Water-thrifty plants by the pool, vegetable seedlings by mail, compact head lettuce - Sunset's Garden Guide

Sunset, June, 1995 by Jim McCausland, Lauren Bonar Swezey, Lance Walheim

In planning any landscape design, don't overlook the style of your house. Stephen Greenholt of Carmichael, California, carried the Mediterranean theme of his Spanish-style house into the garden, with attractive results, shown at right. With the help of landscape architect David Yakish of Gardenmakers in Sacramento, he removed the lawn and surrounded the backyard with white stucco privacy walls. Spanish tiles, which cover the floors inside the house, were used for garden paths and patios. A sturdy wooden arbor provides a shady outdoor dining area.

To soften the hard lines of the swimming pool and give it a pondlike look, planting beds were positioned within 16 inches of the edge of the pool (its interior was finished with deep blue plaster). The beds were filled with water-thrifty flowering plants, including garden penstemon, gaura, lavender, rud-beckia, Salvia greggii, verbena, and yarrow. A variety of ornamental grasses, including feather reed grass, fountain grass, and maiden grass (Miscanthus sinensis 'Gracillimus') contribute to the Mediterranean ambience.

Heirloom vegetable seedlings by mail

If you'd like to plant heirloom vegetables and don't have time to sow seeds, you can now buy more than 200 different types of seedlings by mail from Santa Barbara Heirloom Seedling Nursery. Owners JoAnna LaForce and Russ Waldrop, both avid organic gardeners, have searched throughout the United States for authentic family and cultural heirloom seed stock. Some of their seedlings are kinds that have been grown in this country since the mid-1800s. 'Tom Thumb', an English-American lettuce dating to 1853, is the oldest continuously grown lettuce in the United States, and 'Brandywine' is an Amish tomato dating to 1910.

Seedlings are sold in 3-inch pots in multiples of six (kinds can be mixed) for $2.95 per seedling plus $5.45 for shipping. Choices include 35 tomatoes, 40 culinary herbs, 18 sweet and hot peppers, 12 squash, 6 watermelons, and 10 edible flowers. The nursery also sells specialty gift seed assortments, such as exotic lettuces, plants for salsa, and a blend for a child's garden.

For a free catalog, write or call Santa Barbara Heirloom Seedling Nursery, Box 4153, Santa Barbara 93140; (805) 968-5444. The seedlings are unconditionally guaranteed to arrive healthy and to grow well.

Summer rose pruning depends on plant vigor

Most rose growers know that you should prune faded flowers from floribundas, grandi-floras, hybrid teas, and miniature roses to encourage a new crop of buds to form. To promote good flowers on strong stems, the general recommendation is to snip them off just above the first leaf (down from the top) with five leaflets. The cane at this point should be about the diameter of a pencil. For a long-stemmed rose, cut above the second leaf with five leaflets.

Follow this method only if the rosebush is vigorous and healthy. If the plant is weak, diseased, or young, it's best to prune faded flowers down only to the first set of leaves (which usually have just three leaflets). Allowing more foliage to remain will encourage strong growth.

Lilliputian lettuce

For a change from large supermarket lettuces, try growing 'Mini Green', a new variety of head lettuce that matures at grapefruit size about 10 weeks after sowing. Plants are compact enough to fit into containers and window boxes. Just one head of 'Mini Green' makes a salad.

In cool-summer areas, you can start seed of 'Mini Green' now, since it resists bolting in warm weather. In low- to intermediate-desert areas, order seed now to plant in fall. In warm-summer, cold-winter climates, try growing some under lath now, but save most of the seed for planting next spring.

'Mini Green' is available from W. Atlee Burpee & Co., 300 Park Ave., Warminster, PA 18991, (800) 888-1447; and Stokes Seeds, Box 548, Buffalo, NY 14240, (716) 695-6980.

Flowers that taste as good as they look

You may have noticed small flowers such as violas in the specialty salad mixes sold by some grocery stores. Restaurants also use flowers, primarily to garnish dishes.

V. J. Billings, owner of Mountain Valley Growers in Squaw Valley, California, suggests that flowers should be more than merely edible or attractive - they should have mouth-watering flavor. Her best bets include several varieties of giant hyssop (Agastache).

Giant Mexican lemon hyssop (A. mexicana) has incredibly sweet flowers. The 5-foot-tall plant is somewhat rangy with few leaves, but the masses of shocking pink flowers that cover it from spring until frost make up for the plant's homely appearance. The leaves have a sweet lemon flavor.

'Tutti-Frutti' (a hybrid of A. barberi and A. mexicana) is similar to giant Mexican lemon hyssop, but the flowers are fruitier and the plant only grows about 3 feet tall.

Mint hyssop (A. aurantica) has the most attractive form of these three. It produces pink flowers that fade to a beautiful apricot shade as they age. Blossoms in both colors cover the 2- to 3-foot-tall shrub until frost. Flowers in the pink stage are sweet with spearmint overtones.