A nice surprise arrived in my email in-box last week. It was a note from someone who has discovered shedstyle.com: 

Dear Debra, My husband and I are building a potting shed. We have a footprint and general design concept.  What we haven’t been able to find are ideas or samples of interior space allocation.  I’ve preordered Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideways from Random House but now is the time I most need some of your knowledge/experience.  Is there another source (I’ve also read your internet magazine) that you can direct me?  Is there any information you can provide? I’ve literally been hoping for this building ever since my husband and I bought our home – 27 years ago.  I’d really appreciate your help. Thank you! (signed, MARY) 

Wow, thank you, Mary! She actually pre-ordered Stylish Sheds and Elegant Hideaways! Very exciting news, especially since it won’t be on bookstore shelves until April 29, 2008. Mary’s note prompted me to think about what kind of Shed Design Checklist I would give a nascent shed-builder.  

Here are some general tips: First, of all, remember that there are infinite ideas to play around with. Think carefully about the interiors. So many people build gorgeous pieces of architectural wonder but then leave the shed’s inside ordinary-looking, dusty and filled with cobwebs. Even a functioning potting shed should be beautiful and reflect your own style. 

Pegboard walls and exposed rafters give this shed a barn-like feeling, while a cozy area rug and rocking chair ensure comfort

Treat the interior space allocation as you would design any room of your house. What will you do with the wall? It’s fine to leave the rafters and studs exposed, but can you paint them or mount shelves or hooks for displaying collections? One woman I know lined the walls of her potting shed with pegboard and hung from it all her antique gardening tools.  

Kathy’s potting counter

If you want a work counter or potting bench, consider the dimensions and proportions of the interior counters that feel best to you. Is your kitchen counter the correct height and depth? Do you like it deep enough to allow room for stacks of flowerpots or rows of gardening books to be displayed across the back? Is there storage room underneath?

Some of the most attractive countertops I’ve seen are covered in a sheath of copper or zinc. Kathy Fries, a Seattle gardener who has no fewer than four “shed” structures on her property, bought a salvaged section of classroom cabinets (probably used in a high school wood-shop or science class), complete with countertop and storage bins — voila! The perfect potting bench for her garden house.

Windows: Can you add a valance or lace panels? Can you make sure there’s a nice deep ledge for potted herbs or anything else that makes you happy? Windows should definitely be operable so you can adjust temperatures, create ventilation and — most important — hear the sounds of your garden while inside the shed. Swishing grasses, the whir of a hummingbird, bird-songs and a fountain’s trickling water are essential sounds you wouldn’t want to miss.

Doors: Just as with your home, you want the threshold and portal that lead from the “external world” to your “inner sanctum” to be symbolic of powerful and nurturing emotions: shelter, safety and haven. Don’t settle for an ordinary door from the big-box home center when you can do a little hunting to find something special. A salvaged door, especially one with glass, is a nice choice. You can add color or (as we did in our Seattle garden) allow the elements to continue the peeling process that reveals decades of life.

Floor: Remember this is an outdoor structure. It’s okay if you have a cement floor, but perhaps you should paint it and put a drain in the center so any gardening projects can be easily cleaned up. I’ve visited numerous sheds with wood plank flooring, vinyl tile, terracotta tile, flagstone, wall-to-wall carpeting and the aforementioned concrete. It really depends on the function of the room. 

Space-planning: Even if this is going to be a space for working on gardening projects, designate one wall or corner for R&R; A bench with cushions, a wicker chair and good reading lamp (of course, this means electricity), a desk for your reference books, correspondence or even a small tea party. Again, look to the room-like proportions of your home. One couple we interviewed/photographed for the book built their tea-house on the exact proportions of their dining room because to them, it was a comfortable space. 

On the potting shed in my former Seattle garden, designer Jean Zaputil used salvaged French doors donated by a contractor-neighbor. The weathered mailbox became the perfect planter-box for daffodils and a rose hip wreath hangs on one door

Here are some other questions to ask yourself:

• What activity draw us outdoors? Are you creating art, making music, writing, gardening, arranging flowers, playing with children, stargazing, entertaining friends, seeking solitude or meditating?
• What role will the structure play in the landscape? Is it a design focal point or is it intentionally hidden from view? Will it be a surface or “wall” in the garden for climbing vines or roses? Will you use it as a gallery for hanging objects, mirrors, artifacts? Will it hide or disguise an unsightly view (such as the back of a neighbor’s garage)? Is it for pure function or pure folly…or a little bit of both?
• To create an appropriate shelter or structure to house your activity, take time to address these functional choices: placement (where will you site the structure? how will it be oriented?); size and scale (check your local building codes to determine the maximum size allowed without a construction permit; it is often around 100 square feet); what materials will complement your home’s architecture? what utilities do you need (electricity, water, heat?); and, of course, the fun part: how will you decorate, embellish and adorn the structure?

In her book Hideaways: Cabins, Huts, and Tree House Escapes, French author Sonya Faure explores some of the emotions that the word “hideaway” can conjure. I’d like to share them here:

“The dictionary defines a hideaway as ‘a secluded spot.’. . . There are plenty of synonyms for the word, most of which emphasize its protective function: cover, den, haven, hideout, refuge, retreat, sanctuary, shelter. . . . The noun ‘hut’ and the verb ‘to hide’ share the same Indo-European root – skeu – meaning: to cover or to conceal.”

In the end, your shed should be designed for your private and personal delight. It is the place where you will feel safe, feel free to create and contemplate, and take refuge from the everyday demands of life. “Shed” also is a verb that has several meanings, most of which hint at “letting go” (as in shedding tears, sending forth, losing by a natural process). There’s something very symbolic in that notion as well. We “shed” our burdens, our cares, our sadness or pain, when we can escape into our secret backyard place.

It finally arrived in my mailbox today: the January-February 2008 issue of Fine Gardening (issue No. 119) with the cover line, “Learn the secrets to an Abundant Border.”

The genesis of this article, which is an adaptation of a chapter from The Abundant Garden, a book I created with photographer Barbara J. Denk in 2005 (Cool Springs Press), dates to a lunch I had with Steve Aitken. In July 2005, I was in New York City on a mission to find an agent to represent my next book project. I had rented a car and after one meeting with a potential agent, I drove to Newtown, Connecticut – in the POURING RAIN – where the Taunton Press-Fine Gardening Headquarters is based in a charming little hamlet.

I had planned on lunching with an editor-friend there, but when I arrived, I learned she had recently left Fine Gardening before having a chance to give me a head’s up. My “substitute” lunch date was to be then assistant editor Steve Aitken. I had never before met Steve, but after escorting me through the Taunton cafeteria where we sought refuge from the summer downpour, we sat down to lunch and a really wonderful conversation.

Every author likes to think that people actually READ their words and do not just look at the pictures (I love my photographer-collaborators, but honestly, I do have a bit of an inferiority complex when comparing a block of my prosaic-looking text — 12 pt. black words in Helvetica or some other font on white paper — with full-bleed, four-color, vibrant or subtle images captured through a lens by a gifted visual-artist.)

So Steve made my day. Over lunch, he summarized the entire point of The Abundant Garden, highlighting key design ideas that I had hoped to achieve in the text. He blew me away. I have never had that experience before, knowing that someone read…really READ…the words that I wrote; the words that helped shape the idea of a book; the words that supported and explained Barbara’s glorious images.

From then on, I was a huge Steve Aitken fan. During our lunch meeting, he suggested I adapt some of my ideas in the book into an article for Fine Gardening. At the time, I had written several smaller, one- or two-page articles for the magazine, but never a full feature article, let alone the cover story. It was an idea that pleased me. And I fully intended to follow up on the opportunity he was offering.

Subsequent to our meeting, two cool things happened. First, Fine Gardening included The Abundant Garden on its list of the 10 best garden books for 2005. Second, Steve was promoted to managing editor of the magazine. Oh, I guess there is a third event that took place. In April 2006, we learned that my husband Bruce would accept a position in Southern California. My life turned upside down and I was barely able to follow up on my existing assignments and deadlines, let alone “chase” anything new.

Steve and I didn’t reconnect on the story idea right away. I like to chalk that up to the fact that our respective “plates” were full. But the timing was right when, only a few months after leaving Seattle for SoCal, I received a call from Daryl Beyers, a new FG assistant editor. Daryl told me that Steve + Co. were ready for me to start working on the article. The story focus: Creating an Abundant Border.

We had several back-and-forth discussions about the shape the article would take, ending up with the exciting theme of “breaking rules in the border.” Just out today, the article features several of Barbara Denk’s photos from The Abundant Garden, as well as images from some of my other favorite photographers, including Allan Mandell and Saxon Holt. Other photographs were contributed by Stephanie Fagan, FG’s art director, and Daryl Beyers (who personally shepherded this piece from outline to publication).

Anyone who finds magazine or newspaper publishing a very s-l-o-w and tedious process will read this entry and be perhaps discouraged. How on earth should it take more than 2 years to turn an initial idea into a final article? (Don’t even get me started about the even lengthier book-birthing process!) Well, life gets in the way, timing is everything, and sometimes you just have to wait for all the pieces to fall into place as meant to be. Forcing, pushing, jockeying, chasing….it never really works. It’s a lesson I need to learn again and again. And this experience reminded me of the adage that “things work out for a reason.” Yes, they do.

Finally, please indulge me. Because of limited space (and for perhaps other reasons, such as it was purely a bit of self-indulgent writing in the first place!), the editors cut a final section of my original manuscript from the published article. Its genesis came from my father, Fred Prinzing, so I would like to include it here. You might have to read the published article for this to make sense, but here goes:

Everything Old is New Again

Like most gardeners who have tackled a landscaping challenge, I often think my “solution” to a design problem is original or straight out of my imagination. So when I recently opened “The Book of Perennials,” a gift from my book-hound father, I had to admit that my “new” ideas about layered borders were anything but new! This little red-bound volume, first published in 1923, was written by Alfred C. Hottes, a magazine editor of the day.

 Here’s how he describes a garden border:

“A border may be formal or informal; the plants may be set in definite ribbon-like bands or placed in natural clumps. Generally, the latter method is to be preferred unless we are planning a prim garden of geometric form on a large scale.”

Hmm. Sounds awfully familiar. I was surprised and somewhat humbled to read further. Mr. Hottes had his own opinions about layered borders, not too different from my own:

“Obviously, the tall plants should be at the back of the border, the dwarf edging plants in front and those of medium height tucked in between the two extremes. Nevertheless, this rule should not be followed too strictly; otherwise the result will give a border which will be too monotonous. Allow bold groups of tall plants to come to the front of the border. For the best effects in the Springtime some of the earliest dwarf plants may be planted toward the center to give a mass of color throughout the width of the border.”

Well, I guess we should listen to an expert. Don’t take my word for it. In the 1920s, long before I tried breaking rules in the border, Mr. Hottes encouraged his readers to do just that.

I joined Lili Singer on a tour through Theodore Payne Foundation’s native plant nursery

Thank goodness for friends who will host me when I have an urge to take a plant excursion. On Tuesday, I visited Lili Singer, gardening personality extraordinaire who is a beloved radio and newspaper personality and longtime advisor to Southern California plant-lovers.

Lili has taken on special projects at The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants in Sun Valley, Calif., a short drive off of Hwy I-5 , near Burbank Airport. Her pieces appear frequently in the Los Angeles Times Home section, she has a loyal following of students most Thursdays at the LA County Arboretum, and she is a board member of Southern California Horticultural Society. We met in August 05 when I came to LA to give a lecture for SCHS … then, a month later at the Garden Writers annual meeting, I really got to see what type of plant maven she was during the day we cavorted around the private landscapes of Vancouver, BC with a few other intrepid souls.

When I knew I was going to trade my Seattle zip code for a SoCal one, I also realized I would soon live in a state where I had several GWA friends and acquaintances, including Lili.

At the Theodore Payne Foundation, I tried to set aside any thought of my beloved NW garden and all the plants I can no longer grow because I now live in SoCal. Instead, I am looking closely at the amazing native plants available to me. Not really a botanical garden; Theodore Payne is a nonprofit nursery, seed store and bookstore for California native plants. Open to the public, Theodore Payne provides extensive plant information and advice in its nursery sales yard and through classes and public programs. Founded in 1960, the organization sponsors the free “Wildflower Hotline,” which alerts callers to the locations of seasonal wildflowers such as golden poppies and lesser-known but equally dazzling displays that embroider the hills and canyons of California (818-768-3533, March-May).

Outreach and volunteer coordinator Lisa Novick, Lili’s colleague, asserted that California has 6,000 native species to offer me. Wow. That’s something like three times what most states have!

While I lamented all the plants I couldn’t grow anymore, Lisa gently redirected the conversation, telling me that Seattle (and its plants) was like my “first love” to which all subsequent garden Zones will be compared. She observed that I’m still pining for that romance as I evaluate every subsequent suitor (plant, garden) to my original passionate relationship. “They’re never going to be the same; they’re different, and you need to enjoy the beauty of the difference,” she pointed out.

Nursery areas are enclosed in deerproof fencing and netting

I’m trying, okay? It’s hard to get my former lush, green, exuberant environs out of my system. Lili walked me through the Theodore Payne Nursery, a meandering series of paths that are nestled right up into the edges of LaTuna Canyon (this is a 22-acre parcel, complete with Flowerhill, a trail winding through chaparral and seasonal wild flowers). Plant sales areas are divided by category, just like any good nursery (groundcovers, perennials – oh, and “chaparral shrubs,” now that’s a category that Swanson’s Nursery doesn’t carry!).

This is a busy, busy nursery for wild and native plants of California. If you log onto Theodore Payne’s website, you’ll see its extensive plant, bulb and seed list, updated weekly. Many of the plants are propagated on site; others are supplied by reputable growers of California natives.

I zeroed in on a stunning evergreen specimen called Woolly Blue Curls (Trichostema lanatum), which looks like a long-needled rosemary but with the velvety purple-blue flower spikes of a Mexican sage. It’s a hummingbird and bumblebee favorite, according to California Native Plants for the Garden, the lovely reference that my Seattle book group gave me as a going-away gift when I moved. Ah, a new crush! Can’t wait to see how this relationship evolves once I get my very own ‘blue curls’ planted at home.

Bulbs have been very hard to give up with my move south; I’m kind of lost without my fall ritual of scrambling to plant as many tulip, allium, narcissus and grape hyacinth bulbs as time allows – usually in the pouring rain on Thanksgiving, while the turkey is roasting.

A new version of that November bulb ritual might look like this: Deb in t-shirt, capri pants and flip-flops, a small envelope of native bulbs in hand, planting clusters of three pearl-onion-sized bulbs in pots. With names like Firecracker Flower (Dichelostemma ida-maia), Ithuriel’s Spear ‘Queen Fabiola’ selection (Triteleia laxa), and Yellow Mariposa Lily ‘Golden Orb’ (Calochortus), I’m eager to see what delicate beauties arrive next spring.

One caveat with these native bulbs: They do NOT like any water in Summer or Fall. That’s of course when California’s wild areas are dry anyway; but move into the typical suburban backyard where occasional summer water is needed, hmmm. Guess there won’t be room for these bulbs at the front of my perennial beds.

Lili suggests I grow these in pots, at least this first year….that way I can enjoy them next spring when they bloom (photos are promised, here) and when the flowers fade, I can move the pots to the side of the house and let the bulbs stay warm, dry and content.

Warm, dry and content. That’s a noble thought for my own life, too!

A selection of native California plants, happily growing in a potted garden display

A pebble pathway at Lotusland creates a pleasing rhythm

Here is the piece I referenced in my last post. I wrote it in early 2002 for Bud Merrill’s Landscape Design II (LHO125) class at South Seattle Community College.

RHYTHM: Creating a Pattern for the Landscape

Webster’s dictionary defines rhythm as “the patterned, recurring alterations of contrasting elements.”

In design, the term relates to time and movement. According to Marjorie Elliot Bevlin, author of Design through Discovery: The Elements of Design (my college design text), rhythm is a principle that works in concert with two other important principles: Balance and Emphasis.

In design, the dynamic of rhythm creates a visual flow. As a beat is to music, as choreography is to a dance, rhythm adds vitality to a garden. In landscape design, rhythm creates physical sensation. It may cause people to move quickly, slow down or even pause before continuing on again. By repetition of like forms or evenly-spaced points of emphasis, a rhythmic design is naturally expressed.

One of the most successful ways to incorporate an instant feeling of rhythm or movement into the garden is with a dry creek-bed. The cascading path of smooth river-rocks mimics the flowing sensation of water, adding energy to the setting. [Photo illustrates a water-pattern created by a narrow rill that disects a stone staircase.]

Using key design elements in various patterns, the garden designer can lead visitors through the landscape, giving the viewer visual cues. As Booth and Hiss (in Residential Landscape Architecture) write: “We tend to view various portions of a composition in sequence, often mentally collecting them to form patterns.”

At Ahrends Nursery in Dusseldorf, landscape architect Anja Maubach alternates ordinary paving stones with square plantings of hardy succulents – the resulting pattern is rhythmic and alluring (photo from Country Gardens 2000 by Nicola Browne)

I began looking at the pattern-rhythm concept to see how various designers drew on this principle. Repetition, alteration, inversion and gradation all lend visual rhythm to the landscape. Anja Maubach, a German landscape designer, uses repeating squares of densely-planted sedums interspersed with concrete pavers to jazz up an otherwise generic path. Anja cites Pattern Language, a classic architect’s text, as her influence.

In this 1977 book, the authors Christopher Alexander, Sara Ishikawa, Murray Silverstein (with Max Jacobson, Ingrid Fiksdahl-King and Shlomo Angel) describe more than 250 “patterns” as solutions to design problems. The patterns follow design principles, but are also deeply rooted in nature and human history, which makes them resonate with us. (Perhaps that’s what the term ‘good design’ is all about.)

Pattern No. 247 – Paving with Cracks Between the Stones – talks about the need to “walk from stone to stone and feel the earth directly underfoot.” The authors continue, “As time goes by, the very age and history of all the moments on that path are almost recorded in its slight unevenness.”

Essentially, the spaces make a static path come alive – and have a certain rhythm.

Lines of lavender play on graphic qualities found in commercial herb farms (from Natural Landscapes, 1998)

English garden designer John Brookes incorporated rhythm into a client’s French garden with the use of just one plant: lavender. He drew inspiration from the neatly clipped rows of lavender in nearby farms. “Lines of lavender play on the graphic qualities found in commercial cultivation of the herb,” Brookes explains in his book Natural Landscapes.” And the garden deliberately emphasizes the shapes and textures of this tough region.”

Rhythm is essential as a design principle. It’s the organic motion, the fluid character that every garden needs to come to life for those who enjoy it.

Southern California Garden Writers members convene – 150-feet in the air above Orange County’s Great Park; from left: horticulturist Heike Franzen, me, author and houseplant expert Julie Bawden-Davis, and freelance writer Katie Bloome.

Gather together 30 gardening communicators for a day of networking and idea-sharing and you are guaranteed to have fun, inspiration and even a little controversy as opinions and ideas are swapped. The date: Sunday, November 11th. The venue: Roger’s Gardens, one of the country’s preeminent independent retail nurseries located in the coastal town of Corona del Mar.

Before we settled down to hear from three fascinating speakers, the group of writers, television and radio personalities, photographers, plant experts and horticultural vendors convened at Orange County’s Great Park in nearby Irvine. According to horticultural consultant Tom Larson, who is an advisor to this mammoth, 20-to-30 year endeavor, the Great Park is large enough to encompass Central Park, Balboa Park and Golden Gate Park in its acreage.

The 72-foot diameter balloon took us several hundred feet in the air and provided visibility of 20 miles.

Yes, it is a decommissioned military base, but once we boarded the bright orange hot-air balloon and ascended several hundred feet above the barren scene, we started to “get” the vision of the Irvine city fathers, environmental pioneers and community activists determined to create something very special in the midst of overdeveloped Southern California.

This ambitious endeavor will include a mind-boggling array of horticulture, sustainable agriculture and native habitat in a several hundred acre “park.” Where Marine jets once took off and landed (the base was built in 1942 on the site of what once served as growing fields for popular California crops) will soon be a living, “green” community hub. 

New York-based landscape architect Ken Smith’smaster plan includes a 2.5-mile tree-lined “canyon,” a lake and botanical garden, picnic lawns, amphitheatre, sports parks and wildlife corridor for migratory terrestrial and aviary animals. A conservatory “bridge” will span the lake; 150,000 native trees are being grown for planting; conservation and sustainable design practices are in place. Eighty percent of the demolished building material (steel, aluminum, wire, sheet-rock, concrete from the military base) will be recycled. Whew.

Nan Sterman, San Diego-based gardening personality, author and designer, and national GWA Director-extraordinaire planned this amazing day for all of us.

Planners are bringing together plants and people, providing urban land for small-scale organic farmers, growing landscaping plants that support wildlife and nurture people, and recycling water for irrigation. It is truly amazing that voters several years ago rejected a proposal for yet another international airport in favor of reclaiming this land for community use. If you come to Orange County, you need to make time to visit – and return (as this will be one of those multi-decade endeavors). The investment is for future generations and I find that exciting and inspiring.

In the interim, while development is underway, the Great Park planners are turning over several acres of land to two food bank operations, Community Action Partnership and Second Harvest, with the goal of growing nutritious, wholesome produce for the community’s homeless population and others facing hunger.

Back at Roger’s we settled in for “News You Can Use: Industry & Environmental Trends for Garden Writers – All About Plants, Gardens and Garden Communications.” Three Southern California experts shared their insights:

News from the Wholesale/Grower World: Plant trends with Nicholas Staddon (director of New Plant Introductions, Monrovia Growers)

Nicholas highlighted the following trends:

Plant “Branding”

Native plants (with a region-by-region focus)

Awareness of Invasives (see Carl Bell, below)

Waterwise plant choices

Tropicals-and-arid plants together

Minimalist gardening (doing more with less)

News for the Environment: Invasive Plants in Southern California with Carl Bell (UC Cooperative Extension)

Claiming, “there are no good weeds; there are no bad plants,” Carl highlighted the forthcoming “PlantRight”initiative that will be rolled out statewide in February 2008. The program will encourage consumers and retail nurseries to “Keep Invasive Plants In Check,” and voluntarily stop the sale and planting of known invasives.

One of the smartest features of the program is to suggest to home gardeners non-invasive plant alternatives to the garden thugs. Carl offered these definitions to guide the discussion of “what is an invasive plant?”

EXOTIC:

to a gardener, it means “foreign, tropical, interesting, cool”

to an environmentalist, it means a “bad, foreign, invasive pest”

to a regulatory agency, it means “a foreign organism that is likely a pest (although other governmental buzzwords include “alien” and “noxious,” a legal term that requires eradication, containment or control.

NATIVE/INDIGENOUS:

“Evolved in that location, present without any influence of humans (in California environmental organizations like the California Native Plant Society, Audubon, Sierra Club, “native” is regarded as specific to a region or area of the state)

NON-NATIVE/NON-INDIGENOUS:

“Introduced by humans, either accidentally or intentionally”

NATURALIZED:

A non-native plant that has established a stable, reproducing population in an area after introduction. Naturalized plants do not necessarily invade other areas. This term is used essentially the same way for gardens or natural habitats.

INVASIVE:

A naturalized plant that is spreading out from the location where it was introduced. Rapid or slow, its spread can be aided by disturbance or not, and it can have mild to drastic impacts on the native flora/fauna.

WEED:
Any plant that is objectionable or interferes with the activities or welfare of humans; invasive plants are a special category of weeds.

Other resources:

The St. Louis Declaration on invasive plant species

Cal-HIP (California Horticultural Invasives Program)

An awesome centerpiece of “Retro Succulents” from EuroAmerican Propagators — illustrates one HOT plant trend

News from the Retail Nursery World: What’s Hot and What’s Not in Home Gardening with Ron Vanderhoff (Nursery manager, Roger’s Gardens):

Ron is a veteran nurseryman and garden writer whose popular weekly column “The Coastal Gardener” appears in Orange County’s Daily Pilot newspaper. Here is his inside-scoop on the ins-and-outs of gardening trends:

NOT: “Gardening”  vs. HOT: “Gardens”

According to Ron, yesterday’s definition of a garden was a place where one would “grow” and “care for” plants; a place of enjoyment and work (emphasis on “work” as a verb)

While today’s definition of a garden is a “living space” that’s also a place of enjoyment and relaxation (emphasis on “relaxation” as an experience)

Other HOT trends:

Inside-Out: The walls of our homes have come down; homeowners are now “exterior design” experts; plants only account for one-third of spending on outdoor living

I’m always happy when the monthly Southern California Horticultural Society meetings roll around (second Thursday of each month), despite the requisite l-o-n-g drive on LA freeways to get there. Last night was a plant-lovers’ celebration, featuring ceanothus expert and nurseryman David Fross. Ceanothus includes the North American native plants known as wild lilacs, mountain lilacs, California lilacs, blue-blossoms, and buck-brushes.

David Fross, founder of Native Sons wholesale nursery in Arroyo Grande, CA, coauthored Ceanothus (Timber Press, 2006) with Dieter Wilken, botanist at the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden. The 272-page book is a tribute to Fross’s lifelong love affair with the blue-flowering woody shrub. The seduction is evident in his text:

“Each spring, tints and shades of azure, cobalt, indigo, and cerulean surface in the chaparral of California as if to offer a new name for the Golden State. Madder blue, milk-blue, and lavender, and then there are the blues of the sea — aqua, ultramarine, and a hue found only in the Sea of Cortes. The genus includes plants with flowers of each of these colors, and more: cyanine, sky blue, and the flinty hues of slate.”

According to Fross, who divides this plant monograph into two sections — “Ceanothus in the Garden and Landscape” and “Ceanothus in the Wild” — the English are much more creative than North American gardeners in planting ceanothus, using it as a hedge, groundcover, specimen tree, or climbing/espaliered embroidery on the face of an ancient stone building. “In London, they use ceanothus everywhere,” Fross proclaimed, saying he once counted 17 ceanothus plantings between his London hotel and the train station.

Luckily, it’s not too late to start using the hundreds of species and cultivars outlined in Ceanothus. For a guide, I’ll turn to page 125, Fross’s useful selection reference. He suggests cultivars for good garden tolerance, covering banks, groundcovers, informal hedges and screens, specimens and small trees, small garden spaces, seashore and shade. Plus, he lists eight variegated cultivars; I am a sucker for variegated foliage (I inherited an early specimen of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus var. griseus‘Diamond Heights’ from my pals at Seattle’s Elisabeth C. Miller Botanical Garden in the early 2000s, and enjoyed the awesome gold-and-green chevron-marked foliage in a glazed Chinese-red container before transferring the plant to the front slope of my Seattle garden, where I hope it still lives). Fross also lists summer flowering ceanothus, plants with large inflorescences, fast-growing cultivars and white blooms.

In Seattle, ceanothus has the reputation for being short-lived and finicky (I remember early on over watering ‘Julia Phelps’ only to watch her succumb from too much of a good thing). Now, I’m excited to try this “classic California genus” in my Zone 10 landscape. One spot on my must-visit list: Leaning Pine Arboretum, California Polytechnic University in San Luis Obispo, where there is an extensive display of California native ceanothus (Fross directed the development of the California Collection there).

MORE PLANTS

One of the other nifty features at the SoCal Hort meetings is “Plant Forum.” Like an old fashioned garden club activity, members bring in plants, cuttings, flowers, fruits and seeds to just show off the bounty of their own backyard. I love the amazing variety of samples on display – most of which are completely new to me.

Last night, a highlight was one member’s box of just-picked Hachiya persimmons, lined up like perfectly-formed eggs in a crate. The skin color – difficult to describe, but you know the word persimmon conjures up visions of something spicy, exotic and rare….and that’s how these delightful fruits appear to me. They are as vivid as a setting sun over the Pacific Ocean. Having lived in SoCal from 1967 to 1970 when I was young, I have strong memories of my midwest Mom not knowing what on earth to do with the persimmon tree in our backyard. She found one recipe for persimmon cookies. They tasted chewy and were seasoned with cinnamon and other spices (ginger? allspice? nutmeg?)….I’ve asked Mom to find the recipe. Now I have four delicious-looking fruits in my kitchen window, awaiting the transformation with said recipe into cookies for my own children.

A few other specimens from fellow SoCal members got me excited, too:

Hakea laurina (Pincushion) – Australian, large shrub to 12-feet, fall-blooming

Nerine (mixed) – South African bulbs, to 2 feet, fall-blooming

Clerodendrum ugandense (Butterfly bush) – African, to 20 ft, nearly ever-blooming

Aloe bellatula – blooms at various times, from Madagascar

Salvia confertiflora – Brazilian, 4-6 feet tall x 4 feet wide, blooms all year (hummingbirds love it); cut back hard, sun/dry conditions

Fall bouquet – including Senna artemisioides, Adenathos sericea (Woolly bush), Acacia baileyana ‘Purpurea’, Grevillea ‘Moonlight’, and Tagetes lemmonii.

Inspired that my friend Erin was going to take her 2 youngsters to see “Bee Movie,” and presented with a rare unscheduled afterschool block of time (no soccer practice, no carpooling), I asked Alex if he wanted to see “Bee Movie” yesterday afternoon. The media exposure has been HUGE on this Jerry Seinfeld and Renee Zellweger vehicle, although one reviewer on NPR warned listeners that even though the kids would like it, and Seinfeld fans like me would love the adult puns, there were too many far-reaching elements to the storyline to put this full-length cartoon on the best-movie list.

My son 10-year-old son Alex thought the movie was “intriguing and very interesting,” although, he said, and I quote: “it could have had more storyline and less stupid puns.” (I think he is referring here to the girl-meets-bee romance.)

But a movie is a movie. And off we went. The narrative is filled with lots of bumblebee humor, if there is such a thing. The main character “Barry” (rhymes with Jerry) wears a black-and-yellow striped turtleneck (natch). Barry and his pal Adam (voiced by the adorable man-child Matthew Broderick), are facing adult beehood and the prospect of working at the same job for the rest of their lives in a honey plant.

But Barry yearns to escape from the hive and get a taste of the real world, so he cons his way onto team of elite “nectar collectors,” studly bee-guys with big chests and the real world responsibilities of gathering “pollen power.” Once he follows them out to a floriferous Central Park (where else but New York City for Jerry/Barry?), where the animation portrays crayon-hued perennials and flowering trees from every continent and bloom-season all together in fantastical springtime glory, Barry soon understands that these pollen-patrol guys get all the action. As Barry puts it: “Fla-Ow-Ers!”

Then Barry lands on the windowsill of Vanessa, a HUMAN floral designer, voiced by Renee Zellweger. She saves his life by slapping a waterglass over Barry just when her doofus boyfriend is about to swat the irritating bee with the sole of a boot. The animation art highlights fancy-leaf geraniums spilling out of Vanessa’s windowboxes…a notable attempt at botanical accuracy.

Bees are not supposed to speak with humans, but Barry wants to thank Vanessa for saving him….and soon they’re pals (Barry has a little bee-like crush on Vanessa). When he goes to the grocery store perched on Vanessa’s shoulder, Barry discovers shelves filled with jars of honey. And he is shocked to learn that humans are “stealing” the golden fruits of bee labor, so to speak.

With all of the righteous indignation you’d see in Jerry, George, Kramer and Elaine (and even Newman) over the Soup Nazi’s rules, Barry decides to “sue” the human race (actually the five mega-honeymaking corporations). It all unfolds rather like a classic Seinfeld episode. As Jerry would say: yada, yada, yada. I don’t want to spoil the rest of the plot for you.

But in the end, the bees wrest control of honey-making from corporate demons (represented by a diabolical John Goodman-voiced defense lawyer) and Barry and Vanessa end up together, in a kind of platonic-romantic partnership where she sells cut flowers and he dispenses legal advice to the animal kingdom.

I kind of like the fact that the film’s big climax is the point at which Barry educates Vanessa about the essential role bees play in the plant world. When the bees at Honex (the fictitious company where generations of bees spend their lives making gobs of honey) decide to stop pollinating and instead take an early retirement, all the plants start to shrivel and die. The movie makes this point: plants live because pollinators help them reproduce.

Wow. Okay. so then I come home from the movies and I am sorting through piles of magazines and newspapers (we subscribe to more than a dozen monthly magazines, plus the NYT and LATimes – we are a reading household that never catches up with all the words available to us!) , and I came across the October issue of Puget Consumer Co-op’s Sound Consumer newspaper. The cover story: “Colony Collapse Disorder: Revisiting the Hive.”

How timely to read that organic beekeepers and small diverse organic farms are “living solutions” to the threat of Colony Collapse Disorder. The article, by Debra Daniels-Zeller, explains that honeybees are disappearing, plagued with parasites, diseases, and the threat of pesticides. She quotes Todd Hardie from Honey Gardens Apiaries in Vermont: “Bees are the canary in the coal mine,”….the loss of pollinators is a sign that agriculture is out of balance due to pesticides.

So Jerry Seinfeld’s “Bee Movie” doesn’t tell the WHOLE story, but I urge you to support local, organic honeymakers who encourage bees and other pollinators to thrive and do their bee-worthy jobs in this world. In organic honey-solidarity, I think I’ll have a dollop of my Pender’s Honey Farm (Camarillo, CA) pure honey, straight from the Thousand Oaks Farmer’s Market, with my yogurt and strawberries tomorrow for breakfast.

P.S. Hat’s off to Dreamworks for entering into a joint-marketing deal with The National Honey Board (it beats those crappy Happy Meals). You can download six honey-themed recipes from the web-site, including:

Stuffed sweet peppers

Pacific rim grilled fish

Mango chicken

A honey of a chili

Honey gingerbread

Honeyglazed roast lamb

Debra Prinzing photos

Designed by Pamela Berstler and Marilee Kuhlmann for a client in LA’s Sherman Oaks community, this green roof is a spectacular example of how overhead plantings enhance a garden

Wouldn’t it be great if succulents could transform the residential rooftops of the West? Well, it’s happening…one roof at a time. I want to share the great news that “The Art of the Living Roof,” my first piece for the Los Angeles Times “Home” section, ran yesterday, Nov. 1st, and it’s all about planted roofs.

Thanks to the sage insights of LA designer Pamela Berstler of Flower to the People (isn’t that a very cool name for a design firm?), I received a crash course in greening-up rooftops. She partnered with fellow landscape designer Marilee Kuhlmann of Comfort Zones Garden Design, also in LA, to plant two small-but-elegant overhead gardens that shelter and hide pool equipment and the utility area for Marilee’s Sherman Oaks clients.

The use of crassula, echeveria, aeonium and sedums adds up to a lush, textural canvas in every shade of green….plus touches of burgundy, red, gold and cream. Kudos to these talented women.

Marilee is the dynamo responsible for the Santa Monica Green Gardens Tour, otherwise known as the “Attainable-Sustainable Tour,” which showcases local LA and Santa Monica backyards each spring (April 26, 2008 is the scheduled date). I can’t wait to get in on that event because it promises to inspire those of us who have the desire to use organic, sustainable and environmentally safe practices to design with the earth as our “client.”

Another great geen roof resouce is Green Roofs for Healthy Cities, a Toronto-based nonprofit membership association for companies and advocates for green roofs (and walls!). Steven Peck is the founder and president and shared his insights in my piece, as well.

For weeks I’ve been anticipating my big “field trip” to San Marcos Growers with fellow garden writer and landscape designer Joan Bolton. Joan divides her time between designing residential gardens (Santa Barbara Gardens) and writing a column called “In the Garden” for several Central California daily newspapers, including Santa Maria Times, Santa Ynez Valley News, Lompoc Record and Times-Press-Recorder. Follow the link to her web site to read her articles.

Joan offered to escort me on a plant-shopping excursion to the legendary San Marcos Growers, a wholesale nursery in Santa Barbara. What a great way for me to meet new plants and bring them home to my own backyard.

After making the 1-hour drive north up Hwy. 101 (with long stretches of Pacific Ocean to my left – a welcome sight after spending much of the week under the haze of wildfire smoke), I turned off of the freeway and followed Joan’s directions to the nursery. An unassuming sign hanging from a chain-link fence greeted me. One glimpse at the endless sea of plants in one- and five-gallon pots, arranged like color blocks by species or cultivars…and I was in seventh heaven.

Joan Bolton, my horticultural angel and guide

First you have to check in with the office and obtain a key to the electric cart. Like a golf cart for two, with plenty of space in the back for loading plants, this is the vehicle of choice for savvy landscapers who buy in volume. Joan shared her shopping tips with me, including the advice to peruse the enormous “availability” list on San Marcos’s web site and come prepared, knowing what I want.

We filled the cart with gorgeous plants, including Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ at upper right

Since my yard is one enormous blank slate, I preferred to shop the Debra Prinzing “let-the-plant-speak-to-me” method. It’s an organic, rather than organized, plant-shopping experience, which involves allowing my eyes to wander up and down the rows of black plastic pots with delicious foliage, stems and blossoms peeking out of them…until I zero in on something very intriguing and am lured to it. “What’s this?” “Oh, it’s not the best cultivar,” says Joan. “Try this one – you’ll like its habit better.” Or, “This is a pretty flower, but wait until you see this one.” She is a fount of knowledge, having designed gardens for more than a decade. I felt like I had my own personal horticultural angel who helped me hand-select just the right plants.

Of course, we were a bit limited by the size of the cart – and the space in my Subaru Outback. I can always come back for more, I told myself. I allowed myself one little Salvia victory, and Joan was gracious enough to chuckle over it.

Joan introduced me to an AMAZING variety called Salvia mexicana ‘Limelight’, which has chartreuse and blue flowers. Of course, if one is good; two are better. They will be gorgeous in the new mixed perennial-grass-shrub bed I’m planning.

Then another Salvia caught my eye – with an almost iridescent deep purple-blue flower. It’s called Salvia ‘Purple Majesty’ (S. guaranitica x S. gesneriflora). Yeah! There’s gotta be room for her somewhere in my new design scheme.

About 30 minutes later, Joan said: “You know, I think I want that ‘Purple Majesty’, too.” So we turn around the cart and start driving up and down the rows, looking for the dazzling purple-blue block of about 50 pots where I originally pulled my specimen. But every time we found a purple patch, it wasn’t the right salvia, or it was an agapanthus, or some other impostor. Finally, we asked some workers where we could find the ‘Purple Majesty’ – and they told us where to look. We drive up to a sorry-looking collection of black pots with green leaves – and NO BLOOMS. Hmmm. Turns out that during the previous 30 minutes when we were chasing around after other plants, the industrious crew had dead-headed all the ‘Purple Majesty’ salvias.

Yup. Those gorgeous blooms were piled into the bucket of cuttings, destined for the compost pile. Joan was a pretty good sport about it. She still took home the plant, but now she’ll have to wait until 2008 to enjoy the bloom.

Joan, up close and personal with a Heuchera maxima, which she’s profiling in her next column

Here’s a list of what I brought home; comments to follow as I watch them grow:

Agave gypsophila (please pronounce after me: Jipp-soff-fil-a. Not, Jip-so Fill-A). I stand corrected. This is the wonderful Agave with the pointed wavy leaves that curl – A week ago, I admired it at Lotusland. Now I can have my very own, although Joan warns me that it will grow very large and thus requires some elbow room. Also known as Gypsum Century Plant.

Prostanthera ovalifolia ‘Variegated’ (white variegated leaves with purple flowers)

Boronia crenulata ‘Rosy Splendor’

Agastache barberi ‘Tutti Frutti’ (lavender-pink flowers)

Pennisetum ‘Eaton Canyon’ (Now I can grow purple fountain grass, including this cultivar – a dwarf red fountain grass – as a perennial and not an annual!)

Polygala fruticosa ‘Petite Butterfly’ – new to me – a Sweet Pea shrub. This one has a compact form (Joan’s favorite) with purple flowers.

Lavenders, miscanthus, nepeta, campanula, euphorbia and phygelius also found their way into my heart. Luckily, I know these plants, and I take comfort in the idea that the spirit of my beloved Seattle garden will also grow here in SoCal.