Spiny Bear's Breech

Acanthus spinosus

Acanthus leaves have a classical appearance and were the source of the Corinthian leaf motif developed and used as a decoration in ancient Greek and Roman art and architecture.

• Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 3' - 4'
• Mature Width: 2' - 3'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 5 to 9
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Pink, Mauve
• Bloom Season: June - August
• Native To: Europe, Mediteranean

Japanese Maple

Acer palmatum

The Japanese Maple's general plant form is rounded to broad-rounded, often with low branching. Each palmate green leaf has 5 to 7 pointed toothed lobes. The flowers are rather attractive close up, but are not particularly showy from a distance.

• Plant Type: Tree
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 10' to 25'
• Mature Width: 10' to 25'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 5 to 8
• Colors: Yellow, Purple, Bronze
• Bloom Color: Reddish-purple
• Bloom Season: April
• Native To: Korea, Japan, China

White Naked Lady Lily

Amaryllis belladonna 'Alba'

A hardy bulb in mild-winter regions, the Belladonna Lily is very easy to grow. Tall white, trumpet-shaped flowers with a touch of yellow at the throat are fragrant. It is perfect for cutting beds, borders, and container gardens

• Plant Type: Bulb
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 2' - 3'
• Mature Width: 2' - 3'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 5 to 9
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Summer
• Native To: South Africa

Silver Lady Dwarf Tree Fern

Blechnum gibbum 'Silver Lady'

The Silver Lady Dwarf Tree Fern is an evergreen fern with attractive bright green fronds that grow atop a short, slender trunk. Noted for fast growth and a symmetrical crown.

• Plant Type: Evergreen fern
• Water Needs: Regular
• Mature Height: 3' to 6'
• Mature Width: 3' to 6'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 9 to 11
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Non-flowering
• Bloom Season: Non-flowering
• Native To: New Zealand

Blonde Ambition Blue Grama

Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition'

Blonde Ambition Blue Grama is a clump-forming ornamental grass with unique flower spikes that attach to stems at a 90 degree angle. The seed heads emerge chartreuse and mature to blonde. Foliage is blue-green and finely textured. Very heat and drought tolerant.

• Plant Type: Ornamental grass
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 0.75' - 2.5'
• Mature Width: 0.75' - 1.5'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 3 to 10
• Colors: Blue-green
• Bloom Color: Chartreuse
• Bloom Season: June-August
• Native To: Missouri, United States

Swan Lake Camellia

Camellia japonica 'Swan Lake'

The Swan Lake Camellia is an understory evergreen shrub with exceptionally large white flowers, blooming from January through May in California.

• Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 6' - 12'
• Mature Width: 6' - 12'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 7 to 9
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Winter, Spring
• Native To: China, Japan, North Korea, South Korea, Taiwan

Fairy Crassula

Crassula multicava 'Fairy'

Fairy Crassula is an evergreen, low-growing plant that rarely exceeds a foot tall in the landscape. It is often even shorter when grown in dry shade. Fairy Crassula forms wide mats with glossy rounded leaves that are darker green in the shade and paler green when exposed to more sun. The leaves often have small red dots on the upper surface.

• Plant Type: Succulent
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: <1'
• Mature Width: 15" - 24"
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 8 to 11
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Pink and White
• Bloom Season: Winter to Spring
• Native To: South Africa

Spiked Cabbage Tree

Cussonia spicata

Cussonia spicata is an evergreen tree with large green leaves that form 'heads' at the ends of stems, which twist and turn. Small floers bloom at the tips of the branches in short spikes.

• Plant Type: Evergreen tree
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 20' - 40'
• Mature Width: 15' - 30'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9b to 11
• Colors: Brown, Green
• Bloom Color: Grey, White
• Bloom Season: Spring, Summer
• Native To: South Africa

Mexican Cycad

Dioon Edule

The Mexican Cycad is a slow-growing, palm-like evergreen cycad, native to deciduous oak forests and dry rocky slopes in eastern Mexico. The palm-like leaves have a feathery look but the tips are quite spiny.

• Plant Type: Palm or cycad
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 6' to 8'
• Mature Width: 4' to 6'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 8 to 11
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Showy, edible fruit
• Bloom Season: Non-flowering
• Native To: Mexico

Giant Chalk Dudleya

Dudleya brittonii

Giant Chalk Dudleya forms lotus-like rosettes of fleshy leaves which are coated in a fine chalky white powder. Stalks of yellow flowers appear in spring and summer, attracting hummingbirds. Avoid overhead watering.

• Plant Type: Succulent
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 1' - 2'
• Mature Width: 1' - 2'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9 to 11
• Colors: Chalky White
• Bloom Color: Yellow
• Bloom Season: Spring, summer
• Native To: Baja California

Eastern Cape Blue Cycad

Encephalartos horridus

The Eastern Cape Blue Cycad begins with an upright stem that branches freely before extending downward into the soil. The underground part is usually longer than the above-ground part. Many stems may be grouped together forming an overlapping mass of impenetrable stems and leaves. The shallower the soil, the more above the soil the trunk extends. Plants may become extremely old.

• Plant Type: Cycad
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 2' - 3'
• Mature Width: 2' - 4'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 10 to 12
• Colors: Blue-green leaves
• Bloom Color: Red-brown cones
• Bloom Season: Non-flowering
• Native To: South Africa

Seaside Daisy

Erigeron glaucus

Often used as a houseplant in warm climates, the Seaside Daisy can be grown in rock gardens and crevice gardens. Aster-like flowers bloom from spring to summer with yellow button-centers that attract all sorts of pollinators.

• Plant Type: Perennial
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 6" - 12"
• Mature Width: 3' - 5'
• Sun Needed: Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 8 to 10
• Colors: Blue-green leaves
• Bloom Color: Lavender-pink and Blue
• Bloom Season: Spring to Fall
• Native To: Coastal California and Oregon

Fiddleleaf Fig

Ficus lyrata

Ficus lyrata grows in lowland, tropical rainforests in its native habitat. The small Ficus lyrata grown as houseplants, are actually immature trees. Trees of this size would typically be found in the protection of the forest understory.

• Plant Type: Broadleaf evergreen
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 60' - 100'
• Mature Width: 30' - 60'
• Sun Needed: Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 10 to 12
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Insignificant
• Bloom Season: Rarely
• Native To: Western and Central Africa

Whirling Butterflies Gaura

Gaura lindheimeri 'Whirling Butterflies'

Whirling Butterflies Gaura features arching red stems, pink flower buds, and four-petaled snow white flowers which appear in long wand-like panicles above the foliage over a very long late spring to autumn bloom period. Flowers open only a few at a time, and dance in the wind like butterflies, hence the cultivar name.

• Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 1' - 2'
• Mature Width: 4' - 5'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 8 to 10
• Colors: Olive green leaves
• Bloom Color: Lavender-blue
• Bloom Season: Spring to summer
• Native To: Canary Islands

Kentia Palm

Howea forsterian

The Kentia palm can be grown as a houseplant in temperate climates and requires little light. It can also adapt to sunny locations and it is used as a landscaping plant in Southern California.

• Plant Type: Evergreen Perennial
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 4'
• Mature Width: 4'
• Sun Needed: Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9b to 11b
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Fall, Winter
• Native To: Australia

Island Pitchersage

Lepechinia fragrans

Island Pitchersage have strongly fragrant fuzzy green semi-triangular leaves. Scented blooms in spring and summer attract many pollinators. Like strands of lavender lanterns, foxglove-like flowers are held in calyces along lax stems.

• Plant Type: Semi-evergreen shrub
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 4' - 6'
• Mature Width: 4' - 6'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9 to 10
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Lavender-pink
• Bloom Season: Spring-Summer
• Native To: California

Chinese Fan Palm

Livistonia Chinensis

Livistonia Chinensis is often used as an ornamental tree in gardens and parks because of its fan-shaped leaves and its ability to grow well in many conditions. It can grow in a range of soils types including clay, loam, sand, acidic, and alkaline, and it can grow in both full sun and full shade.

• Plant Type: Tree
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 20' - 50'
• Mature Width: 11' - 15'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 9 to 11
• Colors: Green, Brown, Black
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Spring
• Native To: Japan, Taiwan, China, Ryukyu Islands, and Hainan

Platinum Beauty Lomandra

Lomandra x 'Platinum Beauty'

An evergreen grass-like perennial, Platinum Beauty Lomandra has variegated leaves that are light green with white stripes. Fine, upright-arching foliage forms a compact, fountain-like clump. Small yellow flower spikes emit a sweet fragrance in summer. Tolerates seaside, inland, and drought conditions.

• Plant Type: Evergreen perennial
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 2' - 3'
• Mature Width: 2' - 3'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 8 to 11
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: Yellow
• Bloom Season: Summer
• Native To: Australia

Sweet Olive

Osmanthus fragrans

The Sweet Olive is a small upright tree or shrub, with flowers that have a very powerful apricot fragrance which are sometimes added to teas.

• Plant Type: Broadleaf evergreen
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 10' to 20'
• Mature Width: 10' to 15'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9 to 11
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: April
• Native To: Himalayas, China, Japan

Birdtrap Tree

Pisonia bruncniana

This species is native to the main Hawaiian islands of O`ahu, Moloka`i, Lāna`i, Maui, and Hawai`i. The fruit is very sticky and traps small creatures and insects.

• Plant Type: Perennial tree or shrub
• Mature Height: 15' - 30'
• Mature Width: 32'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• Colors: Dark Green
• Bloom Color: Greenish-white, Purple
• Bloom Season: Summer
• Native To: Hawai'i, Norfolk Island, New Zealand

Silver Shield Plectranthus

Plectranthus argentatus 'Silver Shield'

Silver Shield Plectranthus is an upright-spreading, woody-based sub-shrub (or undershrub). Although its flowers are somewhat showy, this plant is usually grown primarily for its attractive fuzzy grey-green foliage.

• Plant Type: Herbaceous perennial
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 2' - 2.5'
• Mature Width: 2' - 2.5'
• Sun Needed: Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 10 to 11
• Colors: Grey-green
• Bloom Color: Bluish-white
• Bloom Season: July-August
• Native To: Australia

Karnikara

Pterospermum acerifolium

The Karnikara has broad, dense leaves and large funnel-shaped white flowers. Its leaves can grow large enough to be similar to the size of a dinner plate, which is where it gets its nickname "Dinner Plate Tree" It prefers to grow in a sheltered, bright location and be watered regularly during its growing season.

• Plant Type: Perennial Tree
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 100'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 10 to 11
• Colors: Green, Grey, Brown, Yellow
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Summer
• Native To: Assam, Bangladesh, China South-Central, East Himalaya, India, Laos, Malaya, Myanmar, Nepal, Thailand, Vietnam

Moonshine Snake Plant

Sansevieria trifasciata 'Moonshine'

The Moonshine Snake Plant is a great container plant that can be grown outdoors or indoors. It requires little care, and will tolerate low light levels. It turns a darker green color with less light, but grows best and may flower in bright light or morning sun.

• Plant Type: Evergreen succulent
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 1' - 2'
• Mature Width: <1'
• Sun Needed: Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 10a to 11
• Colors: Silver-green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Mid-spring to early Summer
• Native To: Western Africa

Lily Pilly

Syzygum smithi

Syzygum smithi is a compact, small tree with leaves that start out a reddish pink and mature to a dark glossy green. In Australian summer (fall and winter months in the Northern Hemesphere) its small, white flowers appear in clusters and are followed by clusters of round light pink fruits, which are edible and sometimes used for jam. Syzygum smithi is native to the forests of eastern Australia.

• Plant Type: Perennial tree
• Water Needs: Medium
• Mature Height: 20' - 50'
• Mature Width: 6' - 8'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
• USDA Zones: 9a
• Colors: Green, Brown, White
• Bloom Color: Cream, White
• Bloom Season: Fall, Winter
• Native To: Australia

Coastal Rosemary

Westringia fruticosa 'Mundi'

Westringia fruticosa 'Mundi" is native to Australia, specifically the coast of New South Wales where it grows along the cliffs and near the sand on the beach. It is drought tolerant but keeps better color and grows more densely if watered occasionally in the spring and summer.

• Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
• Water Needs: Low
• Mature Height: 1' - 2'
• Mature Width: 4' - 6'
• Sun Needed: Full Sun
• USDA Zones: 9 to 10
• Colors: Green
• Bloom Color: White
• Bloom Season: Year-round
• Native To: Australia