Spanish Garden in Winter

Wandering around the garden I was in for a few surprises.

Surprise number 1 was to learn that the orange tree was in fact a mandarin tree. It's been 8 years since I bought four young citrus trees from the garden centre, and the labels quickly faded and disappeared.

Lemon tree

I'd bought 2 lemon trees, and orange and a mandarin tree.

Tragedy struck after a year or so when one of them died. Sadly I had no idea by that time which one it was.

Over the years since then, one of the trees started fruiting lemons, so that was fine - knew which type of tree it was. As I had bought 2 lemon trees, there still had to be one alive.

Oranges on tree

Then the orange tree started fruiting, so now I knew I had lost either a lemon or a mandarin tree.

The final tree right at the end flowered every year for about three years, sometimes more than once a year, but nothing ever came of the fruit.

I assumed the flowers had not been fertilized which should maybe have been a clue, but being on the wind-side of the other two, it could have been that the prevailing winds always took the pollen away from the other trees.

mandarin tree with fruit

This year it flowered all over. As the flowers look exactly the same to my untrained eye as the blossoms of the lemon and orange trees, I was really pleased to see small fruit forming.

All summer they got bigger while remaining green. I began to suspect I had been sold a lime tree, which would have been great, but finally the fruit started changing color.

Mandarins growing on tree

Surprise number 2 was when my Mother of Thousands plant started flowering.

Now I'm sure everyone in the whole world knows that the plant called  Bryophyllum daigremontianum flowers.

I didn't know.

They actually flower every other year and sometimes never, which would explain why this plant, which is grown in the UK as a houseplant and sometimes called the 'Good Luck' plant. It is you good luck if you ever see it flower!

I had one years ago, it is such an easy houseplant to grow every home should have one.

In fact, I am pretty sure I started out here with just the one plant too. Not now. Baby plants grow on the leaf edges and where they drop, they grow.

Mother of Thousands, sometimes also (correctly) known as Mother of Millions, are considered a weed in many parts of the world.

Originally from Madagascar,  the Bryophyllum, sometimes also called Kalanchoe is highly adaptable in frost-free areas where they may easily escape of the garden and naturalise in the wild.

However, this is bad thing to happen because they are highly poisonous.

Many cattle have died because they ate parts of the this plant in their fields. The whole part of the Mother of Thousands is poisonous - leaves, flowers, stems, and can kill a pet or small child easily.

This is important to know. Teach your children never to eat any plants from the garden or even in your house.

Anyway, looking around it is easy to spot that my Mother of Thousands has indeed spread itself into other plant pots, but what a wonderful display they make while flowering.

The flowers appear on tall stems that shoot out from the base, and can reach over 3' in height, towering far above the leaves.

Lady of the Night or Cestrum Nocturnum

cestrum nocturnum in flower

By far my favourite plant for my Spanish garden is the Lady of the Night, otherwise known as Dama de Noche or Galan de Noche. The people of North America and Canada know it as Night Blooming Jasmine. It's correct botanical name is cestrum nocturnum (please check out the link, its one of my new sites).

 Lady of the Night is that plant that scents the summer evening air with a perfume to die for!

ou may have thought you were actually smelling jasmine, and maybe you were, but if the Lady of the Night is in flower, its scent is powerful enough to drown out all other scents.

Well, almost...it doesn't quite disguise the smell of the overloaded sewers in the heat of summer in parts of Benidorm, but it makes a good attempt!

It's flowers are nothing to look at during the day. Lady of the Night is a bush/shrub that reaches up to 15' tall, with bunches of small greenish-white tubular flowers that are closed and droopy during the day.

As soon as darkness falls, the flowers lift up and open wide, revealing a beautiful star-shaped opening on the bells. They then emit the most wonderful perfume that simply fills the night air and can be smelled from a distance away.

Sadly the flowering period only lasts a few days, so enjoy it while you can. It is reputed to discourage mosquitoes too, and that could be correct because the Night Blooming Jasmine is highly scented to attract some of the bigger insects like moths, that can effectively pollinate the flowers.

I don't know if moths also eat mosquitoes, and so mosquitoes stay away? Perhaps.

Cestrum nocturnum flowers up to 4 times a year.

Orange Trees

I have two orange trees in my garden, planted 7 years ago.

orange blossom

Both are pathetic stunted creatures, and only one has ever produced fruit, and it was of such poor quality that I was sorely disappointed.

Note to self: in future, check the orange variety when buying orange trees!

The one at the end of the garden has flowered before, only a handful of flowers at a time that seemingly never pollinated as fruit never appeared.

baby oranges 

This year, however, both trees were absolutely covered in blossom, and now in May have loads of tiny green fruit.

Last year we had an abundancy of grapes, most of which were left to the wasps, but this year seems to be the year of the orange.

That is, assuming the tree shown here is in fact an orange tree.

Considering it has never fruited before, it could well turn out to be a mandarin or even another lemon tree.

Orange tree

Sad to say, my citrus fruit trees never get fed, although in their formative years I did supply then with some citrus fertilizer.

The soil here is rocky, hard, alkaline, free-draining although lacking earthworms. It desperately needs mulch added to moisten and protect plants from the hot sun.

My fruit trees are mostly planted in the north side of the house where they get protection from the sun at least part of the day.

I also have a plum tree and a loquat tree, each of which will be talked about in other posts.

Foxglove from Seed

I love Foxgloves, especially the colorful garden varieties.

Two years ago, I scattered seed from the foxgloves in my dad's garden in Scotland over my Spanish garden, and was disappointed when none came up.

Foxglove among the Love-in-a-Mist, Costa Blanca, Spain

But hey, surprise, surprise, one has come up and is flowering beautifully this year.

It seems to be of a lower height than it's parents, but that could be growth stunt due to lack of rain during its dormancy period, or something.

Hopefully in future years I will have many more as foxgloves tend to self-seed profusely.

The Love-in-a-Mist is flowering wonderfully again.

 Every year they spread and put on a superb display here in the land of a heat, sun, drought and poor alkaline soils.

Growing Catnip Grass

Nepeta cataria is the botanical name for catnip, the herb-like plant from the mint family that drives cats wild.
I bought a packet of seeds from the plant man in the market. The seeds say 'Hierba de Gato' which translates as cat grass, not cat herb as you might think it says.
It is clearly marked nepeta cataria which is the correct name for catnip, and the front of the packet shows a happy cat among a some greens.

However, down the bottom of the packet, underneath the growing instructions, is  a seed composition box explaining that the seeds are 80% Lolium perenne Belida, and 20% Lolium perenne Verna, both of which are varieties of ryegrass.

What grew in my pots this year has a strong resemblance to grass and look nothing like the nettle-like plant I was expecting.

I have yet to trying letting my cat near it, as this grass is struggling to grow as it is.

I did read on another site that this is a common mix for cat grass which although they call it nepeta cataria in't strictly speaking the catnip we have come to know, but there is supposed to be some nepeta cataria in the mix, even though my particular seed packet isn't telling you about it.

The idea with cat grass is that you only sow a few seeds at a time, and offer the whole pot to your cat beside his food dish when it grows, on the assumption that he will eat all the grass (as well as his dinner presumably), and you then simply sow a few more seeds for the next time.

Now seeing as nepeta cataria is considered to be a brilliant insecticide, I can see the point of using such a seed mix to sow a lawn seeing as the plant is perennial and will keep regrowing.

In countries such as Spain the insects in the grass are enough to put you off having a lawn, that and the watering they require. A catnip grass lawn sounds like an ideal solution!

Biting Insect Identified!

Thanks to Jan over at Mud, Gorse and Pines, I now know what the insect is that I am allergic to. It is called the mosca negra or in English, black fly.

• The mosca negra is a recent introduction into Spain from Africa (10 - 15 years) and the two specific types that have been causing havoc are simulium intermedium and simulium ornatum.

• In recent years, over 2000 people have been hospitalised due to suffering severe allergic reactions to the bite of the mosca negra in Catalunya alone.

• Their breeding ground is in flowing clean water, unlike the mosquito which prefers stagnant water. 
• After the larvae have hatched, they can spread out as far as up to 50 kms from the site they were born. There is a river in this village which I have not inspected as in recent years it has been re-routed away from the mills they used to feed. However, it is safe to say that my house is not more than 2/3 kms from the river.

In Catalunya is the River Ebro which scientists have now treated with Bacillin Thuringiensis which grows to produce spores that attack and kill the larvae of the simulium.

The Black Fly

The black fly is 2-3 mm across, much smaller than the mosquito and when they bite they draw blood. It is not uncommon to suffer extreme inflammation in the area of the bite, as well as a tremendous itch which can be relieved with a costi-steroid topical application.

mosca negra

They are diurnal and bite during the day, and like the mosquito, it is only the female of the species who needs a blood host.

Their danger cannot be underestimated - a swarm of them killed a calf in Switzerland in 2005.

Bite Prevention

It is recommended to wear light coloured clothes with long sleeves if you suspect they may be in your area, and to wear an insect repellent. There is some suggestion that DEET-based sprays do not deter them, and that wearing permethrin-soaked clothes might be a better alternative.

From reading several Spanish websites and blogs, it seems that the Spanish insecticide Autun (which contains icaridine) works well, as does a product called "locion hydratante de Natural Honey" which is a Honey Hydrating Lotion.

In America

The black fly is known to live in the US and Canada too, where it is known under various names including buffalo gnat, turkey gnat or white socks. There are very many different species of black fly under the umbrella of the giant Simulium family. They are a serious problem because they spread disease.

The Blandford Fly in England is actually a black fly named Simulium posticatum and the New Zealand Sandfly is actually a black fly fom the Simulium family.

Olé!

Thanks to the article I wrote over on Hubpages, BardofEly was able to point out to me that this is in fact, called fasciation.
Fasciation in plants is quite rare and its cause is unknown. It could be due to an insect attack at a crucial stage in growth but scientists as yet have not pinned down an exact cause. The other suspected causes are mite attack, bacterial infection, chemical or mechanical damage, or just cell damage caused by a mutant gene so it will get passed on through the species.

It will be interesting to see whether or not the seed of this plant will show the same strange and abnormal growth.  I've added to few photgraphs of other plants showing FASCIATION so that you will recognise this strange growth should any of your plants develop it.
It is strange that 2 of my 4 echiums developed this. Hmm...could be something in the soil.

Kiwi plants

Lasy year I grew a lot of baby kiwi plants, most of which were lost to either the frost or the dogs who took to playing with the plant pots, knocking the compost out, and seeing how far they could spread it, which was extremely unfortunate for the plant contained within.

However, the ones on the upstairs terrace survived as they had a certain level of protection - i.e. the dogs are not allowed to go there - and I'm including a photograph of them with their new leaves of Spring.

I have noticed that kiwi plants show red leaves when they are exposed to the elements and sun.

These are the babies that did not 'take off' last year, and so are stil very small at this stage. I have one or two that reached 12" or more, one still hasn't grown its new leaves but is still alive, and the other I planted next to a chain link fence in the garden, but which my other half pulled out because he thought it was a weed! Then he tells me that he knows nothing about plants! I am sick of telling him to LEAVE THE GARDEN ALONE! This is the same one that pulled the leeks out in the autumn and told me "Look, your onions didn't grow too well!"

Oh and if you are interesting in trying to grow kiwis from a shop bought fruit, check out my Growing Kiwis post.

Love-in-a-Mist, Nasturtiums and French Marigolds

If you have a garden in Spain and are wondering what you could plant to brighten everything up, consider planting some seeds of Love-in-a-Mist, Nasturtiums and French Marigolds. I have a garden full of them as they happily self seed and seem to like the harsh conditions and poor soil.

In this picture you can see the Nasturtiums in the distance, the Marigolds then some Love-in-a-Mist intermixed in the foreground. Not the best picture I've ever taken but not bad for a phone camera!

Just for interest, it's been 4 years since I planted the Love-in-a-Mist, 2 years since I planted the Nasturtiums and I planted the Marigolds just over a year ago.

Echium Pininanas Growing Strangely

We've had a pretty severe winter here on the Costa Blanca. Several times we had snow on the lower levels and one night the snow actually lay here! We had frost, and rain and cold winds, and now that summer is almost here not much has changed. This has been an especially wet year so far. Most days it seems, it either starts off cloudy and wet, or it ends cloudy and wet. And cold. We've had a few days of nice weather in between, but not much.
My biggest echium pininana got blown over in a winter storm, but it's still growing, but just have a LOOK at it. Look at its stem, which is normally circular, polar, perpendicular, round, just like any tree trunk or big plant trunk.

I have never seen anyting so strange in my life! Two of the echiums are like this, a third has gone into flower in only its second year, and its well less than three feet tall. My dad's grow to 15' or more.

Several of mine have elongated width-ways. They are not tall - maybe two to three feet, but look at the strange wiggly line on the top of this one. That is the shape of the stem! This is the one that fell over but it's being supported by the wall now.

It is strarting to flower too, I will take soe pics when it is in full flower because its going to look even stranger than it does now.

If anyone else has grown these plants out here in Spain, zone 10, please tell me if you have had similar results. They had plenty water all last year (read my other blog About Relleu to see the water bill I apparently ran up, just watering plants), but the soil here is poor and very alkaline. My dad grows nonsters echiums in his garden in south west Scotland, which I've worked out is a zone 9 as they only get light frosts and are permanently warmed by the Gulf Stream.

Insects and Especially BITING Insects

It was two weeks ago today that I was badly bitten in the garden. I'd been out to plant some seeds - I know it's a bit late to be planting seeds, but honestly the weather has been atrocious this year - loads of really cold miserable days!

Anyway, it was sunny and I was planting seeds. I actually planted Ipomea - a nice multi-colored variety - and they've all come through already. Unfortunately the snails have eaten nearly all of them at the nice juicy two-leaf stage. Hmmm...

A stray seed fell on the back of my hand. Even at the time, I was wondering "How on Earth did that happen?"

Without another thought I brushed it off - and it bit me!!!

Now we all know seeds don't bite. This was an insect - small, black or dark in colour - about the same size as the seeds - and by the way these Ipomea seeds I've got a tiny - not like the usual bigger Morning Glory seeds. Before I'd left the house in the kitchen, I'd atempted to score the seeds with a knife as you do wtih Morning Glory, but I gave up. They were too small.

Immediately, blood welled up and out of the tiny wound which actaully hurt really badly too, so whatever bit had serrated teeth - ok I know little biting insects don;t have teeth - they have a proboscus which is a needle-like projection especially designed to insert under the skin of animals to suck blood.

Just Starting to Swell

A lot of small insects from the family diptera (this includes mosquitoes) suck blood. It is always the female who does it and Mother Nature built them that way - whether we like it or not -they need a special protein which is in blood in order to produce eggs.

Isn't nature wonderful? If God or whoever designed all creatures on Earth, why on Earth did these poor buggers get lumbered with this difficulty? Can you imagine if humans had to do the same thing? Might put an end to all those teenage pregnancies - just keep the girls away from the blood and they'll be fine :)

Anyhow, I digress.

I have some interesting photos of the wound as it started to swell. Did I mention that I get a really bad reaction from insect bites? Not a hospital emergency-type reaction like some people get with bees and wasps - but a horrible local skin reaction.

Can it Swell Any More?

That night I woke up scratching like mad. Mosquitoes bites are itchy but this one is ridiculous! Worse than the itch was the swelling which quickly spread from a localised area on the back of my hand, down to my fingertips, round the palm and all the way up my arm to my elbow.

 And I didn't like the big red streaks that appeared on my skin on the inside of my arm just under the elbow.

That was on the Saturday/night. On the Sunday, I couldn't move my hand at all. I could wiggle my fingertips a little and that was it, so of course I couldn't get dressed. Patiently I waited all day for the swelling to start going down. I obviously couldn't type. One-handed only works until you need to capitalise a letter. Yeah I know I could use caps lock, then unlock it again, but no I can honestly say Sunday was a day of not writing online.

Can't Move it Now

I debated going to emergency care, especially as my fingers kept turning blue. It really felt like the blood supply had been cut off - my hand was so swolen and tight.

Chose not to, because I was convinced the swelling would start to go down at some stage, and that it was just a matter of waiting.

Oh and yes, if you ever find yourself in the same position as me, keep your hand raised as much as possible. The theory behind that is to try and drain off the fluid in the tissues.  I did. And all that night, which was a long night as I couldn't sleep with one hand stuck in the air. The pain by this time was horrendous. It was painful/itchy, if you know what I mean. I couldn't stand anything to touch it, like the bed clothes, so sleeping wasn't really an option.

I also didn't feel too well.

Both hands for comparison. Couln't type :(

Monday morning saw me at thelocal doctor's surgery, where I got a steroid injection, a prescription for antihistamines, antibiotics and a steroid cream to soothe the itch,and a severe warning that the next time I get bitten to go straight for emergency care as it is obvious I have an allergy.

Despite that, it still took two days to start to subside, and now two weeks later I'm still getting headaches, which I suppose is a residual effect of whatever toxins the beastie injected into me.

In conclusion, always wear insect sprays like Autan if you are allergic to insect bites, while working in a Spanish garden.

Spring is just around the corner

My, its been nearly 3 months since I've last posted. That means it has been 3 months since I've done anything remotely to do with gardening to post about.
Normally, I'd have all my seeds started off by now, but this has been a particularly cold winter, and I've not started anything off, because there was no warmth inside my house anymore than there was outside.
However the grass and the weeds are starting to grow again, and the daffodils are coming into flower. When I stop shivering I'll be able to cut grass and get some general tidying up done.

Weather

Weather has been dreadful this past while, so I haven't done anything in the garden. Wish I had a greenhouse, then I could work away with my plants even though it's cold! Anyway, no greenhouse, no way am I working outside until the weather warms up again. I have loads of seeds to get planted, and cuttings to pot up, but I can't seem to get warm enough to go and sort them out.
The sad thing is, it's actually been warmer outside than it's been inside my house this past few days!

Storm

I shouldn't have mentioned the 'no-rain' thing! Winter arrived with a vengeance yesterday. What a wild day it was! Sleet or snow, driven horizontaly inthe high winds, for hour and hours and hours. Course it seemed even longer when the powerfinally went off and stayed off. Thankfully we have a gas fire.

Today, damage-wise, the little cypress tree in the front garden is leaning at 45 degrees. The echium pininana is on it's side, and my lovely big cestrum nocturnum is at a precarious angle.
Upstairs on the terrace, I have lot a few palms that have been blown over and chucked out of their pots, but that should be repairable.

The little late tomato plants are OK. Well they are not dead yet, but the windchill factor yesterday must have been pretty unbearable for them, so I'll have to wait and see if they recover. Likewise the papaya. I'm sure tropical fruit would have hated the weather yesterday, and of course I didn't take them in for the winter.

Of course, it has to be said, that if they can't survive the odd freak weather day here, then they can't be grown here, except indoors. Need to find out which it is to be.

Slow gardening

I really haven't kept this blog up to date much, but then again I haven't done much in the garden. I'm still having to water the plants, but once every 4-5 days is stopping them from dying now that the heat of the summer is gone. It has only rained ONCE since September, when we had more or less three weeks of rain.
The grass hasn't grown any, yet most years at this time, I have to cut it every two weeks or so. I transplanted some of the herbs in pots into the garden, but they are not doing much without rainwater; this time last year the were growing great and I was cutting down bunches to dry and store for the winter.
My solitary chili pepper plant is still producing, but I've discovered I don't actually like chili peppers and rarely have a use for them in the kitchen.
I planted 12 babies in the spring, that I grew in pots from seed.
That very first night,the snails ate three. the next night they ate another six. By the time I found a shop selling snail-killer, all but one were gone.

Hubnuggets Award

This isn't anything to do with gardening, I just wanted to announce to the world that one of hubs over on Hubpages has been nominated for a Hubnugget Award, but I now need everyone to read it and all the other contenders and VOTE! There are 10 hubs in the running and one of them is mine, but of course you can vote for anyone you want to.
Scroll to the near the bottom of the Hubnuggets link above, mine in the one entitled West Coast of Kintyre, Scotland

Seeds

Rubber Tree 'Cone' and seeds

I've been given some great seeds to try. How about the seeds from the rubber plant? I didn't even know they produced seed!
I've also collected a few seeds from the Jacaranda trees that grow in the nearby village. I'm ready to start them off too, plus seeds from pandorea jasminoides, which a neighbour gave me. I'm already seedlings from the pepper tree.
Fascinating stuff!

I've got a couple of baby pandorea seedlings which I will upload photos of soon.

The rubber tree and the Jacaranda seeds haven't germinated to date.

Autumn

I'm sure there must be loads of things to do in the garden just now, but I'm not finding anything at all. The veg patch is turned, ready for new plantings. The compost heap continues to break down. The new replanted tomato plants continue to grow. And the grass has not needed cut since last time as there has been no rain since September.
I've only had to throw some water on the plant pots every other day.
I do have new seedlings coming up - two different types of tree, the names of which I can't remember, have young seedlings in pots, but they are still only at the first leaf stage.
I have some lovely Christmas cactus in flower, but the shortened daylight hours is sending almost everything else off to sleep for the Winter. Growth has slowed down, leaves have changed colour and dropped.
I've just obtained some seed pods from the Pandorea jasminoides climbing bush that grows over a neighbour's fence, and they will require planted soon.

New Compost Heap

Making your own compost is so important here in Spain, because the soil is terrible. It's cloggy and lumpy and full and stones, and CAL which I think is limestone but I could be wrong. The water is full of CAL too. Really hard and horrible tasting - though the addition of chlorine may be responsible for the taste, I'm not too sure.

I've got little heaps going all over the garden, but there is never enough rain to break it down. My best success so far is the stuff I had in old household bins, with circulation holes drilled in the sides, and water added by hose every other day.

I did at first try digging holes in the ground, but it made it really hard work to get to later.

The other day, I nailed three wooden pallets together, lined them with cardboard, and put chicken wire and black plastic over the front area. I'm sure this is going to be a great composter, and it has loads more space than the bins ever did.

I've also got earthworms in the garden. Not many, and I'm not sure where they came from, but I'm hoping they will move into my new compost heap and multiply, because they are great for breaking up and improving soil, and their casts alone make great fertiliser.

Winter Tomatoes?

I had started a new compost heap in an old palm tree tub. Then I threw some used compost on top of the remains from the kitchen, to stop the dogs getting to it. Then early September we got some rain, and next thing I knew I had melons and tomatoes growing in the tub. The other day, I lifted 6 of the tomato plants out and replanted them in a sheltered part of the garden. They seemed a bit big for transplanting, being at least 1 foot tall, and it is now early November which has just GOT to be too late for them. Or is it?
I'll let you know.....