Tag Archives: perennial

Gaura is a pretty summer-blooming plant for your Sunnyvale garden. As the flowers bob in the wind, they remind you of butterflies. Gaura is commonly grown as an ornamental plant. It is used in either garden beds or pots for accent colour and a delicate texture. It grows best in full sun and can survive lengthy periods of drought.There are many …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2020 are Hen-and-chicks (Sempervivum tectorum ‘greenii’). This succulent forms a mat of rosettes, each 4″ across and only 2″ tall, in a lovely shade of blue-gray with each leaf tipped in deep red. Our plant was purchased from Annie’s Annual in Richmond. Older rosettes produce short stems of pink, narrow-petalled blossoms and then die, …

Another new flower for our Sunnyvale Garden in 2020 are Pinkladies. Pinkladies (Oenothera speciosa) has masses of fragrant, bowl-shaped, satiny flowers. Other common names are evening primrose. We purchased our pinkladies from Summerwinds nursery. The large (2-3 inch wide) flowers open in the evening and remain open until late morning. The flowers age to rose-pink with deeper pink veins. They …

California Fuchsia (Zauschneria x cana ‘Calistoga Hybrids’) is a ground covering California native with large number of flowers that smother showy grey-green leaves on this low-water, low-maintenance, deer resistant, drought tolerant plant. Grown for its broad, grey leaves, low form and boldly colored carmine flowers, California Fuchsia prefer loose drainage, but adapt easily to clay soil. Plants do tend to …

Our Sunnyvale garden has many drought-tolerant plants such as succulents, lavenders, and salvias. Texas Sage ‘Green Cloud’ is a recent purchase from Yamagami Nursery in West San Jose. Texas Sage (Leucophyllum fruitescens) has many common names, including Texas ranger, Texas rain sage, barometer bush, cenizo, silverleaf, and ash-leaf. The plant is not a sage (Salvia ssp.) but it is native …

Oriental lilies are a spectacular and perfumed addition to your summer garden. Growing oriental lily plants is easy with a well-prepared site for bulbs, plenty of sun and good drainage. Some of the most magnificent flowers in the lily family are in this large group of species and cultivars. We originally bought a small bag of bulbs from Yamagami nursery …

Tufted evening primrose (Oenothera caespitosa) is a night bloomer, producing large white flowers that start to open in late afternoon and on into the night. The fragrant blossoms appear to glow in the dark while attracting nighttime pollinators. Once the sun begins to rise, the white blooms fade to a lovely shade of pink that decorates the garden throughout the …

Gaillardia, or Blanket Flower, is an easy to grow, short-lived perennial with richly colored, daisy-like flowers. There are over two dozen species of Gaillardia and most are native to some area of North America. Gaillardia pulchella, which is native from the southeastern U.S. through to Colorado and south into Mexico, was cross-bred with Gaillardia aristata, a prairie flower, to create …

New to our Sunnyvale garden in 2020 is Isotoma ‘Starshine Blue’ Laurentia. It features showy powder blue star-shaped flowers with lavender overtones rising above the foliage from late spring to early fall. Its attractive deeply cut ferny leaves remain dark green in colour throughout the season. Starshine Blue Laurentia is often used as a ‘filler’ in the ‘spiller-thriller-filler’ container combination, …

Alkanet is one of our favorite flowers for late-spring and summer. It is covered with hundreds of deep blue to violet flowers reminiscent of forget-me-nots (Myosotis). It is a magnet for hummingbirds, butterflies, and several types of bees. It is native to the Mediterranean but has been introduced in North America where it has escaped gardens and naturalized in British …