Common name:Variegated Century Plant
Botanical name:Agave americana 'Variegata'

This Agave has a creamy yellow margins around the edge of the leaves. It will grow 6'-10' tall by up to 13' wide. It is native to Mexico. It has a very open growth habit, with leaves that recurve along their length. -Mountain States Nursery

Common name:Incana Cranesbill
Botanical name:Geranium incanum

Geranium incanum is grown as a trailing or mounding perennial to a size of 1' tall, spreading by underground runners to cover relatively large areas if healthy. Its foliage has a wispy, ferny texture. The dark, rosy violet flowers can appear almost all year in areas of mild climates. The plant needs good drainage, and most suffer die back in cold winters. Proper growth conditions include sun with little or no summer watering. -Monterey Bay Nursery

Common name:Century Plant, Maguey
Botanical name:Agave americana

This plant is fast growing to about 6'-10' tall and 8'-13' wide. Wide gray leaves have stiff terminal spines and recurved teeth on margins. It prefers full sun and well-drained situations. After blooming, which could take several years, it will die but will send up new pups from around the base. Some people are allergic to the sap. Removal is difficult if unwanted.

Common name:Chaste Tree
Botanical name:Vitex agnus-castus

The Chaste Tree is a deciduous tree or small shrub in which the sizes vary due to their location, but they tend to be multi-trunked and widespreading. It blooms in the summer with 7" blue flower spikes and the leaflets are green above and gray beneath. The Chaste Tree is a native to California and is drought tolerant. -Cornflower Farms

Common name:Yellow Moraea, Fortnight Lily
Botanical name:Dietes bicolor

This clumping perennial Iris relative stands 3'-4' high. It has light yellow, iris-like flowers with maroon blotches that are about 2" wide. It performs best in full sun and in soil with good drainage.

Common name:Blue Blossom Ceanothus
Botanical name:Ceanothus thyrsiflorus 'Skylark'

The blue blossom ceanothus is a shrub that has dark blue flower clusters that bloom profusely. This smaller growing selection grows to 6' high and 4'-6' wide. This shrub attracts butterflies, hummingbirds and beneficial insects. Its native counterpart can be found from sea level to 1500' elevations in mixed evergreen and redwood forests of the Coast Ranges. -Cornflower Farms

Common name:Matilija Poppy
Botanical name:Romneya coulteri

Crowned by white poppies, this high-impact, spreading, gray green perennial stands statuesque at 5"-8" tall. It is best used where its scale and habit will not overpower, and it requires no summer water and thrives on dry alluvial slopes..

Common name:Butterfly-Iris, Fortnight Lily
Botanical name:Dietes iridioides

This clumping evergreen Iris bears tall, narrow leaves to 30" tall and white flowers marked purple in the center on stalks up to 3' tall. This variety has stiffer, darker foliage than the bicolor form. It requires sun to part shade with little or no summer watering when established. -Monterey Bay Nursery

Common name:Sunburst Trailing Gazania
Botanical name:Gazania X rigens leucolaena 'Sunburst'

This groundcover is less than 1' tall and has evergreen, silver gray foliage with beautiful orange flowers that bloom January through September.

Common name:Spanish Lavender
Botanical name:Lavandula stoechas

This dense shrub grows 2'-3' tall with blue gray foliage and deep purple flowers that have large showy bracts near the top of the spikes. It is drought tolerant . - Cornflower Farms

The Right Plant Right Place

Putting the right plants in the right places in the right groupings is both the challenge and art of good landscape design.

Click in the green box for more information