Tag Archives: Spring

Salvia elegans. This plant is attractive to bees, butterflies and/or birds. Tubular red flowers and lime-green leaves are fragrant with a scent similar to pineapple. Can be grown in a 1-foot deep, 1-foot wide pot. Salvia elegans, commonly called Pineapple sage or Tangerine Sage, is a perennial shrub native to Mexico and Guatemala. It inhabits Madrean and Mesoamerican pine-oak forests …

Fava Beans, called “fave” in Italian (pronounced “fa-vay”), are a centuries-old, archetypal “fast food” that used to be eaten in the fields, sustaining men and women working up to twelve hours in rugged conditions, keeping them going until the long-awaited evening supper.

Bower Vine, Jasmine, Pandorea jasminoides. Pink bower vine  is a fast-growing vine that reaches heights of 20 to 30 feet at maturity. The vine adds color to the landscape all summer, displaying soft pink, bell-shaped blooms with dark pink throats. Thanks to the lush, evergreen foliage, the vine is attractive even when it isn’t blooming. Bower vine is suitable for planting …

Tall Bearded Iris is a great spring flower for Sunnyvale gardens.

The Flowering Plum is the first tree to flower in my Sunnyvale garden (USDA zone 9). In normal years, it flowers mid-February. Also known as cherry plum or myrobalan plum, flowering plum (Prunus cerasifera) is a small to medium-sized ornamental tree native to Asia. Purple-leaved cultivars, such as the popular Thundercloud, are more common in the home landscape than the …

You can’t get any easier to grow than Linaria purpurea. Slender spikes of tiny violet-blue snapdragon-like flowers over narrow, whorled, blue-grey leaves light up many an old garden. Blooms all Summer in full sun or part shade. Fairly drought tolerant once established & it reseeds! To 3’ high & 1’ wide, it looks good in groupings. Native to southeastern Europe.

Attractive, light yellow iris-like flowers with vivid maroon blotches loom on stiff stalks over neat clumps. Fire resistant. Fortnight lily are evergreen perennials with spreading fans of stiff, leathery sword shaped leaves up to 2 ft in length but only 0.75 in wide. Be aggressive in your pruning of them. The upright clumps of leaves are held in a vertical …

Our backyard neighbor had a mature loquat tree. It was about 12 feet tall and 9 feet wide. During the spring thousands of blossoms would flower. Hundreds of bees would swarm. My poor cherry tree flowered at the same time and scarcely a bee would move the 3 feet from the loquat tree to the cherry tree. The loquat fruits …

Lisianthus flowers are native to American prairies. And lisianthus is one of the best cut flowers — it will last in the vase for 2 to 3 weeks. Lisianthus can be challenging to grow. They’re extremely tricky to grow from seed, so start with established seedlings. Plant them in rich, well-drained soil in full sun after all danger of frost …

Grapefruit (Citrus x paradisi ‘Oro Blanco’). Productive. Hardy. Long-lived (my tree is over 40 years old). Can be grown in container or small ground area (mine is in a 24-inch trench).   Family: Rutaceae (roo-TAY-see-ee) (Info) Genus: Citrus (SIT-rus) (Info) Species: x paradisi (par-ih-DEE-see) (Info) Cultivar: Oro Blanco   Category: Edible Fruits and Nuts, Trees, Tropicals and Tender Perennials   …