Ice Ice Baby
Yesterday I planted eight flats of ice plants (technically, a succulent called Aizoaceae) both along the road and up in the Betty Garden behind the garage. I remember reading somewhere that the early explorers of California were attracted to the shore by seeing bright colorful flowers along the coast, so naturally, I assumed they were talking about ice plants since their colors are so very vibrant. But ice plants are natives of South Africa and were only introduced to California in the early 1900s, specifically by the railroad companies that wanted a ground cover that could help prevent erosion around their track right-of-ways. That means they must have spotted other native flowers. The ice plant took to the California coastal climate very well and spread all along the coast. It was so successful that the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has classified it as an invasive species since it spreads so widely and it does such an effective job of covering the ground where it lives that it forces out all other competing species. In other words, it is a highly successful species that is both robust and needs little help in surviving and thriving.
When I first drove up this hill in late 2011 to look at a house for sale that I had seen on Zillow, the first thing that caught my eye was all the roadside vegetation that was exploding with iridescent purple color. Purple is a hard color to ignore when it comes at you with all guns blazing. It also impressed me that this was late December and that seemed irrelevant to these lovely flowers that were literally all over the place. The burst of color made me so happy that I immediately had a positive view of the neighborhood. After I moved here permanently four years ago, it seemed a shame that all those lovely purple ice plants weren’t in evidence across the street from my driveway entrance. There were two vacant lots across from me and the one on the corner had been bought by my neighbor and he proceeded to use his earth-mover to fashion it into a sort of Tuscan park with spaced towering Cyprus and a few palms. That left the lot directly across from me what was supposedly owned by a local woman who had no intention of doing anything but sitting on her vacant land. I wanted to ask her if I could plant some ice plants along the roadside on her side, but she refused to answer my calls. Finally, I decided to seek forgiveness rather than approval and I just planted about 100 feet of the expanse and started to regularly water it with my hose. Ice plants can survive on their own, but they really flourish with regular watering. It’s been more than three years now and they are a bountiful and colorful adornment to the roadside that burst into vibrant color on and off throughout the year.
When I was planting my back hillside, I bought 50 flats of yellow ice plants to spread across the hillside to compliment the blue chalk stick succulents on the upper hillside. The ice plants have taken well with the watering I do, but for some reason, the yellow variety does not produce the tight and full array of flowers the way the purple and orange varieties do. I put the same yellow variety on the green roof of my Hobbit House and noted that it didn’t produce the full pop of color I was hoping. So, I bought some of the orange ice plants and put them in a few visible spots including the center rock garden and the far northern ridge line, as well as a few on the green roof. Especially in the Spring, but also at other times of the year, that pop of color really pleases me.
Last year, for some reason, I wanted to introduce more color to my entrance area, so I turned yet again to the trusty ice plant. I bought a dozen flats of orange and purple ice plants with a ratio of 2 to 1 respectively. I planted them around the base of my always-underperforming red crepe myrtle tree and at the northern corner of the driveway. This Spring they are in their full glory and I am reminded of how happy these bright flowers make me feel. I once asked Mike why he doesn’t put some ice plants along his road side, but he seemed less than effusive about ice plants and is clearly not as taken with them as I am. He has since said he might put in a few, but I told him that I had plans to put more of the orange ones along the front roadway boundary as a low burst of color to frame the agaves, Pride of Madeira and other garden succulents that abound with their green splendor in the front garden. That is the planting that I did yesterday and I was reminded of how easy ice plants are to plant. As a ground cover, I tend to just scrape open a spot by pushing the bark mulch aside and scratching the top layer of earth away. I then rip the flat into two long pieces and just lay them down like they were a roll of sod. I know some like to plant each individual plant, but that is both far too time-consuming and I think the root mat established in the flat is a good starting point for these hearty flowering succulents. Like all succulents, they are both easy and hearty and I expect they will be popping with more color very soon.
I understand that the subtle and more seasonal blooms on plants like the aloes (nice caliente red) or the Pride of Madeira (cobalt blue) or the rosemary (small blue flowers) and the butterfly Lillie’s (white and yellow flowers) are lovely and seem more natural than the almost fluorescent ice plants, but there is something about that bright coloration that attracts me the way I imagine birds and bees are attracted to them. Actually, perhaps it is that they need to be more colorful because their nectar is less sweet than something like the rosemary blooms, which are always covered in bees. Perhaps that says that my soul, which is less sweet than others, needs the bright splash of ice plant coloring to feel really happy with my surroundings. That may be getting too deep, so let me move on.
I am not sure why these Aizoaceae are called ice plants since ice doesn’t really have that kind of coloring. And for some reason, whenever I think of the name ice plant, I think of that 1990 early hip hop star Vanilla Ice who got the very first hip hop cross-over hit into the Billboard 100 top pop list with his B-side hit (the flip side of Play That Funky Music…White Boy) called…Ice Ice Baby. I’ve never really been a devotee of hip hop, but that is one song that reverberates in my memory with its deep rhythmic beat and simple lyrics that don’t cause me to think of anything in particular. It is said that Vanilla Ice, now a cultural icon of white youth influenced by black culture, stole the beat and some of the lyrics of that song from some combination of Queen (Under Pressure) and David Bowie. I don’t follow such things in the music world, so that whole story never hit my radar. But as I ponder that name and those trends, it amazes me to think that we are now talking historically about something that still seems so “out there” by my old white guy standards.
None of that makes me want to plant less ice plants, Mike, so get ready for more splashes of color to brighten your multiple daily walks with Rex once you get to our street. Ice Ice Baby.