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A mix of salvia greggii and salvia nemorosa  in the cottage garden, viewed across the blooms, but there are many companions surrounding these sages. I'm not a collector of plants, but one look across my garden in spring, a visitor might think that I have a sage in every color. My favorite variety is salvia greggii and there are many reasons why I love this plant. When I began my research into deer resistant plants, salvia topped the list. The first salvia greggii planted in my garden is the beautiful 'Navajo Bright Red' (difficult to find). A grouping of five is still flourishing and delivering masses of blooms in spring and fall. During the heat of the summer, the blooms are sparse, but the foliage of the plant, evergreen in my zone 7b garden provides year-round satisfaction—characteristics of all greggii varieties. Maintenance is similar to butterfly bushes ( buddleia ). I cut back and shape salvia greggii in late winter, removing the dead wood and to keep the plant f...

Flowers spilling out of a container add instant charm to a garden. However, I'm not the best model of how to tend containers that require trimming, watering and feeding. Over the last several years, I've opted toward a more permanent solution by using drought-tolerant, water-wise perennials. With this approach, it takes a bit longer for the container to mature. Patience, but little work is required once my containers are planted. While shopping at Big Bloomers Flower Farm in Sanford, North Carolina, I fell for a sweet planter that was too French for me to pass up. I purchased the planter (it was on sale for 30% off). I chose a variegated lavender, lavendula x intermedia 'Silver Edge' that should mature at twenty-four inches high in bloom—what I consider the right scale for this planter. The lavender is just a sprig right now, but I have visions of purple blooms at the end of the wands. Being a water-wise plant, I won't have to fuss over the container to keep it l...

Verbena tenuisecta 'Imagination' blooms spring, summer, fall until... It's supposed to be an annual, but I'm not convinced!  Verbena tenuisecta 'Imagination' bloomed from early spring 2011 and there were still blooms around in December in some pockets of my garden. Rated as an annual by most sources, every plant returned, making this verbena as hardy as any zone 7b perennial that I grow. It must take a seriously cold winter to kill it off. Thinking that 'Imagination' was a tender annual, I allowed it to self-sow. Wait—there's more! I sowed seeds again in fall 2011. Maybe too many seeds! While it is lovely, meandering around tall plants and over short plants, it could easily takeover the garden. That said, it's easy to pull out. The color is a soft-purple, making it compatible with every color in my garden. Don't worry about watering or babying this 'annual' as it is a tough plant for full sun to partial shade. Never drooping or compla...

Is the line to visit the Louvre or Musée d'Orsay too long? Are the crowds at the Eiffel Tour overwhelming? Instead of paying and spending time waiting, there are free museums in Paris where you can walk right in and enjoy a bit of elbow space and quiet as you get up close to the exhibits. Except for special exhibits and the archaeologic crypt and catacombs, there is no admission fee to see the permanent collections in the  municipal museums in Paris . While residents of Paris are well aware of this benefit, most visitors are focused on the "must see" famous sites. The courtyard garden inside Le Petit Palais. Le Petit Palais is a charming palace on a human scale. Located directly across Avenue Winston Churchill from Le Grand Palais, the smaller palace is filled with sculpture, paintings and relics. While you won't find the  Mona Lisa, the galleries include representative examples over the ages: Paris 1900, Seventeenth-Nineteenth Centuries, Renaissance, Eastern and We...

The garden was created in 1857 by scientist Gustave Thuret. Photo: 3 April 2012; Cap d'Antibes, France. The third time is a charm. Well, the garden is charming and on my third trip to Cap d'Antibes, I finally visited Le Jardin Botanique de la Villa Thuret . This is not a "oh my, look at all those colorful flowers" kind of place. This garden, created in 1857 by scientist Gustave Thuret, is a collection of exotic Mediterranean trees and shrubs. The garden will intrigue those with a keen interest in botany or offer tranquility to those simply looking for a lush place to stroll.  There are "2500 individuals belonging to 1600 wild species and 145 botanical families." Every year, another 200 new species are introduced in this five acre garden. Newly-introduced plants are tested for their ability to adapt to the volcanic soil and local climate conditions. The new plants are watered for two years and only during extremely dry summers. Dead plant matter is left to dr...

After a long, leisurely and fabulous Saturday lunch at Plage Keller "Le Cesar" restaurant on La Garoupe Beach, my husband and I strolled along Boulevard Gardiole Bacon. This quiet street on the peninsula, Cap d'Antibes, is lined with villas—more accurately walled gardens that obscure the villas from view. Many of the villas are Provençal style, a common design in this area of France, and quite large and luxurious. Others are Spanish Mediterranean and then there are the modern architectural styles of white boxes. I prefer the traditional styles. I love garden gates. Even the driveways have gates, and some of those are inspiring. Come along on a stroll down that boulevard as we walked back to Antibes, a distance of about four kilometers, depending upon how many  detours we make to snap photos along the way. You see, we justify all the eating by walking! Words and photos by Freda Cameron , Defining Your Home, Garden and Travel . All company or product or patented n...