ground covers Archives - Summer-Dry | Celebrate Plants in Summer-Dry Gardens

17 05, 2024

Hummingbird Sage

Hummingbird Sage

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:38:02-07:00Categories: Blog, perennials, California Native, Nora Harlow|Tags: california native, nora harlow, ground covers, perennials|

Blooming from early spring well into summer, hummingbird sage (Salvia spathacea) is an easy and adaptable plant for summer-dry climates. This low, slowly spreading sage accepts sun or shade, almost any reasonably drained soil, and moderate, occasional, or no summer watering. It is an especially good candidate for dry shade. Salvia spathacea in flower in the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden Hummingbird sage is endemic to central and southern California, commonly found in sunny or shaded spots among oak woodland, chaparral, and coastal sage scrub in foothills and valleys not far from the coast. Summer-dormant if grown dry,

16 04, 2024

Salvia x ‘Bee’s Bliss’

Salvia x ‘Bee’s Bliss’

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:38:01-07:00Categories: Blog, groundcovers, Nora Harlow, subshrubs|Tags: nora harlow, ground covers, subshrubs, habitat garden|

The groundcover salvia known as ‘Bee’s Bliss’ has been popular with gardeners and nursery professionals almost since its introduction in 1989 -- and for good reason. With so many excellent salvias in the trade today, there are others that are more powerfully scented or more conspicuously floriferous but few are as accommodating, reliable, and inherently useful in the mostly summer-dry garden. Salvia 'Bee's Bliss' This cultivar was discovered at the University of California Botanical Garden in Berkeley and is believed to be a hybrid of Salvia leucophylla and S. sonomensis (or possibly S. clevelandii). ‘Bee’s Bliss’ stays

16 03, 2024

Ceanothus ‘Valley Violet’

Ceanothus ‘Valley Violet’

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:38:00-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, groundcovers, California Native, Nora Harlow|Tags: california native, nora harlow, ground covers|

If you are looking for a groundcover that blooms reliably and profusely in early spring, looks good year-round with no cutting back, needs little or no supplemental water, is dense enough to keep down weeds, and is generally ignored by deer, you can hardly do better than Ceanothus ‘Valley Violet’. Its only requirements seem to be good drainage and just the right amount of sun. Ceanothus maritimus ‘Valley Violet’ at the University of California, Davis, Arboretum This is a selection of Ceanothus maritimus, which is endemic to coastal hills and bluffs in San Luis Obispo County, California. The

11 09, 2021

Grevillea ‘Austraflora Fanfare’

Grevillea ‘Austraflora Fanfare’

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:30:19-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, groundcovers|Tags: nora harlow, ground covers|

Dozens of grevilleas have moved in and out of the nursery trade over the years, mostly medium to large shrubs and a few mounding groundcovers with needlelike, narrowly oval, or finely divided leaves and intriguing flowers typically described as either "spidery" or brushlike. Grevillea ‘Austraflora Fanfare’ Grevillea 'Austraflora Fanfare' is distinctive for its nearly flat, widespreading habit and its long, dark green leaves deeply lobed in sawtooth fashion. Less than a foot tall and spreading 10-15 feet wide, the dense foliage drapes over walls and cascades down banks, prominently displaying the pinkish red, one-sided, brushlike flowers from late

4 02, 2016

California pipevine

California pipevine

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:26:11-07:00Categories: Blog, groundcovers, vines|Tags: california native, nora harlow, ground covers, perennials, vine|

Aristolochia californica, California pipevine, with chrysalis of pipevine swallowtail butterfly California pipevine (Aristolochia californica) is one of the first plants to flower in my northern California garden, sending forth dozens, no hundreds, of tiny blossoms on leafless stems in mid-winter, after the manzanitas but before flashier plants such as native irises grab center stage. Their appearance, noticed only up close at first, signals the approaching end of winter and fuels my anticipation of full-on gardening weather. The flowers are, to say the least, unusual. They grow more like fruits than flowers, maturing, right before your eyes, from a

23 02, 2015

Dwarf Coyote Brush

Dwarf Coyote Brush

Nora Harlow2024-06-27T19:23:53-07:00Categories: Blog, groundcovers, shrubs|Tags: california native, nora harlow, shrubs, ground covers|

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