Floss Flower, Ageratum, has small, fluffy, blue button-like flowers add color all season but especially in the fall. It attracts birds, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It continuously blooms for a long time. No dead heading needed. It is tolerant of heat. It is native to North America. Excellent choice for Sunnyvale gardens.

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2020 is Isotoma ‘Starshine Blue’ Laurentia. It features showy powder blue star-shaped flowers with lavender overtones rising above the foliage from late spring to early fall. Its attractive deeply cut ferny leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season. Starshine Blue Laurentia is often used as a ‘filler’ in the ‘spiller-thriller-filler’ container combination, …

One of the common visitors to our Sunnyvale garden is Bombus vosnesenskii, the yellow-faced bumblebee: A species of bumblebee native to the west coast of North America. It is the most abundant species of bee in this range and can be found in both urban and agricultural areas. Additionally, B. vosnesenskii is utilized as an important pollinator in commercial agriculture, …

Alkanet is one of our favorite flowers for late-spring and summer. It is covered with hundreds of deep blue to violet flowers reminiscent of forget-me-nots (Myosotis). It is a magnet for hummingbirds, butterflies, and several types of bees. It is native to the Mediterranean but has been introduced in North America where it has escaped gardens and naturalized in British …

New to our Sunnyvale garden for 2020 are Seaside Daisies (Erigeron glaucus). Also known as beach aster or beach daisy, seaside daisy plants are flowering California native perennial that grow wild along the Pacific Coast, from Southern California north to Oregon and Washington. This tough little plant is found in rugged environments such as coastal scrub and sand dunes. Seaside …

Voodoo lily plants are perennials known for their unusual foliage;  gigantic size of the flower; and the stink of that flower. The flowers produce a strong, offensive odor similar to that or rotting meat. The smell attracts the flies that pollinate the flowers. The blossom only lasts a day or two. They are native to warm subtropical-to-tropical areas of eastern …

This April we had over 50 types of flowers in our Sunnyvale garden. Fruits: Blackberry, Marionberry, Pomegranate, Lemon, Lime, Tangerine, strawberryLavenders and Salvias: Mexican Sage, French lavender, English lavender, Spanish lavender, Vines: Plumbago, pink bower vine, purple trumpet flower, red trumpet flowerBulbs: Society garlic, blue-eyed grass, bleeding heart, sweet-kate, tulips, bearded-iris, ithuriel’s spearPerennials: 3 varieties of geraniums, monkeyflower, begonia, cuphea, …

Orange Bush Sticky Monkey Flower (Diplaucus aurantiacus) are named for their funny-face-flowers that look like grinning Monkeys. These California native gets its common name from its long and narrow leaves with surfaces coated in a sticky resin. It is a delightful small evergreen shrub growing 2-4 ft. tall that becomes totally covered with colorful tubular orange flowers. This wide ranging …

Feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium) is an attractive landscape plant with masses of one-inch, white, daisy-like flowers with large yellow centers rise on spindly stems above parsley-like leaves. The plant grows anywhere from eight to 24 inches tall and wide. This member of the aster family behaves like an annual in cooler zones, a perennial in some areas, and can be evergreen …

Ladybugs and Ladybug larvae are beneficial insects for your garden because they eat aphids. Ladybugs are known by several other names: lady beetles, ladybug beetles, and ladybird beetles. Regardless of what you call them, these beetles belong to the family Coccinellidae. All ladybugs progress through a four-stage life cycle known as complete metamorphosis. Embryonic Stage (Eggs) The ladybug life cycle …