Small Eucalyptus for Western Gardens
Drought-tolerant eucalypts from desert and mediterranean climates of Western Australia rarely grow larger than small trees or large shrubs, shed littl…
Seasons: Spring
The Begonia in California, Part 1
The begonia found a most congenial home in California, where its cultivation reached a pinnacle. The state’s fertile soils and equable climate were …
Tender Rhododendrons
Mr Lopez offered us one splendid Rhododendron ‘Forsterianum’, which was a large plant already four feet tall, with smooth, reddish brown bark like…
Telling Tales: The Heart of Garden Photography
The garden photographer has many narratives to tell of the relationships between elements in the garden: stone and foliage, plant and structure, bloss…
The Native Gardener’s Paintbox: Pink Moments
The many shades of pink are particularly effective when paired with sage green, gray green, and silvery foliage—colors that are plentiful in the Cal…
Rockroses for Northwest Gardens
Most Northwest gardeners are familiar with rockrose (Cistus spp.), one of the plants well-suited for use in the drier garden. Cistus make up a diverse…
2009 Great Plant Picks: The Short and Tall of It
The Great Plant Picks additions for 2009 include a variety of groundcovers, late flowering shrubs, selections from the sedum trials, and a host of urb…
Seeing by Experiencing: The Central Garden at the Getty Center
From that day on, the Central Garden at the Getty Center owned me, and I owned the garden; that is, I awakened to the kinesthetic and sensual experien…
A Small Urban Native Wildflower Garden
The California native section of my garden began in 1990, in an area of Palo Alto known for its collection of one-story, mid-50s modernist homes. At f…