Some plants are known for their flowers, and some are known for their foliage. This one has both. Let us introduce you to Melianthus major, aka giant honey bush. As the name suggests, this guy gets big. If you are not going to have a lot of plants in your back garden, I would say this would make a good candidate to wow your friends.

California native this one is not. It hails from South Africa. The southwest side of South Africa has a similar climate to what we have up and down California, and it is about the same distance from the equator (just the other direction). A lot of their plants do well here in the OB.

So, how crazy will this guy go in your garden? Melianthus major grows to about 10 feet tall in rich soil, but may stay around 6 feet in the sandy loam that most of us have in our yards. The chocolate flowers though are also substantially sized: about a foot long. Great thing about this guy is it will offer you some color during the winter months, as it starts right before the holidays and can continue to early spring.

Well, our garden survived the cold. I think all but two of the succulents made it through the frost. We are getting a big flat of some filler plants to put in a newly renovated section of our garden – still trying to take advantage of our winter rains to get them established before our summer drought. See ya in two weeks. Matti and Megan – Far Out Flora

We (Matti and Megan) live in San Francisco near Ocean Beach and Golden Gate Park. Plants are awesome. We like to do interesting things with them. Succulents, bromeliads, carnivores and other unusual plants are our favorites. Both of us graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison with art degrees. Matti and Megan both work for plant places here in the Bay Area. We’re originally from the great state of Wisconsin. Before moving to San Francisco we lived in Madison off Willy Street. Our dog, Max, is too smart for his own good. He makes us check out beaches all over the coast. Keep track of more of our garden adventures: We blog at FarOutFlora.com.