Posts Tagged ‘Huntington Gardens’

A hunt­ing estate in the South Car­olina backwoods

Imag­ine my sur­prise when I dis­cov­ered a chap­ter on this home in the book Low­coun­try Plan­ta­tions Today, given to me by my pre­scient friend Lisa some years before. Last Sep­tem­ber my sis­ter Mary Lynn and I were on our way to go kayak­ing at the ACE Basin near Beau­fort, South Car­olina when we passed this home out in the mid­dle of nowhere. Sur­rounded by 100+ year old oaks, the estate includes gor­geous barns as well. Accord­ing to my Low­coun­try book it is called Bonny Hall Plan­ta­tion and was built circa 1897 on the Com­ba­hee River. Once owned by the Dou­ble­day pub­lish­ing fam­ily, it is now reputed to be the domain of a Hol­ly­wood pro­ducer. Som­er­set Maugham wrote The Razors Edge in the guest house there in the 1940’s.

Our kayak­ing guide, Kim, owns Beau­fort Kayak Tours (www​.Beau​fortkayak​tours​.com) with her hus­band David. She is a local as well as a nat­u­ral­ist and very well informed about the area. We kayaked in the swamps where the land was used for rice pro­duc­tion before the Civil War. Now a lot of the land is owned by wealthy fam­i­lies who use it for hunt­ing part time. This is a good thing because it pre­serves the land and saves it from development.

That’s us, kayak­ing away!

On the web:

Aus­tralian Native Plant Nurs­ery (click on web­site at right) fea­tures Euca­lyp­tus “Moon Lagoon”, a col­lec­table drought tol­er­ant shrub.

¹¹⁄₁₈: Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens (San Marino) offers an all day Ranch sym­po­sium on urban agri­cul­ture. (www​.hunt​ing​ton​.org)

¹¹⁄₁₉:

• Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens (above): Thanks­giv­ing Flower Arrange­ment class.
• Theodore Payne Native Plant Foun­da­tion (Sun Val­ley): 3 part Native Plant Design Sym­po­sium (www​.theodor​e​payne​.org)
• Des­canso Gar­dens (La Canada): Her­itage Oak Walk (www​.des​canso​.org)

Con­tin­u­ing my low coun­try trip, the next stop after Charleston was Savannah.More of a “real” work­ing city than Charleston, Savan­nah is home to the ter­rific art school SCAD (Savan­nah Col­lege of Art and Design), and has a very “lived-​in” look. There are lit­tle restau­rants and bars in every square (and some alleys). We enjoyed tour­ing the famous 22 squares, or vest pocket parks, with Jonathan Stal­cup, a local archi­tect who restores and sells his­tor­i­cal struc­tures (www​.archi​tec​tural​sa​van​nah​.com). The high point of the day was the urban for­est of South­ern live oaks, or quer­cus vir­gini­ana (ques­tion: if Eliz­a­beth the 1st hadn’t been a vir­gin what would they have named every­thing?) It must be such a priv­i­lege, liv­ing with these gor­geous trees. The heav­i­est of the native hard­woods, these trees were used for struc­tural beams and ship build­ing. Some of the old­est trees are over 1000 years old, with 35′ cir­cum­fer­ences and a height of 55′. They are uni­formly draped with tilland­sia usneoides, mis­named span­ish moss. My sis­ter Mary Lynn and I picked some to take home, ignor­ing the chig­ger warn­ings. The next day we had some bites and the tilland­sia went back on the trees!
On the web:

Tues­day, ¹⁰⁄₂₅:

• Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens, San Marino: Lec­ture on prop­a­gat­ing, grow­ing and car­ing for figs (www​.hunt​ing​ton​.org)
• San Diego Botanic Gar­den, Encini­tas: Suc­cu­lent wreath class (sdb​gar​den​.org)

Thurs­day, ¹⁰⁄₂₇: The Arbore­tum, Arca­dia: Prop­a­ga­tion work­shop with Dave Lar­rom (arbore​tum​.org)

Sat­ur­day, ¹⁰⁄₂₉:

• ***** Aus­tralian Native Plant Nurs­ery in Ojai (aus​tralian​plants​.com) is extend­ing their sale to Sat­ur­day, 10/​29 — Click on box to the right!*****
• Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion for Native Plants, Sun Val­ley: Native plant hor­ti­cul­ture with Lili Singer and Low Impact design class on man­ag­ing rain and irri­ga­tion water (www​.theodor​e​payne​.org)
• Nopal­ito Native Plant Nurs­ery, Ven­tura (nopali​tonurs​ery​.com) : Plant­ing, prun­ing and water­ing native plants in the fall /​free with preregistration.

A mag­nif­i­cent grove of Dra­caena Cinnabari

I have a soft heart for pointy plants. Espe­cially suc­cu­lents in all their fleshy some­times spiny glory. As I flipped thru a Conde Nast Trav­eler mag­a­zine recently, an arti­cle came to my atten­tion on the island of Soco­tra and Dra­caena Cinnabari, or the Dragon’s Blood Tree. To my way of think­ing this is a gor­geous tree, with its twisty sculp­tural trunks and spikey canopy. Unfor­tu­nately it is endan­gered in its habi­tat by the grad­ual warm­ing and dry­ing of Soca­tra, a United Nations World Her­itage Site located near the Horn of Africa and Yemen. In ancient times the deep red resin derived from the tree was used as a dye, tooth­paste, astrin­gent and rheuma­tism med­i­cine — this is a plant that could earn its keep. It still pro­vides var­nish for vio­lins, among other uses. It would be per­fectly suited to our SoCal cli­mate but seems to be very hard to find. Wish I had known about this trees 3 months ago when I was in Egypt — that is prob­a­bly as close as I’ll ever get to Soco­tra and its Dra­caene Cinnabari.

For the arti­cle on Soco­tra: www​.concierge​.com/​c​n​t​r​a​v​e​l​e​r​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​5​0​3​111

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 26:

• Bonsai-​a-​thon @ Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens, 2/​26 — 2/​27, 10:30 — 4:30, Bon­sai mas­ters share their pas­sion, live auc­tion at 3 pm, included in admis­sion; www​.Hunt​ing​ton​.org, (626) 405‑2100
• Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion: Relief Print­ing Work­shop, 10am — noon, $25/​35 non­mem­bers, $15 for mate­ri­als, and Let It Drip (drip irri­ga­tion sem­i­nar) 1:30 – 3:30, $20/​30 non­mem­bers, theodor​e​payne​.org/​818 – 768-​1802
• Edi­ble Natives for the Local Eater with Hank Kraus of Moosa Creek Nurs­ery, 1:30, free @ City Farm­ers Nurs­ery, San Diego, city​farm​er​snurs​ery​.com
• Com­post­ing 101/​11 am and Her­itage Oak Walk/​11 am — Des­canso Gar­dens, both free with admis­sion, Des­canso Gar­dens, (818) 949‑7980
• From Seed to Skil­let: A Gar­den Con­ser­vancy Talk with Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 11:30 – 1:30 The Gar­den Con­ser­vancy and the Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum and Botanic Gar­den are pleased to present Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, authors of the new book From Seed to Skil­let: A Guide to Grow­ing, Tend­ing, Har­vest­ing, and Cook­ing Up Fresh Healthy Food to Share with Peo­ple You Love. Jimmy learned all about veg­etable gar­den­ing at the knee of his grand­mother, a South Car­olina native from a tra­di­tional Gul­lah com­mu­nity. Susan, a gar­den writer and edi­tor, has been grow­ing veg­eta­bles at home for more than ten years. The two have cre­ated a per­sonal, beau­ti­fully illus­trated gar­den man­ual aimed at help­ing all gar­den­ers, from begin­ners to experts, grow edi­bles more suc­cess­fully. They will share some of the secrets to gar­den plan­ning, cre­at­ing healthy soil, rais­ing strong, pro­duc­tive plants, sav­ing seeds, and enjoy­ing the har­vest with fam­ily and friends. $20/​25 non mem­bers incl. admis­sion /​optional lunch/​jill.​berry@​arboretum.​com /

Kate and Len in front of the cym­bid­ium house Len built.

Kate and Len Scott have lived with design their entire mar­ried lives. Len, an Art Cen­ter grad­u­ate, man­aged some of the most pres­ti­gious inte­rior design firms in the coun­try, and Kate is an art con­sul­tant. So it was nat­ural that they should com­bine two of their loves, design and gar­den­ing, in the long, nar­row back­yard of their 1900’s Cal­i­for­nia bun­ga­low. Perched above the Sil­ver­lake reser­voir, this home has been a labor of love since they moved in 40 years ago, first as stu­dents rent­ing the 2nd floor and then as own­ers. The back­yard in par­tic­u­lar shows the TLC lav­ished on it in the past 4 decades. “First Len built my orchid house when my cym­bid­ium col­lec­tion threat­ened to take over the house, and then col­lect­ing suc­cu­lents seemed a nat­ural fit. We are very involved with our fam­ily and would rather spend time on the soc­cer field with our grand­kids than plant­ing peren­ni­als every sea­son,” said Kate. ” And then of course there is the water issue.….”

A refuge from the city.

Their sound rea­son­ing and hard work has trans­lated into an exten­sive out­door room that is well used all year around. “We love to have par­ties out here, espe­cially since our home is some­what small. Hav­ing moved here from Mon­tana in the 60’s we have always appre­ci­ated the out­door liv­ing aspect of South­ern Cal­i­for­nia. We can acco­mo­date a lot of peo­ple, espe­cially for our annual Easter party and egg hunt!” enthused Kate. Over the years their house and gar­den has been a con­stant inspi­ra­tion and pres­ence in their friends’ lives, includ­ing yours truly. Len now works on his own design­ing res­i­dences, inte­ri­ors and fur­ni­ture. It could be argued that he and Kate live in his finest creation.

scot​tas​so​ci​ates​de​sign​.com

The shade comes in handy on hot sum­mer days.

On the web:

Thurs­day, Jan­u­ary 20:

• Recy­cling in the Gar­den with Yvonne Savio, 9:30 am — noon /​Los Ange­les Arbore­tum /​$20.00 per class /​pay at door or call Jill Berry (626) 821‑4623 or jill.​berry@​arboretum.​org.

Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 22:

• Dis­cus­sion of native grasses with Bar­bara Eisen­stein, 9:30 — 11:30 am /​Nopal­ito Native Plant Nurs­ery, 4107 E. Main St, Ven­tura, Cal­i­for­nia (805) 844‑7449 /​www​.nopali​tonurs​ery​.com /​$10.00
• Win­ter Prun­ing by Lora Hall, 9:30 — 11:30pm /​Hunt­ing­ton Library, 1151 Oxford St., San Marino /​$35.00 — 45.00 /​(626) 406‑2123 /​www​.hunt​ing​ton​.org
• Gar­den­ing Basics, 10am /​Des­canso Gar­dens, 1418 Des­canso Drive, La Canada Flintridge /​2 part class /​$10.00 — 20.00 for both classes /​(818) 949‑4200 /​www​.des​can​sog​a​r​dens​.org
• Site Analy­sis with land­scape archi­tects Anna Arm­strong and Richard Walker /​bring loca­tion pho­tos and, if pos­si­ble, a plan /​1:30 — 3:30 /​Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion for Wild­flow­ers and Native Plants, 10459 Tux­ford Street, Sun Val­ley /​(818) 768‑1802/​www​.theodor​e​payne​.org