Confessions of a Permissive Gardener
It is a fine thing to have a new plot of ground to garden. It stirs the imagination, encourages the mind to dream of structure, promises a flowering E…
Plants: Flowering plants, vines, and bulbs
Wildly Successful: Chasmanthe floribunda
To the casual observer, Chasmanthe floribunda, ornamenting winter gardens with its fine flashes of orange or yellow, appears to be a sort of crocosmia…
Hallberg Butterfly Gardens
Located on nine acres in the rolling hills of West Sonoma County, the Hallberg Butterfly Gardens may be the oldest butterfly garden in the country. Si…
The Life of Dr Francesco Franceschi and his Park (Part II)
Franceschi’s nursery business, the Southern California Acclimatizing Association (SCAA), and his botanical work always required more money than they…
Iris douglasiana ‘Pt Reyes’
Douglas iris (Iris douglasiana) is easily one of the most familiar and popular of West Coast native perennials. Its natural range extends from Souther…
Radiation and Floral Adaptation in Gladiolus
Plant breeding and selection have done the genus Gladiolus an extraordinary disservice. Those large-flowered, long-stemmed, and admittedly handsome pl…
Cupheas at Strybing Arboretum
Cuphea is a genus of about 260 species in the loosestrife family (Lythraceae), the same family as crape myrtle (Lagerstroemia). The distribution of th…
10 Years and 10,000 Perennials
In 1991 when we began the original Perennial Border project at the Bellevue Botanical Garden (BBG) the place we are today would have been hard to imag…
Bellevue Botanical Garden
“I can’t believe we pulled it off” was a common refrain heard during the Bellevue Botanical Garden’s tenth anniversary celebration event on June 29, 2002.…