The Plants Start to Go In!

This is a continuation of earlier posts about filling in our swimming pool and replacing it with a garden. The previous posts were about the construction and garden hardscape. This post is about the planting of the former pool area.

Casita fountain

In the late winter of 2003, we were finally ready to start planting. I had been thinking of what we would plant since we bought the house in 1998. I watched the sun and shadow patterns carefully for several seasons and decided on the following for one area.

The garden to the northwest of the casita is one of the sunniest locations on our property. It is far enough away from the house to not be entirely shaded in the winter. In the summer, it gets very hot on sunny days and the old pool wall that surrounds the swimming pool area keeps out of the ocean breeze and also gophers. Two large glass windows in the corner of the wall allow in lots of light. We had also built a fountain in the area using the old bathtub that was left over from the house renovation. I had been dreaming of a succulent garden for years and decided that this would be the best place. I had already been buying succulents from Exotic Gardens (then located in Hillcrest) and selected the following large plants for the area:

• Aloe thraskii - a large trunked aloe with long draping leaves
• Aloe bainesii (now Aloe barberea) – a multi-branched tree aloe
• Euphorbia ammak - a large pale green tree euphorbia
• Euphorbia cotinifolia – Tree aloe with maroon heart shaped leaves
• Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta' – A large agave relative with variegated striped leaves
• Euphorbia tirucalli 'sticks on fire' – A brightly colored bush shrub to small tree
• Aloe plicatilis – a large shrub aloe with strap like leaves arranged in fans at the end of thick branches
• Kalanchoe beharensis – the large leaf form with just a few trunks.
• Agave bracteosa – squid agave

I had Carl from the Exotic Garden deliver the plants and he told me they would never fit into the space I allocated. Not be deterred, I planted them anyway. 17 years later the large plants are all still there. The A. thraskii today has grown to about 10 feet tall with 3 foot long draping leaves and a stout trunk. It blooms reliably each February. The A. barberea has slowly grown into a husky 20 foot tree with eleven 'arms'. It seems to struggle a bit and has never bloomed. The Euphorbia ammak has been the biggest success story and looks to have over 100 arms. It grows 2 to 3 feet a year and today is close to 30 feet tall and 20 feet wide. I've removed probably 50 or so outer 'arms' over the years and have many plants in the lower garden. It is quite spectacular when viewed from the living room window above.

West Casita Garden shortly after planting

Another great success story is the Euphorbia cotinifolia. I relocated an existing, but struggling Euphorbia cotinifolia that had been elsewhere in the garden for several years but never grew much. After relocation it grew quickly and to today is about 25 feet tall and wide. It has small blooms in summer and many volunteers sprout near it which I weed out of the garden. It is a bit brittle and large branches have been blown out, so it gets some reshaping each year. Also nice that it is deciduous which allows for extra sun into the garden in winter. I much prefer this tree to more commonly used Cerris 'forest pansy'. Both have a similar look, but the Euphorbia needs less water and the leaves retain their maroon color throughout the growing season.

Casita, tower and new plantings

Today the Furcraea is about 8 feet by 8 feet and nicely accents one side of the fountain. It gets scale insects in the summer on some of the lower leaves and is easily scarred, but still a focal point. The Sticks on Fire did too well and quickly grew to over 8 feet. The garden is shadier today and it doesn't color up as well as well as ones in full sun. Each year it is a debate whether to keep it or remove it. I've trimmed it up high to keep it narrow and have rooted many more plants from the cuttings.

The Aloe plicatilis has grown to about 3 feet by 3 feet and sends up lots of inflorescences with candy corn-like flowers late each winter.

Fountain made from old bathtub

Originally there were 2 Kalanchoe beharensis, but one died a few years ago. The remaining one leans over a bit towards the fountain with 2 large knobby seven foot long trunks topped by very large triangular shaped fuzzy leaves. I've debating removing it…but so far it has survived being edited out.

Agave bracteosa starting to send up its bloom spike

Agave bracteosa in bloom

Planted near the walkway, the Agave bracteosa was the highlight of the garden for a number of years. With its long recurved spider-like leaves it looked as though it was going to pull itself out of the garden and walk away. For many years it pupped like crazy and I started many new plants and gave countless others away. It started changing from green to purple and sent up a massive bloom several summers ago. It was fascinating to watch it grow and unwind each day. The final bloom stalk was about 8 feet tall and covered with yellow flowers. Today a remaining pup grows out vertically between the blocks of the retaining wall, and I still have many more pups in pots and the garden.

There was another unknown hybrid garden aloe in the area that bloomed with yellow and red flowers in the spring, but as the garden filled it, it became too shady for it and it was relocated to the garden down the hill. I replaced it with a nice green cycad that looks like a palm. Each year it sends up a big set of new fronds and is now about 6 feet tall and wide. In a slightly sunnier spot, an Aloe ferox was planted and has gotten quite large and blooms reliably in early winter.

I used the local rocks as mulch between the plants. Over the years many other succulents, annuals, bulbs and perennials have come and gone. Today there still remain several South African bulbs and smaller aloes and other succulents as groundcovers. More recently, I've been planting lots of different species of brightly colored bromeliads.

On the wall at the back of this garden I originally planted a Thunbergia 'blushing susie". I loved the multicolored flowers, but was surprised to find out that it produced viable seed that came up all over the garden. I removed the plant and have been trying to eliminate the seedlings for years. Today it is replaced with an Australian Hibbertia scandens vine, which blooms annually with nice big clear-yellow flowers.

Originally, just to the west of this area outside the pool wall was a Monterey pine tree. It looked like it had been a live Christmas tree that was planted in the ground. It grew quickly and was starting to shade the area. It rained pine needles continually which took hours of time to pick up from between the plants. It eventually got both white mildew and the borer so became an eyesore and was removed and replaced by two tall Euphorbia ingens. These quickly grew to 30 feet. However, half rotted and fell over in the wet winter of 2010. The remaining plant has a significant lean away from the constant seabreeze. I cut out about ½ of the plant trying to right it last year. However, the 70 mph wind storm in January snapped off about ½ of the remaining arms. I'm still trying to determine whether to leave it or replace it with something else that can better tolerate the windy location.

The Mostly Blue and Gold Garden

As I discussed in earlier columns, the inspiration for the blue and yellow tile we used throughout the Casita garden came partly from observations of commonly used colors of Talavera tile. However, there was an inspiration for blue and yellow plants that goes back much further. In 1960, my older brother was a Cub Scout. As a kindergartner in Wichita I attended the annual Cub Scouts Blue and Gold Banquet held in the local 4H hall. The banquet "is the most exciting event on the Cub Scout calendar" and gets its name from the Cub Scout colors -- blue and gold. The tables at the banquet were decorated with potted annuals with blue and gold flowers. I immediately recognized the "gold" flowers as dwarf marigolds. However, the blue flowers were soft and fuzzy that I would learn years later were ageratums. Even at age 5, I thought the combination of blue and yellow flowers was a striking combination and decided decades later to plant a garden of mostly blue and yellow flowered plants.

The casita beds in this area are raised about a foot above a gravel walkway that leads to a blue door that exits to the lower garden. There is one large bed bordered by the casita and the old stucco pool wall. There is another narrow bed that wraps around the 30-foot-tall stair tower structure. A gravel path makes a "Y" at the end of these 2 gardens, one path leads to the blue garden door, the other to a garden storage area. There is a half-moon shaped bed at the end of the walkway with a raised blue urn used as a bubbling fountain at the junction of the walkways.

Gardening in this area is a little difficult because the area gets full sun in the summer months, but is mostly in shade for about 5 months in the winter. And as with most of my gardening, the new plantings looked barren at first until everything started to fill in and then some plants slowly die from competition or lack of sun. The large plants chosen for this area were:

3 Archontophoenix purpurea, commonly called King Palm but with a more swollen lower trunk than the more commonly planted Archontophoenix cunninghamiana. These were very slow to get established and are still not large after 13 years. One of them died suddenly after several years, but I never knew the cause.



A yellow climbing mermaid rose was planted against the tower. I had liked the one planted at the front entrance to Cedros Gardens in Solana Beach. It quickly grew to 30 feet and required major rebar and ties to keep it up against the tower. However, it still blew down every winter and always had one disease or another. It has 2 types of thorns facing in different directions, so it is very easy to get tangled in it. It was quietly removed after several years.

I had always liked the yellow floribunda rose 'Sunflare', but I forgot the name and instead planted the similar named 'Sunsprite'. It is still in the garden and blooms off and on all summer.

Behind the blue urn fountain, I planted a plumeria. It did very well the first summer, but rotted due to too much winter water and shade. It was replaced with 3 closely spaced Kentia Palms, Howea forsteriana. Though very slow, they have finally reached a substantial size and look great with their draping fronds. Behind them is a Star Jasmine, Trachelospermum jasminoides, vine which has covered the wall and scents the entire garden in the late spring.

Against the larger wall behind the casita, I planted a yellow flowered Thunbergia alata 'Lemon Star'. Unlike some thunbergia, it doesn't set seed but did quickly cover the wall. It has been cut to the ground several times, but always comes back. A cutting from the vine was planted against the tower. It did a bit too well and was home to several rat nests. It is now cut back every year to keep it in check.

A variegated yellow and green striped leaf canna that I got from my mother was also planted in the garden. I like the foliage, but not wild about the orange flowers. It has gotten out of control a few times, and had to be thinned out several times.

Added later to replace the dead king palm is a now very large Tetrapanax papyrifer (rice-paper plant). It was given to me by a neighbor. It takes a lot of maintenance to keep it looking good, but we love the large tropical looking leaves and the view looking down on it from the house. It tends to run and come up many feet away from the parent plant. However, runners are easy to remove before they get too large. It also continually drops its lower leaves and needs weekly maintenance. In November it sends up large panicles of white puffy flowers and drops most of its leaves. If we get a misty rain while it is in bloom, it can look quite droopy. Also the leaves and especially the flowers drop a lot of fine dust that can irritate your eyes and nose and if inhaled can leave you coughing for several hours.

Below all of the larger plants has been a series of perennial and annual plants. I used to refer to this as my only traditional garden since it had lots of flower color. I grew some of my favorite perennials here for several years such as rudbeckias, lobelia, nemesia, foxgloves, Delphiniums, kangaroo paws, dwarf roses, Alstroemeria, strawflowers, coreopsis, Calylophus drummondianus, linaria, ageratum, yellow-flowered asclepia and many others. However, with more root competition and shade, these have mostly been replaced.

Today are has many bromeliads and a few Aeoniums which don't mind competing with the palm roots. In the last remaining sunny spots, I still grow a few annual and perennials.