Tag Archives: Summer

There couldn’t have been a better rose to name after the painter Frida Kahlo, known for her use of bold color and floral elements. This is a vigorous floribunda, so it’ll produce 5-6 roses per cluster and bloom all the way from late spring to early fall. Each petal is its own unique blend of yellow, orange and red hues, …

Bloomerang Purple lilac (Syringa x) is a reblooming lilac. It blooms in spring along with other lilacs, takes a brief rest to put on new growth, then blooms again from mid-summer through fall. A bit smaller than other lilacs, Bloomerang also has a nice, rounded shape that looks great anywhere you plant it in the landscape. Star-like flowers are a …

Lemon Verbena has a citrusy fragrance and a pretty light green foliage. The leaves can be used in a variety of cooking: including limoncello. I grow it in a foot-square patch under a fruit tree It’s an herb with a strong lemon flavor.. Lemon verbena’s flavor is also rounded out by the lack of acidity that comes with lemons, and …

Mexican bush sage (Salvia leucantha) is a beautiful, hardy plant for Alta California. This downy, bushy, evergreen subshrub produces white or purple flowers clasped by soft purple calyces from late summer to frost. It grows 3 feet tall by 3 feet wide, and is great for the border. Salvias are some of the showiest plants for containers, annual borders, and …

The Bhut Jolokia (aka Ghost pepper) is one of the world’s hottest chili peppers. From seed planting to harvest, it takes roughly 160 days for the “Bhut Jolokia” plant to produce mature peppers. Starting seeds indoors 8 to 10 weeks prior to consistent outdoor temperatures of 70 degrees Fahrenheit or warmer will produce starts ready for transplant into the garden …

English Daisies look like tiny daisies. Technically a perennial, English daisy is usually best treated as a biennial (it takes two years to bloom and then dies in the fall) in the South and an annual in the North. Plants survive down to about 10 degrees F so they can be planted in the fall in the South for early-spring …

Salvia guaranitica ‘Black and Bloom’ PPAF An improved earlier blooming version of Black and Blue. Another great Salvia option for the mid to back of borders. Deer resistant and heavy blooming until frost. Feature/Bloom: Dark blue flowers mid-spring to mid-fall Evergreen or Deciduous evergreen USDA Zones Hardy to 10°F USDA Zones 8-10 Special Features: Attracts Pollenators, Deer Resistant, Easy Care, …

Scaveola, or fairy fan-flower, is a tender perennial from eastern Australia. Although it is a relative newcomer to Sunnyvale gardens, scaveola is rapidly gaining converts as a beautifully flowering cascader for hanging baskets and mixed containers. Description of scaveola: Scaveola has rounded basal leaves and narrower stem leaves on prostrate stems that reach only 6 to 8 inches high but …

Coreopsis is an easy to grow perennial that loves full sun and can thrive in many types of soil. These native colormakers range from the familiar sunny yellow variety to a host of eye-catching bicolors. Dependably perennial, these are tough plants that tolerate dry, hot weather and deliver long-lasting blooms. Pollinator-friendly and deer-resistant. Other common names are pot-of-gold and tickseed. …

Easy-care and long-blooming Bidens is easy to recognize in garden beds and borders, as well as container gardens. A cheery annual native to areas of southwestern North America, it features golden-yellow daisy-shaped flowers that continue to appear for weeks. This family of plants earned these names thanks to their clinging seeds, which look something like ticks and stick to clothing …