Recently I photographed at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, about an hour from my home, and needed to arrive before dawn. The Bancroft Garden is one of the most iconic gardens in America, full of mature cactus and succulents in a summer-dry climate, a testimonial to Ruth’s plant choices 50 years ago and successful gardening[...]
For nearly a decade, I covered homes, gardens, architecture and design for the San Diego Union-Tribune, visiting the city’s (and sometimes Southern CA’s) most gorgeous homes. One of the most memorable was Barbra Streisand’s multi-house compound in Malibu (she has since moved, and no, I didn’t meet her). I own the article’s copyright, so for[...]
In the middle of one of the biggest cities in the world an ebullient pollinator garden is attracting insects and native bees to a museum science project. The Los Angeles Museum of Natural History has surrounded itself with a 3.5 acre urban habitat garden that is succeeding in attracting insects for study by the scientists within.
The San Francisco Flower & Garden Show is March 19-23, and what a surprise, the advertising theme is flowers. But the fun thing is an injection of new energy targeting a younger audience and special events. As anyone who has attended the Show in recent years knows, the Show is not in San Francisco, but[...]
Will you be at the Succulent Celebration and book launch June 7-8 near San Diego? I’d love to see you there! To entice you, here are a few glimpses of the nursery that’s hosting it, Waterwise Botanicals. Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’, in pots and on the hillside, is one of the succulents that the nursery sells a lot[...]