Lantana is the sherbet of the summer season, served in scoops of all different colors. Unlike sherbet, a Lantana won’t melt in the hot summer sun, making it an excellent choice as a centerpiece in a high August garden or containers.

It’s also a good-looking candidate for dry garden designs, found in those places that only get natural watering from the sky. No hose? Rough soil? Plant Lantanas.

Despite their toughness, Lantanas present a tender side to beneficial insects. They offer strong nectar production so they attract birds, bees and butterflies that help an ecosystem along.

It’s possible that you know Cyperus Grass as Egyptian Grass, or maybe as Papyrus, the rush that became the world’s first paper. As we work with our material we often find that we are delving into the past, and this grass has a lot of history behind it. Parts of it are edible, and the highly buoyant stems were used to make boats, sandals and the occasional drapery.

Although we think of reeds as water-loving plants, the reality is that they also do very well in containers and standard American gardens. Bear in mind, the Nile is not a constant river—it floods and it ebbs. Therefore, reeds need to tolerate the dry as well as the wet. Let’s take a look at one of our Cyperus shipping this week, ‘King Tut’.

Coleus is a designer’s crop, which is why we carry over (45) different cultivars even in the height of the summer. It’s one of the color tools we have to work with in shaded areas. Previously, we took a look at two simple Coleus, ‘Chocolate Mint’ and ‘Wasabi’, and combined them in a simple garden recipe.

This week, we are going with something more complex in the Coleus line: ‘Wizard Coral Sunrise’. Coleus is known for some 60s psychedelic leaf designs and this is one of them.