Common name:Avocado, Palta
Botanical name:Persea americana
This is a large tree that can grow as large as an oak. Its exotic, semi-tropical, drupe fruit is famous for making guacamole dip. Frost damages this plant.
Common name:Artichoke
Botanical name:Cynara scolymus
This perennial will grow 4' tall and 6'-8' wide. It has silvery green leaves with bluish purple flowers that bloom in spring. Artichoke is a favorite fruit/vegetable of California kitchens but it is a great ornamental plant often overlooked for color contrast. It is very tolerant of little water when planted for ornamental purposes.
Common name:Iceland Poppy
Botanical name:Papaver nudicaule
This Iceland Poppy produces leaves that are divided with flowers, appearing on stems 1'-2' high. These flowers are cup-shaped to 3" across, and come in colors of yellow, orange, salmon, rose, pink and cream.
Common name:Sunburst Coreopsis
Botanical name:Coreopsis grandiflora
The 'Double Sunburst' is a wonderful cultivar and a showy, Southern U.S. native. Golden yellow, double flowers on 2' bushy plants bloom from June to September in full sun and average to dry soils. It makes for good cut flowers, and pruning keeps the plants abundant with blooms. -Holland WIldflower Farm
Common name:Red-Edged Chevron Plant
Botanical name:Dracaena marginata
This shrub will grow 6'-12' tall and has large, evergreen, leathery greenish red leaves.
Common name:Bird Of Paradise
Botanical name:Strelitzia reginae
This shrub will grow to 6' tall and has large, gray green fronds with orange, blue, white, or multi-colored flowers that bloom throughout the year.
Common name:Bitsy Hybrid Daylily
Botanical name:Hemerocallis 'Bitsy'
This Daylily has yellow flowers in profusion for over 250 days per year. Thin stalks give an airy, fairy-like quality. Tiny 2" lemon-yellow blossoms appear very early in the season above 12"-20" tall slender, grassy foliage
Common name:Garden or Common Sage
Botanical name:Salvia officinalis
This shrubby perennial will grow 1'-3' tall and 1'-2.5' wide. It has gray green leaves that are white and hairy underneath and clusters of bluish purple flowers that bloom in late spring and summer.
Common name:Mealy Cup Blue Sage
Botanical name:Salvia farinacea
This low growing perennial reach 1-1/2' x 1-1/2'. Bright green leaves are lighter underneath. Spiked blue-purple flowers bloom from late spring to fall. Attracts hummingbirds.
Common name:Beach Strawberry, Sand Strawberry
Botanical name:Fragaria chiloensis
This perennial grows 4"-8" high with tooth-edged leaves and ornamental strawberries during the fall. Cut back or mow in early spring to encourage new growth.
Designer: DeeAnn Ayers
Photographer: GardenSoft
Practice grass-cycling by leaving short grass clippings on lawns after mowing, so that nutrients and organic matter are returned to the soil.
Drip and other smart irrigation delivers water directly to roots, allowing no excess water for weeds.