Winter fireworks in the garden

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Every winter I find myself thinking the same thing -- ‘It is so good to live in L.A.’ While other parts of the country are blanketed in a sea of white, we here in Los Angeles are enjoying some of the best color displays of the year in the garden.

If you planted carefully you might be seeing Christmas cactus in pink and magenta, red-hot pokers, red-stemmed beets or neon pink Swiss chard in their full glory this month. Even if you didn’t plant carefully you’re sure to catch glimpses of these eye-popping plants around town. With those colors, they are hard to miss.

A few Februaries ago, writer Lili Singer took us on a tour of two homes that had particularly colorful winter gardens. To accompany that story she offered a list of plants from around the world that set cool-season gardens aglow. You can click here to download Singer’s story, but the plant list is after the jump.

-- Deborah Netburn

Plants that can set your winter yard ablaze:

Aloe species: Succulents with yellow, orange, red or pink flowers.

Strawberry tree: Arbutus unedo. Shaggy red bark, snowy manzanita-like flowers and round orange-red fruit. ‘Elfin King’ is a 4-foot dwarf.

Manzanita: Arctostaphylos species. California plants with beautiful bark, flowers and fruit. Attracts hummingbirds.

Sticks on Fire: Euphorbia tirucalli. Succulent shrub with pencil-thin salmon-red stems -- and caustic, milky sap.

Toyon: Heteromeles arbutifolia. Native shrub or small tree with leathery leaves and large clusters of red or yellow berries.

Red-hot poker: Kniphofia species, also known as torch lily. Perennials in varying heights, all with long-lasting flowers that bees and hummingbirds love.

Muhlenbergia lindheimeri: Graceful tall grass with long-lasting seed heads.

Burgundy Carpet: Myoporum parvifolium. Low mat of tiny leaves that darkens with the cold. Crowds out weeds and needs little water or care.

Barberry: Mahonia species, also sold as Berberis. Native shrubs with yellow flowers and bird-pleasing berries.

Mexican tarragon: Tagetes lucida. Perennial with golden flowers and strongly scented, deep green leaves.

-- Lili Singer

Photo credits from left to right: Red hot poker, Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times; Mexican tarragon, Los Angeles Times; Dwarf strawberry tree, Los Angeles Times