Garden Details

AKA "Blue Pea Shrub" or "Grape Kool-Aid Tree"

Psoralea pinnata got its silly nickname from the scent of its pea-shaped blossoms (springtime).

This is a small tree or large shrub, and mostly that seems to depend on how it is pruned. Most of the year it is handsome but unremarkable, but in the spring it explodes with little blue flowers that have a sweet, fake grape flavour scent. You might think that could be really awful, but somehow it avoids the potential badness of an entire yard smelling like a kindergarten snack hour.

This specimen is growing at the Leaning Pine Arboretum at Cal Poly, photographed Spring 2006.

I collected seed to start this on my own, then I discovered seedlings at Annie's Annuals in June 2006. So I bought one, because it shaved a year off the planting schedule.

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I saw this specimen at Annie's Annuals last June, and immediately began thinking about where I would plant one. The bells are a very pale, greyish blue, almost like smoke.

I bought my own in April 2006, and planted it at the foot of the quince tree (it really prefers a bright shade, but I didn't have much of that on offer; I may move it to a shadier spot if it seems to be suffering). It's still kind of looking like just a bunch of leaves, because it's monocarpic and won't bloom until next year (when it will also die). It's one of the few plants I've planted that is neither a perennial nor a self-sowing annual, but it's so lovely that I could not resist.

As a side note, when I was looking for the photo of from last year, I sorted through many many blue bell-shaped plants I made photo notes about. I guess I like them.

Campanula incurva is native to Greece, prefers rich soil, and average to low water. It grows to around 2 feet tall. It is hardy in USDA zones 8-10, so the rest of you just have to grow it in a pot.

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Calandrinia spectabilis is a low-growing succulent that produces the most fantastic cloud of bright fuschia flowers you have ever seen, and pretty much year-round.

Here's the first one I saw, at the San Luis Obispo Botanical Garden in June of 2005:

In the Spring of 2006 I bought a small one at the plant sale at the Botanical Garden, and planted it out in front of the roses in the native/xeriscape bed. It immediately began to send up a flower shoot.

May 28, 2006: we have a flower!

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AKA "Western Redbud"

This is a tree I would like but do not yet have. It's actually quite common in nurseries here, so I have been putting off getting one until I find just the right shape.

It's a small, slow-growing tree, to about 12 feet tall. Flowers in the spring like so:

(This is one of two of these trees near the Architecture building at Cal Poly. Photo taken March 2006.)

The blossoms are referred to as pea-like, which they are, folded over like pea flowers. The leaves are round, and come out as the flowers are dropping, right around early May. Seed pods look like pea pods.

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