If nutritious food and a refreshing floral fragrance make you happy, a garden of dandelions and lavender is for you.
To help you in this quest, I suggest two recently published books: “Dandelion Medicine” by Brigitte Mars, and “The Lavender Companion” by Terry Berlin Vesci. In Southern California, dandelions grow all year and with a judicious selection of lavender species (numbering around 50) and varieties (of which there are at least 450), you can have lavender flowers blooming in every season.
Regarding dandelions, author Mars informs us that “Popeye may have gotten strength from spinach, but dandelion has twice the vitamin B1 of that vegetable.” In addition, dandelion “contains 40 percent more vitamin C than tomatoes, 20 percent more beta-carotene than carrots, and more calcium than milk.” The author adds, “Dandelions are so good for you that you would be wise to dry and powder them and place the powder in a saltshaker to be sprinkled on all your food as a nutritional supplement.”
Keep in mind that dandelion greens are tastiest when young. New leaves at the center of a plant growing in the shade are the most flavorful of all. Soak older greens in salted water or cook them to remove bitterness. After a frost, this bitterness dissipates and older leaves are then more palatable. All parts of the dandelion, including flowers, are edible and roots are the most nutritious part which, according to Mars, contain 29 salubrious constituents.
The healing properties of dandelion are revealed in its botanical name. The genus name of dandelion is Taraxacum, derived from taraxis, meaning inflammation, and akeomai, meaning curative. The species name of dandelion is officinale, common to many herbs, and it refers to the storage area or closet of a monastery where herbal medicines were kept. The word dandelion itself comes from the French dent de lion, or lion’s tooth, and refers to the jagged edges seen on the plant’s leaf margins.
When deciding what to grow on a newly purchased ranch in Arizona, Terry Berlin Vesci needed to find a plant that was elk resistant because of the wild herd of this magnificent antlered ruminant that roamed her property. In this search, she came upon lavender. Not only is lavender ignored by elk, but it is native to high-altitude alpine regions and therefore compatible with the 5,400 foot elevation of her ranch.
In fact, the most commonly planted lavenders are native to the lower French Alps and are hardy to 15 degrees Fahrenheit. Like other cold-climate plants, their flowering is enhanced by chilling temperatures. Lavender in full bloom is a more glorious spectacle in San Francisco than in Los Angeles because of the colder winters up north.
Lavender’s needs are minimal: plenty of light and fast-draining soil. In hot inland locations in Southern California, lavender grows best when given some protection from the afternoon sun. In even the hottest weather, though, lavender should never need to be watered more than once a week, so long as it is soaked with a hose and not watered with overhead sprinklers. Like most herbs, however, it requires fertilization only when grown in a container.
Vesci gives two reasons why not to lay mulch around lavender. First, lavender demands soil with an alkaline pH and commercial mulch tends to be acidic. Second, mulch derived from bark or wood chips retains moisture, which is antithetical to lavender’s cultural requirements. Lavender cannot bear any moisture around the crown (where roots meet stems) and may suddenly die if this area does not stay dry. Gravel would be a non-living mulch option since, even while preserving soil moisture, it encourages water to drain through. I once noticed lavender seedlings popping up in a gravel-covered bed where lavender was planted. Where seeds of any plant germinate, you know that the conditions for growth are optimal.
There are at least seven types of lavender available locally: English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia); spike lavender (Lavandula latifolia); Lavandin (Lavandula x intermedia var. Grosso), which is a hybrid between English and spike lavender; dwarf English lavender; French lavender (Lavandula dentata); Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas); and California lavender (Lavandula pinnata).
The first three types in the preceding list are the lavender of commerce — robust species whose flowers have the most intense fragrances. The other lavenders have more ornamental value – the dwarf English (Hidcote and Munstead cultivars), with distinctive silver-gray foliage, the California with finely cut leaves, the French with serrated leaves and large woolly flowers, and the Spanish with dark purple winged bracts all along its flower spikes. These names are often mixed up since English lavender is native to France, French lavender is native to Spain, California lavender originates in the Canary Islands, and Spanish lavender grows in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco.
One of the favorite uses of lavender is as a low, informal hedge with heights ranging from 2-4 feet, depending on the species. Such a hedge is cut back only when it finishes flowering. In the larger types, the plants may be cut back by half with no ill effects; with the dwarfs, shear off faded flower spikes but prune foliage sparingly and never closer than three inches to the wood on any stem.
Under the best of circumstances, lavender will probably live for no more than five or six years. This should not be a matter of concern, however, since it is easily propagated by shoot-tip cuttings. When the plant finishes flowering, take four 6-inch cuttings and root them in a mix that’s half sand and half peat moss. You can also divide mature plants into several individuals for propagation purposes. Lavender makes a wonderful tapestry hedge with plants of similar stature and cultural requirements but contrasting foliage. iIt makes a vivid display in combination with green santolina or dwarf red-leaf barberry.
Once, in a suburb of Jerusalem, I encountered the largest lavender plant — five feet tall by seven feet wide, that I had ever seen. I learned that it never received any water other than that supplied by winter rain, despite the fact that summer heat was often in the 90-degree range. This specimen proved that once lavender (or any plant, for that matter) is established with foliage that goes all the way down to the ground, a living mulch will be provided that strictly limits evaporative water loss from the soil below. The fact that this lavender grew as a volunteer seedling may also explain its toughness since such seedlings will only grow where the conditions for it to thrive are present.
Today and tomorrow, from 10:30 a.m. until 4 p.m. each day, there will be a bromeliad show at Sherman Library and Gardens at 2647 E. Coast Hwy, Corona Del Mar.
Bromeliads have evolved in some of nature’s most challenging conditions, from desert to rainforest to cloud forest. Air plants, Spanish moss and pineapple are some of the most familiar Bromeliads, but there are many more to discover. Members of the Saddleback Valley Bromeliad Society will be exhibiting some fabulous specimens as well as offering many plants for sale. For more information, phone (949) 673-2261 or visit www.thesherman.org
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California native of the week: Velvety false lupine or California goldenbanner (Thermopsis california/macrophylla var. semota) is a lupine look-alike except for its brilliant yellow instead of blue or purple flowers. Still, it’s a legume, which means it makes its own nitrogen like real lupines. It has a long flowering period from April to October and forms a stunning two-foot-tall thicket with silvery foliage to compliment its golden blooms. It produces rhizomes and will thus expand in the garden bed. In the manner of lupines, reliable germination of its seeds is achieved when they are dunked in hot water. Frustratingly, neither plants nor seeds of this species appear to be available, although the seeds of other Thermopsis species are readily accessible through Internet vendors and their beauty, akin to that of the California native species, would justify planting them in our gardens too.
You are invited to write to Joshua@perfectplants.com with any gardening tips or gardening problems that you would like to share.
