Postage : Seeds only $4 / Plants $20
A lovely self seeding Californian annual with clumps of scalloped, pale green, ferny leaves. Bearing throughout spring a profusion of white, saucer shaped flowers, of which each of five petals proudly wears a purple spot near it's tip. The apt moniker of Fivespot needs no explanation at the sight of a single flower.
Scratch seeds into bare sunny soil during autumn or early winter.
Light shade is tolerated and may lengthen flowering.
Excellent in pots as an alternative to, or in combination with, Pansies and Violas.
Each packet contains 50+ seeds minimum.
A dainty looking garden treasure, easily grown and self seeding. A winter growing Californian annual well suited to life in Perth gardens. The baby blue, white throated, saucer shaped flowers are borne abundantly over soft green rosettes of pinnate leaves.
While undeniably pretty it is perhaps at its very best in combination with other hardy Californian annuals, Eschscholzia, Limnanthes, Collinsia, Phacelia etc. either in the garden or in pots.
Scratch into bare, well drained soil in autumn or early winter where they should self sow in following years.
Each pack contains, at the bare minimum, 50+ seeds.
A stunning winter annual from the deserts of California. Much loved by Vita Sackville-West, which should be enough enough commendation for anybody.
Dark sapphire blue cup like flowers are borne over velvety, dark green, scalloped leaves in loose rosettes. An exotic beauty most at home in poor sandy soils and low rainfall areas but tolerates clay and even a pot.
Scratch into bare sunny soil in autumn or early winter.
Each pack contains 50+ seeds.
Lush green rosettes of delicate, lacy, fern-like leaves are topped in spring by clusters of soft mauvy blue flowers, supped by every nectar feeding insect that passes. An easy winter annual from south western North America that is often grown as a green manure and to attract pollinators to fruit or vegetable crops.
Scratch seeds into bare sunny soil during autumn or early winter.
Each pack contains surplus of 50+ seeds.
A handsome sage demanding a hot, dry, exposed position where it will form a long lived, low woody shrub, clothed in intense silvery white lance shaped leaves. In spring thousands of small white flowers in dense tapering heads tower over the foliage on sturdy stems up to 2m high. The entire plant is highly aromatic, some might say pungent, smelling to me not unlike burnt rubber but considered lovely by many, especially bees who find the flowers irresistible.
Easily among the best silver foliaged plants of all time, although it really is more white than silver.
Try an un-irrigated super silver garden with others such as Centaurea cineraria, Epilobium canum subsp. canum and Salvia dorrii.
Superb on road verges or against rammed earth walls where it looks right at home.
Water until established and then at your own risk, an occasional summer watering is beneficial. Otherwise tolerant of any well drained soil.
Best on the west coast. Not suitable for areas with high summer humidity (coastal Sydney northwards) but should fair well in the less humid interior.
Pungently scented, silver spoon shaped leaves clothe the cork barked branches of this low growing shrub, adaptations that no doubt help it survive the harsh environment of its home in the deserts of south west North America. In spring slender spikes bear tiered whorls of sapphire blue flowers emerging from rosy bracts.
A plant of rare beauty it is intolerant of wet feet and summer humidity, much preferring extremes heat, drought and cold preferably in sand or other poor sharply drained soil. Moist coastal gardens will invariable prove fatal as will mulch and soil improver.
Luminous blue-mauve tubular flowers emerge from whorls of rich rosy pink bracts tiered on erect spikes atop a low mound of, highly aromatic, silvery white spoon shaped leaves crowding stiff woody stems.
One of the most spectacular members of the genus, from the high semi-deserts of California and surrounds and so strictly for drier inland gardens, with their more favourable extremes of heat and cold, where it will prove exceptionally hardy and very long lived. Excellent drainage is essential, with constant moisture, warmth and humidity tolerated only briefly. An occasional summer drink is appreciated but perhaps no more than once a month.
As seen on TV and so synonymous with the wild west and deserts in general to perhaps be considered little more than a cliché among those unfamiliar with its grandeur and natural habitat in the Mojave Desert.
Rigid, blue-green, lance-like leaves encircle a thick trunk, becoming bare and fissured with age, eventually branching to form a tree like canopy increasing in splendour with passing centuries to appear prehistoric or alien-like. In maturity dense panicles of creamy-white flowers are borne from the tips of its branches.
Seemingly quite growable given rapidly draining, lean soil and the occasional drink. The indulgent conditions of cultivation should see a decent sized specimen within a lifetime though with a large root system it is likely to amount to no more than a bonsai if kept potted too long. We'll collaborate success stories in a few decades.
Ultimately hardy to heat, cold and drought, if it dies you smothered a family heirloom with inappropriate love.