drought tolerant plants, Garden art, garden design, Outdoor lighting, San Francisco Flower & Garden Show, succulents, water features

A Day at the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show

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water feature in a display garden

I remember my first San Francisco Landscape Garden show as it used to be called. The year was 1989- not long after the event started as a fundraiser for San Francisco Friends of Recreation and Parks. My father and I loved it. All those orchids and bonsai and beautiful gardens. It was held at Fort Mason and my father, a retired Army colonel, was quite familiar with the location. I was new to garden shows and was yet to discover that the display gardens are part theatre – part landscape design. ?Who would plant a shrub that grows to 6 feet tall in front of that little bitty flowering perennial?”, I said to Dad. Well, I?ve been to a lot of garden shows since including the Northwest Flower and Garden show in Seattle and the San Francisco Flower & Garden Show when it was held at the Cow Palace and now, in it?s 30th year, at the San Mateo Event Center.

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Fellow landscape designers at the show

So this year I know what to expect. Or I think I do but there are always surprises. I?m with a couple fellow landscape designers and we have a keen eye for new plants in interesting combinations and design solutions for upcoming landscapes. In addition to the show gardens there are also hundreds of vendors selling all sorts of wonderful garden related items and vendors selling every type of plant you could possibly want. So much fun. Here are just some of the highlights if you weren?t able to attend this year yourself.

The display gardens offer inspiration from lawn replacement ideas to sustainable building methods to exciting new plant introductions. For five days each March, people from around the world are brought together to educate, encourage and inspire garden enthusiast of all ages and all levels of knowledge and experience. This year was no exception although I wish there had been more display gardens like in the ?good old days? of the garden show.

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deer scare or Shishi Idoshi water feature

Who doesn?t enjoy sitting next to an impressive water feature? This year there were several incorporated in designs that also included low water use plants. A pondless waterfall can attract birds, butterflies and other pollinators to your garden. The soothing sound of the water can also mask street noise. One garden featured a Japanese bamboo deer scare or Shishi Odoshi. Perfect for a small space the bamboo spout fills with water and rocks forward to empty, then rocks back to create a gentle clacking sound.

Another impressive display garden featured succulents of every type and shape. Grouped by color and shape, large swaths of these modern succulents_basalt_column.1600looking plants created a living tapestry around columnar basalt landscape rocks. Other notable features of this garden were the brightly painted stucco walls enclosing the space and stucco-over-building-block retaining walls painted bright blue, red and terra cotta.

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creative wall lighting

I probably got the most practical ideas from the garden created by the Association of Professional Landscape Designers than any other garden. Theirs demonstrated ways to re-imagine your garden without a lawn.There were cozy sitting areas. plants that screen out the street or next door neighbor, a vertical edible garden, lawn alternatives like Kurapia and vibrant planters filled with low water use plants. The whole garden was engaging and useful. I also saw a great idea for wall lighting that used a rusted metal screen in front of the light creating an interesting pattern. You had to be there to appreciate it?s unique design.

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callistemon ‘Little John’

For me and my colleagues the plants and garden art both featured in the gardens and for sale are what keeps us at the show for a long time. There are so many new plant introductions to evaluate for future designs. From new and improved selections of old favorites such as variegated lavender ?Meerlo?, a soft mahonia ground cover, abelia ?Miss Lemon? to nandina ?Lemon Lime? and callistemon ?Slim Jim? there is a perfect plant for every garden.

Think about what you want to do in your front or back yard this year to save water and maintenance and enhance the beauty of your space.

bonsai, Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai club

Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai club’s 28th Annual Show

Driving up Love Creek in Ben Lomond it?s hard to imagine the magnitude of the famous slide in 1982 that caused such devastation and loss of life. The ferns are lush now bordering the creek which flows to the San Lorenzo river. I?m on my way to visit an old friend, Chris Howe who is getting his bonsai collection ready for the Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai Club?s 28th Annual show coming up on the first weekend of April. We used to work together at a local nursery and I?m looking forward to seeing his plants.

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Ilex crenata bonsai

Chris first became interested in the art of bonsai about 15 years ago. Working in a nursery he could see the potential of overlooked, overgrown specimens with interesting trunks begging to to be styled into trees that look much older than their size suggests. To further his knowledge of this ancient craft he joined the Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai Club and was their president for four years.

Chris lives with his family, two dogs and some chickens on 14 acres so there is plenty of space to shelter his prized bonsai specimens as well as those in early training or waiting to attain that most sought after illusion of age. ?They?re never finished?, Chris laughed. He says his kids, Gloria, Ruby and Frederick, all show some interest in his hobby although the youngest is more apt to toss the ornamental rocks around than marvel at how old the bonsai look.

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Chris trims Chines elm bonsai

The word bonsai comes from two Japanese words that provide the most basic definition of this living art form. “Bon” means tray or pot, while “sai? means to plant. One of the reasons we all admire bonsai is how old they look -appearing to be veterans of years of struggle against natural forces. Some are actually hundreds of years old and handed down in families while others just look very old and some techniques help further this illusion.

Among his collection, Chris has an impressive Liquidambar orientalis he is hoping to enter into the show this year. Slow growing and native to the eastern Mediterranean regions of Turkey and the Greek island of Rhodes where large stands still grow, Chris methodically pinched every large leaf leaving the smaller ones. This technique will cause the tree to eventually produce only small leaves making the tree look older.

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Boxwood exhibiting Jin and Shari

The boxwood is a shrub that lends itself to training. In addition to a couple boxwood that date back to his nursery days, Chris has a large specimen that was in the show last year and has been in his care for 10 years. it?s actual age is unknown. A technique called Jin which causes weathered-looking dieback on a branch and is created by stripping a branch of bark had already been initiated as was Shari which removes bark on part of the trunk. In nature, deadwood is created when a tree is hit by lightning, exposed to sustained periods of drought or when branches snap due to ice stress, wind or weight of snow. The wood dies off and is bleached by intense sunlight. This technique is almost exclusively used on evergreen trees, as creating Jin of Shari on deciduous trees often looks unrealistic

As living things, bonsai are always growing, leaves and stems being pinched, the branches wired into natural looking shapes, the trunks thickening and sometimes developing nebari or that most sought after look when the surface roots of the tree or root flare are visible above the growing medium. Included in Chris?s collection are a dramatic California buckeye, many Japanese maple, Chinese elm, ilex crenata and a tilia which is called a lime tree in the British Isles. He found the tilia many years ago thrown in some bushes behind an apartment complex in Santa Cruz. Chris speculates that the original owner bought the tilia as a finished bonsai but thought it was dead as it?s deciduous. You can never tell where a good bonsai will originate.

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“Raffle-worthy” juniper

All the members of the club are busy getting ready for their annual show. Each decides which of their specimens they will offer for sale, contribute to the raffle or to enter into the show. Moss needs to be collected and placed over the soil and around the rocks in the pot, the correct base chosen to complement each specimen, training wires removed, pots cleaned and polished. Some members have styled and trained one of 20 small junipers the club bought last fall to sell in the raffle as a fundraiser. I thought Chris?s specimen turned out especially well and hope I?m the one who wins it at the upcoming show.

Don?t miss the upcoming 28th Annual Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai show Saturday, April 2nd and Sunday, April 3rd at the Museum of Art and History at 705 Front Street in Santa Cruz from 10am -5pm each day. Entry fee is $5 per person to the museum and the show.

Be inspired and have all your questions answered about growing bonsai from the experts. At 2:00 pm both days there will be a demonstration by the bonsai artist, Mike Pistello (Saturday )and bonsai sensei, Katsumi Kinoshita (Sunday). In the demonstrations, each will show where and how much to trim an ordinary piece of plant material, how to wire the branches to set their growth in the desired shape and how to pot the tree. The completed bonsai will be raffled afterwards.

Also at 1:00 pm both days, Carolyn Fitz, a SCBK member and Sumi-e brush painting artist, will present an ?Exclusive behind-the-scene: Japanese Bonsai Ink Painting.?

Come and enjoy an amazing exhibit of bonsai. For sale will be finished bonsai, pre-bonsai trees, pots and more. Door prizes, special entertainment and complimentary tea and cookies will be available as well as free advice from experienced members.

Every plant sold or raffled at the show comes with an invitation to the monthly Santa Cruz Bonsai Kai club meetings where new enthusiasts are welcomed and nurtured.

atmosphere in the garden, butterfly plants, California Native Plants, color in the garden, drought tolerant plants, foliage color

Adding Bright Color to the Garden

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Yellow primrose

Do you ever look at the collection of cut roses at the market and think ?Which is my favorite color today?? Sometimes it?s the strawberry pink ones I?m drawn to other times i like butterscotch or deep red. It?s the same dilemma in my garden. I try to use restraint and stick to just 3 colors but who can do that, really? In early spring I love the soft pink and pure white of bleeding hearts, camellias and early rhododendrons but maybe because I?m surrounded by so much green, I?m drawn in summer to the bright jewel colors of orange, yellow and red in my garden.

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Clivia miniata or Kaffir lily

I?m looking forward now to my orange clivia flower clusters that are emerging from deep within the dark green strappy leaves and will be opening soon. The color is especially vivid on a dark rainy day. I also have lots of deep golden and red primroses blooming now. I?ve enjoyed these same plants blooming repeatedly for many years in partial shade. I even get some sporadic blooms throughout the summer.

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Japanese Forest Grass – hakonechloa macra ‘Aureola’

Also at this time of year I get color from foliage too. My ?All Gold? Japanese forest grass and the variegated one have emerged from winter dormancy and they are some of my favorites. Besides being deer resistant the sound of the leaves rustling in the wind adds another dimension to the garden. The chartreuse leaves of heuchera ?Citronelle? – coral bells – add a colorful touch of foliage all year round. There?s a variety called ?Lemon Chiffon? and another named ?Lime Rickey? that i want to add to my collection also.

Later in the season I look to brighter flowers to brighten my garden. High on my wish list for several years is the kniphofia or red hot poker. In addition to yellow and red varieties there?s a cool dwarf one called ?Mango Popsicle? available now. This terrific drought tolerant plant attracts hummingbirds and blooms continuously from late spring into fall. Other colors in this dwarf ?Popsicle? series are banana, creamsicle, lemon, papaya, pineapple and fire glow. All would look awesome planted in a drift.

There are so many plants I want to add to my perennial garden on the terraces between the low rock walls. Some of the existing plants are California natives like salvia ?Bee?s Bliss? with some water smart South African plants such as coleonema ?Sunset Gold? and leucodendron ?Safari Sunset? and an Australian grevillea ?Coastal Gem? thrown in.

Because I wechinacea_Hot_Coralant to add more vibrant colors to this area I?m looking to some of the new?echinacea or coneflower. From deep gold to pumpkin orange to red-orange sunset colors this perennial has medium water needs once established and is deer tolerant. I?m hoping the seed heads will attract more goldfinches to my garden if I don?t deadhead but allow the flowers to remain on the stalks throughout the summer and into the fall. I can also plant more California native grasses for the goldfinches like blue and yellow-eyed grass and festuca californica.

Santolina 'Lemon Fizz'
Santolina ‘Lemon Fizz’

A plant like santolina ?Lemon Fizz? provides chartreuse mounds of fragrant foliage for year-round color. In the summertime it?s topped with bright yellow flowers. This compact evergreen plant is perfect to edging pathways, borders and in herb gardens. Plant in mass for a colorful, drought tolerant ground cover.

I have quite a few native sticky monkey flowers in orange and yellow that the

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mimulus aurantiacus

hummingbirds love. Also the reddish-orange California fuchsia adds color to my landscape later in the summer cascading over the rock wall. A lemon yellow fremontodendron or flannel bush would add some height to my slope.

Also I?ve wanted an Island Snapdragon or galvezia speciosa to add to my red-yellow-orange color scheme. This evergreen California native blooms with bright red snapdragon-like flowers in late winter through early fall. It?s a tough plant and very adaptable to many garden situations and soils. It can

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Fremontodendron californicum

even be hedged or pruned to ground level to keep the foliage fresh.

The bright colors of yellow, orange and red play well with blues and purples and are especially useful in mid-summer when the harsher light of the direct overhead sun can wash out paler hues.

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