Nora Harlow Archives - Summer-Dry | Celebrate Plants in Summer-Dry Gardens

19 01, 2025

Ericas for Mild-Winter Summer-Dry Climates

Ericas for Mild-Winter Summer-Dry Climates

Nora Harlow2025-01-19T18:48:48-08:00Categories: Blog, shrubs, Climate, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, shrubs, climate|

So, your summers are reliably dry, warm to hot, and sometimes, if only briefly, scorching. Your winters are usually wet and chilly but sometimes, briefly, icy cold. Years of drought and winter downpours both are common. Your soil is partly or mostly clay. Can you grow ericas? The short answer is maybe. Ericas from South Africa in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Mendocino County, California Ericas are native to a long but fairly narrow band from Norway south to Portugal, Spain, and northern Morocco, east to Turkey and Lebanon, and south to the southernmost tip of Africa.

18 12, 2024

Babianas

Babianas

Nora Harlow2024-12-18T06:11:27-08:00Categories: Blog, perennials, Nora Harlow, bulbs|Tags: nora harlow, perennials, bulbs|

Babianas are deciduous, mostly winter-growing, spring-blooming, bulblike perennials native to southern Africa. Best massed in the garden, these are diminutive plants with an outsized floral effect. Growing naturally on well-drained silts and clays, granite-derived gravels, and rocky or sandy slopes and flats, they need sun, good drainage, fairly mild and moist winters, and a dry summer dormancy. Babiana framesii is native to the mountains of the winter-rainfall northwestern Cape, South Africa. Appearing in mid- to late fall or winter, usually with the first rains, babiana leaves are lance- to sword-shaped, linearly ribbed or corrugated, often softly or

19 11, 2024

Leucospermums

Leucospermums

Nora Harlow2024-11-19T16:05:36-08:00Categories: Blog, shrubs, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, shrubs|

Outside of South Africa, where almost all are endemic, leucospermums are best known for their otherworldly cut flowers. Gardeners in other mild-winter, summer-dry climates likely purchase the flowers without realizing that they might be able to grow them. Leucospermum 'Scarlet Ribbon' (L. glabrum x L. tottum) Most leucospermums are upright, evergreen shrubs or small trees 3-15 feet tall, usually with a single main stem. Some sprawl, much wider than tall, either branching from a single stem or sending up multiple stems from an underground rootstalk. Leaves are linear to oval or wedge-shaped, thick and somewhat leathery, usually

14 10, 2024

Pineapple Guava

Pineapple Guava

Nora Harlow2024-10-16T04:32:27-07:00Categories: Blog, shrubs, Nora Harlow, plant names|Tags: nora harlow, shrubs, plant names|

Pineapple guava may hold the record for the longest lasting resistance to a plant name change, a resistance recently rewarded with a reinstatement of the original name of Feijoa sellowiana. This evergreen, subtropical South American shrub or small tree was given that name in 1859, renamed Acca sellowiana in 1941, and returned to its original name in 2019. Many gardeners and horticulturists --along with much of the nursery industry-- never made the switch. Pineapple guava (Feijoa sellowiana) pruned as a small multitrunk tree Feijoa sellowiana has thick, leathery, elliptical leaves, glossy dark green on the upper surface

16 09, 2024

Chilean Myrtle

Chilean Myrtle

Nora Harlow2024-09-18T17:54:37-07:00Categories: Blog, trees, Climate, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, trees|

Luma apiculata, sometimes known as Chilean myrtle, is a small to mid-sized, usually multitrunk or low-branching, evergreen tree. Leaves are small, leathery, dark green, and broadly oval with a short, acutely pointed tip. Bark is smooth and grayish tan, turning cinnamon brown with age and peeling to reveal patches of white beneath. Masses of fragrant, creamy white, mid-summer flowers with showy, brushlike, pinkish white stamens are followed by edible, purplish black berries in fall. Limbed up and out of flower, trees can resemble a manzanita or a madrone, to which they are not related. Luma apiculata is

27 08, 2024

The Chilean Puyas

The Chilean Puyas

Nora Harlow2024-08-27T08:22:53-07:00Categories: Blog, Climate, Nora Harlow|Tags: great plants, climate|

Puyas (Puya species) typically are described as native to the Andes Mountains of South America and for the most part this is true. Almost all of the 200-plus species of spiny-leaved, rosette-forming puyas are found in moist to dry habitats at mid- to high elevations of the South American Andes. Puyas blend well with the textures and colors of many other summer-dry plants. Two puyas are native to the wet mountains of Costa Rica and the distribution of several others extends eastward into the rainforests of Brazil. Seven puyas are native primarily to low elevations of central

15 06, 2024

Roses for Summer-Dry Climates

Roses for Summer-Dry Climates

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:38:04-07:00Categories: Blog, Water, Nora Harlow, roses|Tags: nora harlow, roses, drought tolerant|

My grandmother, the wife of a southern California orange rancher, grew dozens of roses on a sizable plot set aside solely for this purpose and planted in grid formation like an orchard. I don’t know how much water she gave them, but in good water years, when the sluice gates were open for the citrus trees, I imagine she had access to plenty. In dry years, with the cash crop at risk, the roses likely received little or none. 'Madame Isaac Pereire', a fragrant, repeat-blooming, 19th century Bourbon rose Experienced gardeners know that many old roses can