On my continuing travels through Louisiana, I have noticed that few homes have anything that resembles a garden with shrubs and flowering plants artfully arranged. The more common gardening feature is the lawn, a large mowed green area around the home. Upon taking a closer look, I realized that many “lawns” are simply native grasses and other low growing plants sheared to slightly above ground level. It is an act of self-defense. Extremely fast-growing native shrubs and trees take over every space that is not regularly cut back in this hot, damp climate.
A garden has been planted around the Oplousas Louisiana courthouse including purple and pink Crepe myrtles.
The exception to this emphasis on lawns, are the Crepe myrtle trees (Lagerstroemia indica) planted by homeowners. They are ubiquitous.
These natives of southern China were introduced into Charleston, South Carolina by plant explorer and botanist to King Louis XVI, André Michaux, in the mid 1700s. The name is sometimes spelled Crape myrtle, but Crepe myrtle now seems preferred. Whatever the spelling, they took the South like wildfire. People loved them.
This hot pink color seems to be the most popular Crepe myrtle. It is a bright contrast to the green of the South and the brown of the southwest.
And Crepe myrtles loved the heat, lots of sunlight and the slightly acidic soil.
Some newer hybrids have been developed to tolerate chillier winter conditions, including frost. And–surprisingly–they are somewhat drought tolerant.
Correcting alkaline soil conditions
It’s that “acidic soil” part that is an issue in a hot, dry climate. Most of the soils in the desert Southwest are alkaline, but alkaline soils can be corrected to a soil condition that Crepe myrtles love in two ways:
Add 4 to 6 inches of organic mulch and dig it in to a depth of one foot. Within a year or two the soil will become more neutral. Mulch should be added every year.
Add sulphur to the soil and dig it in which will also balance the pH. While this maybe a faster way to rebalance soil, be very careful with this because too much sulphur can be harmful.
And be sure to deep water your Crepe myrtle tree at least once a month in summer. Drought tolerant doesn’t mean “no-water-required.”
Here are some Crepe myrtles I’ve admired in Louisiana:
Two colors of Crepe myrtles planted together. The neighbor, behind, planted a white one which is now at least 25 feet tall.These Crepe myrtles have been carefully pruned to allow an open area beneath them on the University of Louisiana campus. Their broad growth is a characteristic of the hybrid. Some hybrids grow tall and narrow, some broad, and there are dwarf hybrids that are perfect for hedges.White Crepe myrtle trees are less common than the various shades of pink and purple. This one was ladened with white flowers. This home actually has a small garden planted around it!
I have to apologize for not posting on the Hot Gardens blog for a while. As some of you already know I have been traveling for several months and blogging on the road can be a challenge.
In the U.K. many gardeners are now calling for a return to roadside and backyard natural meadows. “Stop mowing”, they say. Not only can a meadow be beautiful it will support insects and animals that are under threat by climate change. This is a practice that Prince Charles has advocated for decades. His castles are surrounded by native meadows not tidy mowed lawns.
Flowers in the Sonora desert outside Calexico
This wet Spring those of us who live in the Southwest had a rare glimpse of how desert meadows can look during the amazing Super Bloom that swept across the West. Yellow, orange and golden flowers everywhere! People, birds, insects and animals loved it. The rainstorms have finally slowed down and the Super Bloom meadows have now vanished.
Even without a meadow in your backyard you can help support native insects and animals, by adding a water source somewhere on your property. It doesn’t have to be a fountain. Simply put a few pebbles and small rocks in the bottom of an old pie pan then add water to it daily to help sustain the life of native creatures you may never even see. The pebbles give birds and insects someplace to perch while drinking the water. Putting out a larger container of water might also attract native night visitors like deer or rabbits.
If you are eager to see which creatures are visiting your “water hole” or “desert oasis”–whatever you want to call it–install a motion activated video camera aimed at that pie tin or water bucket. Some of these cameras are now priced below $80.
Lantana overflowing a fountain that has been repurposed as a flower container.
And, finally, just a reminder that when the temperature reaches 90°F on a daily basis, you should slow down fertilizing your garden. In the extreme heat that will continue into Fall, plants hunker down to survive. With the exception of a very few summer bloomers, in hot, dry climates plants don’t waste energy on growing or blooming during summer. Feeding them lightly perhaps monthly will help them survive. Water your garden regularly, however.
If you would like to follow my travels around the U.S. go to Wandering Lady and become a “Fellow Traveler”. I have been on the road since March and am now in New Orleans. Happy gardening!
Okay. Maybe that headline is a bit extreme…but it is not that far off. Here’s why.
As we all have heard, bees seem to be vanishing all over the planet. And without them to pollinate edible plants–whether tomatoes in Pasadena or romaine in Yuma or pecans in the San Pedro river valley–we humans may be in trouble and face food shortages.
And it turns out that flowers can be part of the solution.
At a recent gardening event in Los Angeles a speaker recommended planting annual flowers between tomato plants to encourage more bees to pollinate the tomatoes while they are seeking nectar from the larger, flashier annual flowers. It helps keep the bees well fed and the bee colony thriving. Tomato plants will produce more abundantly, too.
“Wait a minute”, you say. “There are no commercial growers near me and I’m not growing vegetables in my backyard. Why should I encourage bees?”
The answer is that you can become part of a larger effort to sustain genetic diversity all over the planet. That’s where the Gardener-Superhero role comes in.
As I look at many desert style gardens filled with agaves and other rarely flowering plants I realized that our new water-wise gardens are creating starvation conditions for our friends the bees. Not enough variety, not enough flowers blooming for not a long enough time. Worse yet, in many desert areas, the native plants that could provide nectar to bees are being removed to make way for houses and roads.
It is, however, not necessary to plant water-guzzling plants to have bee-friendly flowers in a hot, dry garden. Here are some that will thrive and produce flowers over a long period without running up your water bill.
The low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) comes in many colors these days.
Low-growing Lantana (Lantana montevidensis) is one of the best and most readily available flowering plants for hot, dry gardens. Bees and butterflies love it! It blooms for as long as 9 or 10 months out of the year and because it is a perennial, rather than an annual, you will not have to replace it every year. Be aware that the purple and white varieties bloom for a much shorter time than the gold, yellow or varigated Lantanas. Upkeep is easy: in mid-winter cut the low-growing branches back to a foot or so in length.
Instead of the low-growing lantana, however, consider planting Lantanacamera. It grows to 6 feet tall and makes a very colorful, bee-friendly hedge. A light mid-winter trimming is all the maintenance needed.
Next, Rosemary (Rosemarinus officinalis) attracts bees like a magnet and can provide a delicious herb for your table. Plant several about 2 feet apart to create a rosemary hedge or simply put one plant outside near your back door to clip and use the aromatic leaves in bread or for baking chicken.
Lavender (Lavendula) is another tasty and aromatic herb that bees love as much as humans do. I prefer French lavender to the English or Spanish varieties, but I have to confess that I have not had much success keeping lavender plants alive from year to year. I simply replant annually.
And finally: annual sunflowers. If you plant the seeds over a period of a couple of weeks, you will have a longer blooming period for the bees to harvest the nectar. Then later, birds will come to harvest the seeds. You can harvest them, too, and then toast the seeds in your oven for a tasty snack.
So get out your garden gloves and think of them as the red superhero cape for gardeners.
On a trip to Southern California last week I wandered into Brita’s Garden Center which is 3 blocks from the ocean in Seal Beach. And there in the back of the center was a pig topiary about 3 feet long. Someone had built a framework of chicken wire/hardware wire and added plenty of moss. Next, came the succulents in a variety of colors and shapes. I am sure they were drawing the moisture they need from the damp moss.
This little pig even has a curly black tail.
This is a clever idea for a garden ornament, although in a hot dry garden these tender succulents may shrivel up when the summer heat begins to build!
I also made a trip recently to Phoenix and will be reporting about my observations at the Desert Botanical Garden shortly.
Green and black Aeoniums and orange Firestick Euphorbias seem to be closing in on the Agave for the title of the most popular drought tolerant plants used in desert landscapes or for lawn replacement. They are showing up everywhere, it seems, from small front garden plots to street side plantings to pots on patios. So this post was originally going to be about some attractive plantings of these succulents that I have seen recently.
But as I did more research, I learned that, as beautiful as they are, some can pose a real danger to pets…and potentially to people. Some are quite toxic.
Firestick succulents (Euphorbia tiruccailli ) are used as a hedge outside a restaurant in Pasadena California. You can trim them to keep the plant smaller, but be sure to wear gloves and even goggles: the white sap is toxic.Place cuttings into a plastic bag that you can tie up tight so pets will not be exposed to the sap.
In Pasadena’s Arlington Garden Firestick euphorbias have been left untrimmed for over a decadeand are now approaching 25 feet in height. The cactus in the center has also become a tall, beautiful focal plant.
The mix of plants in this curbside border–aeoniums, daisies and a firestick succulent–looks great now, but the firestick will grow up to 30 feet tall if left untrimmed. As with all flower/plant borders, it is important to think ahead as to how large each plant will become at maturity. Or be willing to prune some big plants and replace others to maintain the appearance. In this group, the daisy plant will die long before the succulents do.
A mix of succulents in a curbside planting demonstrates the variety of color these tough plants can provide. Lurking in the middle, however, is a potential giant: the Firestick euphorbia! But its orange color is a nice complement to the blue-ish Secenio Talindoides, the green Aeonium, and the brown-ish Kalanchoe.
I love how the color of the bell-like Kalanchoe blooms coordinate with the glass ball on the top of this ornamental garden statue! You may be more familiar with one variety of the Kalanchoe known as the “flapjack” plant. It has large pink and green leaves.The blossoms appear to be sprouting up from the bright green Aeoniums, but actually are from the pink-ish Kalanchoes on the left.
If you had planted “Wonderful” pomegranate shrubs last Spring, and did not harvest the fruit this Fall, you would have plants in your garden that appear to have big, brilliant red Christmas tree ornaments on them. Of course, the leaves on your pom shrubs would have turned a glorious gold then fallen, so your red “ornaments” would be on bare branches now.
Mother Nature’s holiday ornament!
If you are thinking of adding a pomegranates to your garden in Spring, you will be happy to know they are very drought tolerant, as you can read here. The name “Wonderful” designates one of the best varieties of pomegranates for private gardens.
If you are reading this post in Australia or elsewhere in the Southern Hemisphere, pomegranates bear fruit from March to May, rather than from September to February as they do in the U.S. Southwest.
Among the other plants that will give you green and red during the holiday is the very drought tolerant Heavenly Bamboo, (Nandina domestica), which has bright red berries, reddish leaves and is not a bamboo at all. I am not a big fan of the shape of this plant; it looks too much like a cluster of sticks to my eye…but nonetheless I do love the winter color and the fact that it will survive with considerable neglect.
This Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica) is beginning to change from summer green to winter red.
Surviving considerable neglect is also a prime characteristic of the sturdy bottle brush, another plant that I do not care for–well, I don’t like the big tall ones with red blooms that are used as center barriers along freeways in California.
Dwarf bottle brush “Little John” as a low hedge beside ice plant in a very drought tolerant planting in Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles.
BUT I really love the dwarf bottle brush variety Callistemon ‘Little John’ which is very suitable for home gardens. Instead of primary colors of plain red and plain green, this low-growing shrub has a blueish-grey cast to the leaves and a burgundy color flower.
This drought-tolerant, dwarf Callistemon “‘Little John’ grows slowly, rarely needs any pruning and is colorful in Fall and winter.
Now there is one other color for the holiday season and that is white, as in white Amaryllis, the ones that you force for winter. They are big and bold and can be transplanted into a sheltered corner of your hot, dry garden to bloom again year after year. I did exactly that in Las Vegas, but the next bloom came over a year later near Easter, rather than Christmas. Since then it has bloomed regularly in the Spring.
And be sure to put luminarias out for the holidays to line your patio or walkway. The old-fashioned way to do them is put tea lights inside paper bags. On Amazon the manufacturers state that the bags are fire resistant. If you can find them I’d recommend terra cota luminarias, some of which are battery powered, and you can use them year after year.
Finally…I am moving after the first of the year so I will be publishing this blog only on an irregular basis until I am settled into my new home. Happy New Year to you!
How I love the ruffled beauty of iris and when I discovered, after moving to the desert, that iris are tougher than their delicate flowers look I became an even bigger fan of these spring-bloomers. They need only a little water and after the flowers have faded the iris leaves create an attractive upright element in a garden border.
Some people make the mistake a cutting the leaves back right after the flowers fade. True Confession: I don’t cut my iris back annually–only when I want to divide and replant them every few years. If you intend to transplant your iris, cut the leaves at an angle and 4 inches high before lifting them from the soil. Let the rhizomes dry out for a few days before replanting.
The best time to plant iris is now so you will have flowers in spring. Unlike daffodils, lilies, crocus or other plants with bulbs which should be planted deep, iris have rhizomes (thick bulbus roots) which should be planted flat and shallowly in an area that receives at least 6 hours of sun a day. Just put a thin layer of soil over the rhizomes–not a thick layer of mulch. It is important that the soil drains well; iris rhizomes can rot with too much water. And using high nitrogen fertilizer is a no-no for iris.
Oh, one other thing: there are iris that bloom both in Spring and Fall. When I first learned about them I was thrilled with the prospect of iris twice a year. It turns out, however, they’re really not suitable for arid gardens because they require a great deal of watering.
While I mentioned daffodils and lilies, etc. most of them will not survive in an arid garden. One friend is Tucson, however, planted Paperwhite Narcissus in a very sheltered corner of her garden and they have survived and bloomed again and again.
Many gardeners in arid climates have success with South African plants that grow from bulbs like this Gladiolus Dalenii. This gladiolus does not have the big, flashy blooms we often associate with “glads”, but it will survive in an arid garden. For other South African plants suitable for hot, dry gardens, take a look at the Pacific Horticulture Society website.
Mesquites seem to have become the Street Tree of choice in some cities in the arid Southwest. Cities can line the streets with allées of Honey mesquite (Prosopis glandulosa) or Velvet Mesquite (Prosopis velutina) knowing full well that maintenance is not going to break the city budget. As natives these trees thrive in harsh, dry climates with almost zero upkeep. And Fall is the best time to plant them.
The Mesquite is for all practical purposes a plant-it-and-forget-it tree, but the shade it provides allows other plants thrive.
When you plant keep in mind that irrigating and fertilizing a mesquite is a mistake and planting one in a lawn that is regularly watered can be a disaster: the roots will be shallow, the tree will become top-heavy and topple over in the Spring and Fall windstorms.
A third native mesquite, the Screwbean (Prosopis pubescens) is more of a tall, thorny shrub and is best planted in an out of the way place. One Screwbean mesquite I saw not long ago was tucked back in a no-irrigation zone of alarge Las Vegas garden where it and a nearby Desert Willow (Chilopsis linearis) were surrounded by a protective circle of agaves. A good choice of companion plants!
A Desert Willow and a Screwbean Mesquite make good companions to these agaves.
In addition to these three, other mesquites from Chile and Argentina have been introduced into the Southwest and have cross-bred like crazy with the locals. And thorns have turned up unexpectedly on supposedly thornless mesquites.
The problem with these fast growing, very drought tolerant trees is that they don’t give us colorful blooms in our gardens. Yes, yes — I know they “bloom”–after all, that’s where Trader Joe’s Mesquite Honey comes from–but the blooms are very subtle. Bees may notice them, but the average person driving along the street won’t.
So here are a few recommendations of trees to plant this fall that will produce colorful blooms in summer.
The first two I have already written about but are worth mentioning again.
This Chitalpa tree was planted as a “whip” about 4 years prior to this photograph being taken.
The Chitalpa tree (Chitalpa x tashkentensis) was especially developed for low water usage gardens — by Russian scientists, no less. The “tashkent” in its name is the capitol city of Uzbekistan formerly part of the old Soviet Union where the scientists worked. Why those scientists spent time developing a ornamental garden tree–rather than a practical fruit or nut tree–I will never figure out. But I thank them.
Anyway…it is definitely a favorite because it blooms in pink, or white, or lavender for months on end in summer. It needs some watering, grows 2 or 3 feet a year and reaches a height of 25 feet tall. Bonus: hummingbirds love it.
In addition to pink and hot pink, one Crepe Myrtle has showy white flowers in summer.
The Crepe Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica) can be a glorious blast of color in the summer, although be aware that it does need watering to do its best. A row of them behind our local library did not get irrigated this summer and failed to put on the usual bright show of flowers.
By nature the Crepe Myrtle is a shrub although some plant growers train them to be a small tree or standard. It tolerates neutral to slightly alkaline soil so be sure to add mulch around it at least once a year.
The Gold Medallion tree (Cassia leptophylla) is a Brazilian native that is now being planted in drought tolerant landscapes in the Southwest after being introduced to the U.S. by the Los Angeles Arboretum in 1958.
This young Gold Medallion tree will easily grow to twice this height.
It flowers with huge basketball size clusters of yellow flowers at the ends of branches and the hotter the weather the more the blooms.
Happily, it also tolerates mildly cold weather down to 25° F for a short time. The City of San Francisco, of all places, is using it as a street tree and it is chilly there, for sure! The Gold Medallion tree needs soil that drains well and do not over-irrigate. It’s seeds are poisonous.
Now about Oleander…Yes, it blooms in summer, is drought tolerant, and grows fast. And every bit of the plant is poisonous–leaves, branches, flowers–everything. Seriously, it can kill people.
CLIMATE CHANGE In the last few days many of us in the Southwest were blessed with rain. It soaked into the earth in some places and in other areas created flash floods. This rainfall came from the remains of Hurricane Sergio. As the Pacific ocean warms up along the California coast, we can expect more after-effects from hurricanes and, before long, full-fledged hurricanes actually blowing into Southern California and eastward. This year the water temperature off So. Cal. was 78° F. That’s 10° above the historic normal. The weather folks tell us hurricanes need 80° F water temperature for energy–and that’s only 2 degrees away. I look at the photos of the destruction caused by Hurricane Michael in Florida and hope we do not have to experience that here.
Mother Nature plants in the Fall and so should you. Instead, however, of simply deciding which trees, shrubs or perennials to add to your arid garden this Fall, you may be looking at which plants you need to replace. The record-breaking heat in the Southwest and California (and Australia!) this last summer baked the leaves on many plants and turned them brown overnight. On others the leaves simply fell off the branches. The plants appeared dead.
After looking as if nearly dead, the cooler weather has brought new growth to this white azalea which thrived for years in a micro-climate backed up against a wall in almost total shade.
But don’t yank these sunburned plants out of your garden yet, especially now that the rains have come. Wait two or three weeks. The roots of dead-looking plants may have survived the heat and be ready to regrow.
If, however, you decide to replace some plants, consider the suitability of the ones you choose for replacements. The heat this last summer will probably be back next year and for many summers to come. You may want to select more desert-like plants or take steps now to create micro-climates for parts of your garden that suffered most from the heat by adding shade-producing and heat-reducing plants. And, unlike the Beanstalk of Jack-and-the-Beanstalk fame, the plants to create micro-climates don’t grow sky high overnight. Planting them this Fall–rather than waiting until Spring–will give them a head start on growth over the winter.
Plant now to create micro-climates in your garden
For starters you can help cool off your entire garden by planting a fast-growing hedge in front of a hot wall. This can be effective with both cement block walls around your property and the stucco walls of your home. The shrubs’ leaves will block the sun from heating up the wall during the day so there will not be as much drying heat to be released after dark. Overall your garden will feel cooler and a bit less dry. And a cooler, slightly damper garden is better for all plants — and people.
Two drastically different hedge plants that grow fast are Pampas Grass (Cortaderia selloana) and Japanese privet (Ligustrum japonicum).
Behind this Pampas grass is a dull gray block wall. In one year it was covered up.
Pampas grass is close to being a Jack-and-the-Beanstalk plant. It will shoot up to as tall as 20 feet in one year, and should be cut back to 18 inches high in mid-winter. But be aware: its blades have rough edges that can cut skin so wear gloves when cutting it back. And it may be very difficult to remove if you change your mind later. It is definitely a statement plant.
In Springtime the Japanese Privet hedge bursts into bloom.
The Japanese privet is more ordinary looking–just a basic green hedge. It grows about two feet a year, however, and is quite drought tolerant. Poor soil conditions do not seem to bother it either. In Spring it is covered with white flowers that look almost like lilac blooms, but don’t smell nearly as nice as lilacs. You can see these and other shrubs for hedges in arid gardens here.
Planting a tree for more shade is another way to create a micro-climate to help other plants in your garden survive in hot weather.
One rapid growing tree that is suitable for arid gardens is the Chitalpa (Chitalpa tashkentensis) which will grow about 3 feet a year to a maximum height of 25 feet. It is a hybrid of the Desert Willow and the Catalpa tree that was created specifically to thrive in hot, dry climates. While it likes balanced soil, slightly alkaline conditions will not impair its growth. I especially like it because it has long-lasting, pretty pink-white blossoms, an open branch structure and provides dappled shade, rather than dark shade. You can see othertrees for hot, dry gardens here.
The right way to plant a tree or shrub
The hole for planting should be 2 1/2 times as wide as the root ball, but do not make it deeper than the root ball. The crown (the part where the roots meet the trunk or main stem) should be at or slightly above ground level–not submerged in the hole. Be sure to add a lot of rich organic mulch into and around the hole you dig for a new tree or shrub to provide nutrients for growth, especially root growth during winter. Really soak the soil with water around the planting hole and, once planted, water the tree regularly until the plant is established.
Now here is one last recommendation for coping with our hotter, drier summers and the damage of relentless heat. In my last post I wrote about applying organic mulch around plants, trees, and in flower beds to help supply nutrition. Another benefit of mulching is that mulch provides an insulating layer to protect the roots from scorching summer heat and winter cold. That’s right — winter cold and its potentially damaging effect on plants is right ahead of us now. More about this in an upcoming post.
It is planting and mulching season both north and south of the Equator. Our friends in Australia and South Africa are heading into warmer weather and Spring gardening.
Just the right sign for this time of year!
Meanwhile those of us in the arid U.S. Southwest are preparing our gardens for Fall and Winter now that the daytime air temperatures have cooled down. And in both parts of the globe, plants are waking up from a months-long dormancy and they are hungry!
Of course, you could just toss some fertilizer here and there around your garden and call that “Plant Breakfast”. That, however is the equivalent of giving your children spoonfuls of sugar for breakfast.
Instead, to give your plants the long-lasting, healthy nutrition they need for strong growth and good root development here is what to do:
This sturdy tool can loosen the soil in a garden that has dried out and hardened over summer.
Loosen the soil around shrubs and trees–but do it very carefully. You do not want to damage the plant roots. I saw this handy tool for loosening soil at Orchard Supply (which is going out of business.) It looks as if it breaks up the earth much deeper than one of those rolling garden gadgets. And the deeper the soil is opened up the deeper the irrigation water and nutrients will go.
As you do this, you may want to add in garden topsoil to the native soil in your planting beds–mixing it all together. Read the label to see if the “Top Soil” has been enriched with fertilizer.
The best soil additive for trees is not the same formula as the best for grasses.
Check with the best independently owned plant nursery in your area for the fertilizer that is right for soil conditions in your area and the kinds of plants you have in your garden. Usually the people at independent nurseries are more knowledgeable about local soil problems than folks at the big box garden centers.
You may even want to test your soil with an inexpensive pH testing kit which you can buy online or at a local garden center before you decide which type of fertilizer or other soil additive is best for your garden.
For whatever it is worth I have been hearing very good things about aged manures and even fish manures. I can’t guarantee that they are better than other types of fertilizers, however, and they may be more expensive. Manures can also be filled with weed seeds unless they have been sterilized.
Be sure the additives that go in your garden are organic. Avoid man-made chemicals if at all possible.
Okay. You have done the best you can to get the soil prepped so the next step is to add heaps of organic mulch. Some bagged mulch has the fine texture of good garden soil and will mix in nicely. Other mulch, like wood chips, is coarser.
If your budget allows it, I would suggest that you use both with the coarse mulch on top to protect the fine mulch and/or soil beneath from blowing away in the Fall winds. The coarse mulch releases its nutrients much more slowly providing food for your plants for a longer period of time. The fine mulch often has extra fertilizer in it to give plants a quick boost. Be careful that you don’t end up with too much fertilizer that would force plants to grow and bloom when they ordinarily would not want to. During winter time, plant growth should be in the roots to get ready for an above-ground growth spurt in Spring.
Mother Nature plants in Fall and so should you, so I will write about best practices for Fall planting in the next post.
Out front of our local Orchard Supply was this pink BBQ pig. Love it!
Full Disclosure: I went to Orchard Supply to take photos of bags of garden mulch and ended up taking all the photos in this post at the store. “Thank You, OSH!” They are going out of business and there are good bargains.
CLIMATE CHANGE. One reason there have rarely been hurricanes as far north as Southern California is because of the cooler ocean current off the California coast. Hurricanes need ocean water with a temperature of 80°+ to keep their power.
Clouds began to drift over So. California this morning as Hurricane Rosa drew closer. It is not going to be a direct hit but we seem to be at the far Western edge of it. It’s very humid, too.
Well, the ocean temperature off the So. California coast was 78° a month ago–ten degrees above normal–which appears to be warm enough. Hurricane Rosa is on her way across upper Baja, then onto Yuma AZ and points north and will be bringing flooding monsoon-type rains to the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas. While rain is desirable for all of us, downpours can be dangerous. Read more about saving rain in your garden.
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