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These are deceptively simple looking shrubs – until they bloom. Then they become an explosion of vivid pink to magenta or lavender violet flowers, appearing and re-appearing mostly from August through October, but the first flowers can begin as early as…
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Ipomoea Batatas – Sweet Potatoes
Pretty (though few) flowers and tasty fruit – Ipomoea batatas or Sweet Potato work well here in this Mediterranean garden. The wild form of Ipomoea batatas is native to Central America. It was imported to Asia by the Spanish and…
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Verbena bonariensis
Another one of those plants that seemed not suited to this area but simply took a year to establish itself. In 2023 I sowed and planted Verbena bonariensis into the then still more or less empty garden. They grew and…
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Mirabilis jalapa
Soil improvement between 2022 and 2024 definitely had a big effect on the inherited, self-seeding Mirabilis jalapa. Whereas in the summer of 2023, despite regular watering, they looked practically dead most of the time, in 2024, with a lot less…
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Bulbine frutescens
Bulbine frutescens is a very pretty evergreen succulent and one of those quintessential plants destined for a dry Mediterranean garden. As a native of South Africa it is not very frost hardy (-5℃ in well-drained soil) but very drought-tolerant (Filippi…
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Cosmos bipinnatus
Some plants just seem to want to give you “the finger”… When I think about how I coddled and cuddled my little cosmos seedlings last spring and summer, padding them with mulch, hovering over them with the watering can – and…