Category Archives: destination nurseries

California Native Plants, destination nurseries, garden sculpture, Sierra Azul Nursery

A Day at Sierra Azul Nursery

Smoke Bush showcasing rusted metal sculpture

It was one of those days when the light is soft as the fog burns off over Watsonville. My group of fellow landscape designers were gathered for a private tour of Sierra Azul Nursery and Garden. The picnic tables were set by owner Lisa Rosendale and covered with delicious salads, chili, appetizers, desserts and beverages. We were in for a real treat.

Lisa?s nursery is a demonstration and sculpture garden as well as a retail and wholesale nursery. She and her husband Jeff grow drought tolerant and exotic plants that promote the use of Mediterranean climate adapted plants in water conserving gardens and landscapes including fruit trees and plants for shade gardens. It was fun and interesting to hear the back story of the soil, growing conditions and trials and tribulations of the 2 acre demonstration garden straight from the source.

Seems this property, which is directly across from the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds, sits on 20 feet of clay covered with 2 feet of top soil. The drainage is poor as Lisa found out when they planted a field of Grosso lavender. It turns into a marsh during wet years. She still harvests some lavender spikes to make into wands for sale but many of the plants have died.

A few of the many sculptures amid blooming Bidens

The demonstration garden is always evolving. The mounds showcase Mediterranean plants and many types of full grown grasses, trees, shrubs and perennials. The birds and the bees love it. A different scent greets you at every turn. Lisa did confess that maybe one of the self sowing ornamental grasses is too much of a good thing. Personally we thought they were charming. ?Nothing we can do about it?, Lisa said, ?Plants grow where they want.?

There are breathtaking sculptures incorporated into the plantings that are permanent. This is also the13th year that the exhibition Sculpture IS in the Garden featuring 52 artists and 80 sculptures have been installed throughout the garden. They will be on display through October 31. Admission is free. Relax under the umbrellas, bring your picnic lunch and spend an afternoon like we did enjoying the demonstration garden and the exhibit.

But back to the plants. Some were new to me and some old favorites not to be forgotten. There are hundreds of plants growing on mounds in the demonstration garden. These were just a few of my favorites.

Velbet Centauria- a Dusty Miller relatvie

Similar to a dusty miller, a Velvet Centauria (centauria gymnocarpa) immediately caught my eye. This beautiful, fast growing sub-shrub features soft grayish-white filigreed leaves and purple thistle-like flowers. It blooms from spring to mid-summer, is deer resistant, tolerant of any type of soil and is very drought tolerant. As a 3 foot by 6 foot wide groundcover it looks great between other contrasting colored plants.

Mt Loma Prieta Spike Coast Redwood

Another cool plant that all of us commented on was a columnar redwood called Mt. Loma Prieta Spike Coast Redwood. With its robust, upright weeping habit a mature specimen will measure 20 feet tall and 6 feet wide. This cultivar originated as a natural mutation by Allan Korth around the time of the earthquake. He is thought to have found the mother plant near the epicenter near Mt Loma Prieta peak.

Phlomis fruticosa

Just a few of the other plants of note was a beautiful blooming upright hypericum called Mystic Beauty. A California native, salvia lilacina ?De la Mina? , was in full bloom among one of the many sculptures. A huge clump of bidens covered with red and yellow flowers grew among three upright sculptures that resembled giant cabbages. A gold cultivar of phlomis fruticosa or Jerusalem Sage was stunning in the late afternoon light. Covered with ?smoke?, a Purple Smoke tree looked spectacular next the a rusted metal sculpture. Lisa told us that the artists who created the different works came to the nursery to decide on just the right spot that would showcase both the sculpture and and plants.

Don?t miss visiting Sierra Azul. You?ll be glad you did. If you want to see more photos of the nursery and just some of the sculptures visit my blog on my website.

destination nurseries, garden design, garden inspiration, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

Exploring Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens sign
Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens

What could be more lovely than spending Christmas Eve at a botanical garden? After a windy, stormy morning the clouds cleared and winter sun brought color to the golden heather, early blooming rhododendron and grevillea growing in the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens. I’ve long wanted to visit this famous garden and here was my chance. I was not disappointed at what is described as 47 acres of beauty to the sea.

The mission of the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden is to conserve plants in harmony with the Northern California coastal ecosystem. Like your own garden this one provides interest year round. I could see the affects of the long summer drought on some of the rhododendron leaf edges but winter rains have turned every fern and blade of grass bright apple green. Mushrooms emerged from

Jan and Sherman enjoy the gardens
Jan and Sherman enjoy the gardens

damp earth and the Fern Canyon Creek looked more like a small river.

Dogs are welcome here at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden so Sherman, our Welsh springer spaniel, was overjoyed with the gardens, too. He seemed to favor the weeping Lebanon cedar and red-twig dogwood but the wild ginger was a big hit also.

It’s an easy half mile walk from the perennial garden to the spectacular vista at the ocean’s edge but with so many side gardens and side paths the journey is as long as you want. In the summer and fall the perennial garden is ablaze with blooming plants but even at this time of year there are many specimens that provide foliage color and structure.

euphorbia_lonicera-nitida
Euphorbia paired with lonicera nitida

I especially liked the combination of blue euphorbia paired with Baggeson’s Gold lonicera. This type of lonicera is not the familiar honeysuckle vine but an evergreen shrub called? box honeysuckle. It is hardy to cold and requires only moderate irrigation. Other favorite plants in this section of the garden were the blooming hellebore, pheasant tail grass, dwarf conifers, Hinoki cypress and a brilliant purple hopseed.

Pink Delight rhododendron
Pink Delight rhododendron

 

Further down the path, the garden’s signature plant, the rhododendron, made its appearance. Several varieties from the Himalayas including Pink Delight and the fragrant, Harry Tagg, are early bloomers and were covered with blossoms. Many tree-like rhododendrons, including the native rhododendron californicum and the Big Leaf rhododendron will put on their show in late spring.

Bergenia cordifolia
Bergenia cordifolia

Blooming also in the woodland garden large stands of bergenia cordifolia bordered the path, their bright pink flower spikes surrounded by huge round leaves. Helleborus take any amount of winter weather and the Corsican hellebore at the botanical garden were also in full bloom.

Bergenia cordifolia
Bergenia cordifolia

I’ve seen huge fuchsia shrubs before but never a fuchsia tree with flaky bark and a few brave fuchsia flowers growing right out of the wood. Fuchsia excorticata is the world’s largest fuchsia and in its native habitat, New Zealand, is can grow to 36 feet tall and form a trunk over a yard in diameter. The flowers are rich in nectar and visited my honey-eating birds there. The dark purple berries, known as konini by Maori, are edible and taste like tamarillos. In New Zealand, possums love this tree fuchsia and have eaten it out of many locations.

Pacific wax myrtle
Pacific wax myrtle

After passing through an ingenious deer fence gate made from woven tree branches on a wooden frame, the rest of the garden trails wind through pine forest, a fern canyon and a creekside path finally emerging at the Pacific ocean along the Coastal Bluff Trail. This area is open to black-tail deer and native plants like mahonia, salal, wild ginger, huckleberry and Pacific wax myrtle abound.

Sherman loved the Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens as much as I. The gardens are located an on Hwy 1 just south of Ft. Bragg. If you are in the area at any time of year. take a stroll through. You’ll be glad you did.

California Native Plants, colorful foliage, destination nurseries

Traveling with the Mountain Gardener

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Truckee_RiverSo far this year my travels have taken me up the coast of California and parts north. Then I headed a bit east to explore the Sierra Nevada. Statistics show that the drought is affecting all parts of the state. I?d heard that the Tahoe Queen had to modify it?s path around the rim of Lake Tahoe to avoid rocks. I had to check it out for myself. Just how low could that big blue body of water be? And what affect is the water situation having on the gardeners up there?

From the first glimpse of the Truckee river that is the sole outlet for Lake Tahoe I could see that the water was lower than usual. Still looked like enough water to negotiate a tube or small raft but the rafting companies have already closed for the season with the flow from the lake at only half of what it is normally in August. Hiking on the Tahoe Rim Trail next to the river was beautiful. The native plants and trees can exist even without the normal snowfall. They might not put on a lot of growth during dry years but they still looked healthy.

There is a chart at the dam where the Truckee river originates on the north side of Lake Tahoe. The graph shows that this is not the only drought event to have hit the Tahoe Basin. I was told the lake has been lower than this many times. Back in the 1930?s, 1962, 1976 and especially during the early 90?s the lake level dipped even lower. 2004 and 2010 were also low years. The lake level is just above the natural rim right now. The average daily evaporation rate of the lake is 397 million gallons.

In Tahoe City there is a destination nursery that I always visit when I?m in the area. In addition perennial_borderto several acres of trees and plants, the Tahoe Tree Company?s grounds are beautifully landscaped. A small lawn in surrounded by perennial beds loaded with flowers and a gazebo bordered with Autumn Joy sedum was just starting to bloom. Stands of quaking aspen towered over the shade beds of hosta, begonia, astilbe and New Guinea impatiens.

I asked one of the employees about how the drought has affected their customers. I noticed that many of the local residents had bright green lawns surrounded by dahlias, rudbeckia and ornamental grasses. She told me that many water companies serve the communities around the lake. They get some water from the lake itself but the rest is from springs which are drying up. The Tahoe City Public Utility District recommendation is to reduce water consumption by 20% with watering on even or odd days depending on your address.

Changes this season at the nursery range from reduced sale of seeds because seeds need regular watering to get started. Also customers are requesting more native plants but I was told that some of those requested are high water usage plants like dogwoods and willows. Customers are mulching more and learning which plants are drought tolerant. Popular natives include Sierra currant, Bitter and West Sand cherry, Mountain spiraea and elderberry.

Sun_King_AraliaStrolling the grounds of the nursery a brilliant gold plant caught my eye. Morning sun shone on a group of Sun King aralia and I had to find out more about this beautiful plant. In mid-spring this fast growing, 6 foot plant emerges with bright gold leaves. In sun the foliage remains gold through out the summer. In full shade, the foliage will be chartreuse to lime green in color. Spikes of tiny white flowers emerge in summer followed by ornamental black fruit. This plant is deer resistant. It?s needs some moisture so combine it with other average water users in the same bed.

We are all hoping this winter will bring us some relief from the drought, even those who live next to that big blue lake.