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Tour: Garden Retreat

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Dervis Colorful Hillside
CatMint
Pride Of Madeira
Mexican Bush Sage
Coast  Live Oak
Wonderful Pomegranate
CatMint

Common name:CatMint
Botanical name:Nepeta X Faassenii

Nepeta faassenii makes soft, gray-green, undulating mounds o 1.5 ft. high in bloom. The small leaves are attractive to cats. This perennial has lavender blue flowers in late spring, and early summer.

Pride Of Madeira

Common name:Pride Of Madeira
Botanical name:Echium candicans

Mature specimens of this evergreen shrub can grow to a size of 6'-8' tall and 8'-10' wide. In the spring, spikes of blue-purple flowers appear above the gray green foliage. It should receive full sun in coastal areas. In warmer inland areas, it should get some afternoon shade and more water during summer. However, once it's established, it needs little or no summer watering. This plant can be severely damaged by frost below 25 degrees F. Prune during fall to encourage lower branches to bloom. Great shrub for hillsides where it can spread. Honey bees love this plant. Does great in poor, dry soil. All parts of plant are poisonous. It appears to spread slowly into established native plant communities. Consider not planting echium if you live next to native plants.

Mexican Bush Sage

Common name:Mexican Bush Sage
Botanical name:Salvia leucantha

The Mexican sage is a bushy shrub that grows 3-4 ft. tall and wide. It has hairy white stems, gray-green leaves and velvet like purple flower spikes that bloom summer through fall. This shrub tolerates sun, light shade, little water, and is hardy to 15 d

Coast  Live Oak

Common name:Coast Live Oak
Botanical name:Quercus agrifolia

The coast live oak is and evergreen round-headed tree. It can reach 15-40 ft. high and 20 ft. wide and grows very well from the coastal areas to the interior valleys. It is native to California, is drought tolerant, and attracts butterflies. -Cornflower

Wonderful Pomegranate

Common name:Wonderful Pomegranate
Botanical name:Punica granatum 'Wonderful'

This relatively small tree will grow 20' high x 15' wide and produces red flowers that bloom in the spring. The red/orange fruit appears in September and ripens in October and November.

Designer: Michelle Dervis

Dervis Colorful Hillside
Image: 8 of 15

Photographer: Michelle Dervis

Soils and Compost:

Practice grass-cycling by leaving short grass clippings on lawns after mowing, so that nutrients and organic matter are returned to the soil.

Integrated Pest Management:

Attract, or buy beneficial insects such as ladybugs and lacewings to control pest outbreaks in your garden.