Afghan Pines & Mountain Garlands
Question: I have an Afghan pine planted in a hole cut out of my deck. It has been there about 10 years, has a circumference of about 70 inches at the base, and is 6 feet from the house. It currently ...
Category Archives: California Native Garden
Monkey Flowers & Other Natives
According to conventional wisdom, monkey flowers are so called because they resemble the faces of simian creatures. This may be true enough, but watching them explode into bloom in the unlikeliest of...
Brooms & Natives
One of the advantages of learning about and becoming a lover of plants is the alleviation of boredom when you’re driving. For the botanically inspired, each turn in the road carries with it a c...
Fuchsia Flowering Gooseberry
In all of Los Angeles, there could not be a more stunning plant than the one currently blooming outside the east-facing wall of the Mid-Valley Regional Library in North Hills. It has pendulous cherry...
California Natives at Soka U.
Although many of my favorite plants are California natives, I, like most other people, have a problem gardening exclusively with them. Once spring is over, I always thought, the native garden is much...
Crowning Glory of Tiara Street
A tiara is a crown, and it so happens that California poppies are the crowning glory of Tiara Street in North Hollywood, at least that portion of it that stretches between Bellaire and Goodland avenu...
Monkey Flowers
If you could plant nothing but monkey flowers, you would have a garden full of kaleidoscopic color all spring and summer long. Red, yellow, orange, pink, magenta, violet, white, and combinations of a...
Fuchsia-Flowering Gooseberry and Friends
If you are thinking about planting a north-facing slope and are looking for ideas, I suggest strolling along the Studio City River Walk between Laurel Canyon Boulevard and Whitsett Avenue. For some t...
Theodore Payne Foundation
If it has been a while since you last visited the Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery in Sun Valley, I highly recommend you go back and take another look. For years, although the people working there m...
Tough Plants
Just as we are getting ready to install our spring gardens, three publications come along to give guidance in plant selection. One book, by Sharon Amos, is called “Tough Plants,” and bear...