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Which greens make the cut,
and which wither under the weather?
w
ow! Our hot summer weather has
finally arrived. From the safety of
a slightly cooler house, I am look
ing out at my garden, hoping that
once it cools down, all the plants
out there that are wilted will perk back up again.
Last year when it got this warm, not all of them did,
and I wound up with a few casualties of the summer
heat. Like always, the empty spaces in my garden
were soon filled right back up with new plants.
I am sure that by the end of this beat wave, there
will be more than one or two hydrangeas around
Portland with some fried flowers. No doubt there
will also be some drought-stressed trees that will
think it is fall already and start showing some bright
colors. And 1 know that if any of you still have any
pansies in your gardens, they probably will give up
after this. With all the burned leaves and crispy
flowers, I can’t help but notice a few things around
Portland that not only still look good but also seem
to not notice the 100-degree temperatures.
On almost every block in Portland, someone has
a yucca of some sort planted. Everywhere I turn, it
seems, I see those lovely stalks covered in white bell
flowers, and 1 love it. Most commonly planted is
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Get Dirty with Dan
BY DAN YOUNG
where it can easily resprout. Leaving it unpruned
will often cause the plant to split open and start to
look shabby after only a few years.
In my old garden, I used to have the hardy
banana Musa basjoo. Although I decided I didn’t
want the big tropical look for the garden I have
now, I always loved watching it grow when it got
warm. Overnight it would push out a huge, fresh
new leaf, and I always wondered if I were really
quiet, if I could hear it happen. Although the
banana loves the heat, it definitely needs some help
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Lavender can hold up to Portland's summer sun.
Yucca filamentosa, which is the species that you
probably have noticed blooming at about this time.
It seems like such an old-time plant around the city,
but I think that it deserves to be planted a little bit
more. I mean, who wouldn’t love a 6-foot-tall beau
tiful flower in their garden? Its pointed evergreen
leaves look good year-round, it’s completely drought
tolerant/rain tolerant, and it can be planted in just
about anywhere except deep shade or standing water.
1 have to give some credit to lavender here also.
Those who know me well might giggle at hearing
me suggest this, but in all fairness, it does stand up
to the heat. Most lavender varieties flower now
and, being from a hot, dry place, have no problem
with summer’s heat waves. I do appreciate the smell
of it on a hot day when its oils seem to be oozing
out of every leaf. 1 suggest planting it where it will
have good drainage and a full day’s worth of sun for
best growth. It also benefits from being sheared in
the early spring, not too hard into old woody
growth, but trimmed back into green leafy stems
from you, the loving gardener, to make it through
the summer. I used to feed my banana monthly
during the growing season with a fertilizer high in
nitrogen, usually leftover lawn food. 1 would also
keep a thick layer of mulch on the ground around
it and soak it with water twice a week, if not more.
Hardy bananas aren’t what 1 would call a low-
maintenance garden plant, but it sure was a fun
thing to grow.
In the next couple of days, as 1 try to prove that
humans can live off of nothing but Popsicles, I’ll be
watching to see which plants out there really take
the heat in stride. I will also be checking to see
which of them can’t beat the heat. Part of me hopes
just a little bit that some of them don’t make it so
that I can have some room out there in my yard to
try a new thing or two.
To reach D1RTY D an , who will answer any and all of
your gardening questions, simply e-mail
dirtydthegardener@yahoo. com.
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