Tag Archives: California native plants

15th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour April 14 & 15 — a giveaway

This weekend is the 15th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour, Saturday and Sunday, April 14 and 15, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and if you’ve been paying attention (thank you!) Saturday, April 14, is also the day we’re … Continue reading

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a Laura Morton garden on the 2018 APLD tour

On last weekend’s APLD “A River Runs Through It” tour, the “Blue Bayou” garden (cue Roy Orbison) designed by Laura Morton looked like “Party Central” to me. I volunteered as a docent for this garden so had ample time to … Continue reading

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Salvia ‘Desperado’

There’s an irresistible momentum that sweeps me up every time I see a great-looking but unfamiliar plant. If at all possible, it must be tracked down and brought home. And then the game begins: Where to plant it? Garden designer … Continue reading

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Toyon, California Holly

This sturdy evergreen shrub native to California, Heteromeles arbutifolia, is also known as the Christmas Berry or California Holly. Here’s why: There’s an old urban legend that early European settlers in Los Angeles, where this holly lookalike grew especially abundant, … Continue reading

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Bernard Trainor’s Landprints

Ages and ages ago (last July in fact) a bunch of us garden bloggers visited gardens in Northern California at last summer’s meetup known as the Fling. For the temperate Bay Area, it was an incredibly hot day, and we … Continue reading

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Fall Planting Festival at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden 11/2/13

“California is defined by its Mediterranean climate. It is the smallest floristic province in North America, but has the greatest diversity of plants north of Mexico. It includes such characteristic vegetation as chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and grassland. … Continue reading

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freeway wildflowers

Two Sundays ago, on Earth Day, in fact, I bounded out of bed early to head for a strip of wildflowers I’d been watching gain momentum for weeks and which looked to be approaching peak bloom. Instead of driving miles … Continue reading

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the wispy side of spring

Insubstantial Sisyrinchium bellum, Blue-Eyed Grass, is an elusive subject for the camera due to its habit of shutting its petals around “magic” hour, that pre-sunrise/post-sunset window when a photographer can rarely go astray. Still, it’s an utterly charming denizen of … Continue reading

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Garden Party in Westwood, CA Oct 22 & 23

With speakers the likes of such SoCal horticultural heroes as Bart O’Brien from the Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden, which is hosting this inaugural event, Lili Singer, Emily Green, John Greenlee, all whose talks will be spread across both days, … Continue reading

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Walk the Walk

Long Beach Water Department is leading by example to gently ease citizens out of the mindset that wants to seed or unroll mowable turf grass as the default landscape. Who else is better positioned to educate the public on alternative … Continue reading

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