Milkweed is the only food source for Monarch Caterpillars and are a mixture of the best nectaring plants for all butterflies. Natural Bridges State Park is just over the mountains in Santa Cruz and is a major destination of the Monarch butterflies. Known to have some medicinal value as a cough expectorant, the plant’s milky white sap can also cause …

Beauty in a small package: California Creamcup , has a one inch wide flower with six petals which may be pure white or golden or white with large gold spots or gold tips. The center of the flower is filled with a tuftlike cluster of many thick, flattened stamens. The small plant (12×18 inches) may produce hundreds of blossoms. The …

We had average March weather in our Sunnyvale garden: about 8 days of rain but less in volume than February. We still had a lot of flowers: Pea-shrub, orinthogalum, several types of crocus, daffodils, tulips, hyacinths, freesia, armeria, plum, apricot, flowering plum, viola, cyclamen, english daisy, yarrow, bacopa, lavendar. On the vegetable side: cilantro, tomatoes, beet, garlic, rhubarb, chile, basil. …

Another first in 2017 for our Sunnyvale garden: Sea pink. Armeria maritima, commonly called thrift or sea pink, is a compact, low-growing plant which forms a dense, mounded tuft of stiff, linear, grass-like, dark green leaves (to 4″ tall). Tufts will spread slowly to 8-12″ wide. Tiny, pink to white flowers bloom in mid spring in globular clusters (3/4-1″ wide) …

The stunning, brightly colored unusually shaped blooms of the evergreen trailing plant Lotus berthelotii, commonly called parrot’s beak, brings a tropical feel to your garden or landscape. Native to the Canary and Cape Verde Islands off the west coast of Africa, Parrot’s beak is a sun-loving perennial that can be grown as an annual in areas below U.S. Department of …

We grow hyacinth in our Sunnyvale garden most years. Attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds. Flowers are fragrant. This plant is suitable for growing indoors.  The Dutch Hyacinth does best if planted new every year. Hyacinth blooms the first week in March, after the crocus have finished blooming, and right before the tulips start blooming. In 2019 we planted Deep …

Phacelia californica (California scorpionweed) is a central California native. This herbaceous perennial grows to 1-2 feet tall.  Plant in rock gardens or on a slope with good drainage. The common name is because the flowers unfurling from the stalk look like a scorpion’s tail. Less imaginative explanation: it is similar to ferns. The flowers provide an important nectar source for …

Spikes of deep maroon bells create an intriguing focal point in the spring garden. The tall stems are clothed with gray-green leaves, which are attractive in their own right. The Persian fritillary usually requires a season or two to establish itself. There are about 100 to 130 species of bulbous plants in the family Liliaceae, native to temperate regions of …

Freesia is a fragrant pretty spring corm that naturalizes so it comes back year after year. I plant them at the bases of the fruit trees and in containers to provide some of the first blooms and scents of spring.

We had a very wet February in our Sunnyvale garden. But we still had a lot of flowers: Pea-shrub, orinthogalum, several types of crocus, daffodils, armeria, plum, apricot, flowering plum, viola, cyclamen, english daisy, yarrow, lavendar. On the vegetable side: cilantro, tomatoes, beet, garlic, rhubarb, chile, basil. Lots of spring growth: swartzkopf, mulberry, figs, milkweed, foxglove, caesurium, bleeding-heart, lily-of-the-valley, verbascum, …