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Passionate Gardeners

Non-Stop Gardening Tips & Inspiration

Best Plant for Winter and Spring Flowering? Cymbidium Orchid

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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

Happy Fall! October’s Outdoor Beauty!

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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;

7 Fragrant Flowering Plants for the Mild Mediterranean Garden

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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…

Lady Banks Yellow Climbing Rose – Not your Average Rose!

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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.

Winter Flowers Combine a Simple Tapestry of Color and Fragrance

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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!

Cuphea: Know this Easy, Flowering Plant Boasting Tons of Adorable Flowers!

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Cupheas, otherwise known as firecracker plants or cigar plants constantly surprise me with their ease of care and unique gangbuster flowers. Their flowers are tiny, but so abundant you see bright, cheery color at a distance. I would say for the Mediterranean climate garden, Cupheas with their tiny tubular hummingbird happy flowers, are an excellent addition to the garden or a container.

7 Variegated Succulents for your Garden!

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Hi there and Happy Fall to you! Hopefully, you’re still finding time to garden. Here in the San Francisco Bay Area gardening and planting is year round with mild winter temperatures making this possible. Today is October 12, 2020 and our business is off to plenty of planting especially in the next few months of Indian Summer, where particularly in SF we get some of our warmest temps. In this post I hope you enjoy seven statement succulents from the iconic Agaves to the very sweet Aeonioums. With stripped or marbled leaves variegation gives you many options in plant design,

Salvias – 10 Best Plants for Flowers, Fragrance, Hummingbirds

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There are 700 – 1000 Salvias, the largest genus in the mint family. In this post we’re focusing on TEN amazing Salvia plants (Sages) for your garden or container. Blooming as we speak (late August) and flowering like gangbusters much of Spring – Fall, this genus of herbal and ornamental plants is one of my personal favorites.

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