Tag Archives: Spring

Freesia is a fragrant pretty spring corm that naturalizes so it comes back year after year. I plant them at the bases of the fruit trees and in containers to provide some of the first blooms and scents of spring.

We had a very wet February in our Sunnyvale garden. But we still had a lot of flowers: Pea-shrub, orinthogalum, several types of crocus, daffodils, armeria, plum, apricot, flowering plum, viola, cyclamen, english daisy, yarrow, lavendar. On the vegetable side: cilantro, tomatoes, beet, garlic, rhubarb, chile, basil. Lots of spring growth: swartzkopf, mulberry, figs, milkweed, foxglove, caesurium, bleeding-heart, lily-of-the-valley, verbascum, …

The Purple Trumpet vine has really benefited from all of our El Nino winter rain in Sunnyvale. The trumpet vine flower is great for attracting hummingbirds to the landscape. The beautiful tubular flowers range in color from yellow to orange or red or purple. Blooming on the trumpet vine plant takes place throughout summer and into fall, though blooming may …

The Watsonia spires and Spanish Lavender are ready for dawn

Walker’s Low Flower, aka Catmint. Catmint is one of the toughest perennials you can grow. It’s a proven performer during hot, dry weather, and the silvery foliage and blue flowers look great most of the season. Deadhead or cut back hard after first flush of bloom to encourage more flowers. Average, well-drained soil is usually sufficient. Tall types may need …

March came in like a wet lion and went out as a warm and dry lamb. The hanging baskets are doing well with their purple and pink Pericallis, multi-colored Primrose, and purple Lantana, surrounded by shorter plants like Bacopa, Lithodora, Pansies and Violas. I have drip-irrigation running to the hanger poles but the plants still require more shade in the …

Freesia is a great spring flower bulb for Sunnyvale gardens. It smells great and has a range of colors: white, red, purple. It naturalizes so you get plenty of flowers forever. It is drought tolerant. https://www.sunnyvalegarden.com/flowers/freesia/

Ranunculus (Ranunculus spp.) adds bright color to the flower garden or bulb border from late winter to early summer. Tender, tuberous perennials, ranunculus grows in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 7 through 9, where they reach a height of 10-to-24 inches tall. Used for bedding and cut flowers, ranunculus is a member of the buttercup family. Pompom-like flowers …

Sparaxis, also known as wandflower or harlequin flower, are colorful members of the iris family with open star-shaped white, orange, lavender, yellow or pink flowers often centered with contrasting symmetrical patterns. The plants are ideal for Sunnyvale gardens as they are hardy to USDA zones 9 through 11 and in zones 7 and 8 with winter protection. In warm-winter zones, …

Daffodils are one of the first signs of spring. Daffodil, (Narcissus pseudonarcissus), also called common daffodil or trumpet narcissus, bulb-forming plant in the amaryllis family, widely cultivated for its trumpetlike flowers. Daffodils are native to northern Europe and are grown in Daffodils naturalize so they reliably come back every spring, often with more bulbs. Don’t eat the daffodils. All parts of …