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I have been a gardener since I was 5 years old, got my first garden job pruning roses when I was 8 in 1968, did yards after school in High school for gas money and any extras I wanted. Lived in the Central California/San Francisco bay area till 1992. Now that I live in far northern California, I do not often see plants I would associate with far southern California. Typical up here is an abundance of rhododendrons in all sizes and colors, even 30 feet tall. Pines and most conifers do well here too. But exotics that need warmer weather or are tender to frosts or freezes do not make it much past a good 3, maybe 4 years before we end up getting an Alaskan low dropping us to around 20º for a few nights with the highs around the upper 20's or low 30's. The past three years here have been extremely dry with the past 8 months being the warmest on record for us. I remember last December when we had no rain, clear skies and temperatures dropped to the low 20's for a week with a low of 22º one night, it put 4 inches of ice in my garden pond. A neighbor about 1/2 mile away covered most of her front yard in bales of straw and twine. This wonderful bush about 4 feet tall and 6 feet wide is in full bloom with what resembles pine cones. But the needles on this plant are not pine needles, nor are these flowers pine cones. It has been a warm December for us so far, the first week had 4 days over 70º, one was 73º and it has caused paperwhites to bloom, grape hyacinths, tulips and even an apple tree in one clients yard, to bloom. Can anyone identify this plant for me? I am going to try and see if I can catch my neighbor Suzanne at home and find out from her, but thought I would post this here first.
Thank You Greet and Bulldogdad. I knew it was something that I had seen at the Strawberry Canyon botanical gardens above UC Berkeley. I have never seen one this far north.
I looked the plant up, Banksia ericifolia, in the proteaceae family. I thought it looked similar to a protea and had already looked there. Now to get a cutting from my neighbor Suzanne or some seeds.
I looked the plant up, Banksia ericifolia, in the proteaceae family. I thought it looked similar to a protea and had already looked there. Now to get a cutting from my neighbor Suzanne or some seeds.
"Old flower spikes fade to brown and then grey with age; old flower parts soon fall, revealing numerous small dark grey to dull black finely furred follicles. Oblong in shape and 15–20 mm (½–⅔ in) in diameter, the follicles are ridged on each valve and remain closed until burnt by fire. Banksia ericifolia responds to fire by seeding, the parent plant being killed."
Thanks Bulldogdad, if I have to, I will get a plant from the local nursery. Like I need more plants, lol, I have over 400 pots of plants from wine barrel size to tiny pots. But this banksia is a beautiful shrub, not sure where I would put it yet.
Right, it's a Banksia, but since this was wrongly identified as a pine, I am posting this link. Pine needles are bundled and attached together at one point to the stems.
Spruce needles are individually attached to the stems. So, bundles = pines. No bundles = spruces. And hemlocks are another thing altogether.
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