by 505 Outside | Aug 1, 2018 | Deciduous Shrubs, Shrubs
Full Sun,
Low Water
Mature Size: 4-6’X 5’
Blooming Season: Mid-Summer
Flower Color: White
Fernbush is an unusual native rose that’s great used as a single specimen or clustered in groups or rows for visual screening and hedges. The showy flower spikes resemble those of white lilacs and attract butterflies all summer. Its aromatic olive green foliage is soft and fern-like and its upright stems with their peeling bronze bark create a pleasant, rounded silhouette without shearing. This hardy plant loves south- and west-facing exposures and well-drained soil.
by 505 Outside | Aug 1, 2018 | Deciduous Shrubs, Shrubs
Full Sun, Part Shade
Medium Water
Mature Size: 2’X 3’
Blooming Season: July-August
Flower Color: Blue-purple
A very popular, low-care shrub that’s perfect for landscape or flower beds. It needs only average garden soil to thrive. Hundreds of purple-blue flower spikes cover the mature plant in late summer. Cut back 1/3 of its previous year’s height in spring to encourage heaviest flowering. Butterflies love this shrub!
by 505 Outside | Aug 1, 2018 | Vines
Full Sun, Part Shade
Medium Water
Mature Size: Climbing X 15’
Blooming Season: Summer
Flower Color: Red
What’s not to love about a plant named for one of the major food groups? Alas, the common name refers to the brownish red flower color rather than the flavor of its tasty (but not even remotely chocolate) purple-brown fruits. This graceful vine with slender stems and finely divided leaves is semi-evergreen in warm microclimates, and an asset where a light shade canopy or tracery of foliage against a north or east facing wall are needed.
by 505 Outside | Aug 1, 2018 | Evergreen Trees, Trees
Full Sun
Medium Water
Mature Size: 60’X 50’
This majestic round-crowned conifer is found growing along the Mediterranean coast in hot, dry places subject to salty sea breezes. Ponderosa Pines, native to the mountains of the Southwest, are moving higher upslope as bark beetles cull those too stressed to thrive in increasingly hot environments, but Stone Pines seem perfectly content as the urban temperatures creep to new highs.
by 505 Outside | Aug 1, 2018 | Evergreen Trees, Trees
Full Sun
Medium Water
Mature Size: 40’X 18”
Pine trees provide visual interest in a landscape and much-needed greenery in the coldest, most barren months. Afghan Pine is one of the best desert pines. It thrives in heat, wind, poor soil and it is relatively drought tolerant. However, it cannot tolerate temperatures below 0 degrees F. Its evergreen leaves (needles) grow in pairs and reach 5-6 inches long. This relatively fast-growing tree is great for windbreaks and for creating a “visual screen” between properties.
