Anyone who raises milkweed in an effort to attract Monarch butterflies is familiar with the soft-bodied, squishy orange insects that seemingly take over anything in the Asclepias family. Before we explore how to kill them, let’s take a look at the interesting life cycle of these ubiquitous, annoying insects, known as oleander aphids, milkweed aphids, or by their Latin name, …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2020 are Gerbera daisy flowers. The blooms are large (4 inches across) and have a central disk that can be yellowish, light-bronze, or dark in color. This disk is surrounded by rays that come in a variety of colors. The colors are most commonly yellow, red, or orange. However, growers have also produced varieties …

From the north of Italy, the artichoke of aristocrats. This choke has small oval slightly elongated head 3 inches wide by 5 inches long. mouthwatering flavor. Fruit is more elongated than the green globe type. The edible thistle first appeared in Italy and Sicily as early as 200-300 B.C. It may be a descendant of C. cardunculus, the wild cardoon …

During our Thanksgiving dinner at Shauna’s home, Linda and Brad mentioned that they had a lot of persimmons. I joked that they would ring our doorbell and leave a box of fruit. Linda corrected me: She wouldn’t ring the doorbell. They left us a box with 36 large Hachiya persimmons. Dehydrating persimmons is simple. Wash the fruit. Core the top …

Yarrow (Achillea spp.) adds bright spots of color to the garden in summer and fall. My mother has always had the tall yellow yarrow in her Almaden Valley garden. It complemented the blue and white flowers of Mexican Sage. The flower heads are large, flat-topped umbels packed with tiny flowers. This hardy, drought-resistant perennial still thrives with poor soil and …

In spring 2016 my brother Adam came up from southern California with a 30-inch tall Panache Fig tree from his garden that he transplanted into a 10-gallon pot. The Panache Fig (aka Tiger Fig) has a yellow and green-striped skin with a strawberry-colored flesh. Unlike our Black Mission Fig, the Panache Fig does not have a spring crop. Because it …

Cuphea hyssopifolia, commonly called Mexican heather, is native from Mexico to Guatemala. It is a rounded, densely branched 1-2’ tall tropical sub-shrub. It produces quaint, small, trumpet-shaped flowers with six spreading lavender petals and green calyx tubes. Flowers appear singly in the leaf axils along stems crowded with lance-shaped glossy green leaves (to 3/4” long). Blooms profusely summer to frost. …

The scientific name for daylily is Hemerocallis. The word Hemerocallis is derived from two Greek words meaning “beauty” (callos) and “day” (hemera), referring to the fact that each flower lasts only one day. To make up for this, there are many flower buds on each daylily flower stalk, and many stalks in each clump of plants, so, the flowering period …

Astilbe flowers have their tall, fluffy plumes that tower above frilly, fern-like foliage in the shade garden. These attractive flowers make great companions for other shade-tolerant plants, such as hosta and hellebores, with contrasting foliage and coordinating blooms. Twenty-five species of Astilbe exist, with hundreds of hybrids available. Some are borne on arching stems, while others are erect. Astilbe flowers …

Grape Hyacinth is one of the first spring flowers and has a great fragrance. The first time you plant them should be in November. The plants naturalize (meaning that the next year’s flowers are the same). Severe poisoning from hyacinth or tulip poisoning is often seen when dogs dig up freshly planted bulbs or having access to a large bag …