Among the garden’s most elegant vines, mandevilla offers stunning trumpet-shape flowers in shades of pink, white, or red. It’s the perfect plant for creating a lush, tropical look. Mandevilla is usually grown as an annual, though it can be overwintered indoors in a bright spot. Note: All parts of this plant are poisonous. First planted in 2014. I relocated the …
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The exotic yellow and red blossoms of the gloriosa lily (Gloriosa superba), also known as the glory lily, flame lily and climbing lily, cover the plant’s 3- to 8-foot-tall vine. Native to Africa and Asia, gloriosa lilies are generally available in two colors: the red “Rothschildiana” and yellow “Lutea.” A tender perennial, this tropical vine thrives in the warm summer …
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Formerly known as million bells, calibrachoa is an easy to grow, low-maintenance plant that displays masses of bell-shaped, petunia-like blooms from spring until the first light frost. The blooms cover long, cascading branches that make the plant ideal for containers or hanging baskets. Sun-loving calibrachoa reaches heights of 6 to 10 inches and displays a rainbow of bright colors, depending …
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Petunias are near fail-proof summer annuals. Plant in the ground, containers, or hanging baskets. For continued blooms, cut back one-third to two-thirds midsummer (August).
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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!
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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 …
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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. …
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We have grown Buddleia in containers in our Sunnyvale garden for ten years.The purple flower panicle when it starts blooming in June is very beautiful. Unfortunately for Buddleia, as the year progresses, other flowers and fruits distract us. Buddleja, or Buddleia, commonly known as the butterfly bush, is a genus comprising over 140 species of flowering plants endemic to Asia, …
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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 …
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