Blog Archives - Page 9 of 15 - Summer-Dry | Celebrate Plants in Summer-Dry Gardens

16 03, 2021

Learning to Love Lomandras

Learning to Love Lomandras

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:32-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, perennials|Tags: nora harlow, perennials|

I long resisted the siren call of lomandras as these evergreen, grasslike plants increasingly appeared in highly regimented commercial landscapes and city medians. They are, after all, decidedly not native to North America's Pacific coast, the flower spikes are often disturbingly spiny-looking and messily ungrasslike, and the most commonly seen lomandras can seem too perfect in both form and color to be real. Lomandra longifolia Watching these plants develop into full form over several years, I searched for incipient tendencies to spread, to flop, or to lose their attractive form or color. Nowhere did they change much over

25 02, 2021

Rosemary

Rosemary

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:32-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, shrubs|Tags: nora harlow, shrubs|

In our continual search for new and unusual plants for our gardens we tend to forget, or to reflexively dismiss, the old, reliable standbys. Rosemary needs no care, has no "down" season, and can last for decades. It is quite content to play a supporting role in any garden scheme and it comes in varied heights and habits. Salvia rosmarinus Prostratus Group cascades over walls There are prostrate or cascading rosemaries as well as upright forms of many sizes. Flower color varies from pale or bright blue to pinkish lavender or even almost white. The fine-textured, intensely fragrant,

16 02, 2021

Wildland Invaders and Garden Thugs

Wildland Invaders and Garden Thugs

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:27-07:00Categories: Blog, weeds, Nora Harlow|Tags: nora harlow, invasive plants|

Plants that readily establish themselves in wildlands, on vacant city lots, and along rural roadsides typically are adapted to a wide range of environmental conditions. They are long lived, self-sow readily, and produce many flowers over a long season. Some bear abundant crops of fruit loved by birds and other wildlife. In other words, some of the same sorts of plants we seek out for our gardens are those most likely to take over and spread. Echium candicans, Pride of Madeira, in a California garden Most plants are not invasive in wildlands or even weedy in gardens. Many

27 01, 2021

The Many Faces of Summer-Dry

The Many Faces of Summer-Dry

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:26-07:00Categories: Blog, Climate|Tags: nora harlow, climate|

Summer-dry climates are not dry climates. They are climates where rain falls mostly in winter. This is not a common arrangement. In most of the world, rain falls in summer or is fairly well distributed year round. Summer-dry climates are usually found on the west coasts of continents in the mid-latitudes where seasonally shifting atmospheric pressure cells block or open up to the jet stream and its storms. The photo above shows a coastal northern California climate in summer. The photo below shows a similar coastal northern California climate in winter or spring. Summer-dry climates vary considerably from one place

8 01, 2021

The Book – Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates

The Book – Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates

summerdry2024-07-03T11:47:30-07:00Categories: Blog, Newsletters|Tags: newsletters|

Do you already know you want to buy an autographed copy ? Click Here. Autographed by Nora and SaxonDo you want to know why you want to own this book (and order from the author direct)? Read on:At its core, Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates encourages gardeners to understand and work in harmony with their region. By choosing naturally occurring, climate-appropriate plants, gardeners can promote healthier ecosystems and make a difference from their own backyards.Working with rather than against the summer-dry climate means reducing impact on water supplies and creating spaces that attract and sustain wildlife. It means taking a step back, letting nature assert itself in the garden,

28 07, 2017

Peeling Bark

Peeling Bark

summerdry2024-06-27T19:26:23-07:00Categories: Blog, trees|Tags: california native, saxon holt, shrubs|

In a not uncommon response to summer-dry heat, a number of trees and shrubs shed their bark in the middle of the summer. Summertime bark break, manzanita (Arctostaphylos) In California, this exfoliation seems to happen almost instantly in madrone (Arbutus menziesii) and many species of manzanita (Arctostaphylos) with great delight to any observer who watches these natives with any regularity. One day a walk in the dry woods, the always beautiful red mahogany bark will be split open, as the bark rolls back and the girth expands just that much more. In manzanita the bark will curl back

26 04, 2017

Oleander

Oleander

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:22-07:00Categories: Blog, shrubs, Nora Harlow|Tags: shrubs|

Nerium oleander Every so often it is worth reconsidering a once wildly popular plant that, apparently for no reason other than overexposure, has fallen completely out of favor. Agapanthus is one of those plants. Oleander (Nerium oleander) is certainly another. Overplanted in housing developments and along freeways in the 1960s and ‘70s, oleanders now seem to be seldom planted except by those who appreciate the dense screening provided by their lush evergreen foliage, their lengthy period of exuberant flowering, and their robust constitution. Oleanders are astonishingly tolerant of drought, reflected heat, wind, salt spray, poor soil, neglect, severe