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noraharlow

About Nora Harlow

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So far Nora Harlow has created 101 blog entries.
26 08, 2015

Epimedium

2024-06-27T19:25:20-07:00Categories: Blog, perennials|Tags: , |

Epimedium x rubrum Dry shade is said to be difficult for gardeners. But shade, even deep shade, provides singular opportunities not available to those who garden in hot sun. Epimediums are a carefree, long-lived, and distinguished choice for dry shade.  Their oval to heart-shaped leaves are outstanding combined with shade-tolerant plants such as strap-leaved irises, lacy ferns, or cool-season grasses such as fescues. Once established, many epimediums will get by happily with little to no summer water in part to full shade.  They compete well with tree roots where other plants fail. If cut back in winter, they

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16 07, 2015

Heuchera

2024-06-27T19:25:20-07:00Categories: perennials|Tags: |

Heuchera maxima (Island Alum Root, Coral Bells) flowering along garden path My deer do not read the deer-resistant plant lists.  I’m on the deer highway, with six-point bucks, full-grown does, charmingly spotted fawns, and yearlings almost 24/7 year round.  In summer the adults lie down under my ancient apple tree, full as a tick after gorging themselves on fallen apples.  In the middle of the day they watch me, with appropriate caution but no fear, as I work around them. I mention this because heucheras, one of my favorite perennials for dryish shade, are found on many deer-resistant

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10 06, 2015

Epilobium

2024-06-27T19:25:19-07:00Categories: perennials|Tags: , |

Epilobium septentrionale 'Select Mattole' (California Fuchsia) silver gray foliage native groundcover in flower with Arctostaphylos It’s curious that some scientific plant names can be changed and no one seems to mind, while other changes are heartily resisted by gardeners as well as by many plant book authors and nurseries. California fuchsias were known and grown for so long as Zauschneria, their former scientific name, that it took years for some people to call them by their current scientific name, Epilobium, in part perhaps because zauschnerias are horticulturally so different from other epilobiums, or fireweeds. A variable group of

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14 05, 2015

Echium candicans

2024-06-27T19:25:19-07:00Categories: Blog, shrubs|Tags: , |

Echium candicans (aka. E. fastuosum) (Pride of Madeira) flowering along dirt path in summer-dry waterwise garden At its most luxuriant in mid to late spring is Echium candicans.  Hailing from Madeira and the Canary Islands, this magnificent plant has spread into wildlands and untended landscapes in some coastal California areas and is sometimes mistaken for a native. Big, bold, and fast-growing, this ultimately massive shrub can overwhelm a small urban backyard at maturity, but if you’ve got the space and appreciate vegetative drama, this is a plant worth considering. E. candicans grows quickly to six or eight feet

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31 03, 2015

Matilija Poppy

2024-06-27T19:25:18-07:00Categories: Blog, perennials|Tags: , |

You will hear that Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri) is hard to start and hard to stop, and to some extent this is true.  But if you plant this magnificent California native from one-gallon cans in late fall or early winter, and the spot you choose has excellent drainage (hillsides, mounds, raised beds), you should have self-sustaining plants by the second year. Plant carefully without disturbing the roots.  Water thoroughly at planting and weekly through the first summer.  The huge (4-6 inches across) white, crepe-papery flowers with bright yellow stamens each last about a week and then cleanly drop all their

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3 03, 2015

What’s in a Name ?

2024-06-27T19:25:17-07:00Categories: grasses|Tags: , |

Berkeley Sedge got its name from an unlabeled, neglected plant in a Berkeley nursery It is oddly disconcerting when a singular plant, long believed to be a California native, turns out to hail from some other part of the world. One such plant is Berkeley sedge.  This bright green grasslike plant was formerly known and grown as Carex tumulicola, a sedge native to California and other parts of the Pacific Coast. Some years ago Berkeley sedge was discovered to be a form of Carex divulsa, which is native to Europe and western Asia.

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23 02, 2015

Dwarf Coyote Brush

2024-06-27T19:23:53-07:00Categories: Blog, groundcovers, shrubs|Tags: , , , |

In the world of living plants and landscapes there is no equivalent of the little black dress – the absolutely carefree plant that goes anywhere with the right accessories – but this has never stopped us from looking for one.  Nor has it stopped us from believing we’ve found such a plant, from embracing it with too much enthusiasm and then rejecting it outright when it fails to live up to impossible expectations, moving on to the next high fashion. Nowhere is this trend more obvious than in our vain attempts to completely cover the ground.  In the 1960s we

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