What do I see in Milkmaids? I see thousands of little white flowers covering my hill. It is February in Northern California and unlike the far more showy flowers to come, the Milkmaids (Dentaria californica) say spring is here. And for me, finally emerging from winter’s long nights in philosophical mood, I see far more [...]
I credit Pamela Harper as the first to popularize the notion of color echoes, in her book entitled, of all things, Color Echoes. That simple but supremely satisfying way of creating color combinations relies on pairing plants on the basis of shared color characteristics. Everything is fair game: leaves, flower petals, pistils, stamens, thorns, fruit [...]
So sayeth I, frequently. My reasons? For the first, I offer a simple equation: white + a mulberry tree + birds = purple-spotted white Seven years of purple-spotted white fences and garden furniture. Need I say more? My second objection to white is its lack of potential. Think of the crispness of a freshly painted [...]
Color is one thing my garden has in abundance. Of course I’ve got flowers in every hue, but my real interest is in using colorful foliage and making the most of color that comes in a can: paint. All my garden chairs and benches used to be painted white or green, but then I saw [...]
Red is the color in the garden that most titillates my senses. It’s a color dripping with passion, power and boldness. When used with great abandon as in the red garden at Hidcote or what was once the red border at the now defunct Hadspen Garden (but that can still be viewed in Nori and [...]