WHAT'S NEW AT SKY NURSERY

Interested in unusual and exciting plants that thrive in our dry summer/wet winter climate? Xera Plants, in Sherwood, Oregon, is working closely with OSU to test how exotics from similar climates around the world do in the Pacific Northwest.

Bold and durable plants from Australia, New Zealand, and even South Africa are adding their own beauty to our gardening palette - Indigofera and Leptospermum, above, Grevillea, exotic versions of Arctostaphylos… Be sure to look for these low-care, high interest Xera plants the next time you visit.

Here a chick, there a chick, everywhere a ... sempervivum? Hens & chicks (sempervivum) and their close relatives the sedums are surely the drought-tolerant stars of the summer garden. Offering a range of textures and colors their succulent foliage is wonderful in flowerbeds, rockeries, containers, and strawberry pots. The latest trend is using them as living roofs, an old European custom which has come full circle. Enjoying full sun and low water (once established), sedums also reward us with bright flowers, usually in mid to late summer. Sky has a wonderful assortment of 3.5” pots for your perusal.