William Wright’s redwood framed, two story, side-gabled farmhouse is the oldest extant residence in Sunnyvale. Located at 1234 Cranberry Avenue. It probably was constructed in 1862 and certainly prior to 1876, when it appears as an illustration in Thompson and West’s Historical Atlas of Santa Clara County. It is a simplified version of the Gothic Revival style. Its original centered …

Kalanchoe blossfeldiana is native to Madagascar. It produces small mounds of orange flowers with scalloped shiny green leaves. It thrives with bright light and porous soil. Water thoroughly when soil is dry. Protect from frost. Kalanchoe’s only known enemy is lemurs so I think it safe.

Juniper is a great plant for filling in space fast, whether as a groundcover, a screen, or vertical punctuation in a border. Its scaly foliage is feathery and graceful, a good contrast to large-leaf plants. For low-water or rock gardens, the low-growing juniper forms a naturalistic mat that often acquires richer color in the winter. Juniper thrives in a full-sun …

The mimosa or silk tree, umbrella mimosa (Albizia julibrissin), is a tough deciduous tree that grows quickly and has and a flat, umbrellalike canopy made up of ferny leaves and fluffy pink blooms that later turn into flat seed pods. I had one in my front yard but got tired with the yard maintenance of dropped flowers, dropped seed pods, …

Our backyard neighbor had a mature loquat tree. It was about 12 feet tall and 9 feet wide. During the spring thousands of blossoms would flower. Hundreds of bees would swarm. My poor cherry tree flowered at the same time and scarcely a bee would move the 3 feet from the loquat tree to the cherry tree. The loquat fruits …

Superbells (Calibrachoa) look like tiny petunias, but there is nothing tiny about their show-stopping color from spring until fall. This series of tender perennials can be grown as an annual in colder regions but survives as a perennial in U.S Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9b through 11b. When provided with the proper care, these plants produce abundant 1-inch …

In 1850, the Martin Murphy Jr family had a 20-room house in what is now Sunnyvale. Because there were no lumber mills at that time, Murphy ordered the home to be built in Bangor, Maine; disassembled; shipped around Cape Horn; and reassembled. Because there were also no suppliers of nails, man named Dawson managed to put the house together using …

Potato vine (Solanum laxum, formerly S. jasminoides), is the more commonly grown plant, with abundant small white flowers. Native to Brazil, potato vine grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 9 through 11, which is fine for Sunnyvale. Slender stems with elongated oval dark green leaves provide a backdrop for star-shaped white flowers produced in greatest abundance in …

Italian Cypress, Cupressus sempervirens, was popular when the Bahl patio homes were first built in the 1970s. The cypress can grow in small areas (often in the 2-foot wide trench on the zero-lot-side. The cypress is relatively slow growing. But after 40 years, the trees can be over 30 feet tall. Eventually, I removed my two cypresses because the roots …

Spectacular in its vivid red grandeur, this tuberous rooted Delphinium is a boon to Summer dry gardens. To 3-4’ tall, it’s been known to reach a majestic 6’ when happy. Hummers and bumblebees go nuts for 1.5” intense red, long-spurred “elf hat” flowers during Spring and early Summer. Native to our coast and foothills from Monterey South, this heat lover …