Plant Profile
Garden Central
Calandrinia Spectabilis: Rock Purslane
This bloom heavy tender perennial from Chile is a fine choice for the summer-dry garden. Featuring bright magenta, poppy shaped blooms on limber 2ft stems poised delicately above succulent blue-gray toned foliage, this plant makes a tidy mound. Roughly 1ft high by by 3 to 4 ft wide at maturity. Flower production starts in spring and continues until fall.
Pennisetum messaicum: Red Bunny Tails
This perennial grass of African origin forms a tidy clump 2ft high and 3ft wide that provides movement and textural contrast for your garden. It works well as both as a single focal point or planted in drifts or groups if space allows. The foliage is an agreeable glossy green with discreet suggestions of burgundy . The red toned fuzzy flower plumes are particularly alluring if sited where they can be viewed backlit by the morning or evening sun.
Westringia Fruiticosa
Westringia is an evergreen shrub that comes to us from Australia, where it grows in exposed locations on coastal cliffs. Mature size can be variable, depending on the cultivar grown, garden location and irrigation practices. Hybrid varieties such as ‘Blue Gem and ‘Sorrento Coast’ tend to stay a bit more compact. Having said that, even the species takes well to light shearing to maintain size and shape. Sizes range from 3-6 ft tall to 5 to 10ft wide.