Category: Plants
-
Rubus idaeus and fruticosus: Raspberries, Blackberries & Friends
Taking a bowl into the late summer garden and picking through the raspberries and blackberries was a lovely reality back in Switzerland. I had planted fall raspberries and thornless blackberries that grew into vigorous shrubs intent on taking over the world and delivering countless luscious berries from late summer well into December. Down here, so…
-
Oh My Darling Clementine…
I was hankering after a citrus tree and I needed to have something vertical on the terrace… so I planted a clementine tree in a large pot. At the moment I’m not sure whether that was really a good idea or more a bit of plant abuse. I planted this “Clemenules” (Citrus reticulata, Clementina fina)…
-
Ballota or Pseudodictamnus
One of my favorites for a dry garden: Ballota pseudodictamnus and Ballota hirsuta. Anyway that’s what garden centers will sell them under even though apparently they should correctly be called Pseudodictamnus mediterraneus and P. hirsutus – who cares. Both are very similar and fascinating in appearance. Ballota pseudodictamnus is native to the Eastern and Southern…
-
Zucchini
Zucchini work reasonable well here, although I haven’t had anything like the bumper crops we had in Switzerland. Which is partly a good thing, because we can’t get quite as sick of them as we did there… In this Mediterranean garden, Zucchini plants always grow big but most fruit stay small and grow unevenly – …
-
Nepeta
When I came here I had some bad memories of Nepeta becoming the mangled victim of deadly cat passion with my own and the neighbors’ cats rolling around on it, digging it out, eating it up, and finally killing it. But it turns out that not all cats are created equal regarding the effects of…
-
Ceratostigma plumbaginoides
Unsung hero of the dry garden. Ceratostigma plumbaginoides – the “blue-flowered leadwort” – is a native from Western China. It grows and grows, unfettered by heat or drought, and blooms from June through September in a very beautiful bright blue over somber green leaves. The leaves may also turn red in the fall. I had…