Common name:Jerusalem Sage
Botanical name:Phlomis fruticosa
This hardy perennial is a useful, old-time garden plant with coarse, woolly gray green, wrinkled leaves and yellow, 1" flowers in ball-shaped whorls. It handles drought and poor soils but needs full sun.
Common name:Spanish Lavender
Botanical name:Lavandula stoechas
This dense shrub grows 2'-3' tall with blue gray foliage and deep purple flowers that have large showy bracts near the top of the spikes. It is drought tolerant . - Cornflower Farms
Common name:Strawberry Madrone
Botanical name:Arbutus 'Marina'
The 'Marina' has gorgeous bark, with leaves that are smaller and not as glossy as Pacific Madrone. Its flowers are pink, borne in pendant clusters in the summer. The fruit is large, red and quite ornamental. The plant should be grown in sun to part shade, with little or no summer watering when established. The 'Marina' prefers good drainage. -Monterey Bay Nursery
Common name:Wheeler's Dwarf Pittosporum
Botanical name:Pittosporum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf'
This handsome dwarf form of the Pittosporum tobira grows into a low, dense mound that is covered with glossy, evergreen foliage.
Common name:Catmint
Botanical name:Nepeta X faassenii
Nepeta faassenii makes soft, gray green, undulating mounds that are 1.5' high when blooming. The small leaves are attractive to cats. This perennial has lavender blue flowers in late spring and early summer.
Common name:Kangaroo Paws Tall Red
Botanical name:Anigozanthos flavidus 'Tall Red'
Anigozanthos flavidus 'Tall Red' is a perennial with dark green, smooth, swordlike evergreen leaves. Produces spikes of striking, fuzy, tubular flowers in yellow-green tinged with red that are curved at the tips. The flowers attract hummingbirds. Flowers bloom from late spring to fall if spent flowering spikes are cut to the ground. Makes for a good cut flower.
Common name:Rainbow Warrior New Zealand Flax
Botanical name:Phormium 'Rainbow Warrior'
New Zealand Flax is an excellent accent plant for the garden. Evergreen leaves are long, narrow, and grow upright. Clusters of flowers grow on spikes above the foliage in late spring and summer. 'Rainbow Warrier' grows 3'-4' tall, 5'-6' wide. Leaves are darker salmon, turning cream as they age. Foliage turns deep red in winter.
Common name:Blue Spike Sage
Botanical name:Salvia uliginosa
This clumping plant with straight stems of 6-7' and narrow, bright green leaves is a favorite of hummingbirds. These highly aromatic leaves are accented by pale blue and white flowers. The flowers are arranged in long, branched clusters measuring 5" long This plant blooms throughout the entire summer.
Designer: Barbara Jackel Landscape Dsgn
Photographer: GardenSoft
Practice grass-cycling by leaving short grass clippings on lawns after mowing, so that nutrients and organic matter are returned to the soil.
Water-wise plants can be beautiful as well as practical.
Take your 'My List' Hydrozone Report to a landscape designer, or local nursery, when selecting and purchasing plants.
Develop healthy soil for plants that are vigorous and naturally pest-resistant.