Starting in August 2005 we will be keeping back issues of the newsletter online. Click here for an index
Holiday Schedule We will be closed the following days: November 24th and 25th December 19th through Jan 2nd. We will be open again on Tuesday, January 3rd, 2006. Please note: During the winter we are only open 8:00 - 4:00 Monday-Friday
Bush Germander Teucrium fruticans ‘Azureum’
Here is another great plant for fall and winter. It has beautiful silver foliage and electric blue flowers. This shrub for sun takes shearing well and gives you color all year, especially winter. Unpruned, it can reach 4’ tall or higher.
Cyclamen
Red Cyclamen are still in good supply.
More Winter Color
Primulas are available in 4” and 1g. We have the low growing Danova series and the taller Pacific Giants series. Both of these will bloom all fall and winter in full sun. Keep them fertilized and deadheaded
Candytuft
One of the whitest flowers you can find is Iberis ‘Alexander’s White’. This low growing perennial is tough, drought tolerant and easy to care for. It blooms in winter, a time of year when few other things do. We have good quantities available now.
Salvia ‘Annie’ Blooming Now
We grow several hybrids of Salvia greggii or Autumn Sage. ‘Annie’ is a new one for us. The flowers are a rich coral-pink with a touch of white in the throat. Salvia greggii is resistant to drought and deer. Grow in sun or light shade. 2’x 2’.
Blue Potato Vine
Everyone’s familiar with the white potato vine, but a little less common is Solanum crispum ‘Glasnevin’. This shrubby vine blooms and looks great in winter unlike the white one. It has clusters of purple-blue flowers with perfectly contrasting yellow stamens. Grow in semi-shade.
Nemesias
A good source of fall flowers is Nemesia. There have been sensational developments in this genus recently. The Sunsatia series has blended the sunset colors of annual nemesias with the longevity of perennial nemesias. The best of this series are:
Sunsatia Peach: Peachy-yellow, pink and white.
Sunsatia Mango: Similar to ‘Peach’, but with more yellow and less pink.
Sunsatia Raspberry: Deep raspberry-pink with yellow centers.
These are the sturdiest of the Sunsatia group with yummy colors and bushy habit. There is also the incredibly popular Bluebird. This variety is long blooming and has a great blue-purple flower. All nemesias need good drainage and full sun. Excellent in pots.
Bergenia ‘Red Beauty’ It seems that many people have strong feelings about various plants based on how they feel about their grandmothers. “Oh, I love (or hate!) that plant!”, they say. “My Grandma had it in her garden!” Bergenia is a classic grandma plant. Its fleshy, bright green, shiny leaves add a bold texture to a shady flowerbed with ferns and hellebores. ‘Red Beauty’ has deep rosy-red flowers and a reddish tint to its leaves in winter. It tolerates a wide variety of soils and poor drainage. It is perfect for an old- fashioned garden or a bold modern design. But how did it get the common name Pigsqueak? Rubbing two leaves together makes a funny little squeaking sound.
Long Lived Daisy
You may have had the experience of planting marguerite daisies and finding they decline after three years or so. A similar plant that has a longer lifespan is Euryops pectinatus viridis. These sunny yellow daisy shrubs are quite common but with good reason. They are sturdy and long-lived and they bloom in the winter.
We also have two new varieties of Euryops:
Euryops virgineus, Honey Euryops, with masses of tiny yellow flowers and bushy habit.
Euryops ‘Purfled’, Variegated Euryops, with yellow daisy flowers and attractive white-edged leaves. We’re not sure how big it gets but the published height of 12 inches seems a little short. Let us know what your experience is. The name comes from the term “purfle” which means to decorate a border. It is often used when referring to the decorations around the sound hole of a guitar or mandolin. It is pronounced like “purpled” except with an “f.” We have a small crop of 5 gallons now.
Winter Foliage
One way to get color in the winter is to depend on foliage instead of flowers. Some possibilities are:
Helichrysum petiolare – There are three forms of this vigorous perennial for semi-shade. The plain form is solid gray, Limelight is a creamy chartreuse and Variegatum has a creamy variegation. These are great fillers for beds and pots.
We love our Fancy Leaf Pelargoniums. They give so much color, even when they are not blooming. They can be grown indoors or out. One trick is to grow them in shade. The leaves tend to be smaller and cupped in too much sun. With less light they grow big and flat and show off their kaleidoscope leaves. Try them in pots. Click here for a link to a page naming all the varieties we grow.
