Orchard Trees of Rancho Los Cerritos: Avocados
When hired to design the Bixby estate garden at Long Beach’s Rancho Los Cerritos in 1931, landscape architect Ralph Cornell included three different…
Regions: Southern California
So. Cal
Garden Allies: True Bugs
When it comes to the world of small insects, we often use "bug" as a catch-all, but the word has a more specific meaning in entomology, referring to j…
Landscape Plants for California Gardens
A highly regarded landscape architect, professor, and author, Bob Perry’s first two books, Trees and Shrubs for Dry California Landscapes (1981) and Landscape Plants for…
Trees of South Coast Botanic Garden: The Banyan
Visitors to the South Coast Botanic Garden are treated to a large collection of fig trees (Ficus spp.). Belonging to the mulberry family (Moraceae), t…
The Sustaining Garden
An old African proverb, “Little by little grow the bananas,” describes the evolution of the Korpinen Erickson garden, perched in the south-facing …
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 …
Orchard Trees of Rancho Los Cerritos: Loquats
Loquats (Eriobotrya japonica) are a delightful fruit for eating fresh off the tree or for canning, and may someday prove to be important in the pharma…
History of the West in an Altadena Garden
Our home sits on a south-facing alluvial fan at the base of the San Gabriel Mountains in Altadena, California. We designed and installed a semi-formal…
Garden Allies: Solitary Bees
Bees played a central role in increasing this biodiversity. Unlike the highly social honey bee, native bees usually live a solitary existence. Solitar…