- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
It wouldn't make the news, even if it were a "Slow News Day."
"Lady in Red Climbs Neon-Pink Petals in Search of Aphids."
Lady beetles, aka ladybugs, are coming out of their winter hibernation now and they're hungry. Aphid-hungry.
We spotted this lady beetle Feb. 7 in a flower pot containing an iceplant, Carpobrotus edulis, native to South Africa. Iceplant is an invasive plant.
"Iceplant was introduced to California in the early 1900s as an erosion stabilization tool used on railroad tracks, and later used by Caltrans on roadsides," according to an article, "Invasive to Avoid--Iceplant," posted by the California Fish and Wildlife. "It has been used as an ornamental for many years, and is still sold in nurseries. Unfortunately, iceplant spreads easily, and has become invasive in coastal California from north of Humboldt County to as far south as Baja California. When it establishes in a location, it forms a large, thick mat that chokes out all other native plants and alters the soil composition of the environment. Because it is a coastal invader, it competes with many endangered, threatened, and rare plants." (See what Calflora.org says about it.)
California has about 200 species of lady beetles. Check out the lady beetles on the University of California Statewide Integrated Pest Management Program (UC IPM) to see many of the species. They are voracious consumers of aphids and other soft-bodied insects.
Meanwhile, a news flash: "Lady in Red Climbs Neon-Pink Petals..."
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
What's better than seeing a yellow-faced bumble bee, Bombus vosnesenskii, foraging on an neon pink ice plant at Bodega Bay?
Seeing two bumble bees on the same flower.
That's what we observed on a recent trip to Doran Regional Park, Bodega Bay, Sonoma County. It was bumble bee heaven. While conservationists are removing ice plant in one area of the park, bumble bees are foraging on the flowers in another area.
B. vosnesenskii is a native. The ice plant, Carpobrotus edulis, is not. It's from South Africa. Conservationists are removing the invasive ice plant "to allow native, endangered plants to repopulate the area and wildlife to thrive."
But meanwhile, this Bombus keeps buzzing and foraging. (Bombus is derived from a Latin word meaning "buzzing.")
Bumble bees are important pollinators (think "buzz pollination" on tomatoes) but we haven't seen them much around Solano and Yolo counties this year.
Sonoma County, yes! Bodega Bay seems to be an oasis.
And speaking of bumble bees, the Bohart Museum of Entomology sponsors an annual Robbin Thorp Memorial First-Bumble-Bee-of-the-Year Contest to see who can find the first bumble bee of the year in the two-county area of Yolo and Solano.The first to photograph one and email to the Bohart Museum wins. This year UC Davis doctoral candidate Maureen Page of the Neal Williams lab, UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology, photographed B. melanopygus with her cell phone camera, and horticulturist Ellen Zagory, retired director of public horticulture for the UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden, photographed B. vosnesenskii with her Sony camera.
Coincidentally, they each took their photos at exactly 2:30 p.m., Jan. 1 in the 100-acre UC Davis Arboretum and Public Garden as the bees foraged on manzanita.
They represented "a double," too--a double win.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
If you vacationed at Doran Regional Beach, Bodega Bay, on a Wednesday last year (pre-COVID-19 pandemic), chances are you saw scores of dedicated volunteers pulling out the invasive ice plant, Carpobrotus edulis, along 201 Doran Beach Road. It's hard work but it's rewarding.
Wednesday was--or is--Ice Plant Removal Day. (See the Sonoma County Regional Parks website.)
C. edulis, a succulent native to South Africa, is unwanted in Bodega Bay's wetlands because it chokes out native, endangered plants and alters the soil composition. When it's removed, native plant species return as do a diversity of wanted wildlife.
Yes, nurseries sell ice plant as a ground cover because it's hardy, easy to grow, and spreads quickly. The neon pink blossoms, in particular, are spectacular. (See photo)
C. edulis, though, is as pervasive as it is pretty. It's the flora equivalent of Public Enemy No. 1.
Nevertheless, you'll see "wanted" insects foraging on the "unwanted" plants along the Doran Beach trails. We've seen honey bee and butterflies foraging on the blossoms--including a pollen-packing bee seeking nectar--a short distance from the ice plant removal site. And once we saw a Great Blue Heron snatch a vole from the ice plant growing along the Jetty Campground, Doran Beach.
Beauty and beasts are where you find them, whether they're flora or fauna or wanted or unwanted. Take a hike. Take a camera. Or, better yet, volunteer for an Invasive Plant Removal Day. The California Native Plant Society will thank you.
- Author: Kathy Keatley Garvey
We spotted this Painted Lady butterfly (Vanessa cardui) sunning itself on a carpet of red-purple ice plant (Delosperma cooperi) in west Vacaville on March 20, "the day after the first day of spring."
Each competed for photographic attention: the soothing autumn colors of the butterfly and the brilliance of the spring ice plant.
V. cardui is a migratory butterfly that travels across the deserts of Southern California, up into our area, and then to the Pacific Northwest. Last year, 2019, was a great migratory year for the Painted Ladies, as was 2005.
Butterfly guru Art Shapiro, UC Davis distinguished professor of evolution and ecology who has studied the Central California population of butterflies since 1972, writes on his butterfly website:
"This mass-migrant occurs in much of the Northern Hemisphere. Apparently the entire North American population winters near the US-Mexico border, breeding in the desert after the winter rains generate a crop of annual Malvaceous, Boraginaceous and Asteraceous hosts. The resulting butterflies migrate north. In good years (lots of desert rain) they may do so by billions, interfering with traffic and attracting the attention of the media. 2005 was one of the biggest Painted Lady years in history--perhaps the biggest, but how can we know?
"At Sacramento at the height of the migration butterflies were passing in one's field of vision at the rate of about 3 per second! 2006, by contrast, was a La Nina year with very little rain in the desert. The butterflies apparently gave up trying to breed there and flew north in February. They tried to breed but mostly were unsuccessful due to bad weather, resulting in only very sporadic individual sightings of their progeny in May. Northward-migrating Painted Ladies are provisioned with yellow fat and are reproductively immature. They do not stop to feed or have sex until they have burned up their reserves, carried over from the caterpillar stage. They fly in a straight line from SE to NW, like "bats out of Hell," and go over obstacles rather than trying to go around them. (On certain days there may be concerted local movements in the wrong direction. We do not understand these.) Painted Ladies tend to fly parallel to the Sierra Nevada, not across it. They enter the Central Valley through the Inyo-Kern lowland or by crossing the Transverse Ranges. They can apparently make it from Bishop to Davis in three days. In some years the migration is heavier in the Great Basin and on the East slope of the Sierra than farther west."
And as Shapiro will tell you, the Painted Lady is commonly mistaken for the iconic monarch (Danaus plexippus). Last year social media enthusiasts mistakenly acclaimed they'd seen "hundreds and hundreds" of monarchs passing by them.
BugGuide.net says V. cardui, which inhabits every continent except Antarctica and South America, is "commonly and easily raised especially in elementary school classrooms."
But life as we know it, has changed. California closed its classrooms in the throes of the coronavirus pandemic. "Social distancing" and "self-quarantining" are holding our vocabulary hostage. Social butterflies? Not in this environment. But sometimes, you happen upon a serene social scene--an autumn-colored butterfly tucked in a bed of spring ice plant--that takes your breath away.
- Author: T. Eric Nightingale
Planning a drought-tolerant garden can be a challenging endeavor. Knowing which plants to use and where to plant them is difficult as information and advice can vary significantly. However, there are a few simple things you can do to make the process easier.
The first task is to become intimately acquainted with your garden. Watch the way the sun moves and where the shade falls throughout the day. It may seem obvious that how much sun a plant receives will affect how much water it uses, but not all plants labeled for low water use will thrive in full sun.
Knowing the locations in your garden that receive shade from summer heat can greatly affect the health of your plants and the maintenance required to keep them looking attractive.
Note how wind moves through your garden. Evapotranspiration, the loss of water through plant leaves, increases significantly with high, hot or dry winds. On a cloudy yet windy day the plants in your garden could dehydrate more than you expect.
Finally, get up close and personal with your soil. Check its water retention by digging a hole about a foot deep and wide and filling it with water. Hope for the water to percolate through in about an hour, signifying good drainage.
Many drought-tolerant plants, especially succulents and cacti, will rot if soil drains too slowly. Conversely, if the soil drains too readily, it can be difficult to keep even low-water plants adequately hydrated.
All of these factors will help you form a picture of how water will be utilized in, and move through, your garden. This knowledge is a useful tool when choosing new plants.
When working on creating a drought-tolerant garden there are some preconceptions it is best to discard. When many people think of a garden, the image that comes to mind is of a classic English garden. This is understandable as modern home gardening and many of its traditions originated in Europe.
But England has a different climate than Napa, and it is not realistic to expect our gardens to look like English landscapes.The plants found in English gardens are often not good candidates for a Napa Valley garden, least of all a drought-tolerant one.
Many of the best-known annual plants are thirsty in our climate, as are many popular perennials such as hydrangeas, camellias and gardenias. Tropical plants, while visually stunning, are often troublesome as well. Even if they are not labeled as requiring a lot of water, the relatively low humidity in Napa Valley can make it difficult to keep them healthy.
Changing our expectations for our gardens does not mean lowering them. A garden can use less water and remain visually pleasing, lush and colorful. In a sunny location, shrubs such as salvia and lavender can be placed among large succulents such as aloe and agave. The contrast of soft and sharp textures is pleasing to the eye. The salvia will bloom most of the summer, while many aloe, such as Aloe capitate, bloom in the winter.
Many popular groundcover-type plants have shallow roots and need frequent watering. These can be easily replaced by a clumping or vining succulent. A favorite of mine is ice plant, Delosperma cooperi, which produces a carpet of purple-pink blooms from spring through summer.
Identifying plants that work in a drought-tolerant garden is easy after some practice. Generally speaking, plants with large, glossy leaves are a poor choice. These plants will lose a lot of water to evapotranspiration and are prone to sunburn. Plants with dusty or fuzzy-looking leaves are much more adapted to hot, dry conditions.
The roots of a plant can also tell you something about its water needs. Small, shallow roots will need more frequent watering than large, deep-burrowing ones. Never hesitate to gently remove a nursery plant from its pot and inspect the roots. They are a key indicator of plant health.
An important bit of information often missing on plant labels is the term “once established in the ground.” Succulents excepted, a potted plant will usually need more water and fertilizer than the same plant in the ground. Many drought-tolerant shrubs survive by growing broad or deep root systems. It takes at least a year for new plants to develop a useful root system, during which time they will need additional water.
Knowing these facts about your garden and the plants in them, as well as altering your perception of how a garden should look, can make an enormous difference in your relationship with it. You can minimize required maintenance and reduce your stress, leaving only the pleasure of enjoying the beautiful space you have created.
Next workshop: “Home Vineyard: Part 2” on Saturday, September 14, from 9:30 to 2:00 p.m., in Calistoga. Learn techniques to maintain your new or existing home vineyard. Workshop location will be provided after registration. For more details & online Registration go to http://napamg.ucanr.edu or call 707-253-4221.
The UC Master Gardeners are volunteers who provide UC research-based information on home gardening and answer your questions. To find out more about upcoming programs or to ask a garden question, visit the Master Gardener website (http://napamg.ucanr.edu) or call (707) 253-4221 between 9 a.m. and noon on Mondays, Wednesdays or Fridays.