Annie's Awesome Newsletter Archive

The lush dry garden- a wonderful contradiction! Enhance the eco system, conserve water AND get lovely, long lasting blooms!

Marigold 'Day of the Dead Orange'

These are the bushy 3' tall and 3' across old fashioned enormous Marigolds that have now become almost impossible to find. Used lavishly to decorate...

Marigold 'Villandry'

This heirloom Marigold was collected from a garden near Villandry in France and created a lot of excitement at the nursery when...

Marigold 'Harlequin'

Hundreds of fantastical, 3" circus tent flowers are sweetly scented and borne exuberantly...

Marigold 'Day of the Dead Golden Yellow'

These are the real "African Marigolds". No grocery store dwarf varieties here! You get big, fantastic, super-doubly, sweetly scented...

Unbeatable Summer show-stoppers, our unusual Dahlias produce big, bold, bountiful blooms from early Summer right through to first frost! Coming in a sumptuous array of jewel tones and bi-colors – some with glossy green foliage, others with deliciously dark chocolatey-colored leaves – they're the ultimate gateway-flower. No one can stop at just one!

Sky high Hollyhocks never let you down!

Our favorite Hollyhocks are straight out of a storybook garden. With a robust, bushy habit and simultaneous spikes, their strong stems are packed up and down with blooms, providing the vertical excitement every garden needs!

Enchanting by a fence or entryway, alongside a walkway or in the back of a border, they're perfect for beginning gardeners. Happy in almost any soil, they tolerate drought (once established) and most are hardy down to USDA zone 3. Pamper them with rich, loamy soil, full sun, and average water and they'll reward you with a sensational display that will have the neighborhood bumblebees, hummers, and butterflies stopping in for a sip!

Here at Annie's, we're known for our devotion to the classics – old fashioned annuals and perennials, cottage garden essentials and many heirloom varieties available nowhere else. But did you know we're also dedicated to finding the most interesting and gardenworthy rare and unusual plants the world has to offer? It's true! For years, we've scoured global seed exchanges and botanical gardens and forged friendships and exchanged cuttings and seeds with gardeners all over the world to quench our desire for beautiful, new, exciting treasures to add to our gardens and share with passionate gardeners like you!

Time's running out to plant cool season annuals!

Have you planted your "Giant Poppies", "Sweet Peas" and cool season California native wildflowers yet? If not, here's your GSA (gardening service announcement) to get them in the ground in the next couple weeks for a glorious Spring bonanza! After the weather starts to warm in mid-April, they'll no longer be available for sale till Fall. So when our sample pots start to go off in April and May and everyone is drooling, you'll be in on the action!

Beautiful, tough, versatile CA native wildflowers!

With a list of lovely qualities as long as our arm, it's no secret we dearly love our CA native Clarkias. And yet ... we find they are entirely under-planted and under-appreciated! How can that be, when they are so beautiful, tough and versatile? Just consider their virtues: Crappy soil? (Plant Clarkias!). Less than perfect drainage? (Plant Clarkias!). Hot and dry? Nibbly deer? You get the point! Plant some Clarkias and let the magic begin!

Start Spring and Summer vegetables now!

We’ve teamed up with our favorite local seed company, Oakland’s own Kitazawa Seed Co. (est. 1917), to offer you three different collections of our most in-demand vegetable varieties to sow for delicious Spring and Summer crops. All of the varieties in these collections can be sown NOW, as well as over a longer season for multiple crops. Some can be started in an indoor windowsill, while others prefer to be planted directly into your garden – each packet includes complete sowing instructions.