Tag Archives: Spring

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 …

February 2016 was warm and dry. There was a lot of weeding. Mostly mustard and grass. Finally, this first weekend in March, the forecast is for heavy rain for the next week. And by heavy I mean two to four inches (which is a lot for Sunnyvale because it averages only 15 inches a year). I refreshed all my hanging …

Cyclamen is a great winter-flowering plant that loves light shade. You can grow in indoors or out. The red cyclamen is classic for the winter holidays. This pink variety is also pretty. In the summer, the foliage dies back and it is stressed by reflected heat (so shade is important). First planted in my Sunnyvale garden: Jan 2016 Garden Nursery: …

The Iceland Poppy is a boreal flowering plant. It is native to subpolar regions of Europe, Asia and North America, and the mountains of Central Asia, but not in Iceland!!!   Iceland poppies are hardy but short-lived perennials, often grown as biennials, that yield large, papery, bowl-shaped, lightly fragrant flowers supported by hairy, one foot, curved stems among feathery blue-green …

Our barrel cactus is flowering! Our barrel cactus in Sunnyvale is 30 years old. It now measures 14 inches wide by 11 inches tall. It started in a 4-inch pot. Echinocactus grusonii, popularly known as the Golden Barrel Cactus is a well known species of cactus, and is endemic to east-central Mexico. The plants do have some basic requirements; an …

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 …

“Queen Fabiola” brodiaea (Brodiaea laxa “Queen Fabiola”) is commonly known as the triplet lily or wild hyacinth. It is also known as Ithuriel’s Spear. This perennial bulb is a native wildflower to California, growing wild in evergreen woodlands. It is found in Edgewood Preserve on the San Mateo County peninsula. Grass-like leaves appear first, followed by clusters of light blue …