An Evolving Urban Garden in Seattle
Choosing a designer for our new front garden in Seattle was an easy task. I had been working with Richard Hartlage, then director of the Miller Botani…
Seasons: Spring
Arctostaphylos for Pacific Northwest Gardens
We have been cultivating a wide variety of shrubby manzanitas at our nursery in Oregon’s Willamette Valley, and have been delighted to see them capt…
Casa Dos Rios Gardens: Mainly for Wildlife
Our gardens, near Gilroy, California, were designed by Michael Thilgen of Four Dimensions Landscaping in Oakland, California. The concept was a semifo…
A Bounty of (Hardier) Begonias
Lately, I've been experimenting with some of the newer, hardier selections of begonia in my Sacramento garden (USDA zone 9, Sunset zone 14). The group…
The Curator’s Garden
The “curators’ garden” is an area surrounding the house where we live as curators for the historic Dunn Gardens in Seattle. The curator’s gard…
The South Coast Botanic Garden: From Landfill to Jewel of the Peninsula
As the South Coast Botanic Garden approaches its fiftieth anniversary, it has evolved into a truly unique botanic garden, which happens to be built on…
A Garden on a Mountain on an Island in the Sea
On June 1, 1997, the Orto dei Semplici Elbano opened its gates to the public. The garden is meant to be a living library of plants of Italy's Tuscan A…
The Rose
A massive book, with a simple, all-encompassing title like The Rose, brings with it complex expectations, associations, and inevitable comparisons. Every year numerous books on…
Blue Heaven: Encounters with the Blue Poppy
I have always been suspicious of lay monographs, especially those with titles that evoke something more akin to cheerleading than botanical erudition. Yet, I did…