Let’s take a trip
Mark Twain stated, “Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts.” St. Augustine wrote, “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
So, let’s take a trip. Let’s leave our passwords behind, stroll through friendly but unfamiliar neighborhoods, listen to different tweety birds – take time to stop and smell the aeonium, which is native to the Canary Islands.
I did not have to go to the Canaries to see aeoniums because they are flourishing in small front yards in Alameda not far from San Francisco Bay. Aeoniums are succulent plants which might approach the size of a small shrub. Haworth’s aeonium produces a rosette of blue-green leaves and is ideal for rock gardens because it is fairly drought-tolerant. The tree aeonium has striking black leaves which purify the air and absorb formaldehyde. Eurekans could try it inside near a sunny window.
The Canary Islands are home to not only several aeonium species but to a distinctive mellifluous blend of Spanish and Brazilian musical styles. The Canaries, by the way, were not named for small yellow birds but rather for indigenous monk seals, formerly called sea dogs in Spanish which leads us into etymology of foreign languages, but we’re on a different trip.
Occasionally accompanying aeoniums in the front-yard gardens were foxtail agaves. They are natives of the mountains of central Mexico, and look like they belong in a desert, not a small front-yard garden. Each leaf of the rosette might reach four feet or more, so a plant will require room to grow. Leaves are usually bluish green, but some I saw had yellow streaks on green. These plants flower once after about ten years, and the columnar flower extends as high as ten feet before turning downward.
In front of Trader Joe’s in Alameda was a healthy well-maintained bird of paradise plant. It’s orangish-yellow, blue, red and green flowers resemble an exotic bird’s head. This is our trip’s representative from South Africa. The plants are fairly adaptable in moderate climates. They appreciate moisture, and if you want to treat it like your favorite pet, mist it every Friday. Unfortunately, they are toxic if nibbled on by dogs, cats or horses, and they might live for decades and become a jungly mess left unattended.
Birds of paradise are closely related to bananas, and they have adapted to windy conditions by naturally splitting their leaves along the seam to reduce further risk of damage by strong breezes.
North of Alameda in Sonoma County I encountered several globe artichoke plants already flowering in Santa Rosa. They were in a neighborhood yard growing in containers which is necessary if gophers are nearby because gophers will climb over each other to eat artichoke roots. The iridescent lavender flowers (which smell like alyssum) emerge from the buds, part of which we eat before flowers pop out.
The ideal place in the world to grow artichokes is Monterrey County near the Pacific coast. Passersby on Highway 1 can see acres of the humble thistle family plants silhouetted in the cool ocean mist. Gardeners in cold winter climates would have to grow them as annuals or in a protected place half the year.
Near the Santa Rosa artichoke neighborhood is the downtown library, and along the streets are planters with flowering sages and colorful lantanas. The sages bore cute little scarlet flowers and the lantanas displayed vibrant flowers of red, orange and yellow.
Lantanas are native to the tropical parts of the Western Hemisphere, and keeping the plants contained is important because they don’t behave around others. They originated where the climate encourages jungles, and though they might be showy, the plants form thickets to crowd out nearby plants. To abet their invasive tendency, plants exude a chemical which inhibits growth of other plants, and to top it off, all parts of lantanas are toxic to cattle, kittens, you and me. The good news is they have colorful flowers.
So that’s our trip, and now your biases and provincialism are gone. You’re welcome.