Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates is now available.
Click here to learn more

25 02, 2021

Rosemary

2021-03-23T20:17:06-07:00Categories: Blog, Garden Plants, shrubs|Tags: , |

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,

28 07, 2017

Peeling Bark

2021-03-16T17:50:05-07:00Categories: Blog, trees|Tags: , , |

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

2021-04-20T19:33:17-07:00Categories: Blog, Nora Harlow, shrubs|Tags: |

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

18 02, 2017

Pittosporums

2021-04-20T19:50:06-07:00Categories: Blog, Nora Harlow, shrubs|Tags: , |

Pittosporums are a large group of tough and adaptable evergreen shrubs or smallish trees native to subtropical and tropical Australasia, Africa, and Asia and grown in warm temperate climates throughout the world.  Most are fairly fast growing in full sun to part shade in any reasonably fertile soil with decent drainage and little to moderate moisture.  All bear small, fragrant, late spring or summer flowers in clusters at the ends of stems followed by conspicuous fruits with bright orange seeds. Several species and quite a few cultivars are commonly found in the nursery trade. Pittosporum crassifolium leaves and flowers

6 01, 2017

Pacific wax myrtle

2017-04-17T22:55:30-07:00Categories: Blog, California Native, shrubs|Tags: , |

Myrica californica as a tall privacy hedge Pacific wax myrtle (Myrica californica) is a tall, dense evergreen shrub, perfect as a backdrop for any garden large enough to accommodate it.  Fast-growing, adaptable, and good looking year round, this is a fine choice for informal hedges, windbreaks, and privacy screens. You will hear that Pacific wax myrtle can be sheared as a formal hedge, but don’t do it. Shearing destroys the natural grace of the glossy green leaves, which are long and narrow, softly serrated, and elegantly displayed on multiple upright stems. If you find its height of 12

24 10, 2016

Carpenteria

2017-04-17T22:59:59-07:00Categories: Blog, California Native, shrubs|Tags: , |

Carpenteria californica Gardeners who relish a bit of a challenge and delight in a smashing success probably already grow California’s native bush anemone (Carpenteria californica).This is a connoisseur’s plant, elegant and refined virtually year round and seasonally extravagant in its flowering. Where it is happy — and there’s the catch — it is surprisingly easy to grow. This splendid multi-stemmed shrub is grown mostly for its impressive early to midsummer display of large, glistening white, lightly fragrant, simple but showy flowers with bright yellow stamens. Carpenteria is evergreen, with long, narrow, somewhat leathery, dark green leaves that are

3 07, 2016

Hesperaloe

2016-09-27T19:47:48-07:00Categories: Blog, perennials|Tags: |

Hesperaloe parviflora Hesperaloe parviflora is a handsome architectural plant, as effective singly in large pots as in mass plantings geometrically arranged in the ground.  It is equally pleasing in a naturalistic mixture of succulents, grasses, or other dry-garden plants. An evergreen plant with long, narrow, gracefully arching foliage, hesperaloe grows three to four feet tall and spreads six or more feet wide by rosettes so closely spaced that they seem to be part of the same plant.  The leathery dark green leaves are spineless with distinctive white threadlike fibers along the margins.  Sprays of pink or pinkish coral

Go to Top