I can’t help it. I turn vacations into garden-touring marathons. So when my husband Jeff suggested we visit Quebec for our 20th anniversary, I figured he was safe. I assumed that French Canada was, if not tundra, probably solid forest. But it turns out Quebec City is one big garden, or so it seemed to me, coming from brown and dry SoCA. Everywhere I looked,[...]
Wildfires making national news are a wake-up call for us Southern Californians who live near canyons and wilderness areas. Hot Santa Ana winds blow from the desert, desiccating already stressed plants and threatening to push backcountry brush fires all the way to the sea. We’ve had no rain for months and everything is tinder-dry.
Long before I had my own garden, I was in love with matilija (mah-TIL-eh-ha) poppies. A shrub of what I then called “fried egg flowers” grew near my apartment. It was one of those plants I had to have somehow, someday. And now I do, but like most things this side of Eden, Romneya coulteri is not[...]
Luther Burbank (1849-1926) sent this to my grandmother, an elementary schoolteacher who had her class write letters to the famed horticulturist. Burbank, though childless, enjoyed children—something I learned recently while touring his historic home and gardens in Santa Rosa, CA.
Do you like my shot of dew on a puya? This is a flower worth seeking at Quail Botanical Gardens and at the Huntington. It’s hard to resist touching the sapphire-blue petals to make sure they’re not plastic. Tall (4-ft) bloom spikes emerge from a clump of leaf clusters that resemble spiny starfish. Each leaf[...]