White Sagebrush, Silver Wormwood
Artemisia ludoviciana
- Plant Form: Evergreen sub-shrub
- Water Use: Low
- Mature Size: 2-3 ft. tall x 3-4 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun, part sun
- Bloom Time: Summer (July-Aug), Fall (Sept)
- Native to: North America
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to <0°F
White Sagebrush spreads to fill in those bare spaces between shrubs while providing a silvery contrast to darker green plants around it. This North American native groundcover is extremely hardy, tolerating poor soils, heat, and drought.
White Sagebrush is grown for its beautiful silver-white foliage. This attractive groundcover’s native range extends from Canada to Mexico. It spreads by underground stems (rhizomes) to create a bushy clump. Although its small yellow flowers are inconspicuous, its silvery, felt-covered foliage is valued to complement neighboring green foliage and is useful in cut flower arrangements or in dried arrangements (dry stems first by hanging upside-down in a dark room). The crushed leaves are wonderfully aromatic, and are resistant to browsing by deer and rabbits. This fast-spreading plant combines well with almost everything, but if it spreads beyond your wishes, soil barriers can be used to keep it inside borders. Although this sage tolerates heat, drought, and poor soils, it does require well-drained soils. Shear plants to revitalize them. Use under roses and shrubs, in beds and containers, on slopes, and in butterfly, moonlight, cottage, herb, and rock gardens.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for July
Velvet Centaurea, Purple Bush Dusty Miller
Centaurea cineraria
- Plant Form: Evergreen sub-shrub
- Water Use: Very low, low
- Mature Size: 2-4 ft. tall x 6-8 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun, part sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (Mar-May), early Summer (June)
- Native to: Italy
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 15-20°F
This drought-tolerant, low water-use plant not only complements all the plants around it, Velvet Centaurea is also a show-stopper on its own, producing brilliant purple flowers above silvery-white foliage covered in felt-like hair. Top this with its tolerance for heat, poor, dry soils, and frost, plus its resistance to browsing by deer and rabbits, and you have a winning combination that will perform for you in seemingly impossible situations.
Velvet Centaurea has been called a “Dusty Miller on steroids” due to its vigorous growth. Most garden plants either have brilliant flowers or striking foliage that complements all the plants around them. This beauty has both traits. Fluffy, purple, thistle-like flowers are held at the tips of whitish stems (great for cutting). Prized for its lacy, silvery-white foliage covered in felt-like hair, this fast-growing, shrub-like perennial looks fantastic next to bright-flowering plants or plants with dark green foliage. Thriving in heat and poor, dry soils (even clay soils), this Italian native actually prefers sun and low fertility soil for its best performance. Trim it back hard after flowering to keep it from getting leggy. While enduring drought, it also handles frost, resists browsing by deer and rabbits, and attracts butterflies and bees. Use as a groundcover or filler between plants of contrasting color, in background plantings, on slopes, in rock gardens, and even in dry, neglected side yards.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for June
Blue Emu Bush, Blue Bells
Eremophila hygrophana ‘BlueBells’
- Plant Form: Evergreen shrub
- Water Use: Low
- Mature Size: 1-2 ft. tall x 3-6 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (Mar-May), Late Summer (Aug), Fall (Sept-Nov), Winter (Dec-Feb)
- Native to: Australia
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 25°F
Blue Emu Bush has been described as the perfect shrub: one that blooms throughout the year, thrives in hot temperatures but handles frost, needs no pruning, and even tolerates drought. Its only potential weakness is overwatering; let it dry out between watering, giving it deep, infrequent watering once a week in summer, twice a month in spring and fall, and once a month in winter. Avoid planting in shade. Hummingbirds, bees, and butterflies love the nearly continual blue-violet flowers (year-round where no frost occurs), and the fuzzy foliage reflects heat to retain moisture. This plant is often mistaken for other silver-leaved “sages” like Texas Rangers that hail from the southwest U.S., but Emu Bushes are from Australia and are not related. Blue Emu Bush provides vivid color and silvery foliage to contrast with dark green plants along walkways and patios, in rock gardens, cactus gardens, in containers, and most anywhere you want lasting color.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for May
Orange Form Ice Plant
Lampranthus aureus ‘Orange Form’
- Plant Form: Succulent ground cover
- Water Use: Low, medium
- Mature Size: 1-2 ft. tall x 3-6 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (Mar-May), Winter (Dec-Jan)
- Native to: South America
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 25°F
Orange Form Ice Plant will knock your socks off when it is smothered with neon orange flowers in early spring. The 1 ½-inch shiny flowers open at 9 am and close at 5 pm…their work done for the day. This easy-to-grow succulent forms a rounded, compact shrub 2 feet tall and wide, with dark green, fleshy, cylindrical leaves that can root when branches touch the soil. It tolerates poor soils, heat, and infrequent irrigation, but can’t abide excessive moisture or a hard frost. Gardeners in cold winter climates treat ice plants as annuals. It is resistant to rabbits and deer, but attracts butterflies, birds, and pollinators. You can grow this ice plant by division, cuttings, or seeds. Orange Form Ice Plant can be used to bring brilliant color to rock gardens, cactus gardens, steep slopes or embankments, raised planters, stone walls, hanging baskets, and containers.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for April
Lantana
Lantana camara
- Plant Form: Shrub
- Water Use: Low, moderate
- Mature Size: 2-6 ft. tall x 4-6 ft. wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Spring (Mar-May), Summer (June-August), Fall (Sept-Nov)
- Native to: Central and South America
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 10°F
These heat-tolerant shrubs attract hummingbirds and butterflies to their clusters of bright flowers from spring through fall. Many forms of this species or hybrids are available with endless color combinations from white and yellow to orange, red, and purple.
Lantanas are prized not only for their performance during long hot summers, but also for their extremely long bloom season. Tiny 5-lobed flowers in dense hemispherical clusters from spring to fall attract butterflies, hummingbirds, and pollinators. Most Lantanas are either forms of this species, or hybrids between this species and L. montevidensis, with a kaleidoscope of flower colors and combinations. Varieties range from low groundcovers to upright shrubs that are evergreen in mild winter regions, with flower colors including white, yellow, orange, red, and purple, often mixed in the same cluster. Prune hard in spring to remove dead wood and renew vigor. All tolerate extreme heat, including reflected heat from walls, driveways, and streets. Lantana leaves and unripe berries are toxic to cats and dogs, and can cause vomiting and diarrhea. Most dogs familiar with the plants avoid them due to their pungent smell, but a new pup might experiment with eating it. If children eat the leaves or berries, they may experience stomach upset. While the green berries are poisonous, ripe berries are readily eaten by many birds and wildlife. Great for covering sunny banks and slopes. Perfect in flower and shrub beds, raised planters, and parkways, and to soften fences and foundations. Lovely in rock gardens and borders, and in pots for vibrant color on decks and patios.
Check out our “Garden Tasks” for February
California Pepper Tree
Schinus molle
- Plant Form: Evergreen tree
- Water Use: Very low
- Mature Size: 25-40 ft. tall and wide
- Exposure: Full sun
- Bloom Time: Summer (June-August)
- Native to: Peru, South America
- Hardiness: Cold hardy to 15°F
Early missionaries knew the value of this low-water use, evergreen shade tree from South America, and planted it so often at California missions that it has become known as California Pepper Tree despite its origin.
California Pepper Tree is an evergreen tree with a weeping form that creates expansive shade when given room to spread. This fast-growing tree needs only occasional watering when established, and develops a fantastically gnarled trunk with interesting peeling bark. Its bright green leaves are divided into many narrow leaflets. Pendulous creamy white flowers in summer develop into small red berries on female trees from fall into winter. California Pepper Tree was named due to its wide use in California since early missionaries planted it at their missions, but this plant is actually native to the Peruvian Andes. This tree produces heavy litter from foliage and falling fruit, deterring understory growth, and its invasive roots can crack and heave nearby pavement, foundations, and pipes. Properly used, this tree is outstanding. Avoid planting between sidewalks and curbs, near house foundations, patio cement, sewers or septic tanks, or in lawns. Plant along roads or driveways without curbs, in play areas, lounging areas, or to frame a large gateway. Can also be used as a hedge when planted 2 feet apart and sheared into a billowy hedge.
