FLIMBY: Small flowers with outsized impact

This is another installment in our Flowers in My Back Yard series, dedicated to blooming plants.

Showy flowers are fun to grow, sure. They make great bouquets and add big splashes of color to the garden.

But a balanced, textured garden should also have a collection of tiny flowers tucked into it. We’re talking really tiny: 1/4-inch-wide blooms or even smaller.

Why?

For one thing, layering sizes of flowers promotes garden biodiversity. Having several types and sizes of flowers also prevents “monoculture,” a situation which invites disaster when a particular disease or pest or weather event sweeps through. Think of a garden that has only light-colored roses — Hoplia beetles (a pest that loves white flowers) could run rampant through it.

Tiny flowers often appear on native plants, which have learned to survive on limited water. These flowers in turn attract tiny native pollinators and beneficials for whom the large or deep pollen- and nectar-filled plants may be too big to navigate.

Little blooms can occur on large plants as well as small ones. Many plants with tiny blooms produce them in clumps, the better to attract pollinators.

Below are suggestions for various tiny-blooming plants that work well in our region, including some herbs.

Natives:

— Blue-eyed grass (Sisyrinchium bellum) is a perennial herb that blooms in spring. The little blue flowers bring a rare color pop at the lowest level of the garden — it looks outstanding at the edge of the planting bed. Just don’t mistake the plant pre- and post-bloom for a weed!

— Ceanothus, aka California lilacs. This perennial shrub or small tree produces clusters of blue, dark blue, violet or white blossoms. There are dozens of varieties of this spring bloomer, which attracts butterflies and hummingbirds as well as bees. 

— Milkweed. THE plant to grow to support the monarch butterfly, which requires its leaves to feed its larvae. On the narrow-leaf variety — (Asclepias fascicularis), one of the types recommended to grow for monarchs — the pink-white flower clusters bloom May through August. It dies back but reappears in spring.

— Verbena. Some verbenas are natives, but there are many more that are not; all make terrific garden plants. They typically have tiny five-petaled flowers in clusters, with colors in the lavender-purple range. Verbena lilacina ‘De La Mina’ is among the varieties popular with butterflies.

— Yarrow. The common white yarrow is a California native. Cultivars generally have the same form, but are more colorful: Tight clusters of flowers create a flat landing area for butterflies and small bees.

Other ornamentals:

— Cape balsam, also called bulbine. Basically a succulent, it is not small, but the flowers at the tips of the thin stalks are so delicate. The orange and yellow blossoms are favorites of honeybees and other bees.

— Lantana. These drought-tolerant perennials can be found in a dizzying array of colors. The little flowers are in clusters, similar to verbenas. They do well in hanging baskets and other containers.

— Stonecrop. A member of the sedum family, stonecrop is a drought-tolerant succulent with fleshy leaves and star-shaped flowers that bloom in late summer. The ‘Autumn Joy’ variety’s flowers start out pink, turning reddish and finally rust into fall.

— Sweet alyssum. This favorite groundcover and filler plant entices beneficial insects with white, lavender, violet, rose and even yellow clusters of flowers. One caveat for vegetable gardeners: Alyssum is very attractive to Bagrada bugs, a type of stink bug that can decimate brassicas, cool-weather cole crops that include cauliflower, cabbage, kale, turnips and mustard greens.

— Violas (Johnny-jump-ups). These happy little flowers flourish in winter and early spring. They reseed freely, producing what can be an unintentional cover crop in flower and vegetable beds.

Herbs:

— Catmint. Like catnip, catmint is attractive to some cats, so grow it in a container so it doesn’t get squashed. The ‘Walker’s Low’ variety has small gray-green leaves and produces spikes of little blue-violet flowers.

— Chamomile. A favorite for tea, this annual herb produces its daisylike white flowers early spring, then fades away. They do reseed, so you’ll likely see some pop up the next year. Succession sowing will produce several plants until hot weather.

— Fennel. The yellow blossoms on this herb/vegetable are enticing to many benficials. Grow it in a pot away from other plants, since it is allelopathic — it releases chemicals that inhibit the growth of neighboring plants.

— Lavender. There are so many sizes and varieties of  lavender that you usually can’t go wrong with any. Bees love all of them. Look for dwarf lavenders if you want to tuck a plant along a walkway or between two other flowering plants. ‘Betty’s Blue’ is an outstanding culinary lavender with tiny blooms.

— Thyme. This popular herb produces the tiniest white or purple flowers if allowed to bloom. Some varieties can be used as groundcover between stepping stones or spaces in rock gardens.