pruning mirabilis multiflora

Mirabilis multiflora is a pretty aggresive plant. I have planted only a couple plants. The first one was a little over twelve years ago. We got four or five truck loads of soil that was removed from a ditch the began to be clogged by the sediment that came in the irrigation water out of the canyon. We built three berms with this soil. That is where we began planting our natives. We planted one Mirabilis in the month of May, and with a little water, it grew to the diameter of five feet. We collect seed. The next year there were a few more plants and now there are many. They do have a problem. They will cover up every small plant that is close by. They grow over the top of large rocks. So when you plant one, give it plenty of room. There are times that you will have to prune it. You can cut as much off as you like. I would not recommend shearing, but just cut some branches off. The photo shows one of our plants that has plenty of room.

More Mountain Lover

Pictured are the some seed pods of the Mountain Lover. There are two pods centered near the bottom. There are two more pods just above the horizontal branch a little right of center. Each pod has one seed. I have been watching these for nearly a month now and have yet to see a ripe seed.

Native perennial Sunflower

On June 3, I found this native sunflower in the foothills about ten minutes from home that had just barely started to bloom. I was looking for penstemons in that area a couple of days before the Penstemon Festival. I found Penstemon watsoni in this same area.
June 23. very impressive floral display. I hope to get seeds from this and have it growing at my nursery a year from now. This plant looks good from the time the snow melts and the new growth appears to full flower. I don't know how it will act with some dead heading, but I will be finding it out and report it at a later time.




Close up June 23, 2009. This is a very impressive plant. It may look better this year than other years because of the good spring snow and rain that we have had. Elevation is around 6,000 feet.

Paxistima myrsinites

The Paxistima myrsinites, called Mountain Lover, is located in many areas in many states. There is a large population in the shade of Gambel Oak along the upper Cal Valley road. It is about 25 minutes from my nursery. I went back there after the Penstemon Festival to collect some seed from a very short Pussy Toes. While there I checked the Mountain Lover for seed. I have seen it flower numerous times, but never saw any seed. It was was really shady and all I could see were the flowers. I cut several stems to bring home where there was more light. To my surprise the were a number of seed pods in different stages of development. The mature seed pods were oval in shape and 1/4 inch long and about 1/8 inch wide. The bottom photo shows one seed pod that is turning brown. It is about half way up on the left side of the right stem.
The Mountain lover is evergreen an looks great in the shade.

Penstemon Festival

The penstemon Festival is now over. It was very succesful. There were not a whole lot people there but the few that were there had a good time. We were looking at five penstemon along the Cal Valley road. After we got there we found some palmer Penstemon that we had not seen before. And on the way back to the nursery we stopped near the Scipio pass to see the Penstemon Watsonii that I had found a couple of days earlier. It is the one that is pictured. Pictured also are some of the people that were there.