{"id":105848,"date":"2025-02-21T14:22:32","date_gmt":"2025-02-21T18:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=105848"},"modified":"2025-02-21T14:22:32","modified_gmt":"2025-02-21T18:22:32","slug":"erodium-pelargoniflorum-and-other-indispensable-reseeders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=105848","title":{"rendered":"Erodium pelargoniflorum and other indispensable reseeders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Erodium pelargoniflorum is commonly described as a perennial, but it behaves as a late winter\/spring annual in my zone 10 Long Beach CA garden. It reseeds as prolifically as California poppies, and sheets of seedlings carpeted the front garden every February for at least the last 15 years, until it eventually evolved into a shade garden. This year I was thrilled to find a few seedlings struggling for life under the dense canopy of the pearl acacia. The entire plant gets my solid approval, the soft green scalloped leaves, dense growth, the light spangling of flowers arrayed over the breadth of the clump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Erodium pelargoniflorum<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Pelargonium glaucifolium<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Other members of the geraniaceae possess the same demure traits (about time I squeezed in the 2024 word of the year). I really like their soft, self-contained presence among succulents. Pelargonium glaucifolium was one of a couple summer-dormant types that survived in pots over my extended absence. I’m giving it a trial out of the pot and into the garden, where it theoretically should handle the dry conditions over summer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Also reseeding among the succulents is glaucium itself, the horned poppy. Unlike the erodium or summer-dormant pelargoniums, these will increase in size and sprawl over summer and threaten to smother smaller succulents — but some plants are just worth the trouble. I wouldn’t think of refusing to allow a few self-sown glaucium to join the garden. These behave like short-lived perennials for me but lightly reseed enough to maintain a constant presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Mangave ‘Purple People Eater’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

While we’re in this area near the office, I have to show off the successful outcome of moving Mangave ‘Purple People Eater.’ It had grown into a large, flawless specimen over the years, but as the surrounding garden surged in growth, it was largely unseen. It’s a delicate business, moving any mangave, with those soft rubbery leaves seeming to snap if you merely swear at them. This one is almost 3 feet across. So, yes, I’m bragging just a bit. God knows I’ve damaged my share of plants in the past when moving them around the garden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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the mangave was hidden at the upper right of the well-armed Yucca ‘Magenta Magic’<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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With the surge in growth of Sonchus palmensis, you”d never know a mangave once grew there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Just like Erodium pelargoniflorum used to own the front garden every spring, the reseeding story in the back garden stars Sonchus palmensis and Geranium maderense, seen in the background against the fence. The relentless weeding has lessened quite a bit as these two expand in growth. All hail the reseeders!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Erodium pelargoniflorum is commonly described as a perennial, but it behaves as a late winter\/spring annual in my zone 10 Long Beach CA garden. It reseeds as prolifically as California poppies, and sheets of seedlings carpeted the front garden every … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[28,550,5120,27],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-rxe","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105848"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=105848"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":105888,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/105848\/revisions\/105888"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=105848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=105848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=105848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}