Category: Plants

  • Osteospermum

    Osteospermum

    I’m normally not that crazy about daisies but I’ve grown to love Osteospermum or Cape Daisies for their bright and cheerful look and drought-resistance. They come in many colors and shapes with either simple or spooned petals, some spread out over the ground, some grow like little shrubs, and they are more or less hardy.…

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  • Eschscholzia californica

    Eschscholzia californica

    As I keep saying: I don’t really like orange or yellow flowers. But there are some lifelong favorite exceptions like Calendula officinalis or Eschscholzia californica. You just have to love these totally uncomplicated flowers with their deeply luminous orange color and their silky petals. I also love their “cooler” cream-white shades though. Eschscholzia californica or…

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  • Catananche caerulea

    Catananche caerulea

    A very pretty, cornflower-like flower in blue, lilac, or white with a blue middle, depending on variety. Catananche caerulea supposedly blooms June through July, in my garden it blooms profusely all through May and then a little bit less in June. The flowers are followed by pretty transparent seedheads that stay on the plant for…

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  • Geranium

    Geranium

    In Switzerland I always had Geranium “Rozanne” – it is one of the longest flowering and most vigorously growing Geraniums I knew and I loved to see those gorgeous blue flowers all over my garden. But alas, it’s not made for dry Southern climes or soils. So for this garden I’m using as ground covers…

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  • Calendula

    Calendula

    I don’t really like “hot” colors in flowers, like yellow, orange, or red. But there are some I can’t resist. Among them is Calendula officinalis or Marigold – one of my alltime favorites. Marigold thrives in a Mediterranean Garden When we first arrived here I tossed a package of calendula seeds in the vegetable garden and…

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  • Acanthus mollis

    Acanthus mollis

    A true love-hate relationship. I had always wanted Acanthus in the garden for its beautiful flower heads and foliage – until I had one. In our first spring here I discovered it half-hidden under a thicket of painfully spiky and ugly-looking yucca and I really felt sorry for it. Poor thing. No light, no air,…

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