Ken wrote: ↑Mon Feb 24, 2025 2:22 am
Mikey wrote: ↑Sun Feb 23, 2025 10:06 pm
Black mustard, the bane of my existence. Time to get out the backpack sprayer, mix up five gallons of Roundup concentrate, and get to work.
Curious as to what that flowering bush is. Very much looks like a Buddleia, but I don't recall them being a west coast plant.
Mustard is a bitch over here in the MidWest/NE... Especially garlic mustard. I have to continuously battle it in my gardens by cultivating the soil. It self seeds like no other weed (other than Hairy Galinsoga which is twice the bitch in the veggie garden).
It’s funny that you would ask that. It’s a variety of ceanothus (California Lilac) called ceanothus spinosus (Greenbark Ceanothus). There are more than 60 varieties and cultivars of this genus, very common in different parts of California, described on this grower’s website:
https://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-ca ... s-spinosus
Some will grow 20’ tall, some are like ground covers and everything in between. This is one of the 20’ varieties and the only one of these that I have. It’s not very common in nurseries. I have at least six of the other versions around the yard in various quantities.
My wife picked this one up about 10 ago as a free giveaway during an open house at a local native plant grower. There was no tag on
It so I had no idea what it was or what it would do. So I planted it in an out of the way spot behind the bbq area, next to a fence. I pretty much ignored it for a long time. Looked kind of like a ceanothus but it never bloomed for about five years and didn’t get all that big. Suddenly it sort of took off and got to about 15 feet tall, sending out branches with four inch long needle like thorns over onto the patio, into the kitchen, and over the corner of the magic solar patio cover, which you can see in the picture. I have since learned to control it, and it’s one of the first plants to bloom every spring.
I didn’t quite figure out what it was until it started blooming. With pictures of the blossoms you have a much better chance of identifying it. This one grows in the wild around here, in a fairly limited range. So it fits with my goal of trying to feature not just California natives, but ones that are local. There’s a great website for identifying different plants and their natural ranges.
https://calscape.org/Ceanothus-spinosus ... Ceanothus)