Successful Cuttings of Mimulus (Monkeyflower)

On April 20, we posted an article on 'Experimenting with Outdoor Cuttings' http://taprootgardens.blogspot.com/2010/04/experimenting-with-outdoor-cuttings.html

Here is the result of our experiment:

Experimenting with Outdoor Cuttings

A large part of Taproot Garden Design & Fine Gardening is the fine gardening.  Specialty pruning during the months of February and March affords us the opportunity to take cuttings of plants that survived a full year's cycle of the elements.  During these months, softwood cuttings of most perennials are easy to propagate in large quantities, as plant material is removed to accelerate new spring growth.

We managed to save these cuttings for propagation in early March. Using a powder form rooting hormone, each soft wood cutting was dipped in water, then rooting hormone and placed into a flat with a light soil mix. With no greenhouse or outdoor structure available, the flat was merely tucked under an outdoor chair and subjected to the rains and cold weather.  With a lack of protection from the elements, half the flat was lost due to rot and frost.  In April, as soon as the rains stopped and the weather began warming, the flat with the remaining cuttings was placed on a concrete sidewalk and left to bake in the sun; the concrete sidewalk took the place of a 'heating pad' and within two weeks, the roots were an inch long.

The plants are now acclimating to their new life and will likely make it back to the same garden as the mother plant from whence they came.

March 2010 cuttings of Mimulus 'Valentine'

Deer Resistant Plants for Los Altos Hills, California

Have deer? Residents in the Los Altos Hills area of California have found that deer are constant visitors to their gardens and can devour most of a day's work in one scrumptious night. After setting the late night buffet several times, and very successfully (ask our rotund deer-friends) using many plants labeled as Deer Resistant, we've whittled down our list of truly deer resistant perennials and shrubs (listed below) for use in the Los Altos Hills area with no browsing, even at a just-installed 1 gallon size!

As a caveat with any plant; although deer and other foraging animals may not be naturally attracted to browse on specific plants, if you place any plants in the deer's natural path, they will kindly gnash and trample them as a sign that you've made a bad choice in placement which could hold up evening traffic. Deers and other night feeding animals are more or less consistent in using well worn pathways and are not likely to change for convenience.

As well as being almost indestructible, with the plants listed below, we turned off the drip irrigation 6 months after installation and only hand watered once every month/as needed. The plants performed very well in summer and winter alike, decisively exceeding our expectations in growth & durability and lacked any of the common water-related diseases.

List as follows:

Achillea sp. (Yarrow)
Heteromeles arbutifolia (Toyon)
Lavandula sp. (Lavender)
Mimulus sp. (Shrubby Monkeyflower)
Myrica californica (Pacific Wax Myrtle)
Penstemon sp. (Penstemon)
Pyracantha sp. (Firethorn)
Rosmarinus sp. (Rosemary)
Salvia apiana (White Sage)
Salvia clevelandii (Cleveland Sage)

We suggest continuous experimentation as every garden, every micro-climate and every midnight browser has different...tastes!