Regions / Northern California
Northern California - Inspiring Garden Ideas For All Gardeners
Selecting plants suited to the Northern California climate is a key step to success.
A plant's performance is governed by many climate-related factors including the length of the growing season, the amount of rainfall, winter lows, summer highs, wind, or humidity. Various initiatives have taken place to determine how well plants would withstand the cold winter temperatures (Plant Hardiness Zones) or when plants would start suffering from the heat (Plant Heat Zones). A more sophisticated approach has been followed by Sunset which defines Climate Zone Maps based not only on hardiness or heat tolerance but also on precipitations, wind, humidity, and various other climate-related factors.
Northern California lies in Climate Zones 1 through 9, and 14 through 17. If you know your climate zone, find the best plants or exciting garden ideas for your geographic area.
A Lovely Backyard Retreat with Achillea, Festuca and Grasses
A plant combination which is long-lasting, drought tolerant and low care. Enjoy weeks of color while doing virtually nothing!
A Casual Border with Poppies, Tickseed and Mullein
This prairie-style planting combines easy-to-grow annuals and perennials in an exuberant mix of forms and colors. All plants are deer resistant, drought tolerant and low maintenance. Most make lovely fresh bouquets to be enjoyed at home.
Flowers and Herbs for a Rock Garden
This charming rock garden combines easy-to-grow annuals, perennials, and herbs in a pretty mix of forms and colors. All plants are deer-resistant, drought-tolerant, and low maintenance. Some make lovely fresh bouquets to be enjoyed at home and others will give a magnificent taste to your cuisine.
A Casual and Impressionistic Planting Combination
A scenery that reminds of Monet's Poppy Field in Argenteuil, where colorful blobs of paint start from a sprinkling of poppies. This casual and impressionistic planting combination is fairly easy to re-create and requires little maintenance.
A Spectacular Spring Border Idea with Tulip 'Heart's Delight' & Crocus 'Remembrance'
A fabulous flower carpet in early spring! Prior to the blooming of the majority of the perennials, the crocuses will be happily and busily cheering up the garden
A Four-Season Border with Evergreen Conifers and Japanese Maples
While a single Japanese maple can provide a striking focal point, when combined with other maples of different graceful habits, elegantly cut leaves and extraordinarily colorful foliage, the effect is spectacular. If you add a few evergreen shrubs, trees or herbaceous plants, your garden becomes a place of outstanding beauty all year long.
A Glowing Winter Border with Dogwood, Heath and Grasses
This incredibly pretty planting includes plants of great winter interest that will lift your spirits during the dull days of winter.
A Cheerful Winter Border Idea with Hellebores and Cyclamens
Low care, Hellebores and Cyclamen are invaluable additions to the shade garden and provide gardeners with some of the greatest pleasures in winter.
A Traffic-Stopping Spring Border Idea with Bold Tulips and Muscari
Get creative and cheer up your mid-late spring garden! Cobalt blue muscari and glowing golden yellow tulips adorned with fiery scarlet edges, make a bold impression together. Fairly easy to replicate, even for the beginner gardener!
An Eye-Catching Winter Border Idea with Colorful Twigs and Cyclamens
Low maintenance and fairly easy to replicate, this planting includes top-performing plants which have been awarded prestigious awards. Enjoy a glorious and colorful spectacle from winter to even spring!
A Fragrant Spring Border with Tulip 'Heart's Delight', Muscari Latifolium, Hyacinths 'Woodstock' & 'Splendid Cornelia'
A fabulous flower carpet in early - mid spring!
A Sparkling Spring Border Idea with Heaths and Wood Anemones
Get your winter landscape to burst into vivid life!
An Eye-Catching Border Idea with colorful Allium and Euphorbia
Create long-lasting, pleasing contrasts in your garden. Combine the showy, bright greenish-yellow flowers of Euphorbia palustris (Marsh Spurge) with the attractive, burnt orange flowers and red-tinged leaves of Euphorbia griffithii 'Fern Cottage' (Spurge). Fairly easy to re-create, deer and rabbit resistant, and low maintenance!
A Pretty Spring Border Idea with Rhododendrons and Tulips
Rhododendrons and tulips can create a brilliant show of flowers early in the season, before the roses and annual plants eclipse all the beauties of the garden.
A Pretty Spring Border Idea with Tulips and Bleeding Hearts
The charming blooms of bleeding hearts (Dicentra) are an elegant addition to the late spring and early summer garden. Featured in this plant combination is 'Gold Heart', a stunning selection with rosy-pink blossoms and brilliant golden-yellow lacy leaves. The luminous foliage creates a perfect foil for late-flowering, rich purple tulips.
