Fragrant Garden

Javanese Bishopwood

Bischofia javanica

Growing in full sun on various soil types, Javanese Bishopwood grows quickly and easily. The dense rounded crown and thick trunk makes Bishopwood a popular shade tree. It grows well in confined urban soil spaces, however, the fruit is considered messy and stains walks when it drops to the ground, and aggressive roots can lift sidewalks.

  • Plant Type: Semi-evergreen tree
  • Water Needs: Moderate
  • Mature Height: 30' - 50'
  • Mature Width: 25' - 35'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 10a to 11
  • Colors: Green to Bronze-green
  • Bloom Color: Green-yellow
  • Bloom Season: Early fall
  • Native To: Tropical Asia, Pacific Islands

Valley Violet California Lilac

Ceanothus maritimus 'Valley Violet'

Ceanothus maritimus 'Valley Violet is native to coastal California. It is evergreen shrub and produces fragrant, lavender flower clusters in the spring. Ceanothus maritimus 'Valley Violet has small leaves that are grey-green in color. It grows in mounds and is beneficial to pollinators.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 3' - 4'
  • Mature Width: 3' - 4'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Grey, Green
  • Bloom Color: Purple
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: California

Green macrocarpa 'Green Carpet'

Green Carpet Natal Plum

Natal plum is an easy-to-grow, spiny evergreen perennial shrub with dense leathery green leaves, fragrant white flowers, and showy edible plum-like fruits. It makes for good ground cover or hedge.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 5' - 7'
  • Mature Width: 12" - 18"
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 9a - 10b
  • Colors: Fruit: Green, Purple/lavender, Red/burgandy; Leaf: Brown/copper
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Kenya to South Africa

European Grey Sedge

Carex divulsa

European Grey Sedge has dark green, grass-like foliage. Roots form dense, broad arching clumps. Spikes of small flower heads emerge green and turn brown. It is a great clumping plant for use in solid stands or combined with other sedges, grasses and herbaceous plants for a natural meadow look.

  • Plant Type: Perennial
  • Water Needs: Moderate
  • Mature Height: 12" - 18"
  • Mature Width: 1' - 2'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 4 to 10
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Brown
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Europe and Northern Africa

Concha Wild Lilac

Ceanothus x 'Concha'

Ceanothus 'Concha' is an attractive shrub with arching branches of dark green leaves with notable prominent venation. A profusion of deep blue flower clusters emerge from reddish buds in spring.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low to medium
  • Mature Height: 4' - 6'
  • Mature Width: 6' - 10'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 7 to 10
  • Colors: Dark Green
  • Bloom Color: Dark blue
  • Bloom Season: Spring to Winter
  • Native To: California

Snowball Monterey Ceanothus

Ceanothus rigidus 'Snowball'

Ceanothus 'Snowball' is a dense mounding shrub that is covered in pure white balls of flower clusters in the spring. The flowers really stand out against the plant's arching branches of dark green leathery leaves. It is best near the coast but can take inland heat.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 4' - 6'
  • Mature Width: 6' - 10'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Medium Green
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: Spring to Winter
  • Native To: California

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

Hollywood Juniper

Juniperus chinensis 'Torulosa'

The Hollywood Juniper is a tough tree in the cypress family that can tolerate full sun, heat, drought, and most soil types. Its twisted form with tufts of dark green foliage give it a windswept look. It is a signature tree that was once commonly used in southern California landscapes.

  • Plant Type: Needled Evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 10' -15'
  • Mature Width: 6'-15'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 5a to 9b
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Non-flowering
  • Bloom Season: Non-flowering
  • Native To: China, Mongolia, Japan

Meerlo Lavender

Lavandula x allardii 'Meerlo'

Meerlo Lavender has aromatic slightly serrated narrow light grey-green leaves that are edged with a decorative light yellow to cream variegation. In mid-summer flowers appear on long stems held erect above the foliage. Though flowering only once and not particularly prolific, the individual flowers are larger than other lavender and the beautiful foliage more than makes up for the short flowering period.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 2' - 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 9 to 10
  • Colors: Gray-green leaves edged with light Yellow to Cream variegation
  • Bloom Color: Lavender-blue
  • Bloom Season: Summer
  • Native To: Mediterranean

Pine Muhly

Muhlenbergia dubia

A great looking smaller grass, Pine Muhly is similar in appearance but about half the size of California Deer Grass and is more usable in smaller gardens. A perennial grass that forms tidy, fountain-shaped clumps. Its leaf blades are stiff, finely textured, and green.

  • Plant Type: Perennial grass
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 2' - 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 7 to 9
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Mauve to Creamy Tan
  • Bloom Season: Late Summer-fall
  • Native To: Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, northern Mexico

Purple Phlomis

Phlomis purpurea

Purple Phlomis has upright stems clothed in soft and woolly, lance-shaped grey-green foliage. The upper half of stems carry whorls of purplish pink, two-lipped hooded flowers.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 4' - 6'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Grey-green
  • Bloom Color: Lavender
  • Bloom Season: Summer-fall
  • Native To: Portugal, Spain, Morocco

Dwarf Karo Pittosporum

Pittosporum crassifolium 'Compactum'

Dwarf Karo Pittosporum is adorned with olive green rounded leaves with greyish hairs on their undersides. New leaves exude a brighter yellow-green hue. Lightly fragrant maroon blossoms appear during spring. Its an excellent fit for borders or hedges.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 9 to 11
  • Colors: Olive-green with Grey hairs
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: April-May
  • Native To: China, Japan, Korea

Japanese Pittosporum

Pittosporum tobira

Japanese Pittosporum makes an excellent specimen plant, providing some structure and dense evergreen color to a landscape. The showy fragrant blooms smell like sweet orange blossoms. Fruit is in the fall when its non-edible fruit capsules ripen.

  • Plant Type: Broadleaf evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 8' - 13'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 8'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8a to 10b
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: April-May
  • Native To: China, Japan, Korea

Boule Rosemary

Rosmarinus officinalis 'Boule'

Named for the game played commonly in the South of France, Boule Rosemary forms a tight, dense mound that has a particularly formal appearance.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen
  • Water Needs: Low, Medium
  • Mature Height: 1' - 2'
  • Mature Width: 1' - 2'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Gray-green
  • Bloom Color: Blue
  • Bloom Season: Spring, Summer
  • Native To: Mediterranean

Germander Sage

Salvia chamaedryoides

This salvia has a compact, mounding growth habit that spreads slowly by underground runners. Grey-green leaves are small, textured and fragrant. Upward reaching stems carry two-lipped flowers in bright blue. Attracts pollinators.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 1' - 2'
  • Mature Width: 3' - 4'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 11
  • Colors: Gray-green
  • Bloom Color: Blue
  • Bloom Season: Year-round
  • Native To: Mexico

White Texas Sage

Salvia greggii 'Alba'

Salvia greggii is naturally found at elevations from 5000-9000 feet in the mountains and rocky slopes of Mexico and southwest Texas. This is an attractive and tough drought tolerant plant that attracts hummingbirds and butterflies.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 2' - 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: Spring, Fall
  • Native To: Southwestern United States

Santa Barbara Mexican Bush Sage

Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara'

Salvia leucantha 'Santa Barbara' is a quick growing shrub with upright stems covered in white hairs and narrow leaves that are grey green. Its purple flowers grow in rings at the tips of each branch well above the leaves. Salvia leucantha is in peak bloom from spring through fall, or until it gets cold enough for frost.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 2' - 3'
  • Mature Width: 4' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 7a-8
  • Colors: Gray-green, White
  • Bloom Color: Purple
  • Bloom Season: Year-round
  • Native To: Mexico

Wall Germander

Teucrium chamaedrys 'Prostratum'

Teucrium chamaedrys 'Prostratum' is often grown ornamentally. It has a woody base and its foliage forms clumps of evergreen leaves that look similar to oak leaves. Chamaedrys means "ground oak", as it gets its name from its leaf shape.

  • Plant Type: Evergreen Shrub
  • Water Needs: Low to Medium
  • Mature Height: 6" - 9"
  • Mature Width: 1.5' - 3'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 5 to 9
  • Colors: Green
  • Bloom Color: Pink, Purple
  • Bloom Season: Summer
  • Native To: Mediterranean

Chinese Star Jasmine

Trachelospermum jasminoides

Chinese Star Jasmine is an, evergreen, woody perennial. In areas where it is winter hardy (Southern California) it may be grown as a vine, a sprawling shrub, or as a ground cover. Sweetly fragrant, starry creamy white flowers appear in late spring with sporadic additional blooms in summer. Its flowers are attractive to bees.

  • Plant Type: Vine
  • Water Needs: Moderate
  • Mature Height: 3' - 20'
  • Mature Width: 3' - 6'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun to Partial Shade
  • USDA Zones: 8 to 10
  • Colors: Bronze-green
  • Bloom Color: White
  • Bloom Season: May-June
  • Native To: China, Japan

Chaste Tree

Vitex agnus-castus

The Chaste Tree can be grown as a small tree or a large shrub and does well in a waterwise garden. It is a member of the mint family and has pleasantly fragrant leaves.

  • Plant Type: Deciduous
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: 12' - 15'
  • Mature Width: 15' - 20'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 6 to 10
  • Colors: Green, Gray
  • Bloom Color: Blue, Lavender
  • Bloom Season: Summer
  • Native To: Mediterranean

Japanese Wisteria

Wisteria floribunda

Although it may be slow to establish, Japanese Wisteria is aggressive and often invasive due to its rampant growth. It has drooping clusters (racemes) of pink to purple pea-shaped, very fragrant flowers. After flowering, pendant velvety seed pods about 6 inches long ripen in fall.

  • Plant Type: Vine
  • Water Needs: Low
  • Mature Height: Up to 25'
  • Mature Width: 10' - 20'
  • Sun Needed: Full Sun
  • USDA Zones: 4a to 9b
  • Colors: Bright Green
  • Bloom Color: Pink, Purple
  • Bloom Season: Spring
  • Native To: Japan
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