Gardenig in state California. Tips & Guides

There are many Flowers that Start with C, and if you’re a gardener who loves expanding their knowledge, this article is for you!

Julie Soefer

Food Network

L: Carson Downing. R: John Shearer / Contributor / Getty Images | Design: Better Homes & Gardens

It’s unusual to find a shrub or tree with blue flowers, so if you’re looking for a shock of blue to light up your garden, look no further than a ceanothus. When in flower it’s a stunning sight, smothered in flowers in shades that range from powder blue to deep azure.

A couple of years ago I had an exhausting spring planting season. I started everything from pansies to parsley from seed, and for weeks all I did was run from one windowsill to another with a watering can.I worried constantly about damping off disease. After I put the seedlings outside to harden off, I brought them back in again on stormy nights. Finally, when the last little peat pot was safely stowed in the ground, I resolved never to buy another seed packet again.

While Hallmark star Alison Sweeney was born and raised in Los Angeles, she’s recently made the move to Arizona with her husband and teenage children. The move has been more amazing than they could have ever dreamed, Sweeney says, partly due to the lush rose garden that came with the home, which has sparked a new gardening hobby for her.

The Southern Californian region has zones 5a to 11a and experiences a Mediterranean climate with warm and sunny summers along with winters full of rainfall. It’s a bit on the hotter side, which means it’s great for growing many different kinds of veggies!

If you’ve run into a garden rut, we’ve got you covered. It’s time to start planning for your first trip to the local nursery or garden center. What plants will you need for a new garden area? Are you noticing a lack of excitement or color outside (we call this the midspring slump)? Just itching for an exciting new addition to a well-established bed? Now is the time to make a list of the perennials, shrubs, and/or trees that will fill those needs.

If you’ve run into a garden rut, we’ve got you covered. It’s time to start planning for your first trip to the local nursery or garden center. What plants will you need for a new garden area? Are you noticing a lack of excitement or color outside (we call this the midspring slump)? Just itching for an exciting new addition to a well-established bed? Now is the time to make a list of the perennials, shrubs, and/or trees that will fill those needs.

Dream Pictures / Getty Images

Mike Coppola / Getty Images

Brightland

How to Grow Five Spot Flowers Nemophila maculata

Sleep Week has arrived. Whether you’re on the side of keeping daylight savings or hope to get rid of the clock-adjusting routine, now is the perfect time to take advantage of all the bedding sales as your body adapts to losing an hour. And as someone who needs a minimum of eight hours of sleep (more for proper functioning than beauty), I firmly believe in making investments to create the best sleeping experience one could have. 

Being the third largest state of the United States in size, it has diverse climate, this is why this list includes drought tolerant, sun loving, cold hardy, tropical, and temperate trees for the “Golden State.”

Tips for Growing Saskatoon Serviceberries Amelanchier alnifolia

Oscar Mayer

Back in June, friend of the GPOD Cherry Ong attended the Vancouver Hardy Plant Study Weekend and was kind enough to share photos of some of the gardens that she toured. Today she’s taking us along to visit Gwen and Paul’s gorgeous garden and nursery.

How to Grow and Care for Fennel Foeniculum vulgare

How to Grow and Care for Sea Thrift Armeria maritima

A group of tender perennial plants, only one of which is commonly grown. This is Strelitzia Reginae, which has large ornamental leaves on long strong petioles (leafstalks), and bears brilliant orange and purple flowers, several together within a large bract, on stems 3 ft. or more high in spring. It is a native of South Africa and belongs to the Banana family, Musaceae. The name commemorates Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz.

Today we’re in Redding, California, visiting with Carol Cowee.

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How to Grow and Care for Camassia (Wild Hyacinth) Camassia spp.

A Love Affair with Texture, Stone and Water | Talk & Tour Moving to a new home with no garden, dry rocky soil and huge stone outcroppings was just the challenge this gardener was up for. Starting a new garden from scratch

Kathy Sandel has shared her gardens with us before (More of Kathy’s Calabasas Garden, Kathy’s Garden Transformation in Sacramento), but today she’s sharing the garden she created for her daughter in Sacramento, California.

I have given up indoor seed starting completely on several occasions. The first time it happened I was a novice gardener. I had ordered seeds of just about every plant that I saw in the garden catalogs without thinking about such practical things as gallons of potting soil, hours of daily watering, and square feet of windowsill space. It also did not occur to me to determine whether or not I had room in my garden for even a fraction of my seedlings. My chaotic efforts eventually produced some wonderful plants, but the process was so exhausting that I said: “Never again.”

We were fortunate to win at Half Moon Bay, California this year. The competition was intense with 80 entries, 10 of which were over 1,000 pounds. The weigh-off is always on Columbus Day. The winner stays until the following weekend to participate in the HMB Pumpkin Festival.

Lately, I have noticed that the mail-order garden supply catalogs are full of Asian-themed garden accessories such as pots, traditional bamboo fences, and stone lanterns. This seems to go along with the trend toward Asian-inspired minimalism in home décor. In California and the Pacific Northwest, traditional Asian and Asian-inspired gardens have been popular for years. Can a national vogue for Chinese and Japanese gardens be far behind?

Hardy perennial and annual plants of varying heights which bloom in June and July chiefly; the original species or wild types from which the modern beautiful varieties are descended are natives of California, Siberia, Syria, India and other countries. Delphinium Ajacis, originally from eastern Europe is one of the plants from which the annual Larkspurs have been raised. Delphinium belongs to the Buttercup family, Ranunculaceae. The name is an old Greek one.

Apart from the odd bit of snow about the rest has all gone, and the world is green again! I only worked a morning today, so this afternoon I was able to get out into the greenhouse and sow a load of seeds. The temperature in the greenhouse is about 15 degrees so that’s a good temperature for seeds to germinate. I’ve got a lot to go through, so if you’re ready and sitting comfortably, then I’ll begin.

This weekend was mainly spent pricking out various seedlings. Some individually, but others in little clumps of 5 or 6 seedlings. When doing little clumps you don’t have to count them exactly, they will just clump in groups naturally, so if there are a more in some clumps and fewer in other, then that’s fine.

Today we’re visiting with Max Cannon who gardens in south San Francisco, California:

We’re in Northridge, California today, visiting with Terry Sanders:

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