This private non-profit garden/arboretum supports the graduate botany program of Claremont Graduate University. There is a grand selection of California natives in their natural state. The variety of oaks, including live oak, huckleberry oak, majestic oak makes for many happy squirrels. The Coulter Pine produces pine cones once called “widow makers” by lumberjacks because the weight of the cone, some as much as 40lbs., could end a life if you were cracked on the head. The cones when open are as sharp and fierce as bear claws. July is a dry month for a visit but it gives you a clear understanding of how fire can race up a hill and engulf everything in its path. The monarch butterflies gather at the orchid tree’s purple and white blooms. The hummingbirds feast on the pride of madeira’s purple spikes of bloom. Trees are featured here with a fan palm oasis of trees rising 70’ in height and with the spent leaves hanging in a thatch. Wandering through this shaded natural area is a great walk after a long drive. The multi colored flagstone path is a beautiful pattern of colors and shapes.
Self Realization Lake Shrine Meditation Garden
When the intense heat of summer kicks in we find ourselves hiding from the sun. Physically the heat slows us down, it strains our brain and finally our spirits wilt. We need our garden for green and shade, with a bit of water rippling by and a breeze to cool us down. Hopefully you find this right outside your back door, if not search for it in your travels.
The Drunken Botanist
I’ve always loved pretty glass bottles, all the different shapes, colors, and how the light reflects through them. Where is a more perfectly arranged, beautifully lit array of bottles than behind the bar at a great resort. “This is horticulture! In all these bottles! How can anyone with even a passing interest in botany not be fascinated by this stuff?” This is where Amy Stewart hooked me into reading her latest book. She begins with the letter A for agave and moves through plants all the way to wheat describing their use in making the booze of the world.
Green, Flower and Fruit, what all gardeners want,
As gardeners something in our soul calls to us whether on our own street or halfway around world on a small street in Casablanca Morocco. We have need to plunge our hands into the soil, creating a place to grow something even in the most challenging conditions. The life in a green plant signals to us that there is a larger beautiful world we are part of. The color of the flowers brightens our own view of the world. The fruit of the plant is the reward of all the elements of nature working together. The produce provides us the food to eat, to share at our table.
What would a gardener do?
When the lottery jackpot grows large we are entertained by stories of speculation as to how a lucky winner might spend the prize. Well, what would a gardener with a passion for beauty and nature do with unlimited funds? Robert Allerton, born in 1893, won the lottery in a sense as he was the only heir to a great fortune accumulated by his father Samuel. “Samuel Allerton amassed more than 80,000 acres of farmland across the Midwest. The elder Allerton was a founding principal of the First National Bank of Chicago, and held prominent leadership positions in five major stockyards, including the Union Stockyards of Chicago.” (Allerton Park website) Robert worked tirelessly to spend the vast fortune that he inherited. His constant effort produced two incredible gardens and major donations to both the Chicago Art Institute (6600 items) and the Honolulu Museum of Art.
Peony Season
In our globally connected world it is hard to distinguish our garden seasons. Roses, lilies, and tulips show up in markets and bouquets every week. Asparagus and blueberries are available all year. Peony season seems an exception from this sense of timelessness. Peony season is spring and on my calendar it is May. Peony bushes were a part of my childhood landscape in Indiana. Since 1957 the state flower of Indiana is the Peony, or Paeonia so their popularity was notable. The bushes formed a line around our home and were planted right in the lawn. This meant much grumbling by my sister and I about pulling the grass out of the bushes late in the season. Initially though in the spring the grass was still short and the anticipation of their blooms was still quite pleasant. Peony season meant warmer temperatures. The temperature and the peony buds brought out the black ants. The ants hungry for the nectar surrounding the buds crawl up and down the stems. It is an often told myth that ants help the buds open but science says this isn’t so. Still the ants had to be removed from the flowers before we could bring them into the house for a bouquet for our dinner table. We would dunk the blooms into a bucket of water and wait for the ants to float off the petals.
Royal Palace Gardens of Alcazar, Seville, Spain
I became impatient listening to the tour guide explain 700 years of Spanish history. Already I calmly sat through a long bus ride from the port of Cadiz to Seville to get to the Royal Palace Gardens of Alcazar. I wanted only to see the garden. So. . . . I slipped away from our tour group.
Two birds in a tree
I spent a leisurely Sunday afternoon admiring yellow, pink, peach and red cactus blooms at the Desert Botanical Garden. Walking out I noticed a crowd looking up at something moving in a blooming palo verde tree. A road runner was flitting about in the branches. What a treat to see this rare bird in plain sight in the middle of the day! A mourning dove was sitting on a nest in the same tree. Everyone was happily watching.
Spring Garden Road & Summer Street
What else could one expect to find at the corner of Spring Garden Road and Summer Street but a jewel of a garden? In Halifax, Nova Scotia you will find a rare Victorian Garden. This fanciful and elaborate style of garden is not often found in our modern age, but this path to the past is a grand experience.
Flowering Branches
Perhaps the very instant spring begins is that brief sunny moment when bare branches burst from bud to flower. Dormant limbs feeling the stir of seasonal change bud and swell with the news that winter is waning. Seemingly overnight the bleak branch canopy suddenly commands our attention as we notice the burst of flowers filling a tree. Flowers before leaves, before fruit and seed pods simply fascinate a gardener, who willingly rakes and sweeps the debris that follows the spectacular show of flowering trees.