, need just average watering and can be sheared each fall for fresh spring flowers.
 

Redwoods in Maui?  I first heard about them at the Nature Center in .  A sign there said they were grown for commercial reasons in Hawaii. So now that I’m here on the island of Maui I just had to see them for myself.

I knew that redwood from our forests was used in the early 1900′s for surfboards. They were tough and durable but also heavy so the boards were redesigned in the 1930′s combining redwood with balsa.  Balsa was hard to get in large quantities so the boards were constructed of both- with balsa at the center and the rails of tougher redwood to strengthen the board.

But how did redwoods come to be planted in Maui?  Like our area that was clear cut in the 1800′s for lumber and to fuel the lime kilns so too the forests of Maui were harvested in the 1700′s.  Sandalwood, exported to China for its fragrant aroma, became the island’s first cash crop. Millions of trees were logged from the mountain forests. The men of the farming class were forced to cut trees, first on the lower slope and then farther up into the mountains, to pay for the chief’s acquisitions of weapons, warships and European imports.  Further damage was done by livestock brought by westerners  – pigs, goats, sheep and especially cattle. 

When the watershed was destroyed, the water disappeared for sugar cane, too. Reforestation started in the 1920′s when nearly two million trees were planted annually.  Fast growing species like redwoods, cedar, sugar pines and eucalyptus were planted to increase the watershed.  While these introduced trees and shrubs prevented catastrophic destruction, they produced sparse forests with fewer species than the complex, multi-layered systems created by native forests.

Fast forward to 2007 when the area was devastated by a wildfire.  Hawaii is not an area that is renewed by fires like California. It destroyed most of the forest. The redwood trees survived however. This area must suit redwoods as it is draped in clouds and fog at 6000 feet and many of the trees planted in the 20′s and 30′s are over 100 feet tall. Now the area is replanted with native trees as well as 57.000 redwood seedlings that received a blessing at planting time.  More redwoods were replanted because they are less prone to spread fire.

So if you’re in Maui up near Haleakala crater in Polipoli State Park check out the quiet, serene Redwood Trail.  Some of the trees probably came from redwood seedlings from our area.

One of my New Year resolutions is to get my garden certified as a wildlife habitat by the National Wildlife Federation. It will be fun for me and would also be a good school project for your kids. They can keep track of all the birds, butterflies, dragonflies, insects, mammals, lizards and frogs that come to visit your yard. Once your backyard is certified by NWF, you can order and display an attractive Certified Wildlife Habitat sign to convey your commitment to wildlife conservation and the environment and help spread the word to your neighbors.

All species of wildlife need the basics of food, water, cover and places to raise young. We can help conserve our natural resources like soil, water, air and habitat for native wildlife by gardening in an environmentally friendly way.  Here are some of the simple steps I’m doing in my small garden garden to reach this goal.

To provide food in my shady garden I plan to include Ca. native snowberry, pink flowering currant and mahonia for berries that attract birds.  Hummingbirds will find nectar from coral bells, western columbine and fuchsia-flowering currants. I also keep my feeders up year round for them.

Butterflies will like like Santa Barbara daisy, sweet alyssum and columbine. Plants that will attract beneficial insects are Ca. rose, coast live oak and ceanothus. Although I try to plant natives for their beauty and toughness, I believe that finding the right balance by mixing natives with non natives can enhance benefits to wildlife.

Next, I provide clean water for drinking, bathing and reproduction. I don’t have room for a pond but I do have bird baths that I keep filled year round. I’m also planning to make a puddling area for butterflies.

Wildlife need places to find shelter from the weather and predators. I keep some areas of my garden orderly but leave some less manicured. I plant in layers providing a canopy or tree layer, a shrub layer and a ground cover layer. This provides a large range of sheltering, feeding and nesting sites. Keep in mind, wildlife need to feel safe in their surroundings. They tend to steer clear of large, open spaces. I find most of the wildlife that visit my yard start at the wooded area in the back and work their way up through dense shrubs, wild berries, a dead tree and a small log pile.

Evergreens and deciduous trees provide nesting areas for birds. The rock wall and leaf pile are favorite spots for mice, sakes and salamander to lay their eggs or raise young. Butterfly larvae find food on host ceanothus, huckleberry, oaks, bleeding hearts, foxglove, sweet alyssum, ornamental strawberry, dogwood, viburnum, crabapple and red flowering currant. I’d plant a wisteria for them if I had more sun.

I conserve our valuable resources by doing simple measures like mulching, using drip and soaker hoses, planting low-water use plants like natives suited to this area, using organic pesticides only when necessary and using organic fertilizers.

In my little corner of the world, I’ve created a beautiful wildlife garden. Visit the National Wildlife Federation at NWF.org to get started on your own certification.

 Recent rainfall may have you thinking that El Nino conditions are indeed strengthening as NOAA has predicted and that this will be a wet winter. California does not always see an increase in precipitation, however,  during El Nino years but we can always hope and be prepared.

Here’s why. Every 2-7 years the trade winds in the warm equatorial waters of the Pacific Ocean slacken, or sometimes even reverse direction, and warmer-than-normal water accumulates along the equator in the central and eastern Pacific. This warming is called El Nino, because its effects are greatest in the winter and often disrupt fishing along the So. American coast around . Equatorial water is averaging one degree warmer so far this fall and should continue to warm. If it averages 2.5 degrees warmer, that’s a moderate El NIno. If it goes higher that would be considered a strong El Nino. During the biggest El Nino winters in 1997-’98 and also in 1982-’83, Pacific waters reached nearly 5 degrees warmer.  The winter of 1997 brought nearly 90" of rain to Boulder Creek and in 1982 we had 111" of rain.  Interesting to note, however, that the strong El Nino of 1991 only brought 46" of rain to our area.

The El Nino now under way doesn’t guarantee our area will receive drenching winter rains, but the stronger the condition and warmer the water, the greater the likely hood.

If you have oaks or tanoak trees on your property, a wet El Nino winter makes conditions perfect for the spread of Sudden Oak Death (SOD). The pathogen that causes this disease thrives and spreads in moist, mild climates. There is no known cure for SOD, the only way to protect susceptible oaks and tanoaks is preventative treatment before conditions for infection are optimal.

To arm trees with as much resistance as possible, treatments must be applied in the fall and again in the spring. There is a free training session given by the Calif. Oak Mortality Task Force in Berkeley on Nov 4th and Dec. 9th. This training session as well as information on their web site   (   www.suddenoakdeath.org  )  will help you gain information about how to select candidate trees for treatment and proper preventative treatment applications.  
 
We have seen the effects of SOD on the oak trees in our own area.  Since the mid 1990′s over a million oak and tan oak trees have died throughout California. Preventative treatment is the key to slowing the spread of this pathogen and to protect high value individual trees at risk of infection.

Laboratory testing is the only way to confirm this disease.  You cannot diagnose symptoms solely by eye as many diseases look similar. You can view photos at the web site to compare symptoms with those on your oak or tanoak trees. Also look at nearby Calif. bay laurel, rhododendrons or camellia plants with spots on their leaves as this could possibly by correlated.  If you suspect you have infected trees you can get the leaves tested at our local AG Extension in Watsonville.

The treatment approved by the State of California against phytophthora ramorum infection is Agri-Fos, a phosphonate compound. It is best used as a preventative measure and is not a cure. It can help protect trees from getting infected and mays suppress disease progression in very early infections. Sprayed on the trunk or injected into the tree it takes 3-6 weeks to be assimilated and become effective.

Generally, you should treat high value oak trees within 150 ft of other infected trees or plants. You may want to treat healthy oaks or tan oaks if they are surrounded by healthy bay laurel and there are know infections within 1000 ft. I could not find a local source for Agri-Fos but you can buy it directily through them.  There is a link on the above listed website.

Education is key to slowing the spread of SOD and protecting high-value individual trees at risk of infection.