California Plants

African Daisies are now one of our favorite perennials to grow. A year ago we tested a couple of small potted African Daisies from Target and they have quadrupled in size without stopping blooming. Although African Daisies can be deadheaded to promote more flowering, we didn’t need to and they have continued flowering like crazy. We applied some Lilly Miller organic fertilizer and had included some compost when planting.

Growing African Daisies

A few months ago we purchased a Stover Seed bag of African Daisies at a local Home Depot. We cleared an area about 2 feet by 8 feet. We removed the top half inch of soil and placed that soil in buckets. We took four cups of potting soil and mixed it in with the seeds. We sprinkled that soil/seed mix over the whole area, covered with the soil from buckets, and watered daily until seeds sprouted. After sprouting we went to water every other day and now a few months later when the plants are full grown we water weekly.

African Daisy Collection from Seed

Here is our review of the Hardy Daylily Garden in Connecticut. Our garden reviews are posted when we’ve gone to a garden we feel really stands out. The Hardy Daylily Garden in Connecticut stood out to us as an outstanding local garden.

This family run business totally surprised us. In our opinion, we thought it would be small, but it wasn’t. It was a nice size garden for the person who wants to buy enough plants to fill their car or truck. The plants we bought were from both the front and back gardens.

The way it works is that they’re only open select days during the summer, their garden being a part time open business. We walked around and Mr. Hardy was friendly and helpful. He showed us very interesting seedlings he was working on breeding. He let us know which were his named varieties, some named after local towns. The person digging our plants showed us quite a number of interesting plants to consider.

Most importantly the Hardys were so generous for a northern garden. As everyone knows, gardens in the north don’t get the same increase as those further south. With a winter and short growing season, gardens in the north are lucky to get plants to double in size each year. Gardens in the south can have plants triple or quadruple in a year due to the long growing season.

The plants we purchased were dug out of the ground in front of us. They took off a bit of soil and left most soil on the roots. The plants were each bagged and labeled. They were sturdy, healthy plants. My Hardy mentioned various organic soil treatments he uses to get long lasting healthy plants. There was even one plant he sold us that was the last they had. They divided the plant in front of us and gave us the best half, only keeping one fan for their garden.

We are located in California, so we actually had to remove the soil from the roots and ship them to our show garden.  We chose all evergreen varieties since our growing season is year round. All plants are growing beautifully, some even reblooming in the same year.

We spent hours in their garden. Luckily we had brought lunch with us so the Hardys let us know where we could go nearby to eat, which was the great falls. It was only less than mile drive away. It was very cool, kind of like a falls about 1/5 the size of Niagara Falls. We also took a short walk up the Appalachian Trail which was very close to their house.

That area of Connecticut was so very scenic. We did make a day of this trip, visiting antique stores and parks on our way home. An amazing day. Here is their Website.

Angel’s Trumpet is quite the rewarding plant to grow. This vigorous plant (also can be trained to grow as a shrub or tree)  loves full sun, has fragrant flowers, and grows six to eight feet in height when mature. This plant can grow well in a pot or the ground. It does not like to dry out between waterings, and cannot get colder than 20 degrees Fahrenheit. Here is a beautiful white potted variety that can be transplanted into the ground, a pink one just like the one in our garden photo below you can grow from seed, an orange one that can be grown from seed, and a beautiful potted peach variety.

Pink Angels Trumpet Plant in Our Garden

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Poppies are an amazing wildflower that have been around for thousands of years. Being a wildflower, they are easy to grow and are also drought tolerant. You can grow them from seed indoors (start 5 inches apart) and then bring outdoors after last frost, or start outdoors. Poppy flowers stand at a height of 12 inches to 24 inches on average. Poppies don’t bloom very long, and because of this I recommend planting them among other wildflowers or perennials.

They like well drained soil, half to a full day of sun, and intermittent watering. Often they can be seen on roadsides so it is clear they are easy to grow. But they are a beautiful addition to the home garden as well. Poppies come from many parts of the world, so are quite versatile. Poppies come in many colors, such as yellow, red, pink, and orange. Some are annuals and others are perennial varieties. Birds love poppy seeds, but they can also be used for cooking.

Poppies don’t like to be transplanted, so remember that the pot you start out with will be kept as is while they grow, or their whole root ball will need to be sunk into the ground intact. I would suggest fertilizing poppies once per month with an organic fertilizer. If you like, you can let poppies go to seed after blooming. Or, to promote more flowering, deadhead plants after each finishes flowering.

Growing Red Poppies

Growing a Pink Poppy

Growing African Daisies can be quite a pleasure! African Daisies (Margarita Africana) come in a number of colors and types. This sun perennial grows fast. In our garden, with fertilizing once a month, it quadrupled in size within only a few months. It also has bloomed almost nonstop. It attracts bees and other wildlife for a healthy garden. African Daisies prefer full sun, or at least 6 hours of sun. Watering should be done so these plants don’t dry out, although they can become drought tolerant after established for a few months. They are known to bloom in the summer and fall, but ours has bloomed winter and spring nonstop so far. The height of this perennial is an average of 20 inches, and they can get quite a few feet wide when cared for well. They do not like weather colder than 32 degrees farenheight. The African Daisy in the photo below started out in a regular nursery pot a few months ago. Check out these African Daisy - Dimorphotheca Sinuata — 2,500 Flower Seeds.

African Daisy

Bacopa can be a terrific, fast growing, trailing annual to grow as a ground cover. This plant is very floriferous, growing about 2 - 3 inches in height. It is important that this plant receive at least 2-3 hours of sun. Ideal is 6 or more hours of sun. This plant acts as a perennial so far in San Francisco, California. We have found it spreads in all directions. These can have small white or purple flowers. As you can see in the photo of this one, the one we grow has white flowers. This ground cover likes to have soil that does not dry out too much in between waterings. It can bloom from the summer to fall, but for us it has bloomed in winter and spring as well. We generally fertilize this plant every month or two. We recommend this book about ground covers.

Bacopa Trailing Annual

Daylilies are terrific, easy to grow perennials. They can be grown in all states in the US. The most important thing to find out about daylilies is to know if the plant is an evergreen, dormant, or semi evergreen. Evergreen daylilies keep their leaves all year, so they are ideal for California and southern states. Semi evergreen plants may work ok in warmer states as well, but it depends on their breeding as to how well they will tolerate cold. Dormant daylilies lose their leaves in the winter, so are best for colder states.

There are more than 40,000 varieties of daylilies, and they come in all colors but blue, perfect white, or black. There are small flowers, double flowers, spider flowers, and large flowers. Daylilies love full sun but can tolerate poar shade. They can be derought tolerant to a degree once established.