-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
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…
-
Clematis flammula
What was ordered and planted as “Clematis flammula rubromarginata” in November 2023, turned out to be “Clematis flammula Sweet Summer Love” in July of 2024. Which is a good thing because it’s actually a lot prettier than the variety I…