Tag Archives: annual

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 …

If you’ve sampled a salsa or jam containing these green wonders, you should consider adding tomatillo (toh-mah-tee-yo) plants to your garden. Most years we grow a couple of tomatillo plants along with our tomatoes. Our 2019 tomatillo plants are courtesy of a Sunnyvale garden meetup. Originating in Mexico and Central America, this citrusy plant has been an important food crop …

Alcea rosea, the common Hollyhock, originated in Asia and the area around the Eastern Mediterranean Sea. These stately beauties belong to the Mallow (Malvaceae) family, which includes 1500 different species. Hollyhocks are hardy between USDA zones 3 and 8 (Sunnyvale). How to Grow Hollyhocks Alcea rosea is variously described as a biennial (having a two-year life cycle), as an annual, …

Mums are always popular in the fall. Chrysanthemums were first cultivated in China as a flowering herb as far back as the 15th century BC.[9] Over 500 cultivars had been recorded by 1630.[7] The plant is renowned as one of the Four Gentlemen in Chinese and East Asian art. The plant is particularly significant during the Double Ninth Festival. Chrysanthemum …

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 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 …

During the fall, the garden nurseries are full of mums of all varieties. I plant them in a variety of pots.

You’ve gotta love annual vinca. It will tolerate a wide variety of conditions and still keep it up with almost unreal-looking, glossy green flowers and pretty pink, lavender, or red flowers that look like tiny parasols. LIGHT: Sun TYPE: Annual HEIGHT: 1 to 3 feet WIDTH: 6-16 inches wide FLOWER COLOR: Blue, Pink, Red, White SEASONAL FEATURES: Fall Bloom, Summer …

Much visited by bees, they are so easy and exude the sweetness of Spring with their flowers, form & lovely chocolate scent! Extremely floriferous, you’ll get hundreds of these entrancing, 1/2” light blue or violet flowers, set off by powder-blue stamen & a yellow throat with a dark purple ring at the top. Blooms on bushy, ferny upright stems. Highly …

Transform your baskets, containers and bedding with this superb, top quality annual. Neat, compact mounds absolutely smothered in semi to fully-double pink flowers, gracing your summer garden. Useful for the rock garden or edging borders and excellent for hanging baskets, window-boxes tubs etc. Flowers summer. Height: 20-25cm (8-10in). Spread: 50cm (20in). Ideal For:patio, cottage gardens, wildlife gardens, cut flower garden …