Honeybells

I still love this plant. Hermannia verticilata or Honeybells. It's flowers are so cute that I can barely stand it! I got it at The Huntington Library & Gardens plant sale about 5 years ago. I've never seen it available at another nursery.  Every spring it gets covered in the cutest little 1/2" yellow bell flowers. It is said to be fragrant but I don't smell anything. But who can tell when citrus trees and jasmine perfume the air right now! 

It's from South Africa of course, as all the interesting plants are. I grow it on the east side of our house in a small slightly raised bed next to the path to our door. It only gets about 18" high and maybe 3' across.  It can take full sun to part shade. 

Have you grown this plant?  I'd love to read your comments.

Happy Spring!

Sweet Peas!

I love Sweet Peas!  I think I must post about them every year when they are in bloom.  Why? Because they are awesome, fragrant and the wait is so long for them here in SoCal!  Plant the seeds in Oct and you will have blooms in Spring.  Or for me this year with all the rain we've had, my first blooms were in February! You read it correctly! FEBRUARY!   Crazy, right?  I used to plant them in our backyard along my permanent fence for climbing things in one of my three raised beds.  Last Fall, I found some rebar and we curved them and made a tunnel between two of the raised beds. I planted Sweet Peas on both sides of the beds to go up the rebar.   And I planted them on their usual fence spot too.  One can't have too many Sweet Peas(unless they're coming up all over your yard in the wrong places like someone I know) 

They are maybe 8' tall and above the fence here.

So far only 3 varieties have bloomed.  I'm pretty sure I planted more than that.  But I'll have to wait and see. And I did not keep those empty seed packets.  I'm guessing that like many other plants, they are early mid and late blooming varieties. 

It's odd that the ones planted on the fence have bloomed taller than the fence.  But the ones planted along the rebar where they have more height to grow up are shorter.  What's up with that?  

Here I am in between the rebar with the Sweet Peas.  

Are you growing them? I'd love to read your comments.  

Happy Gardening!