Every spring, while driving Highway 280 on the way to the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show, I enjoy the beautiful combination of Western redbuds blooming vivid fuchsia alongside electric blue ceanothus flower clusters. It’s a sight that always excites me. In early spring there are many other plants that bloom at the same time, creating colorful vignettes. Here are some of my favorites that I’ve used:
• Shady gardens come to life when a Valley Valentine lily-of-the-valley shrub (Pieris japonica) is planted in the same area as bleeding hearts, geranium Biokova and red-leaf Japanese maple.
If you’ve never seen this shrub covered with hundreds of rose-colored, tiny urn-shaped bells, you’ve missed a spectacular sight. The flower buds form in fall and are colorful all winter, then open slowly over many months. This plant sails through winter weather — hardy to zero degrees Fahrenheit — and is scorned by deer. Even the bark is beautiful on this 5- to 7-foot evergreen shrub.
Add a red-leaf maple underplanted with pink and white bleeding hearts and pale pink Biokova geraniums, and your woodland scene is complete.
• A beautiful combination for a sunny garden in spring is Spanish lavender Dedication blooming near a pink breath of heaven. Add the strappy leaves of an apricot-striped sundowner New Zealand, flax and you’ve created a beautiful addition to your garden.
Sundowner is one of the larger phormiums, reaching 6 feet when happy, so allow it room to grow and make this your focal point.
Dedication is a stocky, 2-by-3 foot lavender plant that blooms all spring into summer and often repeats if sheared. Short, fat 2-inch flower spikes have four flag-like bracts that resemble rabbit ears.
Pink breath of heaven bears tiny flowers that cover the plant in winter and spring and can continue in scattered bloom at any other time. The delicate, slender leaves are fragrant when brushed or bruised and would be nice along a path where you can enjoy their scent. All three of these plants are drought-tolerant and deer-resistant.
• Another nice grouping for the sun is bush morning glory planted with Erysimum “orange zwerg” and Echeveria imbricata (aka hens-and-chicks). If you’ve wanted to add just a touch of orange to your garden, the dainty 18-inch orange zwerg erysimum cooled by the silky smooth, silvery leaves of bush morning glory is just the ticket. This small, mounding erysimum is actually a golden orange and contrasts nicely with the fast-growing, 2- to 4-foot bush morning glory.
Hens-and-chicks in the foreground, with blue-green succulent rosettes and loose clusters of bell-shaped orange-red flowers, complete the picture. All these are also low-water-use plants.
Be water-wise
When planning, rearranging or adding to the garden, it’s smart to keep plants together that have similar water requirements. That way, you won’t overwater and waste water.
You still have time this spring to move any plants or shrubs that are in the wrong place. The weather is still cool, and they can settle in before the hot weather arrives.
If you have just one plant that needs regular watering among low-water-use plants, you’ll be watering everything more to keep that one alive. Transplant it to another spot, and your water bill will reflect the savings come summer.
• Jan Nelson, a California certified nursery professional at Plant Works in Ben Lomond, will answer questions about gardening in the Santa Cruz Mountains. E-mail her at ja******@ao*.com.
