Professional Gardening Tips
These small, dainty plants from California are of a spreading habit and the leaves are pale green, deeply cut and slightly hairy. In Nemophila menziesi var. insignis, Baby-blue-eyes, the flowers are cup shaped, blue or white. The tips of the […]
NEMESIA (Name found in Dioscorides, an early botanical writer) The English have admired and grown Nemesias in their cool climate and all have admired them in places where they grow well. At Ohio State University they grown them in the […]
MIRABILIS Four-o’clock (Marvel-of-peru) (Name from mirabilis, wonderful, or some say shortened form of Admirabilis) The Four-o’clocks are well known and were favorites with our grandmothers, just as they are admired by us today. The flowers remain closed until late afternoon, […]
LUPINUS Lupine (From lupus-wolf, destroying soil as does the wolf) Lupines are attractive plants bearing Pea like flowers in whorls upon long, graceful spikes. There are annual and perennial species. The annual varieties are mainly derived from the following species: […]
LOBELIA (Named for M. L’Obel, botanist and physician of King James I) Clear blues are found among the annual Lobelias. The varieties of the Edging Lobelia, Lobelia erinus, the common species, are of two sorts-those which produce compact plants four […]
LINUM Flowering Flax (From linon, flax) There are several annual Flaxes, including Linum grandiflorum (coccineum), the Scarlet Flax, about a foot tall, with wide-open, glossy flowers, and L. usilatissimum, the Flax of commerce which bears blue flowers, and grows 3 […]
LEPTOSYNE (Greek for slenderness) A Daisy-like flower related to Coreopsis, Leplosyne stillmani, grows 18 inches tall. The flowers are golden yellow, 2 inches to 3 inches across; the tips of the ray florets are 3-lobed. The foliage is very finely […]
LAVATERA – Treemallow (Annual-mallow) (Named for the Lavater brothers, botanists of Switzerland) The name Mallow is applied to a number of plants of various habits, all of which bear flowers that resemble Hollyhocks. The common Layia elegans annual Lavatera is […]
LAYIA Tidytips (Named for Thomas Lay, naturalist) A California Daisy-like annual, Layia elegans, has yellow flowers with the rays often white-tipped. The plants are more or less hairy throughout. It grows about 12 inches tall. USE. The unusual white tipped […]
Reminding one of a small, symmetrical evergreen, the Summer cypress is commonly seen in gardens. The plants grow quickly and make an upright, compact growth, producing numerous branches covered with fine leaves. There is an objectionable feature that must be […]