Tag Archives: Autumn

Various species within the genus Abutilon, including plants commonly referred to as flowering maple, Chinese lantern, Chinese bell flower and collectively as abutilon, are evergreen shrubs enjoyed for their maple-like leaves and bell-like, pendulous flowers. Hardiness varies by species, but most survive up to U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zone 8 or 9, and some cultivars are grown as …

Bacopa. Sutera cordata. They are annual or perennial, decumbent or erect stemmed plants. The leaves are opposite or whorled,sessile. Leaf blade regular, round to linear, venation palmate or pinnate. Stems hairy or smooth. The flowers are produced solitary or in pairs from leaf axil, usually radially symmetrical, sepals 5, petals 5, usually white, blue or purple in color. Dispersal and propagation is by seeds and stem fragments. Crushed leaves have a distinctive ‘lemon’ scent.

Zinnias bloom in vivid colors from summer until frost, are a snap to grow from seed, and attract birds and butterflies to your Sunnyvale yard. A rainbow of color options. They come in every eye-catching hue except true blue, so you can match them with your favorite perennial or annual flowers, foliage plants, and herbs. A height for every site. …

Carpet Roses need no spraying, no staking and just a simple snipping to shape annually. (I recommend feeding them once or twice a season with time release fertilizer so they have the nutritional resources to produce huge volumes of blooms over the entire growing season.) The Carpet Rose is an excellent low maintenance plant for the Sunnyvale garden.

Dozens of deep purple-blue blossoms in a small package (15″ tall x 20″). Reliably perennial, it happily self-sows to fill in bare spots with its ever-present color. When the flowers are spent (after months), cut back to 1”, side dress with compost & it’ll burst right back into bloom. BEST in rich soil & half day sun, but not required. …

A blast of dense, vertical spikes that bloom for months in our mild climate – & then blooms again! Veronica longfolia “Vernique” is a hybrid version of this essential cottage perennial. It rises to 2 feet tall and 2 feet wide across bearing rich, purple, 6” spikes from late Spring to July, attracting mobs of butterflies, bees & hummers! Cut …

There couldn’t have been a better rose to name after the painter Frida Kahlo, known for her use of bold color and floral elements. This is a vigorous floribunda, so it’ll produce 5-6 roses per cluster and bloom all the way from late spring to early fall. Each petal is its own unique blend of yellow, orange and red hues, …

Bloomerang Purple lilac (Syringa x) is a reblooming lilac. It blooms in spring along with other lilacs, takes a brief rest to put on new growth, then blooms again from mid-summer through fall. A bit smaller than other lilacs, Bloomerang also has a nice, rounded shape that looks great anywhere you plant it in the landscape. Star-like flowers are a …

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) is a beautiful, hardy plant for Alta California. This downy, bushy, evergreen subshrub produces white or purple flowers clasped by soft purple calyces from late summer to frost. It grows 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide, and is great for the border. Salvias are some of the showiest plants for containers, annual borders, and …

English Daisies look like tiny daisies. Technically a perennial, English daisy is usually best treated as a biennial (it takes two years to bloom and then dies in the fall) in the South and an annual in the North. Plants survive down to about 10 degrees F so they can be planted in the fall in the South for early-spring …