What's Blooming

More Information

Annuals Display

View the current list of annuals planted throughout Filoli.

Blooming Calendar

Find out what's blooming at Filoli from January to December.

Garden Information

Learn about Filoli plants and gardening practices—ask the experts.

Plant Highlights This Week

Flowers are one of the most pronounced markers of the progression of time in a garden. Each week we scout the gardens for amazing blooms and feature our favorites here. Check back often to see what we have in store for your next visit to Filoli.

July panorama of Filoli's Sunken Garden. Photo by Bob Mitchell.

Rose photo

Visitors admire the Perrenial Border.

Plant and Garden Highlights
The summer annuals display has filled in beautifully and is at its peak. Zinnia, impatiens, begonia, statice and salvia, all your favorites are here to enjoy. Check out the new ‘Twinny Peach’ Snapdragons planted in the Sunken Garden inner squares.

Dahlias planted in the cutting garden behind the copper beach hedge are in full bloom. Dahlias are also part of the mix in the corners of the Sunken Garden with blue Delphinium. Also, look for them in arrangements throughout the House.

The fruit trees are loaded down with a substantial crop this year. The espalier fruit trees have an incredible variety of apples and pears to see.

Projects: Shearing laurel barrels in the walled garden, myrtle hedges, holly hedges, Sunken Garden yew hedges, English laurel in the panel gardens. August is the month for hedges and topiary work.

Notes and Common Questions

Yew allee renovation

It’s time for renovation of the Yew allee leading to the High Place. Over the next four weeks (through mid-August), you will see us moving from the top section and working our way down.

What’s the blue stuff we sprinkle in the beds prior to planting?

The “blue stuff,” as it is so affectionately known by visitors and volunteers, is a slow release nitrogen fertilizer called Nitroform. It is a urea based fertilizer and contains 38% nitrogen. It is designed to release nitrogen slowly over several months.

When do we replant for the summer display?

We try to leave the spring display in the ground until after the Flower Show and Mother’s Day weekend. The display is looking a bit tired by mid-May and the gardeners are chomping at the bit to pull out the old and plant the new. The 3rd week in May is typically when we begin pulling beds and digging out the tulips. Planting continues into early June and the summer display will fill in and peak from late June through mid-September.

What do you do with all the tulip bulbs when they finish blooming?

When the tulips have faded, the foliage is removed and the annual display continues through the spring. Once the spring display has faded, the beds are pulled and the tulip bulbs are dug up and dumped into the compost pile. We do not keep tulip bulbs in the ground for a couple of reasons. First, tulips in our climate do not come back consistently after the initial season. Tulips left in the ground will typically come up sporadically, with less vigor and have smaller flowers. Secondly, we change the color scheme of the spring display every year. If all the tulips were left in the ground every year, we would have a jumble of colors as the old tulips mix with the recently planted bulbs.

Do you replant the daffodil field every year?

The daffodil field is a combination of older daffodils that are naturalized and bulbs that are added every fall. We typically plant 14,000 daffodil bulbs every year.

All the daffodils found in pots throughout the garden will be moved to the greenhouse and watered until they go dormant. In late summer, the bulbs are removed from the pots and sorted by variety into crates.

October is the month we plant the bulbs in the field. We make numerous 6 inch deep trenches the width of the field, place the bulbs in the trench, and backfill. We concentrate on the areas where the bulbs are getting sparse to ensure a solid swath of daffodils for the spring display. Enjoy!

Why did we cut back many of the Rhododendron in the Woodland Garden?
For years we have been battling a pesky insect called the greenhouse thrip. The insects feeding action causes evergreen leaves to turn silver. Greenhouse thrips love Rhododendron leaves and have decimated many of our plants in the Woodland Garden. We have tried many control methods in the past with little success. Our new strategy is to renovate or remove the varieties that are susceptible to the insect. By removing much of the infested foliage and the susceptible plants, we will reduce the population of thrips to a tolerable level and the remaining rhodies will have a chance to thrive. We are also considering new organic products to control new infestations. Greenhouse thrips also infest the Myrtle hedge around the garden house lawn and you will notice we trimmed the hedge much harder than normal to remove the leaves harboring a large thrip population. The thrip population will be monitored throughout the year and the rhodies will be evaluated as they put out new growth. New varieties will be planted as needed to fill the voids left by the removal of susceptible plants.

What does Filoli do with all the fruit?
To date, 1000 lbs of apples have been donated to Village Harvest for distribution to organizations feeding people in need.

With over 1200 fruit trees, Filoli produces literally tons of fruit. The summer ripening fruits; peaches, plums, nectarines, are picked by staff and distributed to volunteers and staff members. The bulk of our fruit ripen in late summer into fall. Apples, pears, and table grapes are picked by staff in preparation for Autumn at Filoli Festival. Since pears do not ripen well on the tree, they must be picked hard, and allowed to ripen in a process that usually requires some refrigeration followed by room temperature ripening. Apples and grapes are picked when ripe and stored in our refrigerated fruit cooler.

The Autumn at Filoli Festival is a wonderful time to sample an incredible variety of fruit that are rarely seen in markets. Pears, apples, and grapes are available for tasting and side by side comparison. 2000 pounds of apples are pressed into fresh cider during the festival. A true celebration of fruit!

What’s the blue stuff we sprinkle in the beds prior to planting?"
The “blue stuff,” as it is so affectionately known by visitors and volunteers, is a slow release nitrogen fertilizer called Nitroform. It is a urea based fertilizer and contains 38% nitrogen. It is designed to release nitrogen slowly over several months.

When do we replant for the summer display?"
We try to leave the spring display in the ground until after the Flower Show and Mother’s Day weekend. The display is looking a bit tired by mid-May and the gardeners are chomping at the bit to pull out the old and plant the new. The 3rd week in May is typically when we begin pulling beds and digging out the tulips. Planting continues into early June and the summer display will fill in and peak from late June through mid-September.

Why do we leave the weeds so tall in the daffodil field/orchard?

After bulbs finish flowering, the remaining foliage must be left so it can provide nutrients to the spent underground bulb. The nutrients provided by the foliage replenishes the bulb and builds it back up for flowering the next season. We wait for the foliage to turn brown in late Spring before we mow.

What do you do with all the tulip bulbs when they finish blooming?

When does Filoli plant tulips for the Spring display?

Our tulips are ordered in the summer and are typically delivered to us by the first week in November. All the beds that have no bulbs are planted first while we wait for our shipment. All the beds are pulled and hedged in the month of October. As soon as our bulbs arrive, we are in full planting mode. The bulbs go into cold storage and are pulled out as the planting progresses. The tulips are planted followed by the annual plants for the Spring display. We plant furiously throughout the month of November and try to have everything planted by Thanksgiving.

What does Filoli do with all the fruit from the Gentlemen's Orchard?

With over 1200 fruit trees, Filoli produces literally tons of fruit. The summer ripening fruits; peaches, plums, nectarines, are picked by staff and distributed to volunteers and staff members. The bulk of our fruit ripen in late summer into fall. Apples, pears, and table grapes are picked by staff in preparation for the Autumn at Filoli Festival. Since pears do not ripen well on the tree, they must be picked hard and allowed to ripen in a process that usually requires some refrigeration followed by room temperature ripening. Apples and grapes are picked when ripe and stored in our refrigerated fruit cooler.

The Autumn Festival is a wonderful time to sample an incredible variety of fruit, rarely seen in markets. Pears, apples, and grapes are available for tasting and side–by–side comparison. Two thousand pounds of apples are pressed into fresh cider during the festival. A true celebration of fruit!

Why did we remove the Irish Yews along the driveway in front of the house?

The Irish yews have succumbed to the phytopthora root fungus in some areas of the garden. Once the yews have the fungus, they will slowly die over the course of a few years. The two we removed in front of the house were thinning, browning and unsightly. We decided to remove the yews, grind out the stump, and replant with young trees like we have already done in three other locations along the main drive. These are a new generation of Irish yews propagated from the originals.