Tags
Agapanthus, Boulder Creek, California, flowers, Highway 9, Perennial plant, perennials, Plant, Real Estate, Santa Cruz, summer
I don’t know about you, but I long for color in the last dying days of summer. Driving down Hwy 9 from 35 to my listed property at 260 Sylvan in Boulder Creek and on down into Santa Cruz this past weekend, I was struck by just how few pops of color exist in people’s yards
Mother Nature has me covered with the rich golden yellows of the hills and the dusky greens of California Sagebrush and Coastal Sage Scrub that give way to the dark green and rust colors of the redwoods. I even, truth-be-told, enjoy the non-native crazy pops of pink afforded us by sweet peas and the naked ladies that line Northern Californian roadways everywhere. But once I return to the suburbs and the towns, color just seems to vanish.
I hope it is because we are all too busy out playing at the beach or hiking to worry about our yards, but I thought I would remind you all about some easy steps you can take to replace the overgrown grass and leggy weeds with color.
I have three words for you: Late Summer Perennials. If you plant them now, you will enjoy them now and next year.
The New Perennial Club is a great resource for finding the best perennials to plant, based on color, time of year, attributes and zone. I’ll help you out: Santa Cruz, and most of the Central Coast, is Zone 8.
Here is a partial list of some mixed color, late summer plants for your yard:
- Achillea – commonly known as Yarrow, these little flowering clusters come in white, yellow, orange, pink or red
- Delphinium –monster blooms in shades of blue
- Papaver – Poppies! Oh boy, oh boy!
- Rudbeckia – Bright yellow flowers otherwise known as Black-Eyed Susans
- Agapanthus – Pretty ubiquitous around these parts; HOAs love ‘em because they require so little maintenance
Anemone – a type of buttercup that come in ALL the colors. All of them! - Cyclamen – you know you are a true Californian when these plants remind you of the Christmas holidays. Apparently, they grow nicely outside in late summer.
- Erigeron – These are sometimes referred to by non-Botanists as Fleabane or daisies, depending upon how far from a Botanist you are.
- Helenium – yellow or orange daisy-like flower
- Kniphofia – These are those crazy red-orange lilies that just seem to suddenly spring up out of nowhere. They tend to attract more hummingbirds.
- Lobelia – Poor little maligned flower. I love this purple-blue scrappy thing. According to Wiki, folks haven’t really shared my love through the years. It was the flower of malevolence and ill will according to the Victorians and the common names are dreadful: Asthma Weed, Pukeweed and Vomitwort.
- Stokesia – Could a more aptly named purple flower exist to plant in Santa Cruz? Be stoked, people, be stoked!