Posts Tagged ‘Garden Conservancy’

View from Med­i­ta­tion Mount in Ojai

I had the oppor­tu­nity to go to Ojai recently with my friends Kate and Joan. What a great trip, and so easy from Los Ange­les. It’s a beau­ti­ful drive, espe­cially along Pacific Coast High­way; there’s also a nice stretch along the ocean in Ven­tura. The Ojai Inn and Spa is the nicest place I’ve ever stayed. but there are many other great choices, includ­ing The Emer­ald Iguana. We had a tasty meal at Suzannes, shopped at Bar­bara Bow­man for unique cloth­ing, and drove up to Med­i­ta­tion Mount — the high point (lit­er­ally) of the trip; the out­stand­ing gar­den there is full of Cal­i­for­nia natives. Gar­den lovers can wrap up the week­end at Lotus­land out­side Santa Barbara…perfect!!

Inter­est­ing paving pat­tern at Ojai Inn and Spa.

Nurs­eries in or near Ojai:

• Aus­tralian Native Plants Nurs­ery (www​.aus​tralian​plants​.com)
• Ortiz Nurs­ery (805−646−2546)
• Flora Gar­dens (www​.Flor​agar​dens​.net)

Ojai attrac­tions

• Med­i­ta­tion Mount: www​.ojaievents​.com (go to “by venue” and then Med­i­ta­tion Mount for a map)
• www​.Emeraldiguana​.com
• Ojai Inn: www​.ojaire​sort​.com
• www​.suzan​nes​cui​sine​.com
• www​.lotus​land​.org
• Bar­bara Bow­man (805−646−2970)

On the web:

If you were ever going to go to a gar­den tour, this is the weekend:

Sat­ur­day, ⁴⁄₃₀:

• Encini­tas Gar­den Fes­ti­val and Tour (www.​info@​encinitasgardenfest.​org)
• Mar Vista Green Gar­den Show­case (www​.mar​vista​green​gar​den​show​case​.blogspot​.com)
• Mary Lou Heard Memo­r­ial Gar­den Tour /​Orange County (www​.heards​gar​den​tour​.com)

Sun­day, ⁵⁄₁:

• Gar­den Con­ser­vancy Pasadena Open Days (www​.gar​den​con​ser​vancy​.org/​o​p​e​n​d​ays)
• 52nd Annual Gar­den Tour of the Santa Mon­ica Bay Chil­drens Hos­pi­tal Aux­il­iary (www​.san​ta​mon​i​cabayaux​il​iary​.vpweb​.com)
• Santa Mon­ica Con­ser­vancy tour of 11 Gar­dens (www​.smcon​ser​vancy​.org)

Escapism at its finest! I can’t say this Hawai­ian nurs­ery is the most gor­geous in the world — as I haven’t expe­ri­enced them all (alas) — but it has to be close. Has any­one seen a big box store nurs­ery as nice as this one or most neighborhood/​speciality nurs­eries? We need to sup­port them as they are all rel­a­tively small busi­nesses in a slow econ­omy — what would we do with­out them?

On the web:

• Wednesday, April 20: Stephen Orr lec­ture about his new book Tomorrow’s Gar­den; www​.gar​den​con​ser​vancy​.org
• Thurs­day, April 21: Lec­ture and Field Trip on Land­scap­ing as if the Water­shed mat­ters at the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum; jill.​berry@​arboretum.​org or (626) 821‑4623 –pre­reg­is­tra­tion required.

Bot­tle tree @ RBG

I am vis­it­ing my brother Scott and his wife Kate in North­ern Cal­i­for­nia. They live in Wal­nut Creek, about 25 miles east of San Fran­cisco and at the foot of Mount Dia­blo (site of a recent con­tro­versy con­cern­ing the name “Mt. Devil”, but that’s another story). There is a trea­sure right down the street from their house, the very first project of the revered Gar­den Con­ser­vancy. That would be Ruth Ban­croft Gar­dens, ded­i­cated to the preser­va­tion of as fine a col­lec­tion of water con­serv­ing plants as you will find on the planet. Started by it’s epony­mous founder in 1971, the 3 acre gar­den is located on a fruit farm owned by the Ban­croft fam­ily since the 1880’s. I have always found suc­cu­lents easy to love for their form, color, ease of pro­poga­tion and most of all archi­tec­tural good looks. The suc­cu­lent and cacti col­lec­tion @ RBG is thrilling for it’s con­trast­ing tex­tures, forms and col­ors, espe­cially in the spring.

The bot­tle tree (Brachy­chi­ton Rupestris) shown above is lit­er­ally a giant suc­cu­lent. Using it’s trunk for water stor­age, the Aus­tralian native is slow grow­ing up to 40′ in height; it doesn’t dis­play the bot­tle shape until 15 years along. The good news is that if you have more money than time the bot­tle tree can be trans­planted very easily.

Ruth​ban​croft​gar​den​.org