Favorite Red Flowers

Red is the most powerful color.  If you put it near your front door, you will quickly tire of it.   A red hedge of roses or poinsettias looks good when you are moving, whether down a path or down a r...

Small is Beautiful in the Garden, too

“Small is Beautful” was a best-selling collection of essays on economics written in 1973. The lifestyle encourage by the author, E.F. Schumacher, would lead to “the maximum amount of well being with ...

Jurassic Garden of Cycads

It was in 1989 that Maurice Levin, who was visiting Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands, noticed the uniqueness of cycads for the first time. He asked his guide about them and learned that these 100-mil...

Oleanders and Their Replacements

Q. I have oleanders that are dead or dying. I am told this is due to the sharpshooter insect and that there is nothing that can be done to get rid of this pest. The plants are about 6-feet-high and a...

Silverberrry: Abe Lincoln of Plants

Imagine a plant that produces fragrant flowers and edible fruit, grows in sun or shade, tolerates heat, wind and ocean spray, requires a scant amount of water and never needs to be fertilized. As if ...

Bonsai for Spiritual Enrichment

For the longest time I’ve had a vision when stopped at the corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street, along that vast stretch of magnificently sloping land called Warner Ridge. I see a Valley ...