This fabulous Wallflower (Erysimum x linifolium) should be in every garden! Easy to grow, it provides months of highly colorful blooms from mid-spring through fall. Brilliant, rich mauve four-petalled flowers are held in a dense raceme well above an attractive gray-green foliage that is evergreen in mild winter areas.

Good-looking, drought tolerant and fragrant, award-winner Artemisia 'Powis Castle' is a bushy sub-shrub, which is highly valued for its fernlike, silvery-white foliage, that easily blends with any flower bulbs and other perennial plants. Yellow flowers appear in late summer or early fall, but they are not spectacular and are best cut off to keep the foliage at its best.

One of the showiest Rock Roses, Cistus purpureus (Purple-Flowered Rock Rose) is a small, bushy evergreen shrub with large, yellow-centered, purplish-pink flowers, 3 in. across (8 cm), adorned with plum-red blotches at the base of their petals. Although each flower lasts only for a day, this vigorous shrub provides a succession of flowers for weeks in late spring to early summer. The blossoms are borne atop a dense mound of wavy-edged, narrow, dull green leaves. Excellent for adding sparkling color to seaside gardens.

Noted for its clouds of delicate flowers, Calamintha nepeta (Lesser Calaminth) is a compact, bushy, rhizomatous perennial with loose clusters of tiny, tubular, two-lipped white or pale lilac flowers. Flowering from late summer until frost, the luminous blossoms are borne on upright stems clad with aromatic, semi-evergreen, ovate gray-green leaves. When crushed or brushed against them, they release a delicious minty-lemon fragrance. Forming a dense, spreading foliage mat, Calamintha is a lovely choice for the front of sunny borders where you can savor its beauty and fragrance.

Award-winning Phlomis fruticosa (Jerusalem Sage) is a small spreading semi-evergreen shrub with architectural whorls of deep golden-yellow, hooded flowers borne along the upper half and at the tips of erect stems in early summer. Additional flushes of bloom may occur throughout the growing season if the stems are promptly cut back after flowering. Reminiscent of sage, the foliage of lance-shaped, soft woolly gray-green leaves, up to 5 in. long (12 cm), is however not aromatic. Evergreen in USDA Zones 8-10, Jerusalem sage will likely die back and restart from the ground in colder climates. Seed heads can be left over winter for their effect.

A key ingredient of a Mediterranean-style garden, Rosmarinus officinalis Prostratus (Creeping Rosemary) is a low-growing and spreading evergreen shrub with strongly aromatic, needle-like leaves, about 2 in (5 cm) long. Clusters of pale blue flowers appear in spring and summer, occasionally in fall. Commonly used as a culinary herb, Creeping Rosemary is perfect for rock gardens, cascading down walls, raised beds, or containers. It makes an excellent ground cover, particularly if the ground is too dry, sandy, or rocky for other ground covers.

Santolina pinnata subsp. nepolitana (Green Santolina), a favorite of Mediterranean gardens, is a beautiful evergreen shrub noted for its attractive foliage, profuse midsummer show of long-stalked, button-like bright yellow flowers. Aromatic if bruised, this compact variety of Santolina features thinner, pinnate, gray-green leaves that have a more feathery look, a finer texture and more graceful demeanor than Santolina chamaecyparissus.