Stokesia laevis, commonly known as Stokes’ aster, is native to wetlands, bottomlands, wet pinewoods, savannas and ditches in the southeastern US. It is an evergreen perennial. This flower is new to our Sunnyvale garden for 2019. Purchased from the Annie’s Annual collection at Yamagami Garden Nursery in Cupertino. This particular cultivar, ‘Omega Skyrocket’, features fluffy, cornflower-like, violet blue flowers (3-4 …

New for 2019 in our Sunnyvale garden, Zinnia ‘Benary’s Giant Wine’ features rounded, fully double flowers packed with wine-red petals and opening up to 6 inches across. As the flower matures, a circle of small golden stars surrounds its center disk. Resembling dahlias, they are borne on very long sturdy stems. Blooms early summer to frost. We purchased our seedling …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2019: Liriope muscari ‘Royal Purple’, commonly called lilyturf or blue lily turf, a tufted, tuberous-rooted, grass-like perennial which typically grows 12-18″ tall and features clumps of strap-like, arching, glossy, dark green leaves (to 1″ wide). ‘Royal Purple’ is most noted for its attractive grass-like foliage and deep purple flowers. I plan to integrate it …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2019 is Clerodendrum ugandense (aka Butterfly Bush). Note: There are over a dozen different plants with the common name of Butterfly Bush. Clerodendrum is an open, evergreen shrub reaching 6 to 10 feet tall by 6 feet wide with 4 inch long dark green glossy leaves. From spring through fall appear the delicate and …

Scotch bonnet is a variety of chili pepper named for its resemblance to a Scottish tam o’ shanter hat. It is native to West Africa. Most Scotch bonnets have a heat rating of 80,000–400,000 Scoville units. For comparison, most jalapeño peppers have a heat rating of 2,500 to 8,000. This is a pepper I had not grown before in our …

What to do when you have more figs that you can eat? Make preserves. We have two fig trees in our Sunnyvale garden. One is a Black Mission Fig growing in a 66 gallon pot. The other is a Panache Fig (aka Tiger Fig). This is the first time for trying this recipe. The ingredients are simple enough: Figs, lemon …

In 2019 we planted 8 types of melons (including Honey Rock) in our Sunnyvale garden. For Christmas, Marie had given me a ‘Fruit pack’ of seeds. The Honey Rock melons are up to six inches in diameter with a tough, coarsely netted skin and sweet, flavorful salmon colored flesh. The plants are vigorous, producing five to seven fruits per plant …

Stuffed bell peppers, like fritattas, are another of those Anything-Goes recipes. The base is cooked rice, tomatoes, veggies, and cheese. Optionally add ground beef, beyond-beef, beans, corn, or tofu. Season it for any cuisine. Sometimes it is Italian (oregano, basil); Indian (curry, garam masala); or Mexican (cumin, mexican oregano). Many of these ingredients are harvested from our Sunnyvale garden in …

Equisetum (horsetail, snake grass, scouring-rush, puzzlegrass) is the only living genus in Equisetaceae, a family of vascular plants that reproduce by spores rather than seeds. Native to North America. Equisetum hyemale is a vigorous evergreen perennial with a striking vertical habit with multiple bamboo-like dark green stems arranged in dense clumps. Each stem has vertical ridges and is jointed or …

July’s garden is full of sunflowers, ripening vegetables and fruit. We were out of town for a few weeks so the garden was on its own — with some help from the extensive drip irrigation.