Pat Welsh Southwest Garden Advice, plus garden ideas for everyone » Garden Q & A

Pelargonium Violareum, Growing From Cuttings

Pat — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 08:23:50 +0000

Question from Zane:
I have 200 plants Pelargonium Violareum, I never grow them. Can you tell me more information about these plants? I would like to know about soil, moisture, about propogation with making cutings. Thank you before!

Answer from Pat:
Pelargonium violareum is native to rocky hillsides in South Africa, tends to grow rangy and blooms mainly in spring.

Even if there is a flower on every tip, pinch back the tips of the plant progressively to make it branch. Otherwise the branches will become lengthy and lean on the ground and stems will be bare of foliage. This plant prefers well-drained soil with neutral pH. Water enough so water flows out the bottom of the pot. This plant does not do very well on drip system, but can be done if managed properly. (Experiment but don’t allow it to have wet feet or it will die.) Needs full sun and responds to weak solution of balanced liquid fertilizer once or twice a month. Good air circulation is beneficial.

P.S. To propagate Pelargonium violareum from cuttings, cut off a growing tip approximately 5 inches long, or of a length appropriate for your needs, remove the lower leaves, if any exist, and stick the cutting into a pot filled with well-drained potting soil. Plants take off much quicker if you root them directly into the potting soil you intend to grow them in than if you root in sand. If you wish roots to grow more rapidly, dip the cuttings into Clonex® or Rootone F® or a solution of Dip’N'Grow® (diluted according to package directions), or similar rooting concentrate prior to planting.

When using powders, such as Rootone®, after dipping the cutting into the powder always knock the excess powder off the cutting back into the package before planting the cutting. Then use a chop stick to make a hole in the potting mix before inserting the cutting, and then close up the potting mix around the cutting with your fingers. This keeps the powder from being wiped off the cutting as you plant it. In mild climates, just stick the cuttings into the ground. They root quite easily.

How to Prevent Blossom End Rot on Tomatoes, and Best Temperatures for Setting Fruit on Pepper Plants

Pat — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 08:13:27 +0000

Question from Ramon:
I am new to gardening and this is only my second year. My first year was hot peppers and tomatoes. The hot peppers did great that year but the tomatoes, I found out later, that I was over watering. This year I went to deep watering every other day and the tomatoes are doing ok but the chilies are slow going. I did start late this year because my mom got very sick and I didn’t plant when I thought I was going to. I went ahead with the garden anyway to see what would happen. I will get a soil tester and pull a plant to see how the roots are doing.

Answer from Pat:
Sorry your mom was sick and I hope she is better now. It’s always best to plant with the seasons, but sometimes circumstances make it impossible. Every year is different and it just means one gets to learn even more. Years ago when things went wrong in the vegetable garden I always felt maybe this was happening so I could gradually find out all the answers. But it turns out there is always more to learn! If you do winter vegetables next fall, however, be sure to plant at the right time. If not planting winter veggies, take the opportunity to put in a cover crop such as scarlet clover and dig it into the ground the following spring prior to planting in order to improve the soil.

It’s difficult to grow good tomatoes with a drip system. I prefer digging a watering basin around each tomato and then soaking the soil deeply once a week or once every week and a half, depending on the type of soil and how well it retains moisture. Sometimes I allow one watering basin to spill into the next one so that one can put the hose down at one end of the row and let it run until it fills up all the basins in the whole row. By watering slowly but deeply, fruit is less likely to get blossom end rot then when plants are watered shallowly and often. One of the farm advisors once told me that commercial growers have a lot of problems with tomato blossom end rot because they water with drip systems. They add calcium to try to prevent it, but it doesn’t work. Blossom end rot comes from uneven moisture in the soil and drip systems seem to encourage that condition, not prevent it.

With peppers you might find the blossoms fall off if the weather gets too hot. Peppers set fruit best when nighttime temperatures are between 60 and 75 degrees Fahrenheit and daytime temperatures around 75 degrees Fahrenheit. Temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit can cause blossom drop.

When to plant tomatoes for fall/early winter harvest

Pat — Mon, 26 Jul 2010 08:09:21 +0000

Question from Lewis:
I wanted to know when to plant tomatoes and what kind of tomatoes for a late fall, early winter harvest.

Answer from Pat:
The best time to plant tomatoes for summer use is in March, but this year our temperatures have been cool along the coast and cool temperatures can lead to bud drop so use a tomato-blossom set and grow cold-resistant varieties when planting early.

When planting tomatoes for tomatoes for fall harvest, choose early or cold-resistant tomatoes and count the days to harvest backwards from the time you want to be picking fruit to when to plant. For example if you choose a plant that bears in 58 days, you will want to plant in early August if you want to begin harvesting in late September. My guess is that most often you will want to plant in late July or early August for fall picking.

Some of early and cold-resistant varieties include Early Girl Improved VFNT, Champion 11 VFNT, Grushovka #4717, Jetsetter VFFNTA Hybrid #4519, and Oregon Spring V #2712, and Siberian #2908. Tomato Growers Exchange lists a whole page of cold-resistant varieties, and other catalogues have a few too, but beware of those which may also need long days, since our days in fall are growing shorter. Use blossom-set spray to keep the blossoms from dropping off when nights are cold or days too hot.

Is Cape Honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) Toxic?

Pat — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:22:16 +0000

Question from Sandy:
Need to know if cape cod honeysuckle is toxic or not-want to put in exotic bird cages for them to perch and/or eat on(parrots-amazons,macaws,cockatoos)do not see it listed on toxic sheets for birds,tortoises ectc and can not find the answer on internet sources that I have tried. Please help me solve this question. Thanks so much.

Answer from Pat:
There is no such plant as “Cape Cod honeysuckle.” Perhaps you are referring to a subtropical plant called Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis.) The word “Cape” in this common name refers to the Cape of Good Hope in Africa, where this plant is native, not to Cape Cod where it would freeze and die in winter. Cape honeysuckle has orange or yellow tubelike flowers and is a rangy shrub or climber. Since you had the wrong common name, there is a chance that you are referring to a different plant altogether. Therefore, for your own protection please look up the botanical name “Tecoma capensis” on the Internet. Find a photo of Tecoma capensis, and make sure this is the plant to which you are referring.

If Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) is the plant you mean, then I can answer that Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) is not poisonous and does not harm birds nesting in it or eating it. Indeed, birds eat it in Africa and some birds there live on its nectar. In Southern California, where I live, many birds frequent Cape honeysuckle and hummingbirds are attracted to the flowers for their nectar, without any harm to the hummingbirds.

It is important to determine a plant’s correct botanical name when trying to look it up in a book or on the Internet especially when you want to find such important information such as whether it is poisonous. For example, a relative of the plant mentioned above is yellow trumpet bush (Tecoma stans.) This plant is poisonous, yet bees are attracted to it. The bees are not killed by Tecoma stans, but the honey that comes from it is poisonous. Animals can also eat yellow trumpet bush (Tecoma stans) and it does not harm them.

My mission in the Kalu Yala

Pat — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 08:10:57 +0000

Question from Chris:
My name is Chris Garcia, I am not a beginner gardner but I am definitely not at your level yet. I am on a mission to gain as much knowledge as possible regarding organic gardening, I am seeking an internship of sorts in Panama to work on a new sustainable community called the Kalu Yala (Kaluyala.com). I feel I have a good chance of winning this competition as my video has got a lot of positive feedback. If I win I would get a 25,000 dollar grant to start my first organic farm and 5 acres to work on. The soil is excellent and I am excited. Do you know of any farms or organic gardens in the area that I should visit?

Answer from Pat:
Thanks so much for writing. First, I want to encourage you in your desire to get an internship in Panama on a new sustainable community.

A glance at the site indicates that this community may be early in its development, may offer great learning and service opportunities, and may be an exciting adventure as well as one of lasting value. When and if you arrive there, you will doubtless have opportunities to learn a great deal about the area and the work required of you to make your 5 acres into a productive farm or garden while growing plants adapted to the climate in Panama and recycling back into the land all the organic waste products from the animals you raise and the plants that you grow.

I’m sorry I do not know of other organic farms in Panama, but once you arrive there I would suppose you will have the opportunity to meet other gardeners and learn from them the rhythm of farming and gardening there, what crops to grow, and when to plant and harvest. Every climate offers its advantages and drawbacks, but timing is all-important. The best way to learn these things is to talk to long-time organic farmers in the area. If there are none then you will have to rely on books and scholarship to know what to do when. In the 1940’s, my mother purchased and then ran an organic farm mainly by reading “Rodale’s Organic Farming and Gardening Magazine” and also a current, multi-volume encyclopedia of farming. Then she would have us all do exactly what that magazine (which was very good in those days) and also the encyclopedia said to do. She also wrote lists of tasks and then crossed them out as we accomplished these items. Another way she learned was from the County Agent, which was the name in those days of the Farm Advisor. I doubt you will have anyone like that in Panama, but it is important to listen to experts whenever you can and to learn from them.

When we had our farm we were living in a cold-winter climate. You will be in a tropical one and tropical gardening offers totally different and new challenges. In Africa several years ago I flew over a large area of small individually farmed and owned “strip farms” Each one was about an acre in size. These were hugely productive, but this one area (near Lake Victoria) had a nearly ideal growing climate with ample year-round rain. Torrential rains can ruin crops and rot seeds and roots, just as longtime drought can kill crops also. Dealing with insect and animal pests and plant diseases organically in Panama may also present challenges and be quite different from anything you have faced prior.

You say the soil is good and that is excellent news, but your task as an organic gardener will be to put back into the ground at the end of each season and before the next season, whatever nutrients your plants subtracted from the soil. In this way you can eventually leave it even better than you found it. You also have a chance to learn the economics and time management of farming. I wish you good fortune in all these endeavors.

With good wishes for your success and happiness in this project.

Root Rot and Wisterias

Pat — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 08:58:18 +0000

Question from Judy:
My Wisteria – 9.5 years old — just stopped growing and leaves began yellowing and drying. I cut back some wood that had not leafed out and it was dead. When I looked up these conditions, it said it could be Cotton Root Rot. Have you ever seen or experienced this? The article also stated that it was usually fatal. Yikes! Am I going to lose my beautiful Wisteria? Is there anything I can do? It’s actually happening on both front yard and backyard Wisterias.

Answer from Pat:
I’m sorry your wisterias are dying from root rot. They are perhaps already dead. There may be nothing you can do to save them, but don’t become discouraged! You will just have to find a spot with better drainage and replant. That’s what I did at my house. See the story Chapter 7, “The Wisteria That Would Not Give Up,” in my first memoir: “All My Edens: A Gardeners Memoir,” published by Chronicle Books in 1996. (Long out of print but you can find used copies on the Internet.)

Not sure where you live but in Southern California where I live rains were heavy this winter. Yes, a wisteria could certainly die from root rot. This does not need to be Cotton Root Rot, but any root rot. Wisterias need good drainage. When I planted my first wisteria 50 years ago I knew that, but I didn’t know the correct way to provide it. I built a sump instead of a drain. A sump consists of a narrower hole dug on the bottom of a planting hole and filled with rocks. Years ago it was mistakenly thought to help drainage but of course it did not. Instead, it simply filled up with water thus provlding an underground swimming pool for roots. Roots went in there and soon rotted. This killed my first wisteria. (The full story is told in the chapter mentioned above and I don’t want to spoil it by telling you the ending.)

But I can tell you this: A better way to improve drainage in poorly drained soil is to build a raised bed. The raised bed doesn’t need to be very high. Just 4 inches will suffice. Fill the raised bed with top soil mixed with the native soil and then dig your hole through the raised bed and into the soil below and plant into the ground that way. Also if drainage is poor due to the alkalinity of clay soil, then dig as much as half a coffee can of gypsum into the bottom of the hole before planting.

Terr-O-Vite vs Organic Fertilizers

Pat — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 08:54:23 +0000

Question from Dave:
Your book recommends the use of Terr-O-Vite for so many things. I live in Thousand Oaks and can’t seem to find it. I don’t even see it on the internet. Can you recommend a source to buy it, or can you recommend a suitable available replacement?

Answer from Pat:
Terr-O-Vite is not longer made and as far as I know was no longer in used ten years ago. Sounds as if you are still using the first edition of my book that was published in 1991. It is now almost 20 years out of date. I revised it totally and the second edition was published in 2010 and included much more stuff in it and all the perennials grown then but not yet introduced in the late 80’s when I wrote that first book that is now so long out of date. Now you need the third edition.

My new book is all-organic so I would not suggest Terr-O-Vite today even if it were still available because it would contribute to runoff and pollution of groundwater. I suggest you use organic fertilizers, instead, such as those recommended throughout my new book, “Pat Welsh’s Southern California Organic Gardening: Month by Month.” (Available anywhere books are sold.) If the soil in your garden has a problem absorbing liquids, also apply and organic penetrant such as Yucca schidigera. (Terr-O-Vite included a penetrant and that was one reason it worked.) For a list of generic fertilizers, please see the chart on this website under “Fertilizers.” Also, please read the other material under that heading.

Suggestions re Flowering vine or hedge as divider

Pat — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 08:45:18 +0000

Question from Diane:
I live in middle of Los Angeles (Hancock Park red clay soil) and have cyclone fence between new neighbors and my yard. Old divider was eugenia hedge now removed. East/south facing so sun most of the day. Think Jasmine, potato vine, wisteria would get too thick. Any other suggestions? Passion vine too agressive. A little side note – my mom gave me your first book when published and we still all refer to it. I have just redone the whole yard to include a formal potage. Very excited about all of it but can’t solve the problem of the fence. Best – Diane

Answer from Pat:
Heartwarming to hear how you love that old book but of course wish you’d try the new one. (Didn’t you ever notice that I omitted geraniums? By mistake of course.I wrote the section but it “fell off” the end of a document and never made it into that first book. So much for being a computer idiot at the time. A lot of other things didn’t get into to it either, including all the opening chapters (due to lack of space.) But after that first book’s huge success, I was able to put all the accidentally and on-purpose omitted stuff into the second edition published ten years later in 2000, and now the new edition (2010) has all that and more and is all-organic to boot. I’ve gone back to my roots on our Pennsylvania organic 1940’s farm and “tell all” about organic gardening and farming, how and why in the introductory chapter.

I know Hancock Park well. What a great place in which to live! One of my five grandchildren, Rebecca Woolf, blogger extraordinaire (http://www.girlsgonechild.net/2010/04/garden.html,) and her husband Hal and their kids Archer and Fable lived nearby, all squashed together in a little house in Larchmont, for five years, but now they have moved up in the world, to Hollywood, a month ago. I haven’t seen their house (still a rental) yet but intend to soon.

Now for your chain link fence. My younger daughter, Wendy, Rebecca’s mom, and husband Larry planted star jasmine (Trachelospermum jasminoides) and potato vine (Solanum jasminoides) on a fence between themselves and next door neighbors must be 25 years ago. It’s still there. If ever messy or a bit overgrown, they just chop away at it. It’s provided good privacy. I planted star jasmine, some in shade, some in sun here at my house on a fence. That was 1982. It’s still fine. We try to control width by shearing it after bloom. Works pretty well and gives me excellent privacy from the road below the bank. It’s not on chain link but similar since one could see through if no growth on it. The look is of a hedge, which I like, and also the flowers are so delightfully fragrant for a month or more. Other things I like for chain link fences are Thunbergia gregori, Bougainvillea x buttiana ‘Golden Glow’, Blue Sky Vine (Ipomoea indica) but problably not a good choice since it’s invasive—Nonetheless I love it—, and Pyrostegia venusta. Another thought is Lavender trumpet vine (Clytostoma callistegioides.) It’s such a splash of color and long spring and summer bloom and no pests or diseases, any kind of soil, and easy to control. Only problem: A bit slow to start.

One caveat on jasmine: Begin with plants that are already on trellis in 5 gallon cans. You should be able to get them right now since they are still in bloom. Set them in the ground so the trellises touch. This will give you a fast cover. There is no rule saying you have to have only one thing. You could plant a splash of color as well. A bougainvillea in the hottest spot for example. It wants full sun and hot hot spot to do it’s best. Since you have red clay soil, dig half a coffee can full of gypsum into the bottom of every planting hole to improve drainage. Gardens are great in Hancock Park. That nutritious clay soil can grow great roses and many other flowering plants. Re: thickness, shear to control after bloom. Let the neighbors worry about their side. Pyrostegia venusta drapes down like a curtain, not thick. Thick is nice since it’s private.

Longtime friend of mine, the late great Chuck Kline of Seaworld, once said to me, “If you want to grow something, try it. If it’s the wrong thing, change it! Don’t be afraid to yank things out and try something else.” So really you can’t go wrong. If I were you I’d do star jasmine and plant now.

Great idea about your formal potage. Have fun! (Sounds as if you are.)

Yellow Leaves Falling off Honeysuckle, Citrus, and Other Plants

Pat — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 08:39:17 +0000

Question from Joan:
Every year my honeysuckle grows full with lots of blooms but after that most of the leaves turn yellow and fall off. Why

Answer from Pat:
Let’s begin with a blanket answer: The first thing that comes to mind with any plant, not just honeysuckle, having yellow leaves that drop off and fall to the ground is lack of nitrogen. The cure is to feed it. Seasonal leaf drop is another thing. Leaves do drop, after all, even from evergreen plants. So that too might be the problem. You might even be growing a honeysuckle that is not well adapted to your climate. In that case, weather extremes can cause leaves to go yellow and drop off. Also, make sure the plant is getting adequate moisture and not too much and adequate nutrition (Nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and trace minerals.) A product called John and Bob’s Soil Optimizer can provide trace minerals and often gives sick plants a shot in the arm if the problems derive from insufficiency in plant minerals or bio-organisms. Additionally, if the ground is too wet or too dry, either of these things can lead to yellow leaves that drop off. (I will discuss this in more detail below.

Now to your specific question regarding honeysuckle: there are at least 200 honeysuckle species and even more if you count all the named varieties. About 20 species and varieties are commonly grown in the Western states of the United States of America. All are members of the Lonicera (honeysuckle) genus. Some are shrubs, some are climbers, and some come close to being trees. They are adapted to a wide variety of climates, ranging from those that are adapted to living in Siberia to those that would be happiest in a steamy tropical jungle. At least one type bears edible berries. Additionally, people often write to me with questions about Cape honeysuckle (Tecoma capensis) that is not a honeysuckle at all. (If this is what you are growing, please see the other sections in this blog on that subject.) Thus, you can see that without telling me where you live or which honeysuckle species you are growing or whether it’s in a container or the ground, it’s virtually impossible for me to give you a specific answer. That said, I will hazard a guess or several guesses on what might be the problem and you will have to figure it out and take your pick.

S now let’s discuss some possibilities. First, I should tell you that honeysuckles are usually easy to grow and have few problems. In Southern California where I live, common or Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) is an invasive ground cover plant whose seeds are spread by birds. Seldom is there a problem with leaves falling off. Almost nothing ever goes wrong with it and that combined with its vigor and invasiveness makes it a terrible pest. Fertilizing it is a bad idea since it will become even more bad mannered than it already is. (I hasten to say this since I am going to mention fertilizer below, but I would not normally recommend you use it if you are dealing with a bank covered with honeysuckle in Southern California.)

There is another honeysuckle, however, that is a tropical type, the giant Burmese honeysuckle (Lonicera hildebrandiana). This is a vigorous, fast- growing vine that in time can grow a thick woody trunk and cover a very large structure. (Perhaps this is what you have?) The leaves of this plant are evergreen and quite large and so are the flowers. The leaves often go bright yellow and fall off year round. If giant Burmese honeysuckle is flowering and then goes dry, the leaves are likely to turn bright yellow and fall off. If stressed by heavy bloom, it may drop all its leaves after bloom and then grow new ones. If it doesn’t have enough nitrogen the new leaves will be too small. The solution is to fertilize with ample balance fertilizer and keep the plant well watered so that it can quickly grow leaves to replace those that naturally fall. (You cannot stop them from falling; it’s the nature of the plant, but good cultural practices will stop them from falling off all at once.) In short, Burmese honeysuckle is not a drought-resistant plant. It needs lots of water. Keep it well-fed, well-watered, and well-mulched. Train it on a trellis or arbor, and prune it to encourage branching and to keep it in bounds. It is not an appropriate plant for pot culture.

With any plant, including honeysuckle, leaf drop after massive bloom might occur it it’s growing in soil with ample quantities of phosphorus and potassium and insufficient nitrogen. Also, if a plant is doing well in winter at lower temperatures, then the weather warms up and the soil is too wet, root rot can set in. This can cause yellow leaves that drop off. (Usually, however, this is fatal and you tell me this happens every year. Thus I don’t think root rot is your problem.) It is true that wet soils combined with lack of nitrogen can cause leaves to go yellow and fall off which can be a sign of root rot and wet soils, but leaf drop can also occur from transplant shock or even from soil suddenly going too dry. For example, a frequent garden scenario, in Mediterranean climates is that plants do fine in the rains of winter, then dry weather hits, and the plant has insufficient nitrogen to keep growing so the leaves go yellow from lack of nitrogen and fall off from drought. Sometimes plants flower massively and put on a lot of fruit when they think they are going to die. They want to make sure they at least leave a few babies behind to take their place after their own tragic demise.

Here’s an example: I once was called in by an elderly neighbor to look at her Meyer lemon that had been growing fine for several years in a half-barrel. Then suddenly without warning all the leaves fell off but the tree still had loads of flowers and even many little fruits—more than usual my neighbor said. She was afraid the tree had died and was convinced a disease or pest had done it in. Her gardener wanted to spray it with Malathion. I said, “Whatever you do, don’t let him do that! I’ll come right over!” Knowing him well, a dashed over there right away and my neighbor showed the tree to me. It was alive, that was obvious. Its twigs and tip wood were still bright green and when I pushed my thumb nail in them sap came out, and there was not a pest in sight. Any pests, if there were any, had dropped off with the leaves. My neighbor said her gardener was watering the tree twice or three times a week. (He was standing right there sprayer in hand, staring at the tree and at me.) I took one look and saw the whole container was chock full of roots—no soil at all—, and there was a space about half an inch wide all around the inside edge of the half-barrel where the water flowed right away with none of it ever reaching the plant.

I told the gardener to bring the hose and pour water onto the roots. Both my neighbor and her gardener could see when he did that the water flowed right off the roots and out the bottom of the tub and not one drop was penetrating the roots. I shoved a trowel into the root ball to show them the roots were dry as a bone. The tree had dropped its leaves to try to save its own life. In more scientific terms, it wanted to prevent loss through transpiration of the last little bit of moisture it still contained. You might have a situation like this with your honey suckle if it’s growing on a bank so all the irrigation water is running away instead of getting to the roots. Or the same thing might be happening in a pot, if that’s how you’re growing it. In the case of the Meyer lemon tree, I told the lady to have her gardener dig a hole in the ground and take the tree out of the tub, loosen up its roots, and plant it in the ground, then build a watering basin around it and keep it watered. He put the sprayer away and began digging a hole. After it was planted in the ground and had leafed out I told her to feed it. Her gardener did all this. The little tree breathed a sigh of relief, drank in the water, and almost immediately sprouted new leaves.

After reading all these possibilities I suggest you first read up on honeysuckles to find out which one you have, then dig into the soil where it grows and find out if the soil is too wet or too dry. If too dry, fertilize, water, and mulch the ground to encourage growth. If too wet, reduce irrigation. If your plant is in clay soil that is compacted due to alkalinity, spread gypsum to increase drainage. Add mulch to improve the soil. If you have never fertilized, begin fertilizing and from now on prune after bloom to encourage re-growth. Also from now on (except in the case mentioned in paragraph one above) fertilize at regular intervals at least once a year early in the growing season with an all-purpose organic fertilizer to provide adequate nitrogen for growth. Chicken manure should work well. Apply to the ground, cover with mulch, and water it in.

Duranta

Pat — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:52:04 +0000

Question from Eliana:
Thanks for all your wonderful writings!

I am thinking of siting a duranta erecta in a small area next to a house with full sun, where preferred height is really only 7′ high x 5′ x 3′ wide and deep.

I realize this is asking the owners to keep the thing in major check – too much? I was also considering Senna artemisioides – that could also involve some pruning, but less, though it may not reach the min. 5′ they want to cover a bathroom window.

All the surrounding plants are low water, probably lower than the duranta. Beyond that are kangaroo paws with natives perennials in front of them. I need something tall and pretty narrow that does not have to be cut back and is not Nandina.
Should I plant it in a pot? Do you have some other suggestion?
Thank you!

Answer from Pat:
Durantaerecta is a lovely plant, one of the most beautiful we can grow. The problem is it’s too big for the space, but if I were you I might plant it anyway and just cut it back on top since it might be worth a try. A neighbor of mine has it growing on a south wall and it’s not yet 5 feet tall, been there a year facing south and looking great—about 4 feet tall now and reaching taller, so maybe not a good idea but it certainly is providing months of color. A plant such as Rhaphiolepis ‘Springtime’ is a much better choice since it is a shrub that you would never have to fight to keep down in size since it only grows 5 feet tall. Another idea more drought resistant idea is to look through the list of Ceanothus in Sunset Western Garden Book and pick one that grows to five or six feet, such as ‘Julia Phelps’, ‘Joyce Coulter’, ‘Concha,’ ‘Dark Star’, or ‘Louis Edmunds.” Among natives, have you thought of Romneya coulteri? Very drought resistant and flowers look great against a wall, but probably too invasive.

Senna artemisioides is lovely also but a lot more feathery. Another thought that comes to mind is Grevillea ‘Moonlight’. It grows six or eight feet tall and only six feet wide. Some other grevilleas might work too, but I think ceonothus might be the best idea. Great with your kangaroo paws especially if they are the gold ones.