While staying at a friend’s house during the evacuation I was able to stroll through her garden. She’s also a landscape designer and her garden is as beautiful as you’d imagine. She’s addicted to plants and keeps adding to her megs collection on a regular basis. Among the blooming perennials I came across were some of my person favorites. All three are wonderful low water, wildlife and pollinator friendly plants.
The first plant that caught my eye was an epilobium ‘Everett’s Choice’. The name Epilobium is considered current but this group of sub-shrubs used to be called Zauschneria and are so different from the other epilobiums like Fireweed that many California native plant enthusiasts and even the experts often still refer to them as Zauschneria.
This low-growing vigorous ground-hugging shrub remains under 6 inches tall by up to 4 to 5 feet wide with fuzzy gray-green leaves that are covered with long whitish hairs. Vivid red-orange tubular flowers are produced in profusion in the late summer into fall. It does best in full sun but will tolerate some shade. Quite drought tolerant but remains a fuller and more attractive plant with an occasional summer watering. It likes well-drained soil best but will do OK in heavier soils if not over watered. California fuchsia are deer resistant and attractive to hummingbirds.
The second plant that caught my eye is also a hummingbird magnet. Kniphofia, also called Red Hot Poker blooms spring into summer with torch-like clusters that open from the bottom up. The selection at my friend’s garden was probably Echo Mango. Whether the cultivar blooms with red, yellow, orange or mango colored flowers this perennial grows to about 3 feet tall and 4 feet wide in full sun. It is evergreen and requires little summer water. Deer don’t like this plant either so that’s a plus and it’s hardy to below 15 degrees.
Many of you already grow sedum spectabile ‘Autumn Joy’. A succulent perennial to 1-2 feet tall it has wide cabbage-like rosettes of pale blue-green leaves and rich, dark pink flowers that put on a spectacular show above foliage in summer and fall. Plant in sun in a dry well-drained soil and water however much or little you want. The foliage dies back in the winter but is root hardy to below -30 degrees. This group of sedum was given the prestigious Royal Horticultural Society’s Award of Garden Merit in 1993. Beautiful in the rock garden, perennial garden or spotted into a natural meadow setting it attracts bees and butterflies and is deer resistant. The seed heads can be left for winter interest as well as a food source for birds but stems should be removed prior to the new buds opening in February.
Any one of these plants would be a lovely addition to your garden if you don’t already grow them.
