Tag: shrubs
-
Caryopteris clandonensis
Caryopteris is one of my favorite shrubs, but for a long time I thought it was a somewhat misguided beginner’s purchase: Filippi only gives it a mere 2.5 of 6 on the drought-resistance scale. However, in this garden it has turned out to be surprisingly tough and has even survived under less than ideal circumstances.…
-
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…
-
Myrtus communis
Myrtles are one of the most ancient Mediterranean plants. They grow very old, but they also grow veeerrrry slowly. And they’re not quite as robust – at least in my experience – as one would think. Over the past three years I lost two of them and managed to keep two others alive only with…
-
Vitex agnus-castus latifolia
Vitex agnus-castus is a native of the Mediterranean region, known since antiquity and always believed to be an anaphrodisiac (“chaste tree”), although this has never been scientifically proven. It is widely cultivated in warm, temperate regions, loves full sun, a well-draining, loamy, neutral to alcaline soil, and is hardy to −15 °C as well as pretty…
-
Nerium oleander
Oleander is one of those plants that seems to grow in every Mediterranean garden and is also seen all along highways, roadsides, and public spaces in southern France. It is native or naturalized in many warm regions from northwest Africa and the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, the Arabian Peninsula, southern Asia and even southern…
-
Spartium junceum
In June the countryside down here is full of these wonderfully bright yellow, fragrant shrubs that can grow up to 3×2 meters. Spartium junceum is a native of the Mediterranean Macchia and Garrigue in southern Europe, southwest Asia and northwest Africa. It is also found naturalized in other regions with a similar climate, like California…