Frisco Vista

Here’s a good plant for Bay Area gardens. Most people probably know the common stock that is grown as an annual in many parts of the country. This version, perhaps close to the wild species found in the eastern Mediterranean, is a perennial in most of the Bay Area. It has a woody stem and grayish green foliage. It grows to about 2½ feet. In the summer it gets fragrant white flowers on short spikes. It can be grown from seed, or it’s available in 4-inch containers from Annie’s Annuals. Full sun, average water.

Annie’s Annuals in Richmond (at 740 Market Avenue) is holding their spring party this weekend, April 14-15. They will have free “supermarket sweep” raffles every hour — winners get 15 minutes of free shopping. There’s also a “gardening olympics” (“no athletic ability necessary”). Plus Calypso music, complimentary snacks and drinks, and gardening talks, as well as an Easter egg hunt, face painting, a bunny petting corner, coloring table, and sandbox for kids.

Annie’s specializes in unusual annuals and perennials, including cottage garden heirlooms and hard-to-find California native wildflowers. Annie’s plants are grown outdoors, not in greenhouses, so they tend to be tough. And they’re not sprayed with hormones as is the case with most commercial growers.

It’s a great place to pick up plants that you won’t find in retail box stores. But beware, at $5 or so per 4-inch pot, you can spend a lot in a short time.

The full schedule of events is here.

It’s freezing — literally. Over here in the East Bay we’re looking at a week of lows around or under the freezing mark. I’ve been watering my plants and covering them with plastic at night when I can. But I don’t have enough plastic (or time) for all of them. My fuschias and brugmansias are looking very distressed. I can replace the fuschias since they grow fairly fast (and I think they might come back), but I’d hate to lose the big beautiful brugmansias.

The Bay Area gets frosts occasionally, bt it’s unusually to have such a long duration of frost. We are going to lose a lot of our semi-tropical plants. This is a sad development.

link: Tom’s Garden

Beautiful, delicious, organic Granny Smith apples from my south-facing hillside. My region isn’t really prime for apples, but for some reason Granny Smiths seem to do really well.