Author: Linda

San Diego Botanic Gardens

230 Quail Gardens Dr, Encinitas, CA

Truly I find it hard to say I have a favorite garden.  When I travel and visit gardens I enjoy the very moment in that garden.  However the San Diego Botanic garden holds a special place in my gardening heart.  What doesn’t grow wonderfully here?  This trip was a misty day with lots of moisture in the garden.  Droplets on leaves and blooms sparkled everywhere you looked.  But this day I happened to meet Margaret Jones, who describes herself as the “fashion maven of the well dressed topiaries of the succulent garden”  A garden volunteer she applies her pallet of plants to the garden resident plant people modeled on human form.   Each of the plant people has two garden volunteers working to keep them well dressed.  There are a team of 10 working on the topiaries.  Pat Hammer is director of Operations for SDBG and is responsible for bringing the topiaries to SDBG.  Originally they were all covered with ivy.  Now the clothing fashion is changing to succulents....   Continue Reading

Garden of Fragrance

“Stumbling on new smells is one of the delights of traveling.” – Diane Ackerman

In a small conservatory built of red brick with huge copper framed windows and an interior graced with a pair of white doves in an ornate wire cage, pots of fragrant white lilies perfumed the air.  A woman walked in followed reluctantly by a tween age girl.  “Ewww!” the child cried out, “what’s that smell?”  Her mother, perhaps by now frustrated at her daughter’s lack of enthusiasm for this day in the garden, replied, “It’s fresh air.”  The daughter’s reply, “Well, I don’t like it!”...   Continue Reading

Mom’s Iris

My Mother has always gardened and she has gardened in the same spot in Indiana soil for over 60 years.  The garden surrounds the home she made with my Father when they moved in as newlyweds down the road from my Grandparents.  Growing flowers was always secondary to farming efforts.  That continues today as my brothers farm the land that has been in our family for over 100 years.  So the garden, flowers, vegetables and such required an extra effort for my Mom....   Continue Reading

Barbara’s Garden

Public gardens are a wonderful place to visit but now and then you have the opportunity to see a beautiful private garden.

Barbara invited me out to see her hollyhocks in full glory.  Beautiful shades of pink and white were indeed glorious and scattered around her acre of Eden in the East Valley.  A transplanted “Alabama Rose” Barbara has transplanted herself and her favorite plants from her childhood home....   Continue Reading

Counting Plants


Not everything that can be counted counts, Not everything that counts can be counted. – Albert Einstein

Winding uphill through the streets of Berkeley, we arrive at the University of CA Botanical Garden in Strawberry Canyon.  There we are faced with a decision of paying the parking meter for the number of hours we need to explore the garden.  The garden holds over 12,000 plants including many rare and endangered plant specimens.  Director Paul Licht does the math for visitors.  “If you allow only 2 hours, a 120 min. visit would require that you see 100 different kinds of plants per minute to experience our entire collection.”  Obviously we will need a full day, even then we won’t truly see all of the plants.  Those we do see will be only a glimpse of life of the plants.  A plant today may be dormant, budding, blooming or declining....   Continue Reading

Lilacs in Southern California

The lilacs are blooming in Descanso Gardens in La Canada-Flintridge CA.  Lilacs need a cool season to generate their blooms in the spring. The cultivars in southern California have been adapted to this climate.  The beauty of these delicate blooms  is  compounded by their varieties of color in lilac lavender, deep purple, pink, and white.  The scent of lilacs generates so many responses from visitors.  One woman inhaling deeply, declared, “this is my childhood, I grew up with these all around my house.”  Another remembers a Grandmother’s house and smiles wistfully at the memory....   Continue Reading

Contemplating Trees


The best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago,  the second best time is now. – Chinese Proverb

Arbor Day in the U.S is celebrated on the last Friday in April. In Arizona, we have many good times to plant trees scattered throughout the year so this date is a bit arbitrary in our region.  Still it is a significant day to contemplate trees.  The Arbor Day Foundation’s mission is to encourage us to Plant, Nurture and Celebrate Trees....   Continue Reading

Gardeners Change the World

A Small Garden

The Anthropologist Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed citizens can change the world.”  Substitute  “committed gardeners” in this thought and the results DO change our world in immeasurable ways. Master Gardener Park in Port Townsend, WA  demonstrates the power of passionate committed gardeners.  The city’s smallest park, a small triangular shaped patch of earth bordered on all sides by intersecting streets, is now a beautiful garden....   Continue Reading