Authors in Bloom

The bright yellow blooms of Basket-of-Gold (aurinia saxatilis) always herald the arrival of spring in my garden!

Hey lovely readers, we know you love books… do you also love gardening? Springtime? Food? How about winning prizes? Then read on, my friends.

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I planted these sprigs last year and now I’ve got color on this otherwise barren-but-for-the-weeds area. Now I want it everywhere!

Each little offshoot can become its own mass of flowers.

Roxanne’s Gardening Tip: for a dry, sunny area where you want low-maintenance but high impact, plant Basket-of-Gold (aurinia). Here in the Lower Mainland of BC, it returns year after year and self-seeds.

I started years ago with a couple of ugly little rooted twigs that a friend gave me. She looked at me seriously and said, “You won’t believe what these will turn into.” Now I’ve got aurinia blooming all over this difficult, rocky area of my yard.

Each year I plant a few more sprigs in new places and each spring, I’ve got fresh spots of color! As you can see, they can get quite large, too. I love how they drip and drape over the edge of the rock wall.

This hardy perennial is also fragrant. It blooms for a couple of weeks in spring, then has a second, smaller bloom in summer.

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