Gardening Basics - Monthly Tips

Monthly Tips

June - Plant of the Month

Embothrium coccineum - Chilean Fire Tree

In the dismal, chilly grayness of a typical May and June in Seattle, Embothrium coccineum bursts forth with a fireworks display of cheer to brighten your day and please the shivering hummingbirds with a positively tropical display of hot red to blazing orange blooms.

When I showed this tree to my husband, he frowned at it. I grant that it is a fairly ungainly tree, plain or worse when not in bloom and therefore in need of a nice evergreen backdrop, but that wasn't really his problem. From his point of view the tree was wrong. Trees are not supposed to have clusters of blazing red flowers, at least not around here. White, pink, yellow, okay, but this?

When in bloom the Chilean fire tree demands attention. When not in bloom, hopefully it will have a place to fade into the background. In gardens it usually reaches about 30' tall and 10-15' wide, an excellent size for small urban yards. I've been watching one tree for years, and it has come through the recent winters unscathed.

E. coccineum likes sun but it doesn't like hot soils (not really a problem around here) so avoid planting it along hot southern walls. Do not fertilize the Chilean fire tree. It is a member of the phosophorus-hating Proteaceae family and apparently isn't that fond of potassium either. It can fix its own nitrogen, so - no fertilizer. Water well when young and periodically when older.

Plant a Chilean fire tree and take a little trip to the tropics, if nothing else the hummingbirds will thank you.

Plant pinching is an excellent practice with certain plants - annuals are the classic example. I don't know if they'll thank you for it but you'll thank me if you do because you'll have fatter, more floriferous plants.

Consider cosmos. If bought at the nursery and planted out, you're likely to get a tall, spindly plant with a few flowers. What you must do for a compact, many-flowered plant is ruthlessly pinch out all the branch ends when you get it home. I don't care if there are buds or flowers already, just do it, you'll be glad you did. Where once there was one stem, now there will be two. In a few weeks, when some growth has occurred, pinch again, now there are 4. Yes, it will delay bloom time but who wants just 3 flowers per plant?

Another good plant for pinching is basil. Pinch, pinch, pinch because you don't want it to flower and you can eat your pinchings. What could be better?

So if you want your annuals to be bushy and floriferous, pinch them - they won't squeal.