Flowers

Cyclamen is a great winter-flowering plant that loves light shade. You can grow in indoors or out. The red cyclamen is classic for the winter holidays. In the summer, the foliage dies back and it is stressed by reflected heat (so shade is important).

Lantana is a great landscape plant. It attracts bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds. It is very drought-tolerant once established. Every winter I cut it back to its stumps; every autumn the plant has grown 12 feet wide. Obviously, you can prune it smaller.

Star Jasmine has a wonderful scent in the evening. Our Star Jasmine plants grow in a 24-inch wide trench on the side of the driveway. They get afternoon sun. They handle drought. They handle no fertilizers. They are 40 years old. I have to keep pruning them to prevent them from growing up the wall. Like all jasmines (Star, Chilean, …

Long-blooming, scented, drought tolerant & snail & deer resistant, this flamboyant annual from North Africa self-sows too! What more could you want? Butterflies? Yes, butterflies adore it, too! Gobs of bright little scarlet & gold bi-colored “snapdragon” blooms are displayed for months above soft ferny foliage. Cut back after it’s finished blooming & it’ll rebloom quickly & vigorously. To 12” …

Gardeners who enjoy growing Nicotiana, enjoy great, fragrant perfume. It’s a flower that is grown for it’s fragrance. Nicotiana attract hummingbirds to their trumpet shaped flowers. Nicotiana plants are easy to grow. Flowers begin to appear and bloom in the early summer. The plant will rebloom all season. Flowers open up in late afternoon, and are on fragrant display all …

Try growing bee balm in view of a window so you won’t miss the acrobatics of hummingbirds that visit in summer. Bee balm also attracts butterflies and bees.

If you want to cover your fence FAST, the best choice would probably have to be Morning Glories. Morning Glories are very fast growing plants, that depending on the species, may be annual or tender perennial vines with light green, heart shaped leaves. They produce a non-stop show of large, blue, pink, purple, red, or white trumpet shaped, sometimes fragrant …

Cape mallows produce lots of flowers for most of the growing season. The cape mallow (Anisodontea capensis) is an evergreen, shrub-like plant that produces abundant flowers during most of the growing season. The plant does well in sunny locations and makes a nice accent in a border or near a patio. Cape mallows can also make good container plants when …

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 …

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 …