Members Webinar Series: The Summer-Dry Project – A New Garden Aesthetic with Saxon Holt

The presentation touched off a full 30 minutes of questions where our Board panelists contributed their own insights, with Heronswood Director Ross Bayton mentioning the challenges of growing manzanita (Arctostaphylos spp.) in Seattle, and Nan Sterman, the Waterwise Gardener in San Diego, commenting on summer dormancy in buckeye trees (Aesculus spp.).

More than once, members asked Saxon to name a favorite plant that people should be using. He refused to be pinned down to a single species other than to say he loves grasses and many are quite adapted to various Pacific Horticulture climates. For the newsletter, he provided another little nugget below, explaining he was often asked that same question during media events when his book Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates came out.

“Perhaps the most surprising thing we included in the book was Camellia sasanqua because I grow it as a hedge in the sunniest part of my own garden in Novato, California. I learned by experience that with regular mulching and monthly deep water in the summer it is very much adapted to our climate. It flowers exactly during the winter-wet season, from early November to late February, and is quiet, in its evergreen beauty, during the summer.”