Thimbleberry - from seed to garden-worthy shrub

It was just November 21 last year when I posted about sowing seeds, of various local endemic plants I gathered locally. And December 4 when I posted about the successful germination of the seedlings.

Already, I've potted on many graduates from the seed flats to 2 inch pots and just recently, into the ground or into larger pots. I'm going to do a few posts tracking each plant's progress separately.

Today: the thimbleberry, Rubus parviflorus.

I tried growing these from cuttings in 09 and failed. I just read the thimbleberry page on this very useful site - rook.org - and learned that vegetative propagation from sections of rhizomes is more successful.

But the seeds came up beautifully. I've been trying to remember if I did any cold stratification (stickin' 'em in the fridge for a while, to mimic winter). I don't think I did. The seeds had been hanging around for quite a long time in envelopes, maybe a year and a half - I think - so maybe they had gone through enough temperature changes to be ready to go. I do need to keep better records.

As I walk out in late spring and early summer, I love to see the thimbleberry bushes in flower...


and the thimbleberries ripening. They are said to be delicious but I kept all the ones I picked to put in envelopes! They are ripe when they fall off in your hand, and can ripen in a matter of hours. Wildlife relishes them and so do people.

I was thrilled when the babies started sprouting...

and quickly growing...



So I put them in small pots and they kept on growing...


Until last week - Jan 22 - when my son-in-law, Mr Squirrel from Boulder Creek, helped me pot up a bunch of the more mature seedlings and then we put them on the north-east facing deck upstairs at my home. Here they are on day one:


And then a week later...


I have others still in deep 4" pots. Today, if the rain lets up, I'm going to plant one or two in the ground, at the edge of the redwood grove, among some small oaks, toyons, Douglas fir, and madrones, where I hope they will grace the driveway to our home. In fall the leaves turn golden and then drop - it is winter deciduous. Here is one spot ready for planting:


I expect thimbleberry to grow to around four feet tall and six wide, based on the local wild population. They may grow taller as I will be fertilizing them (see below). They won't get much wider, as I'll be pruning them (also see below).

The deer will be pruning them too. Deer browse on thimbleberry but I read that the shrub survives. I'll cage mine until they get big enough to tolerate browsing.

I'm also going to plant one in a large container in the pool garden, and I'll give one to Town Mouse who also would like to try them in a large container.

I expect to give a few more to neighbors this fall, and I'm very happy to be able to spread this lovely native around in our neighborhood. The seeds came from just a mile away - but right along our road, I haven't seen any thimbleberry.

Regarding the native people's uses for thimbleberry plant parts, and the care and feeding of thimbleberry shrubs, I would refer you to this page on Paghat's Garden, a resource I treasure. There I read this useful content which I'll just reproduce as I can't say it any better myself:

Flowers & fruits are on two-year-old canes. When pruning in autumn, avoid the young green canes, & remove to the oldest canes. They are adaptable to a wide range of conditions, but the ideal is moist rich soil in dappled sunlight or partial shade. ... Though usually restrained in the garden, it may sucker to excess if ignored, spreading over an area from its rhizomes. ... [T]himbleberries are heavy nitrogen users & decline when soil nutrients decline. In the garden, then, it needs not to be crowded by too many large shrubs, & it needs at least an annual fertilizing as for other deciduous fruiting trees & shrubs.

I'll take particular care to provide nitrogen in a slow release organic fertilizer, so as not to deplete the soil where I plant thimbleberry, and I'll be pruning so they don't turn into a big thicket. In the wild, there is a natural progression of plants following fire or disturbance, and thimbleberry doesn't stay forever in one place. But this IS a garden, and gardens do require artifice, even wilderness gardens like mine. As the babies (hopefully) grow, I'll keep you posted on their progress.

How to Find Great Plants

Appalachian Feet is collecting information this month on how to find great plants. And because that's actually a question I frequently get -- except people ask:"Where can I buy California Natives?" I thought I'd prepare a short post.

Ahhh, let me count the ways.

1. Go to a plant sale. Most if not all chapters of the California Native Plant Society have native plant sales once or twice a year. The plants are grown from seed or rhizome by volunteers, here's a post about Country Mouse's generous donation of Irises to her CNPS chapter. In the picture, the freshly divided Iris and other plants are on their way to the shade house.

Plant sales are always great fun, it's comforting to find out one isn't the only crazy lady growing natives and the plants are healthy and usually just a bit cheaper than the nursery plants (besides, it's for a good cause, so you can buy a few more).

2. Search the California Native Plant Link Exchange. Here's what they say about themselves: "CNPLX is a resource for people interested in gardening with California native plants. This website will help you select local native plants for any location in the state, and find out who sells them." It is a truly amazing tool, not only for finding plants but also for seeing which plants are found in the same habitat. 

3. Go to a native plant nursery. We are lucky to have a number of very good native plant nurseries in the San Francisco Bay area. Here are some I like.

• Yerba Buena Nursery has big, healthy plants and a lot of great information on their website. 
• Native Revival Nursery over in Aptos is right next to the freeway but has a good selection of plants and garden art. I especially love their bi-annual sales. 
• Gold Rush Nursery specializes in plants in 4 inch pots. They specifically choose plants that will thrive after coming out of a 4 inch pot; I've been very happy with my purchases.

There are quite a few more, and you can find the ones close to you on California Native Plant Link Exchange.

 4. Mail order if you can't find the right plant close by. I can do the 2+ hour round trip to Richmond, or sit comfortable at my computer and order from Annie's Annuals. I have mail ordered plant's from Annie's Annuals several times and have always been impressed by the professional packaging and big healthy plants. Have a look at this post and you'll see what I mean.  An Annie's does have California Natives on her Totally Useful Plant Lists.

5. Grow your own. If you've been diligent like Ms. Country Mouse, you have seeds stashed away and can start locally natives when the rains begin. Otherwise, you can order seeds from Larner Seeds or the Theodore Payne Foundation. We have several posts on this blog that explain the basics and give some tips. It's not that hard, and a cheap way to indulge.

And with all those wonderful plants, all we need is a little more rain (after more than a month of not a drop from the sky) and we'll be ready for another amazing spring.

But Is It a Garden?

In this recent post recent post, my good friend and fellow blogger said the following:

"It takes an aesthetic adjustment to see the beauty in "scrub." But for me it certainly is worth twiddling the knobs."

And that really made my whiskers tremble just a bit, because it brought up a question that the garden selection committee of the Going Native Garden Tour has to confront frequently during garden evaluations. What are the requirements for a garden worth including in the tour.

We actually have fairly clear rules for acceptance on the tour:

• More than 50% native plants. 
• No invasive plants.
• Environmentally friendly garden practices.
• Attractive design.

We are fortunate to always have at least one designer in the committee of three that visits gardens that applied. But I personally believe that we all know good design when we see it. A beautiful garden, whether with native plants or not, should not require an aesthetic adjustment.

I make a distinction between yards in which plants are haphazardly placed, taken care of by a mow and blow crew (or not at all) and gardens (below is a garden, even if the photo doesn't quite do it justice).

In a garden, plants are selected carefully. The garden includes plants with differently shaped leaves and different height, and the plants are placed in a pleasing manner. Different garden styles might make different placements more pleasing. In a formal garden, symmetry is key while a natural garden might group plants in threes and fives. The garden might include paths, birdbaths, art, seating areas, water features, or otherwise interest and draw in the visitor.

"Come closer," the garden says. "Enjoy! Sights, sounds, smells, it's all waiting for you!"

Of course, deciding which gardens to accept is not always easy. Sometimes we encounter a garden where the designer had specified 75% native plants and the installer substituted non-natives such as Mediterranean plants for half of those plants. We cannot accept that garden. Sometimes we encounter a garden that is truly overgrown and weedy. We might talk to the owner and find out whether they can remedy the problem to have something a little more like this on tour day.

For the most part, though, the wonderful people who are willing to have their garden on garden tour care deeply about gardening and about native plants. They are excited about the opportunity to showcase native plants in an attractive setting, and they know that aesthetically appealing native gardens are essential for inspiring more people to consider including natives in their own gardens.

Interestingly, Ms. Country Mouse's own garden would certainly be accepted on tour. Attractive bird baths, placed just so. Plants in containers around the pool, a front entrance area (shown below) with native flowering perennials, some trellised plants, a flagstone porch, and a comfortable place to sit.

Then the fun mercat guarding the small Victorian fence. There are also flagstone paths, hummingbird feeders, and birdhouses, all saying "A Gardener Lives Here!"

Which brings me to the final ingredient of a garden: The gardener herself, taking care of the plants or getting qualified help, and enjoying the garden and all creatures that visit. (No aesthetic adjustment required).

Asilomar Dune Restoration 2: The plants signified

Of dune blooms there were few last weekend at Asilomar. After the past week of glorious ersatz summer weather though, I bet there are a lot more now. I am for sure going to to back in April to see the full show.

Menzies' wallflower (Erysimum menziesii ssp. menziesii) - an endangered species:


California thrift (Armeria maritima):


Yellow sand verbena (Abronia latifolia):


Last year's yarrow, making a nice study in texture, with that brownish grass (which might be a sedge - I'd really need a guided tour to ID the grass type plants):


I think this grass is Leymus mollis, based only on other similar pictures on the net:


We saw lupines but not flowers, so I don't know if they were the rare Tidestrom's lupine (Lupinus tidestromii), or the tree lupine (Lupinus arboreus), which I gather can itself be a bit invasive - not quite sure of the story on that one.

When I go back in April, I hope to see these and others:
seaside painted cup (Castilleja latifolia)
beach poppy (Eschscholzia californica var. maritima)
bishop's lotus (Lotus strigosus) and
dune aster (Lessingia filaginafolia var. californica).

But what was fun to see were the propagation projects in action. At first we thought some creature had been digging holes around the place.


Then we looked closer -


Seedlings, very small - planted in holes rather than on berms. To stay out of the winds, of course! It's an iceplant eradication and restoration area. Here's a different baby, not sure what these are really.


In this slightly more inland area, some shrubs probably, in the white tubes. I'd love to take a guided tour next time and find out more about what's being planted:


They are in a swale, and here's a nice tidbit about the sand and soil from the California Native Grassland Association page I recommended in my first Asilomar post:

While most dune systems are created by fine sediment deposits from river systems, the sand at Asilomar is derived solely from the underlying granitic bedrock. This gives the dunes their pure white color and makes them relatively nutrient-poor and inhospitable to most plants. In contrast, swales (the areas between dunes) have more developed soils.

So in the swales you can see different types of plants - very interesting. I didn't think about the different zones in a dune area.

At one point on the walk, up near the Pebble Beach golf course I think, the dunes were on the move:

I know the restoration efforts aim to stabilize the dunes, and I suppose they used to be more vegetated and stable. Here the plants seem to be fighting a losing battle!

We headed back to our room and passed some acorn woodpeckers enjoying the moon (or a bug) high in a snag:


Next morning was misty when we headed out.


I enjoyed a peek into the Asilomar State Parks shade house - would love to know more about those yellow ridged tubes that encourage root growth...



In closing here is a photo taken from from the balcony of our room at Asilomar - a black tail deer, with a respectable rack!

Brief Sojourn to the Other Coast

While Ms. Country Mouse and Mr. Wood Rat were on a well-deserved outing to Asilomar, Mr. Mouse and I went further afield and finally took a long overdue weekend trip to see Mr. Mouse's mother in Florida. Just as last time, I was quite stunned by how different the landscape looked. Very flat. Very spread out. Swampy. And again Ms. Mouse Sr. had planned a wonderful little outing for us, this time to Heathcote Botanical Gardens in Fort Pierce on the Treasure Coast.

The garden is not large, but has a lot to offer. Above, a picture of a small waterfall in the Japanese garden, which holds the first of several hundred Bonsai that will eventually grace the garden. For now, the garden had several garden rooms with different themes such as ferns, a butterfly garden, and Florida native plants. I was especially taken by the tiled benches in many places, wonderful to rest and just enjoy the peaceful green oasis.

I also enjoyed other garden art, such as this wooden heron.

And this colorful sculpture mirroring the bamboo right behind it. It looked as if children had painted the poles, and I imagined how much fun that must have been.

I didn't make as many pictures of the plants as I might have because I know so little about them. But I was so impressed by the lush foilage.

I also very much enjoyed this reflection pool, which had the water going into a vortex in the middle. Regrettably, the rest of my party likened the effect to that of a toilet. Which shows again that different people can react to the same thing in different ways.

But we were all excited to see this tiny snake, less than 1/4 inch thick and maybe 4 inches long, black with a bright orange necklace.

Most amazing were the bromeliads, and I could have spent quite some time making more photos. I wished, in a way, I had brought my sketch book. But we had dinner reservations and the gardens were soon to close, so we got back into the car, hoping to return one day, after the expansion of the garden is complete.

Asilomar Dune Restoration 1: Of signs, and the things they signify:

I have so many photos and thoughts to share, about our January weekend away at Asilomar in Monterey, I don't know where to begin. The tide pools, the amazing rocks, the huge waves, the shoreline plants, the historical buildings, the chance enjoy a relaxing lunch idling on the terrace.

But what I've been thinking about most since returning home is signage.

What I mean is, the signs telling visitors about the ongoing restoration efforts. At the risk of boring readers (I have been known to go down boring rabbit holes before) I'll share my experience of the signs. Next post will be the one with more pictures of the plants.

The interesting thing is that there are three restoration projects going on, converting wildlands that were ruined by foot traffic, or covered in iceplant like this garden:

To their natural state, which looks more like this garden - one of a few native gardens I saw on my walks about the neighborhood near Asilomar:

It takes an aesthetic adjustment to see the beauty in "scrub." But for me it certainly is worth twiddling the knobs.

At first I thought the dunes area was just all wild and natural, a nice contrast to the golf course. And the boardwalks are great - they provide access to people in wheelchairs, keep those on foot from tromping destructively around, and also they are much more pleasant to walk on than shifting sand.

Then I saw a small sign at the Pebble Beach (south) end of the 1 mile strip of sand dunes, and I was a bit disturbed. (You can click to expand or read the text below.)

So - this is a man made thing? - A recreation of what was there before we trashed it by tromping all over the dunes and planting iceplant? Why does that make me uneasy? It's what I'm doing here, after all, on my property. Restoration. And the plants are, even in January, looking pretty, like this gum plant (is it Grindelia stricta var. platyphylla?).


The text of the sign is nice but so vague. Do they know what they're doing? Here's what it says:

(The Pebble Beach Company Sign) Get a look at California natives
Around you are plants native to California coastal sand dunes and bluffs. They’re the same species which greeted European explorers some 400 years ago. Since then, human activity destroyed much of the native plant cover, and ice plant and other “exotics” took over.
To restore and protect the dunes, ice plant has been removed and native plants added. All of the plants come from pebble Beach Company’s native plant nurseries. For your enjoyment, the boardwalk lets you view the plants without damaging them.

"Native plants were added" - What native plants? I wish they would tell me. They have photos of a few plants, with common names.

California sagewort
Painted sea cup
Buckwheat
Menzies Wallflower (endangered species)
Dune gum plant
Yarrow
Seaside daisy
Lupine

Lupine. Buckwheat. - What lupine? What buckwheat? Do they know what they're doing here? I've decided that it's just that the Pebble Beach Company's marketing department wrote the sign for an audience of golfers. It wasn't written by gardeners. I'm sure the gardeners are doing a good job. I'd love to know more about the Pebble Beach company's nurseries and so on. But I can't find anything on the web. Maybe next time I visit there I'll make an effort to visit.

After we finished rambling along the boardwalks I found out - via the signage - that there are three different bodies at work restoring this narrow one-mile strip of dunes: The Pebble Beach Company, The City of Pacific Grove/Rana Creek, and State Parks (Asilomar State Beach and Conference Center). I wonder if they all talk to each other? Do they share plants? It seems so odd.

The city of Pacific Grove hired Rana Creek to do a big chunk of it. Here's a link to Rana Creek's (very short) page about the project. Who is Rana Creek? Their "about" page sounds like it was written by the Pebble Beach Company marketing department, I have to say:

Our design solutions provide value-added return on financial investments through the reduction of stormwater runoff, water reuse, energy management, sound attenuation and amenity enhancement.

They are not writing to you and me. They are writing to government and corporate entities that are required to do mitigation projects and need to justify hiring Rana Creek for Very Large Projects. Well, more power to them - they are doing good work, I'm sure.

Here's the City of Pacific Grove (Rana Creek)'s restoration signage:

(City of Pacific Grove Sign) Why all the dead ice plant?
Ice plant is a vigorous non – native ground cover that competes directly with native vegetation, including several rare and threatened plants right here in Pacific Grove.
A joint effort between Rana Creek habitat Restoration and the City of Pacific Grove is underway to convert these dunes back to their native state.
This process includes the eradication of ice plant and the restoration of the dunes with over 30 species of native plants including the Federally endangered Menzies’ wallflower, Tidestrom’s lupine and the Federally threatened Monterey spineflower.
This 5 year project will result in a beautiful, thriving native habitat for rare and endangered plants, butterflies, birds, lizards and of course, people!

They do better than the Pebble Beach Company sign. They specify Tidestrom's lupine, for example. They talk about wildlife. They talk about the invasive properties of iceplant. They throw in the people at the end, I think, for the benefit of people who dislike "tree-huggers" for putting habitat needs ahead of people's.

But it wasn't till I got to the Asilomar State Beach and Conference Center signage, and also saw their nursery, that I felt I could really trust the process here. I didn't get a good picture of their main sign, but here's the text - I hope you agree it provides more and better information, and it's still succinct:

Balance Lost and Found Again
Decades of logging, grazing, recreation, and foot traffic brought asilomar’s dune ecosystem to the brink of extinction. When the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) established the Asilomar summer camp grounds in 1913, the dunes became a recreation area.
By the time California State Parks acquired Asilomar in 1956, the dunes were crisscrossed with walking paths. Foot traffic damaged remaining native vegetation, weakened the towering dunes, and permitted the sand to blow away.
In 1984, California State Parks embarked on a dune restoration project. This required removal of non-native plants, propagation of plants genetically native to Asilomar’s dunes, and construction of a boardwalk to provide a pathway through this fragile ecosystem.
Today the dunes have been returned to a near pristine state with native plants and animals. Dunes Natural Preserve status protects Asilomar’s dunes for the future.
Boardwalk Brings Balance
The boardwalk creates a balance by providing us access while protecting the dunes. Wildlife is not disturbed and native plants remain untrampled for future visitors to enjoy.
Benefits of Dune Restoration
· Prevents sand from blowing away
· Protects endangered species
· Provides habitat for native wildlife
· Restores the natural beauty of the dunes.

And our ramblings eventually took us to the native plant nursery.

Here's the sign, in case expanding the photo doesn't make it legible. (Expand to look at the nice pictures of the flowers, anyway).

(Asilomar State Beach Signage) Home Grown
State Park staff grows about 50 species of native plants in this nursery for Asilomar's dune and forest restoration. Native seeds are collected on-site to prevent genetic contamination of local plant populations.
Seeds are planted in cylindrical tubes with internal ridges that encourage long root growth. They spend a few weeks in the hot house where they grow rapidly. Then young plants are moved to the shade house where they begin adjusting to the wind, salt spray , and temperature changes of the natural environment. This adjustment eriod enables plants to "harden-off," meaning plant cell walls thicken and thier chemical composition is altered.
The nursery grown plants are hand planted during the rainy season. With an estimated 80 percent survival rate, evidence of their success is all around you.
Two Houses for New Natives
The "hot house" is enclosed with platic. This protection creates ideal conditions for young plant growth. Temperatures are controlled and plants are watered regularly.
Mesh roofing over the "shade house" protects tender young plants from direct sun and wind while they acclimate to their natural surroundings.

Wonderful information, much more interesting to people who are - interested. I want some of those tubes! I wonder where they get them? I also want a shade house! Oh, Mr Wood Rat, dear!

If you've made it to the end of this wordy post, you'll probably be really interested in this link, to the only really informative info I could find on the web about this wonderful dune area, and it's from the California Native Grasslands Association. FYI here are a few of the actual botanical names they include in their very interesting page on the dune grasslands

Menzies' wallflower (Erysimum menziesii ssp. menziesii)
Tidestrom's lupine (Lupinus tidestromii)
Yellow sand verbena (Abronia latifolia)
seaside painted cup (Castilleja latifolia)
beach poppy (Eschscholzia californica var. maritima)
California thrift (Armeria maritima)

And in my next post, I promise - lots of pictures and few words!