California Plants

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.