New Pictures as of October 20th, 2010

Bought 35 new plants from Annie's Annuals Today!

Aeonium glandulosum this one doesn't even need soil to grow - I should plant in the rocky area.

Update 7/2011 slug at him all up by the end of spring 2011

Galtonia regalis

Sun-Pt. Sun		Average water
Bulb

The leaves are large & strappy and loved by snails - so pot is best. Grows 3-4’ tall and is from moist Montana cliffs of the Drakensberg area of South Africa. Update 7/2011 snails didn't touch this one - looks great when blooming in the spring otherwise boring.

Helleborus argutifolius ‘Silver Lace’
“Corsican Hellebore”

Pt.Sun/Shade

Low/Avg.water

Cold hardy once established
2-3’ tall & eventually spanning 4’ wide, cup shaped chartreuse flowers appear in winter & their calyxes persist for months. Long lived, & hard to kill, they like rich soil & will grow faster if given average water. Update 7/11 - doing great 1' x1' only so far but blooming - so far the snails have left him alone. Planted in the back yard South West side

Leucadendron linifolium

Sun

Low-Avg. Water

Planted at bottom right above the rocks

SUPER-RARE Leucadendron linifolium has silvery-green leaves on many erect branches. Soft & furry when they are young (so fun to pet!) but they become stiffer & smoother as they mature. Spring blooming, silver cone-like flower heads at the end of the branches. Will grow to be 4’ tall & wide. Make sure & plant in well-drained soil with good air circulation. Slightly acidic soil is best. It needs a sunny position, with well-drained (sandy) soil and free air circulation. It tolerates wind, summer drought and winter water logging. Leave it undisturbed. Update 7/11 so far no flower heads but now about 1' x 1'

Briza media "Quaking Grass"

An easy, dependable, all purpose perennial grass that can be used as single specimen or as a beautiful unusual foreground plant. Growing 12-18” tall, it forms dense clumps & bears small heart-shaped florets that emerge an iridescent green from April thru June & turn golden with maturity where they look like little fairy lanterns or the end of rattlesnake tails. The intriguing flower can be added to fresh or dried flower arrangements.

Full Sun

low water

Sphenosciadium capitellatum
“Ranger’s Buttons”

Hard to find in the trade, “Ranger’s Buttons” is a bold & distinct California native perennial. 3’-5’ tall with stout, erect stems, bearing several large (4” across) umbels made of very compact tiny white flowers that look like “buttons” at the ends of hairy branches. The “buttons” change from pinky purple in bud to pure white, then fade to purplish, giving this fine native its special charm. The flowers must secrete sweet nectar because BEES & BUTTERFLIES are constantly hovering about. Valued for its late Summer bloom period, it likes to be placed where it receives regular watering, as it naturally lives near streams & moist meadows. Regular garden watering should be fine.

Known by the common names ranger's buttons, woollyhead parsnip, and swamp whiteheads. It is native to western North America from Idaho through Nevada and California into Baja California. It grows in moist habitat types, such as creeksides and meadows. This is a perennial herb growing from a tuberous root and producing an erect stem easily exceeding a meter tall and sometimes approaching two meters. It is green to nearly white in color and coated in rough hairs. The leaves are divided into several segments which bear widely-spaced leaflets. The leaflets may be intricately divided into small segments. The inflorescence is a whitish compound umbel with many branches each up to 10 centimeters long. The nearly spherical, headlike terminal umbels contain tiny white or purple-tinged flowers.



Drosanthemum speciosum ‘Pele’

Sun		Low water

Fiery flowered super-shrub for the dry garden. It’s long lived, long flowering (heavily in Spring, then off & on through the rest of the year) drought & heat tolerant, deer resistant & LOW MAINTENANCE. Don’t overfeed, overwater, or over-prune & ‘Pele’ will be happy & healthy for a long, long time. This South African hottie will grow 2-3’ tall & 3-4’ wide with time. Update 12/10 Snails got this one - planted it again and they did it again. :(

Festuca rubra
‘Pt. Molate’

Sun-1/2 Day Sun

Avg.-No Sum. Water

Much used & admired as an easy, low care, “lumpy lawn” this locally selected variety of “Creeping Red Fescue” boasts more drought tolerance, a silvery-bluer color & an earlier Winter start of new growth (rather than Spring.) Spreading by underground rhizomes, it makes highly attractive finely bladed clumps to 1’ tall. If left unmowed gives a dense, lush look. Drought tolerant & easy-going, it’s a great California native choice to cover a large area, replace a lawn, fill in a parking strip or used as erosion control for a hillside. Can be mowed. Evergreen & best appearance with some Summer water. Some shade tolerance. Update 7/11 would look better if I cut it back.

Lychnis coronaria
“Rose Champion”

Sun-Bright Shade

low Water

THIS is the old-fashioned “Crown Pink” or “Rose Champion”. Bright magenta 1” flowers are borne on long stalks above attractive, wooly white foliage,
Spring thru Summer bloom. EASY! It does well in bright shade. Grows 1-2' tall. Poor soil OK. Looks great combined with Geranium 'Bill Wallis'. Reseeds! Update 7/11 Bloomed forever! It is now at the end of its life but what a life it was!

Euphorbia rigida

Sun-Part Sun

Low water

This is one of my favorite Euphorbias – plus it’s a cinch to grow! The foliage of Euphorbia rigida is a beautiful blue-green & consists of pointy leaves spiraling around upright stems. The flowers, which occur in late Winter through Spring, are a cheerful lime green that contrasts nicely with the blue foliage. The plant grows to about 2’ tall & 3’ wide. After the flowers are spent prune out old stems to make way for the new growth. Be careful not to get the milky sap on your skin, as it can be irritating, but that same milky sap makes it a great deer resistant plant! From areas of the Mediterranean.