STAFF PICKS
Plants WE love
The Staff Picks highlights our favorites. Unlike the Blue Ribbon or Happy Medium lists, the qualifications for inclusion in this category are subjective:
- Did we look forward to seeing how it was doing at each visit?
- Does it make us smile?
- Would we (did we) take this home?
Some plants on this list, like the Calamagrostis 'Karl Foerster' and Bulbine 'Tiny Tangerine', are widely applicable to many gardens and landscapes and are interesting over long seasons. Others, like Kniphofia 'Christmas Cheer' and Neomarica caerulea, have shorter seasons of interest but with high impact from their extraordinary flowers. Whether flower color or fragrance attracted us or support for pollinators delighted us, these were the plants that made our heart sing.
As with our other lists:
- Plants are listed alphabetically by scientific name
- Plant material was evaluated in full sun or under 50% shade cloth
- All plants were evaluated in Davis CA (WUCOLS Region 2)
- The average Overall Appearance rating on the recommended irrigation rate during the deficit treatment season is listed as Mean O/A Score (based on a 1-5 scale, where 5 is highest)
- Irrigation recommendations are classified according to WUCOLS IV Categories of Water Needs- H:High; M: Moderate/Medium; L: Low
- printer friendly pdf version: UCLPIT Staff Picks