I am growing plants in California. The two environments are
Coastal Sage Scrub, and mixed High Chaparral/ Singleleaf - Quad Leaf Pinyon
Pine Zone. The Native Plants here are
adapted to wet Winters and dry Summers. The Shrubs and Trees are sensitive to
moisture and nutrients ( timing and quantity). A shrub in the wild may live 50
to 100 years in the wild. But decline and die less than 5 years under garden conditions.
More people have killed their plants with water or fertilizer. I hear “ But I
only gave a little fertilizer or water”. The challenge is create the optimum
conditions in a container for the plant for the time of year. These plants are stress circumventors type
plants, They have an active and dormant period. We can use stresses both
nutrient and moisture to trigger bud set with a hardening phase. After the
Harding Phase( started in Late July or August for about 4 weeks) , the moisture/nutrients
levels can be increased slightly( maintance level) to build stem caliper and
roots. The plant will not make new stem growth with the increased nutrients if
properly hardened. Originally the plants were conditioned to be outplanted to survive
without irrigation. Currently seeing if
it is necessary, and developing methods to duplicate the Chaparral in containers.