Spring border

This is the border we saw earlier when the cornflowers were the main feature.  Now the pinks and reds have come into the fore.  There are pink and orange poppies, rose campion (Lychnis coronaria) and red sweet william (Dianthus barbatus), with white alyssum and still a few blue cornflowers here and there.

Color baskets

Happy Mother's Day!

Alyssum and lobelia

This combination of white alyssum and blue lobelia is growing very prettily in a dappled-shade area under a decorative bench at the edge of a path.

Rosemary

Rosemary is an evergreen aromatic shrub, valued for both its toughness in the garden and its usefulness as a cooking herb in the kitchen.  It tolerates harsh sun and poor soil conditions and needs little water, so is ideal for a water-wise Southern California garden.  Keep it to a desired size by pinching the young tips of each branch -- with your fingers, so that you smell like rosemary for hours! -- or prune older stems lightly to a side branch. It can be sheared, but I like its natural shape best.

There are a number of varieties which differ according to growth habit, leaf size, and flower color -- this one, which I think is simply plain old Rosmarinus officinalus, is about 3 to 4 feet high (1 to 1.2 m) and upright, with long, elegant needle-like leaves, pine-green on the top and silvery-white underneath, and light blue flowers.  It is in another of my garden's brutal spots, a narrow bed between the house and the driveway, with the afternoon sun beating down on it.

Rosemary grows very well with lavender.