Tag Archives: Spring

Ornamental cabbage and kale are in the same species, Brassica oleracea, as edible cabbages and kale. They are the result of hybridizing and, although they are still edible, they aren’t as tasty and tender as their cousins. Although sometimes referred to as flowering cabbages, it’s the leaves that give the plants their color and interest as ornamentals.

Viola “Whopping Purple Whiskers”Huge, 2.5″ across, intensely whiskered blooms of velvety purple and white! Free flowering over a long period of time (deadheading extends it even more) on a compact form, 9″ tall and 10″ across. Wonderful in pots. Rich soil for amazing show! Edible!

A rare member of the Iris family with such unusual colored flowers – sky-blue-flushed light lavender. The anthers are bright purple against a soft white throat. To 2” across, the Iris like flowers face outwards atop upright 12-20” stems and they just keep coming May till September – at least. Slender Iris-like foliage is evergreen for us here in USDA …

Noted for its pleasant mint scent, Monardella villosa (Coyote Mint) is a small perennial forming a bushy mound of oval-shaped, soft, light fuzzy grayish-green leaves. They are topped by a profusion of small, bright lavender or pink flowers in dense spherical flower heads from late spring to alate summer. Nectar-rich, the blossoms are attractive to insects, especially bees and butterflies. …

This pretty and tough evergreen groundcover is one of the most versatile, hard-working plants going! Lovely bluish-purple, open-faced, funnel-shaped 1-2” flowers appear in late Spring and continuing nonstop well into the Fall. Not invasive like some annual “Morning Glories”, this Mediterranean sun-lover needs little water once established. Forms a low, dense, vining mat of foliage 3’ across that helps with …

This charming, fragrant groundcover hails from Greece. Masses of 3/4” two-lipped mauve flowers appear in late Spring and continue well into Fall! The bee-attracting flowers exude a honey scent while the oblong silvery-green leaves offer a pleasing woodsy fragrance. Like most Teucriums, this “Gray Creeping Germander” is a tough little guy, managing very well with little water and poor soil, …

Hundreds of well displayed, exotic, bearded, 2″ flowers jut out on prominent stems up and down the numerous upright stalks almost year round with the heaviest bloom occurring in Summer and Fall, with plenty of blooms continuing thru Winter. Pretty, evergreen, linear foliage. Can be cut back to 2′ tall in Winter to contain growth. Hummingbird heaven! Lobelia aguana, a …

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella damascena) is a charming old-fashioned annual in the buttercup family (Ranunculaceae) that blooms in spring and early summer. One of about 15 species in the genus Nigella, love-in-a-mist is native to southern Europe and northern Africa. In its native habitat, this plant grows in fields, along roadsides, and in rocky or waste ground. The genus name Nigella comes …

Lobelia erinus “Fountain Blue”xThis variety of Lobelia has masses of graceful, tumbling pink half-inch flowers. It softens the edge of the garden container as well as hanging baskets and window boxes. Blooms forever it seems and often lives over here in USDA Zone 8b, and always self-sows to grace your gardening world every year. Use rich soil for prettiest show! …

Floriferous, fast and easy it’s amazing this South African annual isn’t more popular in the trade and with garden designers. Quickly growing to 15” tall and wide, it explodes into a mass of sunny, golden blooms that last for months. With a rich, shiny maroon ring encircling the central golden eye, the 2.5” flowers are eye-fetching held atop the rich …