Despite a long and primarily dry winter, just this week I saw some of the most colorful, lovely and resilient wildflowers – rich yellow Douglas’s violets (Viola douglasii ‘Steudel’) and shooting stars (Dodecatheon sp.). While I know it will not… Continue Reading
Nature is by far the most genius of garden designers, the most creative of floral arrangers. And if there’s one thing Nature loves, it’s color. Bright, mellow, bold, muted, clear: the whole rainbow of color. Most of us do too,… Continue Reading
Renowned American wildflower and native plant advocate Lady Bird Johnson, founder of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center in central Texas, once wrote: “Wherever I go in America, I like it when the land speaks its own language in its… Continue Reading
Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote in his mid-1840s poem “Hamatreya” the famous line: the “earth laughs in flowers.” It’s difficult not to agree and easy to know just what he meant – whether you are a gardener or not.
Even as spring rains pepper us with damp and cool, on the eve of the vernal equinox on March 20th, the Northern California landscape all around us is bursting forth in laughter, chuckles … Continue Reading
It’s August. It’s hot and dry in interior northern California and in most cases, our gardens are looking a little…worn, a little worse for the wear of our long, hot, dry summers. Every gardener I know, prefaces a high or… Continue Reading
In between the late winter rains and the early summer heat, Table Mountain is the perfect place to visit. This flat volcanic land blanketed in whimsical wildflowers lies just north of Oroville in Butte County. This local gem bursts with… Continue Reading
Who does not love a wildflower? While not every wildflower enthusiast is a gardener, every gardener I know is a wildflower enthusiast at some level. I chatted recently with Linnea Hanson, former Forest Botanist and now Ecosystems Manager for the… Continue Reading
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