Soquel Nursery Growers Newsletter

We Welcome Kevin Lippson
Our New General Manager

Kevin Lippson has been in the nursery business for over 24 years. He has come to us from Northeast Nursery in the
Boston, MA. While employed there, Kevin did everything from managing the Retail Nursery to purchasing, to
coordinating the construction of their new Wholesale Distribution Center. This is a 20-acre facility with a 30,000
square foot store catering exclusively to landscapers and other contractors. Also, for a 2-year period, Kevin
worked for Brinton's Home and Garden in Carmel. He returned to Northeast Nursery in 2003, knowing that one day,
he would come back to California. He is thrilled to be with Soquel Nursery and looks forward to helping the
business to grow and many prosperous years.

Glorious Grasses
Mix some of our grasses into your flowerbeds. The linear element and subtle coloring of grass accentuates the
colors of flowers the way eyeliner brings out the beauty of the eye. Never underestimate the importance of
texture in a landscape design. Wispy, bristly, feathery, shaggy, shiny…you can have lots of fun mixing and
matching grasses with shrubs. We have grasses with soft moplike shapes, bold upright shapes, and everything in
between. We have little grasses for a California-style cottage garden and great big grasses for bold effects and
fast-growing screens. See our Grass P age for details and our Availability Page for what’s ready this week.

Rudbeckias

Sunny and golden, carefree and easy…No flower says “Summer” like Rudbeckia, also known as Gloriosa Daisy
or Black Eyed Susan. These are all hybrids of Rudbeckia hirta, a short-lived perennial often grown as an
annual. They thrive in many climates and soil types. They bloom for months and months and make wonderful cut
flowers. Grow in full sun with moderate water.

New this year: ‘Cordoba’: Deep orange single flowers with golden tips and dark brown centers. Compact
mounding habit to 20” x 20”.
‘Indian Summer’: Huge golden yellow flowers with dark brown centers. 40” tall.
‘Irish Eyes’: Single yellow flowers with unique green center. 18” tall.
‘Maya’: Pom-pom double yellow flowers on dwarf stems to 20” tall.
‘Prairie Sun’: Unique and striking flower with green center and petals that are dark yellow at the base and
pale yellow at the tips. 32” tall.
‘Sonora’: Yellow and burgundy flowers with dark brown centers. 18” tall.

Cordoba

Indian
Summer

Irish Eyes

Maya

Prairie Sun

Sonora

Omphalodes cappadocica ‘Lilac Mist’

Omphalodes is a darling little woodland plant with the
cute common name of Navelwort. The seeds have a navel-
like shape. If you like the flowers of Forget-me-Not
(Myosotis) but dislike its weedy appearance and invasive
habits, Omphalodes is the plant for you. It forms a tidy
6” x 1’ mound of glossy dark green leaves and dainty
sprays of pale lilac-blue flowers. Give it partial or full
shade and moderate water. Omphalodes ‘Lilac Mist’ is
new for us this year. We think it will become a favorite.

Beam in Some Beauty

The lovely Coreopsis verticillata ‘Moonbeam’ is available now. It forms a billowy 18” x 18” cloud of dark
finely textured leaves. The cool-yellow flowers of this coreopsis combine beautifully with pink and blue.
Try it with pink Penstemon mexicale and blue Salvia patens. For a bold and intriguing textural contrast,
plant it with pink Sedum ‘Autumn Joy’ and yellow and white Verbascum chaixii. Because it’s deciduous,
it’s important to mark the planting spot so you don’t forget it’s there in the winter. Grow in full sun with
regular water.
Photo of Sedum 'Autumn Joy' coming soon

League of Extraordinary Shrubbery

Correa ‘Carmine Bells’ and Westringia ‘Smokey’ make a terrific team in the landscape. They have a
similar low, dense spreading habit and both thrive in the same challenging variety of conditions. They are
excellent shrubs for coastal areas, windy hillsides, and dry light shade under oaks. They are very neat in
appearance, tolerate poor rocky soil, require little maintenance, and are not bothered much by pests,
diseases or deer. They are tough and drought resistant when well established. Their natural form is
dense and symmetrical, but they can both be sheared. Westringia is sometimes called Coast Rosemary.
The flowers and leaves are similar to Rosemary, although they are not related. Westringia is softer and
fuzzier. Westringia is native to Australia where is grows on the cliffs right down to the beach. The
cultivar ‘Smokey’ has small rounded gray leaves with white margins and white flowers, giving it a softly
glowing appearance. Correa ‘Carmine Bells’ has dark olive-green leaves for a wonderful contrast. Its
bell-like red flowers appear in late fall and winter, providing nectar for hummingbirds in a lean season.
Westringia ‘Smokey’ grows to 2’-4’ tall and 4’-5’ wide. Correa ‘Carmine Bells’ grows to 2’ tall and 8’ wide.