SAT, APR 26th
10-12pm
Inside the Hoffman Center for the Arts
This is our fourth post profiling plants that’ll be on sale this Saturday. We’ve covered the horned poppy, a rare manzanita (‘Diablo’s Blush’) and a few delicious native wildflowers.
Today’s news: If you happen to be in the market for a small evergreen shrub that will effortlessly bring a burst of optimism to your life…
…send it to me.
Joking! But there really is such a plant and its name is Halimium ‘Sarah’, a tidy sum of a 3’x3’ mound with sunny, yellow open-faced flowers set off by a winking maroon eye.
You may very well have seen an eye like that before if you’re familiar with the genus, Cistus, also known as rockrose. ‘Sarah’ is part of the same family but particularly easy to keep tight’n’tidy if you give her a light pruning after flowering (but wait ‘till she puts on some weight).
To feel good about yourself as a gardener, give ‘Sarah’ full sun, good drainage, no water once established and she’ll do the rest.
Also on offer during Saturday’s plant sale, a larger cistus that remains outstanding after 6 years in the Wonder Garden: Cistus x canescens ‘Albus’. The blossoms on this pure white rockrose are 3” across – that’s considerable! – and the foliage is a lovely felted gray.
‘Albus’ really resents good soil (lean! mean!) and like all rockroses, benefits from a light shaping after pruning. Otherwise just leave it be in your garden’s hottest spot and enjoy its 3’x5’ celebration of spring.
