Category: Plants
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Calamintha nepeta
One of those plants that “ought” to work here but just didn’t. Calamintha (or Clinopodium) nepeta is a minty herb, growing across the Mediterranean and North Africa, as well as in more Northern regions. It grows on moderately dry rocky terrain and walls and loves alcaline, calcareous soils. Technically perfect conditions for it to grow…
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Bougainvillea spectabilis x glabra “Violet de Mèze”
Bougainvillea is one of those quintessential “Mediterranean” plants and a Must-Have to cover courtyard walls or fences in large, bright, pink, purple, red, or orange flowers all through the summer. Bougainvillea is generally not frost-hardy and since we do get some frost in this area I chose the variety “Violet de Mèze” at the yearly…
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Colutea media
Colutea media “Copper Beauty” seems to be a longer-blooming cultivar of Colutea arborescens, a native of Southern Europe from Spain to Roumania. In the wild it grows in well drained, chalky soil, mostly on dry slopes and rocky meadows, and likes full sun. Colutea media blooms from May through September and its flowers turn into…
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Ficus Carica – Fig Trees
Figs are the quintessential Mediterranean fruit tree and when we moved here in 2022 I was so happy about the miniature grove of fig trees at the very back of the garden! But in that summer and fall we didn’t see a single fig. Having no experience at all with fig trees and lots of…
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Lantana camara
Having known Lantana camara only as a potted plant in Switzerland, I was surprised, when one of them suddenly poked out of the barren ground in the middle of our first summer. It seemed to survive the summer heat more or less but only really came into its own and bloomed profusely from September into…
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Ajania / Chrysanthemum pacificum
Not having done my usual research, this turned out to be somewhat of a misguided purchase last October. Ajania pacifica or Chrysanthemum pacificum is a native of the main Japanese island Honshu, where it grows along the Pacific coast – it’s thus not really suited for the heat and drought of this Mediterraean garden. Last fall…