A Garden Grows in California

29 Jul '08 8:08 am

Ooooh - I like this garden a lot too. What are the deep plum coloured shrubs throughout the garden? They're a great colour.

29 Jul '08 8:54 am

Kerole I think most are Japanese maples but there is also Cotinus c., what we here call Smoke Bush. They, and I think this may be Tony's specialty, cut them back hard every year. Honestly these are more like Bonsais than traditional garden plants.

Dixie, another detail I didn't really get until I was there is that the many figurines scattered around the garden are cement or concrete covered with the same automobile grade paint which is very lustruous and saturated. I thought of your mushrooms when I was there.

30 Jul '08 6:26 pm

More wonderful photos. Those maples caught my eye too. They don't seem as sheltered as I would be inclined to grow them, I suppose the climate isn't as harsh? I would have a lot more maples if they didn't tend to shrivel at the tips in summer here.

30 Jul '08 7:15 pm

That is the word that comes to mind... what amazingly generous people! The same impulse that makes them wonderful hosts, makes them gardeners who pack in their plants and look after each one lovingly and keep them in peak condition. And, I suspect, it is that same impulse that makes them so united a gardening team. Thank you for sharing this wonderful visit, Mark!

31 Jul '08 2:41 am

That was my reaction too Jack. In addition to their generosity, I was also struck by how energetic they both are and how happy. So I wonder is the garden an expression of the generosity, energy and happiness they started with? Or does the activity of gardening also cultivate or at least accentuate these qualities in those who do it?

31 Jul '08 7:12 am

this time over at Muddywellies' site. http://www.winsfordwalledgarden.com/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=592

This time I've posted our photos from Great Dixter in Kent, UK. This was one my favorites of all the gardens we saw. I can't imagine picking a top ten or five or three or ... which would not include this one.

24 Aug '08 1:58 pm

Gordon's latest photos reminded me I haven't been keeping up either. I haven't spent a lot of time in the garden photographing this month but I did get some. For one thing I got my first Epiphyllum oxypetalum flower to open and photographed that at night of course. Its common name is "Night Blooming Cereus" for a reason. I'm glad I didn't miss it. Then there has been a baby Red Tail Hawk, quite a large one, hanging around across the creek from us. This morning I got a couple photos and several days ago Lia got the first. Then there are the various open flowers to document. Hope you find something to amuse.

24 Aug '08 5:31 pm

How great that you managed to get photos of the hawk. I love the Alstroemeria against the grey plant. The fancy clover is very pretty. I always think of clover as something in the lawn, a welcome green nitrogen fixing addition for some and a weed for others. I didn't know you could get varieties to grow as plants.

24 Aug '08 6:04 pm

I really like the Epi flower. In fact all your blooms are real nice.

Now I want to get back to my long lost thread and post some pics, too.

Christopher

24 Aug '08 6:06 pm

Hi, Mark!

It's great to see some more pictures of your garden! I really liked the hawk pictures; don't think I've ever seen a red-tailed hawk! Also, loved the cereus pics as well as those of the balloon flower. Have you ever been there when one of those buds just "pops" open, all at once? It's very cool to see! I also really like the "Flutterby" rose - what a delicate, blowsy beauty she is!

All the best,

gordonf

p.s. (to Macflax) - tomorrow I'll post a picture of a variegated clover that I grew as a ground cover. Didn't work as I expected, but there's finally a respectable clump of it!

A Garden Grows in California

Generosity

Or even "Bountiful"?

I've posted photos from another garden we saw,

Latest happenings in the garden.

Great photos!

Of Hawks and Clovers