Non-Stop Gardening Tips & Inspiration
This may be just the vine you’re looking for.
It’s rare, not the easiest to get your hands on, but worth a try.
Canary Bellflower vine (Canarina canariensis) is from the cloud forest of the Canary Islands.
Mild climates serve this vine and let me show you (below) what lovely flowers are served up in winter, when few vines are blooming (yes, Hardenbergia vines are blooming).
If you’re looking for some trailing plant choices to add greenery – maybe even a splash of flower color to your wall -here are 7 excellent options! These evergreen options will give all season coverage, providing interest, character and clothing even on the bleakest winter days.
Of course, there are plenty more trailing options than these…
A plant that should be way more popular in San Francisco Bay Area gardens is the Cymbidium orchid.
Why? Take a look at the flowers… Take a look at the thin strappy, evergreen leaves. (Ok, forget the leaves, just take a look at the flowers!)
Not many plants offer the bloom finesse this regal plant offers. Plus, blooms can last for 2 – 3 months grown either in a pot or the ground (photos below.) Each year, if planted in the right location, these evergreen beauties can send out reliable flower spikes which will have you and
Hello friends. Happy FALL! Hope you’re enjoying this lovely season! We are. Being an east coast gal, growing up with 4-distinct seasons, I always feel that it’s hugely important to tap into FALL; not just from a garden’s view point (which shows seasonality even in our mild Mediterranean SF climate), but, more so, enjoying and gaining inspiration from nature with leaves turning and falling, daylight changing and shortening;
If you’re looking to add some fragrant plants to the garden, check-out these 7 in today’s post. As there are many more; for example, the spring blooming bulb, Freesia, comes to mind, as do fragrant roses, lilies, lilacs, jasmine, honeysuckle and unsung ones like say Pittosporum tobira (flowers smell like…
But a lot of times we need and appreciate a little fencing in… a little privacy from neighbors and a busy world. Outdoors, we can put up fencing, walls, arbors, pergolas; just about any architectural structure to create privacy and dimension, or, just the wall and ceiling planes to our gardens and outdoor rooms. So when you need the perfect marriage of evergreen climbers for architectural structures, (or vice-versa) here are some choices:
I love Osteospermums (aka: Cape daisy or African daisy); these plants will bring you plenty of bang for your buck in coastal Mediterranean climates like the SF Bay area, largely in locations where summers are cool.
If you’re looking for a thornless climber and you love roses here’s one to check out: Yellow Lady Bank’s Climbing Rose (Rosa banksiae’Lutea’). This early blooming rose won’t disappoint and having no thorns won’t shred you or your family and friends if it grows a little rambunctious in the summer.
There is always an opportunity to create a vignette in the garden including a lovely winter vignette in our mild Mediterranean climate. While the winter flowering plant list is slim compared to other seasons, there are lovely ways to enjoy a hint of color during the shortest, coldest, possibly wettest days. In this short post enjoy a few plants woven together to create a simple floor plane tapestry. Here we go, enjoy!
If you’re looking for some flowering filler ground covers that can take part shade to maybe even well I won’t say SHADE but hmm, yep, sometimes we want to push the envelope… and if you do, try the likes of Campanula poscharskyana (photo below) which is virtually pest and disease free.
