Floral Favorites
Gardening is very relaxing. It’s slow-paced, just like all those snails. But gardens change every day, and there’s nothing like watching your green babies grow up before your very eyes. Plants never talk back, need braces, drink your last beer or wreck the car. They either act cool, or they die.
According to the “Sunset Western Garden Book,” the gardener’s bible, those of us in the populated areas of Ventura County live in Zones 20-24, which means the weather is great and we can pretty much grow anything. For example, fuchsias live outdoors here year-round, a mind-bender to tourists from places that have real winters.
What follows is a brief list of a baker’s dozen of overlooked or under-utilized yet readily available plants that could make your neighbors green with envy. As for plants generally, my basic rule is simple: If there are no flowers, what’s the point?
Also included is another list of a baker’s dozen of pretty boring plants. All plants listed are perennials, be they shrubs, vines or trees. A perennial means they live longer than it takes to read this, and they’ll come back year after year.
Anyway, this is not an “Or Else” or “Must Do” list, just some personal suggestions as to favorites and unfavorites. Because summer is peak gardening weather, take a walk around a nursery and decide what you like, find out what makes the plant happy, then act accordingly.
As to my qualifications, I own a well-worn “Sunset Western Garden Book,” plus I’ve been a landscaper off and on for more than a decade. Along the way, I’ve tried hard to forget about all that dirt and those pointy sticks with the metal ends, um, shovels. Flowers continue to be an abiding interest and a very good thing.
Anyway, without further exposition, here’s an opinionated guide to some really cool plants. The obvious choices such as roses, azaleas and camellias are well known, and thus unlisted.
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Breath of Heaven, (Diosma or Coleonema). This shrub grows rather slowly to about 5 feet and nearly as wide. These South African natives feature slender and airy branches, which carry a profusion of small white or pink flowers.
Butterfly Bush (Buddleia). This is a deciduous shrub or small tree with long branches whose ends are laden with intense clusters of fragrant flowers that can be purple, white or pink. Once established, they grow like a weed and can reach 10 feet or more, and yup, butterflies love them.
Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia indica). This is a deciduous shrub or small tree native to China that thrives in hot weather. Covered in flowers during the summer, these are available in white and all shades of red and purple. They can reach up to 30 feet or be pruned to desired height and shape.
Hydrangea. An old-fashioned plant that grows well in the shade inland or in full sun near the coast. A profusion of blooms in pink or blue form giant pom-poms of color that can last for months. Easily 6 feet tall and as wide, hydrangeas are usually seen in the older sections of town, generally populated by older gardeners.
Matilija Poppy (Romneya coulteri). This is a spectacular plant that is more of a local than any of us. Native to Southern California, these will grow to 8 feet, and even more if you water and fertilize them. The huge flowers with yellow centers look like giant fried eggs, sunny side up. Slightly fragrant, highly visible.
Night Jessamine (Cestrum nocturnum). Evergreen shrubs to a dozen feet or more covered with clusters of powerfully scented tiny white flowers, too powerful for some. Plant near a window or door and you’ll never need incense. When golfer Walter C. Hagen suggested that people be sure to “stop and smell the flowers,” he could’ve been talking about this plant.
Orange Clock Vine (Thunbergia gregorii). Noted for vigorous rapid growth, this vine is fairly covered with electric orange flowers. The black-eyed susan is similar, except that its blooms have a black center. Great for trellises or ground cover; and so bright they should come with sunglasses.
Passion Flower (Passiflora). Maybe the most spectacular flower next to orchids, there are scores of different passion flowers, many of which will grow 20 or 30 feet in a season. Passiflora jamesonii is the basic purple and white passion flower and P. manicata is a red and yellow specimen. Most are susceptible to caterpillars of the gulf fritillary butterfly, which also give the cat a little excitement when they hatch. P. pfordtii is probably least subject to caterpillars.
Princess Flower (Tibouchina urvilleana). Native to Brazil, this is an evergreen shrub or small tree that has delicate purple flowers several inches across.
Rockrose (Cistus). A great drought-resistant plant, native to the Mediterranean. Once established, rockroses need little care, and the cistus purpureus variety is veritably covered with pink flowers in the spring. These plants are excellent for banks and fire-hazard areas. Usually about 5 feet tall and spreading to an equal width, there are also white varieties of rockrose, plus lower-growing types.
Cape Mallow (Anisodontea capensis). These are prolific bloomers, native to South Africa, that seem to enjoy life in Ventura particularly. Imagine Don King with green hair about 5 feet tall with little pink flowers mixed in.
Sweet Olive (Osmanthus fragrans). OK, so it looks as blank as a ficus, but osmanthus has about the sweetest-smelling flower anywhere. Tiny, insignificant white flowers bloom off and on throughout the year, and they’ll positively knock you out--something like apricots, but better.
Yellow Oleander (Thevetia peruviana). This is a shrub that can reach 8 feet or so, or can be trained as a small tree. These plants have narrow leaves and fragrant flowers in yellow, apricot or salmon, and bloom throughout the summer. Much like their freeway-dwelling cousins, the oleanders, thevetias are also poisonous, but much cuter.
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These plants are considerably less fun than those above. Too many of them are used for strictly utilitarian reasons such as low maintenance, rapid growth or affordability. They certainly are better than plastic flowers, but not much.
Century Plant (Agave americana). This is that big ugly blue-green thing with gnarly spines everywhere and a big thorn on the end of each sword-like leaf. Possibly Dracula’s favorite plant due to its potential to impale. Too ugly for a Tim Burton movie.
Firethorn (Pyracantha). There are little red berries all over these things that look like apples for Barbie. Oh, and thorns, too.
Heavenly Bamboo (Nandina domestica). Nandinas do turn colors during the seasons, but they also have these goofy-looking red berries. There just isn’t much that’s heavenly about them. A low-maintenance, low-tech plant often seen around ugly office buildings where bland people have boring jobs.
Ice Plant (Carpobrotus). This is the stuff you see growing along the freeway or at the beach, and is only slightly better than green cement.
Ivy (Hedera). Yuck, it’s ivy, the botanical version of The Strangler. Once established, ivy is as resolute as Peg Bundy on the couch during “Oprah.”
Japanese Boxwood (Buxus microphylla japonica). Little round leaves, no flowers, usually a hedge. On Dec. 13, 1862, members of the Irish Brigade put sprigs of boxwood on their caps before making a suicidal charge at the rebel troops behind the stone wall at the foot of St. Marye’s Heights at Fredericksburg, Va. Not a suicidal choice for the yard, but not very interesting, either.
Juniper (Juniperus). There are more than 100 varieties available, from ground covers to small trees, and they have sharp needles you’ll know well should you have to prune them. Snails like them, but what do they know?
Myoporum. The variety M. laetum is thriving around the sewage treatment plant in Ventura. Need we say more?
Oleander (Nerium oleander). Plenty of flowers, but oleanders are poisonous to the max--even the smoke from burning dead ones is noxious. So why do they always seem to have these things around school yards? Make sure your honor student is smart enough not to eat the flowers.
Pittosporum. There’s too many pittosporums around, and the p. crassifolium variety is often used as a hedge around schools because it grows rapidly to 25 feet. They also supply kids with an endless supply of orange berry things to throw at each other.
Rhaphiolepis. A commercial landscape staple, it seems a bank can’t be built without a couple rows of these pink things.
Wax-Leaf Privet (Ligustrum japonicum). Often used as a hedge, a lot of these things were planted in the ‘50s when people believed white rocks added that certain something to their landscape, just like that bomb shelter in the backyard.
Weeping Chinese Banyan (Ficus benjamina). Native to India, this ficus grows to 30 feet outdoors near the coast, but is a house plant anywhere. But why? This Plant 101 is totally basic and boring. Shiny green leaves, and barely a step above a plastic plant.
