By Sharon Cohooon, Sunset senior garden writer

iPhone users lover their phones and their apps.  So Botanical Interests decision to put all the good information they have on their seeds packets in an application was probably a great idea.  (I say probably because I don't have an iPhone and my husband, who does have one, and who, in fact, now also has this app, won't part with his phone long enough for me to test drive it.)

Their new app allows you to search Botanical Interests seed catalog for information about 300 different varieties.  You can also create a "favorites" list to help you with garden planning.  And organize your search based on more than one variable, such as harvest time and lighting conditions.  You can't order seeds directly from the app yet, but you do get a 5% discount from your first order placed on their website.

Let me know how you like it, iPhone devotees.  Maybe it's the excuse I've been needing to spring for an iPphone of my own. I am obviously never going to be able to borrow hubbie's.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Panayoti Kelaidis, the senior curator of the Denver Botanic Gardens, approached the Broomfield, Colorado seed company, Botanical Interests, about offering a new line of seeds to preserve native and threatened species some time ago. 

The partners in this project took their time before introducing this line to make sure the offering was a group of plants that homeowners would have success with -- drought-tolerant, easy to care for, and beautiful.  The series is now here, and it was worth waiting for.

Below are three species from the series.  As usual, Carolyn Crawford's gorgeous botanical artwork makes you want them all.  There are a dozen more species in this welcome new line.  Check them out here.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

I’m always delighted when I discover an aspidistra flower—a surprise I rank right up there with noticing a shooting star or finding a robin's nest with eggs in it.

It’s the flower’s location that strikes me: right at ground (or potting-soil) level. It turns out that the blooms are pollinated by amphipods, which are tiny terrestrial relatives of both fleas and shrimp.

My aspidistras (A. elatior, also called cast iron plants because they grow in low light with minimal care) seem to produce at least a couple of rounds of bloom per year. My garden notes say that one pot full of them flowered in June, and now they're at it again in November. 

If you haven’t grown this plant, it’s one of the easiest indoor subjects around, thriving on a certain amount of controlled neglect. If you kill one of these, it will almost certainly be a long slow demise caused by overwatering. The good news is that all you have to do to reverse the process is sharply curtail your irrigation. 

It was once thought that there were only a few kinds of aspidistra, all from Asia, but recently several dozen more species have turned up, and some have started to work their way into the nursery trade. You can buy the plain green species, plus several named varieties that differ mostly in kind and intensity of variegation from Plant Delights Nursery. 

Whatever kind you get, check out the soil every time you water. Sooner or later, a rather wonderful flower will appear.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I loved Jim's recent post about Kevin and Marty Hauser's quest for better apples for mild climates, which lead to their backyard business, Kuffel Creek Apple Nursery.  It is thrilling to know I may have more choices in my mild beach climate than `Anna' -- a reliable but pretty dull apple, I've always thought.  Below are the three from Kuffel Creek I find most intriguing -- that's `Enterprise' on the left; `Williams Pride' in the middle; and `Terry Winter' on the right. 

Anyone tried any of these yet in Sunset zone 24?

Surfing garden blogs, I see that many home gardeners are stretching the boundaries re apple varieties.  Tom at Tall Clover Farm on Vashon Island in Washington, for instance, is growing `Espopus Spitzenberg', said to be Thomas Jefferson's favorite apple, and `Belle de Boshoop', which, as he says, is almost worth growing for the name alone.

And, if I'm not mistaken, the apples his bulldogs Boz and Gracie are eyeing in the photo below are `Bradley's Seedling.'   Read Tom's post to see what he has to say about how all these varieties and more are doing in his climate.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Killing frost is the horticultural version of The Grim Reaper. Usually stealing into the garden on a calm, clear, dry autumn night, it cuts down all remaining summer fruits and flowers. It is worth noting on your calendar because it marks the end of the growing season, which began with the last killing frost of spring.

Once the growing season starts, you plant beans, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, melons, peppers, squash, and tomatoes. Then you start counting.

When the seed packet says you have an 85-day tomato, or a 110-day pumpkin, it’s giving you the number of days between planting and harvest. But your growing season better be significantly longer than that.

Here’s why.

•For starters, actual days to harvest depends on location. If you’re growing warm-season crops in a climate that gets warm days, mild nights, and plenty of moisture, plants mature fast. But if you’re growing the same varieties along the coast, where summers never get very hot, plants mature very slowly. Many national seed sellers assume optimal growing conditions for their days-to-harvest numbers. So a tomato that might mature in 85 days in Ohio might take 125 days to mature along the mild Oregon Coast.

•Days to harvest clocks the time from planting to the day your pick your first fruit. But plants can bear for weeks or months after that first fruit. So an 85-day tomato could keep producing fruit from day 85 to day 145. That means you really need a 145-day growing season to let you get the most from your plants.

The best way to calculate your garden’s growing season is by writing down first and last frost days (start now!) The second best way is by looking up your town’s historical weather information on one of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s regional climate center databases. These vary widely in ease of use, but you're in luck if you live in the West, which has a complete, easy to use climate center. Navigate to your state, your city, then click on the link to "Freeze Free Probabilities," which gives you growing season information.

You can also get map-based information from the Internet Accuracy Project.

I could close with warnings and disclaimers, but you know the drill: nature does what she wants, when she wants. Just get to know her better by writing down last and first frost dates as they occur in your garden, and you'll be a better gardener for it.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Getting Native, a television series about the beauty and craft of landscaping with native and Mediterranean plants premieres tonight at 6:30 p.m. on PBS station KVCR.  The series is sponsored by Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden.

"Each episode focuses on a front yard renovation project, using sustainable design and drought-tolerant plants planted in the most appropriate locations to maximize water conservation and to create a great-looking living space."

Check your local cable or satellite guide for the channel.  I'm TIVOing this right now before I forget.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Many botanical gardens offer wreath-making demonstration or other gifts-from-the-garden classes right about now.  Take advantage of them.  They're a bargain.  Here's a new venue in Southern California:

The Farm and Food Lab at the Orange County Great Park, November 21, 10 a.m. to noon. 

"Holiday Crafts from the Garden -- Create some wonderful hand-made gifts for those hard-to-buy-for people on your list from your own garden.  Join the California Cooperative Extension Master Gardeners of Orange County as they demonstrate a selection of garden gfit ideas to make for the holidays, incuding a holiday wreath."

The class is free.  Parking is $8.

The Orange County Great Park is located off the 5 Freeway and Sand Canyon in Irvine.  It's a little tricky to find. Check directions on the website before you go.

Can't make it?  Check out our How to Make a Wreath in 4 Easy Steps. 

Already an expert?  Share your know-how.  See  How To Host A Wreath-Making Party.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

Question I have some beautiful indoor plants. I'd like to add different colored stripes to the leaves. These are big plants (pretty much trees) with long green leaves. I think it would be a cool art project to paint different colored stripes (one per leaf) on them.

Will this kill the plant?

Any advice on a paint that wouldn't harm it it? I just like art projects and think it would be cool to have different colored stripes on the ordinarily green leaves. Any advice would be helpfull!

Thanks! —Brian

Answer For more than a decade in Europe, and about 5 years in the United States, growers have painted live poinsettias (pictured above) for the Christmas market. They use a proprietary paint formula. But florists also use paint—a lacquer-based spray paint that is widely available—mostly to color cut flowers without damaging them. Sold under the Design Master label, it's also listed for use on foliage. I personally haven't used it, so I can't give you any personal experience that speaks to its performance on live plants over the long haul—but it's promising. Give it a try and send me pictures.

—Jim McCausland

 
By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

The Japanese persimmon (Diospyros kaki) is worthy growing for its beauty alone even if you don't think you like the fruit.  Our Western Garden Book summarizes its virtues this way:

"It reaches 30 ft. tall (or more) and at at least as wide.  Has a handsome branch pattern and is one of the best fruit trees for ornamental use; makes a good small shade tree and is suitable for espalier.  Leaves are light green when new, maturing to dark green, leathery ovals 6-7 in. long.  Foliage turns vivid yellow, orange or red in fall (even in mild climates).  After leaves drop, brilliant orange-scarlet, 3-4-in. fruits brighten the tree for weeks and persist until winter unless harvest."

If you live in Orange County or close by, you can find out more about persimmons at the annual Persimmon Party held in Pitcher Park in Old Towne section of the city of Orange.  It will be held this coming Sunday, November 15th, noon to 3 p.m.  There will be fruit and baked goods for sale and other persimmon products -- persimmon salsa sounds intriguing.

Pitcher Park, if you've never been there, is pretty charming all by itself actually.  It's a small park in the middle of a residential area that shows evidence of its original rural origins.  When Henry and Grace Pitcher gifted the property to the city of Orange, the city decided to maintain the barn -- it is now the Orange County Fire Museum.  They also retained Henry's original honey house, where the Orange County Beekeepers have an exhibit and store gear.  Here's a hint of what Pitcher Park looks like.

If you can't come to the Persimmon Party, but I've made you hungry for persimmons, try some of Sunset's persimmon recipes.  Or try this Persimmon and Cinammon Oatmeal recipe I found on the White on Rice Couple blog while browsing for a full image of a persimmon tree. (The top left photo is their image.  So are the two below.)