The Plant Enthusiast of San Luis Obispo

Favorite plants sampler
 
It's impossible to have only one favorite plant. I have many favorites for many different reasons. The plant that was my favorite one year ends up getting replaced by something else the next year. I have favorite plants for different times of the year. For instance, yuccas are amazingly beautiful in the late spring when they send up their huge flower stalk. In the late fall, I love our stately sycamore trees with their bright trunks and yellow and brown leaves growing with the dark green coast live oaks. Take a drive up to Monterrey along Highway 1 in early December and you will know what I mean. I love my orange tree when it blooms and sends out an intoxicating sweet scent, but then the 6 months of oranges raining down can get messy along the the constant leaf shedding.
     

Some of my favorite plants that have appeared in my garden

     
Photinia x fraseri - Red-tipped photinia
Echeveria imbricata - Hens-and-chicks
Liatris spicata - Gayfeather, Blazing star
What a great shrub if you shear it back a couple times a year. The bright red leaves are stunning. Hens and chicks or Echeveria has such a wonderful leaf arrangement and is so easy to grow! Hummingbirds love the flowers. Liatris is a great summer bloomer. The bulbs go dormant in the fall.
     
Cerastium tomentosum - Snow-in-summer
Helichrysum petiolare 'Limelight' - Licorice plant
Anagalis monelli - Blue pimpernel
A carpet of silver and white! Snow in summer is a great ground level plant. A short-lived perennial that offers spectacular color and texture on a cloudy day, at dawn, or at dusk. Blue pimpernel gives you some of the most instense blue that you can find in flowers anywhere!
     
Calycanthus occidentalis - California spice bush
Carpenteria californica - Bush anemone
Beta vulgaris cicla - Swiss chard
Spicebush flowers smell like the inside of an old wine barrel! They look like miniature maroon waterlilies when fully open. A fabulous california native that reminds me of a white camelia. What a great plant for color in the cooler season! Swss chard greens make a very healthful edible vegetable.

Some of my favorite plants that I have encountered in the wild

Pinus sabiniana - Gray pine Arctostyphylos ? - Manzanita
Platanus racemosa - Western sycamore
The ghost pine is a most unusual pine occurring in many areas of California. It stands out like a ghost or a puff of smoke from the chapparal and mixed woodland. Manzanitas have the most incredible smooth bark. The strangely beautiful California sycamore!
     
Orthocarpus purpurascens - Owl's clover
Silene lanciniata - Indian pink Satureja douglaii - Yerba buena
The individual flowers look like little owls looking out! What a great surprise to see the Indian pinks on a hike in the early summer! Yerba buena smells like Wrigley's Doublemint Gum!
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©2008 The Plant Enthusiast
Web site updated May 2008