Category Archives: garden visit
planting details at the Reid garden
I went through my Reid garden photos again, looking for clear examples of the subtly layered plant communities that rose up around my feet as I followed the paths, scanning the garden like a hungry predator, looking down then quickly … Continue reading
Posted in books, climate, design, garden visit
Tagged "A Passionate Pursuit", American Conifer Society, Claudia West, dry garden planting, Leonotis leonurus, marthastewart.com, Mary and Lew Reid, Northern California, Pacific Horticulture, Planting in a Post-Wild World, Stipa gigantea, terraced gardens, Thomas Rainer, Tibouchina heteromala, Western Hills Nursery and Garden
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Lotusland, garden provocateur
More from that June visit to Lotusland, Ganna Walska’s 37-acre estate near Santa Barbara, California. In the comments to this post, Emily kindly provided a link to an English series “Around the World in 80 Gardens,” in which a visit … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, garden travel, garden visit, succulents
Tagged Around the World in 80 Gardens, Cactus and Succulent Society of America, cactus gardens, California gardens, Donald Culross Peattie, Geoff Stein, James Van Sweden, Lotusland, Madame Ganna Walska, March-April 2015 Cactus and Succulent Journal, Monty Don, Pauleen Sullivan, writer Catherine Phillips, Ysabel Wright's cactus garden Quien Sabe
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Wanda Mallen & Gary Vincent’s Fallbrook garden
The CSSA’s tour of private gardens for their 2015 Biennial Convention in June also included the 2-acre garden of Wanda Mallen and Gary Vincent in Fallbrook, Calif. This superb collector’s garden, started from scratch in approximately 1999-2000, is occasionally open … Continue reading
Lotusland’s abalone shell pond
More from my Lotusland visit this past June. In my guided tour group was a friendly couple with a serious selfie habit, expressed at every turn in a path, at every new feature. We ended up exploring the garden at … Continue reading
The landscape at Pitzer College; The John R. Rodman Arboretum
“It’s difficult to sum up the Arboretum in a phrase… Perhaps the core is a search for a third way between the two traditional American paths: the exploitation of nature and the worship of a sacred, untouchable nature … a … Continue reading
scenes from Lotusland; the Lemon Arbor
Since I snapped hundreds, I’ll probably be trickling out photos of my June visit to Lotusland for months to come. The Eureka lemon tree arbor, planted in 1988, is probably one of the more sedate and traditional features of Lotusland. … Continue reading
Posted in edibles, garden travel, garden visit
Tagged California, Lotusland, Madame Ganna Walska, Montecito
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CSSA road trip June 2015
Enormous Quiver Tree, Aloidendron dichotoma, and cycads in a Fallbrook, California private garden It’s so true that passion bestows courage on the meek. A passion for plants put me on a bus one early Wednesday last June, a bus filled … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, succulents
Tagged Aloidendron dichotoma, Cactus and Succulent Society of America, Claremont garden of Rico Leon, cycads, Debra Lee Baldwin, Field Guide to Cactus & Succulents of Arizona, Loran Whitelock, Orange Coast College Horticulture Department, Vonn Watkins
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the indomitable Lotusland
Following the blue glass slag-lined path on a recent visit to Lotusland in Montecito, Calif. We came upon the startling sight of a greenhouse in the jungle. Not startling in the expected, operatically flamboyant Lotusland sense, but because it was … Continue reading
Seaside Gardens, Carpinteria, Calif.
By now it’s fairly obvious that visiting plant nurseries and gardens are two of my favorite pursuits. The ultimate in garden touring is possible when occasionally, though all too rarely, both pursuits can be accomplished at one location. The list … Continue reading
terraced Spanish Colonial Revival house & garden
For those of you who enjoy gawking at houses and their gardens as much as I do, here’s a look at the house that belongs with this post from September 2014. I don’t think I looked up much from the … Continue reading