Cascading Plants
Cascading Heliotrope For several months on my daily commute, I had passed by a glorious cascading shrub with lilac blooms. It was planted at the top of a retaining wall, over which it generously spil...
Category Archives: Best Garden Plants
Butterfly Garden
If you long to see the butterflies you chased as a child, consider planting a butterfly garden. Sometime ago, I acquired a butterfly bush whose deep violet flowers had yet to bloom. The very first da...
Garden is a Last Frontier for Creativity
April may be “the cruelest month,” as T.S. Eliot wrote, especially when it comes to gardening in Los Angeles. It’s the month when we experience our first heat wave of the growing se...
Staghorn and Maidenhair Ferns
Ferns, despite their lacy-leafed, delicate mien, are surprisingly tough. They can handle a measure of drought and survive freezes. Our recent snow and hail, for example, were not fatal to most of our...
Planting Jasmine Makes Sense/Scents
You might think of jasmine as a delicate plant for cloistered gardens, where the soft scent of its perfume can be leisurely inhaled as it gently wafts through fresh, untainted air. Yet, at least thre...
Poppies are Like Gardeners — Their Cups Runneth Over
There is something special about poppies. Just go ahead and grow some. Then, study them closely. By doing so, you will experience the joy and excitement of gardening and, in the process, discover how...
Make Sure Roses are Blooming When You Sell Your House
“Landscaping Makes Cents, Smart Investments That Increase Your Property Value” (Storey Publishing, 1997) is a volume that appeals to the relentlessly practical profit-seeker in all of us....
Never Pity a Pittosporum
Do not pity the Pittosporum. Its flowers smell like cheap perfume, and it proffers no spectacular colors in the landscape. Yet the Pittosporum, like all plants, has its moments of glory and, b...
In Defense of Deciduous Plants
Southern Californians have one unifying prejudice: a dislike for deciduous plants. Deciduous plants are those perennials that have the audacity to lose their leaves at some time during the year. For ...
Catalina Island Flora for your Garden
Two weeks ago, I had the good fortune to spend a day on Catalina Island and get acquainted with its flora. If you go to Catalina, make sure you visit the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Garden. You wi...
