The Beardtongue family, also known by their latin genus Penstemon, have a passionate following of gardeners on both sides of the Atlantic. Europeans, especially the English have been breeding and growing lots of very showy, but not cold hardy Penstemon hybrids for many years. And here in America, the genus has had a small but [...]
Continue reading about The Beardtongue Family: Penstemania for Penstemon
Herbs are a big group of plants with the two largest groups being medicinal and culinary. Many of these herbs are Old World plants from the Mediterranean regions of Europe and North Africa. These wonderful plants have attached themselves to humanity and been grown for hundreds, if not thousands of years, for their essential oils. [...]
Continue reading about Perennial Herbs for the Waterwise Garden
‘Paulette’has large, super showy scarlet flowers held on substantial, bright green stems. This is a larger-growing variety and can have hundreds of flowers that cover the plant in late spring. Cytisus kewensis grows to only about 18” in height; this vigorous hybrid variety grows horizontally making it an excellent choice for covering slopes and other [...]
Continue reading about New Drought-Tolerant Flowering Shrubs
The flowering Phlox are some of our finest native perennial wildflowers families. Most well known are creeping Moss Phlox from the Eastern US, Phlox subulata and the much adored and sweetly scented Garden Phlox, Phlox paniculata. Less well known are our native Phlox from the Western US. Living in cold, high elevation Santa Fe, NM [...]
Ornamental Grasses Muhlenbergia emersleyi El Toro™ (Bull Muhly or El Toro Muhly Grass) This large growing native is one of my favorite warm season grasses. Found growing in AZ, NM, west TX and northern MX, this grass is both very heat tolerant and winter hardy (USDA zone 6; -10° F). In flower, El Toro™ stands [...]
Coreopsis integrifolia (Fringe Leaf Tickseed) A native species from the deep South, Fringe Leaf Tickseed is a plant with exceptional potential. And to add to its appeal, this is a very rare perennial plant in its southern Georgia /northern Florida habitat. It is just now finding its way into cultivation. The plant spreads slowly by [...]
Scarlet Monardella (Monardella macrantha ‘Marion Sampson’) This unusual native plant has to rate as one of my best plant acquisitions of the past year. Belonging to the genus Monardella, a small group of plants native to the Western US, Monardella macrantha is found in chaparral, woodland and forest habitats in mountainous regions of southern California. [...]
Two Outstanding Native Shrubs for the Western US Native plants are a passion for my staff and I, particularly western native plants. And yet many of our great Western natives are virtually unknown among amateur and professional gardeners and landscapers. Such is the case with these two species native to the Great Basin of UT [...]
My Favorite Herb Over the many years that I have gardened in Santa Fe, at the southern tip of the Rocky Mountains, I have become infatuated by lavender , intoxicated by its beauty, its fragrance and entranced by its toughness and adaptability in the landscape. OK, I know my prose is a little over [...]
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