A Surprising Landscape at Pitzer
Never before had I seen a campus landscaped like Pitzer College, in Claremont, California. Its buildings are surrounded by the most sophisticated and …
Plants: Trees and Shrubs
A Perennial Border Reborn
In 1991, the Northwest Perennial Alliance (NPA) undertook a seemingly impossible project: design, plant, and maintain a 17,000- square-foot herbaceous…
Western Azalea: Beauty and Fragrance
Western azalea (Rhododendron occidentale) is a plant of great beauty and captivating fragrance that appeals to virtually everyone who comes upon it. T…
Great Plant Picks: Focus on Foliage
From stately trees to dramatic bulbs, selections from the Great Plant Picks (GPP) that are notable for their superior foliage comprise a rich array of…
The Brother Gardeners: Botany, Empire and the Birth of an Obsession
When I began visiting English gardens over forty years ago, I was surprised that most of the trees I saw were American. I had not…
Through the Photographer’s Eye: Finding a Sustainable Aesthetic
How do I use my abilities to illustrate a sustainable aesthetic when few of us can agree what that ought to be, much less what it looks like? The trut…
The Gossler Guide to the Best Hardy Shrubs
One of the most highly regarded nurseries on the West Coast, the forty-year-old Gossler Farms Nursery is a hobby-turned-horticultural wonderland carved out of the farm…
Orchard Trees of Rancho Los Cerritos: Lemon, Lime & Mandarin
In 1931, Llewellyn and Avis Bixby commissioned Ralph D Cornell to design an estate garden at the family’s Rancho Los Cerritos in Long Beach, Califor…
The NEW Low-Maintenance Garden
“I just don’t have the time”—perhaps the most common excuse for cutting back on reading, writing, painting, cooking, exercising, museum-going, and, yes, gardening. At least,…