Hey all, I am no longer in Monrovia. Good thing because I never would have catalogued all the plants there. I am now in a coastal city in LA County which shall not be disclosed due to not one but two stalkers: one potential and one actual. The potential one is F.S., so please fuck right off, and the real one was T.D., whom I hope has died a filthy death by now so he can no longer haunt my workplace with metal suitcases that seem to but do not carry semi-automatic weapons. I'll admit he only did it once but for me, that's enough to wish him a filthy death, and soon.
It's easier to catalog the plants here in my new town because my yard was barren when I got here.
There was:
an apple tree, a shooty mess which has produced one entire apple this year. My new program of applying water to the soil around the base of the plant at intervals may improve next year's yield.
a thorny but otherwise leafless tall shrub that turned out to be a citrus of some kind and has made, so far, a small, fuzzy, hard fruit that may or may not turn out to be identifiable and/or edible.
a big blowsy lemon tree whose variety escapes me. I have never really cared if a lemon is a Eureka or a Meyer; it's a fucking lemon already. When life gives you lemons do you oull out the Western Garden Book or do you just make lemonade? Thought so.
a vile tall hedge of the coniferous variety, possibly cypress, juniper, or who cares. Tall and ugly but entirely useful.
things I have bothered to plant since my arrival:
a Brahea armata I got at Home Depot for $79.00 + tax. Came in a 24" box. I turned my back and allowed two gentlemen from a foreign country to plant the thing and now it's leaves are turning brown in these three ways:
leaves at bottom are simply dying
mature leaves are browning at tips
new leaf shoots from center of tree are turning brown. I do have pretty heavy clay soil; I might might might be overwatering. I am not sure but I wish to Jesus I had paid attention while those two idiots were working. After they finished I saw they had buried the trunk to a depth of 8 inches. I unburied it and said a prayer or two.
a Yucca recurvifolia, I think, also from HD and also cheap: $69.99 in a 15 gallon container, but well ready for a box. The trunk alone was about 3' and with leaves the plant is 5' tall. The shitheads also planted that one and most of the bottom third of the leaves are dying.
a lovely orange/yellow Tecoma stans, native to Argentina. This is filling in a corner were an evergreen had died.
a decent Bougainvillea. I have forgotten if it is boring old Barbara Karst. If it is I am going to swap it if it lets me move it to a pot. It is a placeholder until I get my mitts on a proper Don Mario. I stole a cutting from Armstrong and am trying to root it now. I'd have bought the plant but it was trellised and even with my professional discount of 25% would have been $33.00. [Ed.: Oh btw the boug is La Jolla, a respectable red.]
Plants I have bought but have not planted:
Lonicera halliana, a long time favorite
Solandra but not maxima. Some minor species
Aphelandra iforgettia, looked nice on the Kartuz web site
Fucking African thing with colored leaves, begins with A...Acalypha wilkesiana. I have a soft spot for this crazy plant and pretty much buy it whenever I see it. It is fussy about water and heat but I nurse it along. I have two right now, of different leaf types, and both are doing well.
Several scented dianthus, in dark purply variegated forms
Uncountable cacti and succulents, the bulk of which were acquired from Steven Hammer in Vista or buy buying overgrown 1 gals from Altman's at Armstrong using my 25% off card, and dividing like mad.
Two small Camphor trees. Got to start somewhere. $8/each in 5 gallon size. I moved one up and am now having a slow race to see if the transplanted one does better. This is my favorite non-spectactularly-flowering tree btw. The race is going well for the one in a larger pot.
Two Junipers which I will return to Lowe's as soon as they don't look as though the boys have been peeing on them for several months. I will get there sooner if I can get the boys to stop peeing on them.
Some bizarre Solanum thing that looks like an eggplant and blooms with purple and white trumpets. I looked it up and it is quite poisonous.
Two bizarre chile plants whose varieties remain a mystery
a pomelo which I bought because...I forget. I hope they taste good
a gorgeous Agapanthus of a small variety with indigo flowers that droop. Not your grandfather's Agapanthus.
the arm of a large cactus that I found on a sidewalk in Hawthorne. Variety unknown until it blooms. oh but the parent plant has several weird hairballs, grey, stuck on it.
Things I brought with me and which are still in pots:
the biggest Kalanchoe in the universe (tm)
somethings that might be Stapelia which I got at the Arboretum [Ed.: they are Huernia]
[note to self: join local cactus club]
Home grown avocadoes from my two Monrovia trees. One got bad scale so I pulled off all its leaves and bathed the stems in alcohol and applied heavy mulch to soil. [Ed.: is re-leafing now.]
a coral tree (crista-galli) that my folks grew from a shoot; it started de-leafing so i finished the job and am hoping it'll come back. It also got alcohol to the trunk. [Ed.: Late Sept., it is making new leaves from lower part of plant; former branches are rubbery and might die back.]
I'll write more later. I want to go outside and water now.
