Left my heart in the Santa Monica Mountains!

Anigozanthos 'Big Red' Photos Copyright © Alice Joyce

Red Kangaroo Paw from Western Australia blooming in Santa Monica Place gardenscape.

Look for an endless parade of Southern California gardens & mountain landscapes in the weeks ahead on Bay Area Tendrils

& Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

I'll be reporting on my sojourn to the Los Angeles area,

where the Malibu Garden Club invited me to speak on...

21st Century Gardens: Movements, Projects, Trends

The Leaf & Petal Co. is located

across the street from the brilliantly renovated dreamscape for shoppers - Santa Monica Place,

opposite downtown's pedestrian-friendly Third Street Promenade.

Celebrating Gardens

Aristolochia californica .. a very early blooming native vine in Alice's Garden 
Photo Copyright © Alice Joyce

The image of California pipevine befits the notion of the brilliantly green 2-year Blogiversary, celebrated with the readers of Bay Area Tendrils!

Surely one of the most interesting 'flowers' a gardener could ask for, and a host plant for swallowtail butterflies - the vine's leaves being the only food source the caterpillars consume.

Despite the region's heavy winter rains, it's plants such as this vigorous vining species that enliven my days as a gardener in the Bay Area. It's not unusual to see the plant flowering on and off throughout the seasons. This pipevine has spread widely in the garden, climbing up latticework, and scrambling under an arbor into through a border along a fence on the western boundary of the property.

The postage-stamp size garden I left behind in Chicago may be familiar to those of you who have followed the blog from its early days. A scanned 35mm slide shows a corner of a tiny gem of a space brightened by the hue of Chinese-red enamel on arbors I constructed, the wooden shutters and door to my studio. In Chicago, it always seemed we went directly from winter into summer, when a spell of intensely hot days would descend and roses would open... only to immediately wilt in the heat. But annuals grew lushly, thriving for months on end as the evenings contained the heat of the day.

Photos Copyright © Alice Joyce

The garden I created in my new home is a retreat from the daily grind: Another outdoor room, in fact, to expand the space of a tiny house. With plants that bloom year-round, the garden is filled with buzzing bees (despite the decline in bee populations), hummingbirds, and butterflies that feed on the pipevine; keeping us company while we have lunch under the umbrella.

In this 'before' shot, you'll see the new fence built to protect the space from our small town's over-the-top deer population. I'd been working for a couple months when I took the photograph, spending much of the time down on my knees, digging up broken glass and concrete rubble in order place the pavers that define the shapes of beds and borders. I eventually built up mounds for planting, having implemented the depleted and compacted hardpan with plenty of compost. I layered newspapers over the future pathways, as the El Nino rains of 1998 & '99 poured down over me.

UCSC's incredible FLORA: Banksia ericifolia 

Photo Copyright © Alice Joyce

Moving to the West Coast has been an eye-opening journey for a self-professed fanatical plant lover. It all began with my first 'major' journey about an hour and a half south to the Arboretum at the University of California at Santa Cruz! Here, collections of plants encompass members of the Proteaceae family from South Africa; the stunningly enormous cone-like flowering clusters of Banksia species from Australia; and yes, California native plants in the Elevenia Slosson Research Gardens: All provide an exciting horticultural experience.

Brooklyn Botanic Garden's Native Plants .. Slipper Orchid 

Photo © Alice Joyce

New York Gardens on Bay Area Tendrils

I want to thank you all for dropping by to share in my adventures.

New York City's Battery Gardens: The Bosque designed by Piet Oudolf (Photos © Alice Joyce)

Chicago's 'Crown Fountain' by Jaume Plensa .. Millennium Park (Photos © Alice Joyce)

Chicago's Green Destinations on Bay Area Tendrils

I remain extremely proud of the city where I was born, raised, and lived for decades. It's the equal culturally and horticulturally of any city I've ever visited! I need to travel to the midwest to experience the vibrant atmosphere of Chicago at least once a year.

Barcelona's Historic Parc de la Ciutadella (Photo © Alice Joyce)

The sophistication and panache of Barcelona is unique.

It's 2011.... amazing how time is flying by. I plan to continue writing about my travels here

and on my web site: Alice's Garden Travel Buzz

...to connect with virtual green thumbs in the year ahead,

and especially those of you I'll have a chance to meet in real time!

Ciao ... à bientôt ... Hasta pronto ... Até breve ... Until next time!

Remarkable Australians - Native Species for Gardens

Pimlea spectabilis Photo, Melinda Kralj

The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Walnut Creek, California

Eucalyputus caesia

Photos: Brian Kemble

The Australians Part II

A Seminar & Study Tour

presented by The Garden Conservancy

& The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Seminar - Friday, July 10, 2009 at Civic Arts Education Center, Shadelands Campus, Walnut Creek

Study Tour to Santa Cruz, Monterey: Saturday, July 11, 2009

Cosponsored by Pacific Horticulture magazine

"Refreshing Your Australian Repertoire"

An impressive gathering of experts will advise and enlighten seminar participants, with Richard Turner, editor of Pacific Horticulture magazine, serving as Moderator.

As Dick told with me, some of the most knowledgeable speakers on Australian plants in California gardens are among the presenters.

Botanist Glenn Keator has spent time studying the flora in the wild. Glenn will give an overview of its diversity, some 25 to 35,000 taxa.

Curator of the Australian Collections at the Arboretum at UC Santa Cruz, Melinda Kralj has worked and traveled in Australia. She helped with the initial plantings of the Australian Garden at Cranbourne, with the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne.

The UCSC collection, Melinda's domain, is a magical setting where the scientific aspect of cultivating and presenting these fascinating plants takes place in a garden realm.

On a winter day when I was new to California, Melinda walked me through the Arboretum's gardens, introducing me to banksias and grevilleas, adenanthos and telopeas, boronias, correas, xanthorrhoea (grass trees) and epacris, among plants boasting architectural forms, volumetric blooms, and textures that takes center stage.

The memory has stayed with me through the years, and I'm anxious to hear Melinda's observations on how to fit Australians into our Bay Area gardens. She'll also offer ideas for mixing them with plants from other parts of the world.

Kathy Echols, an instructor at Diablo Valley College, will share her valuable experience, having gardened with Australian native plants for 20 years ago in her East Bay garden.

Kathy imported a collection of 152 new species of Australian plants to the United States in 1992, including 20 new varieties of Emu Bush, Eremophila cultivars . She is known for her expertise in propagating rare and unusual plants, both drought tolerant and tough.

Visit the links listed below for Seminar & Study Tour details,

and for additional background on speakers

Laurence Nicklin, garden designer based in Ojai,

and

Jo O'Connell of Australian Native Plants Nursery, Ventura.

The 2-day event promises to be engaging, informative, and

an excellent opportunity for professional designers, newbie gardeners, and hortiholics who wish to learn more about drought-tolerant choices for Bay Area landscapes.

Eucalyptus preissiana

The Australians, Part ll - A Seminar

Correa 'Carmine Bells' growing in my garden

and Banksia species photographed at University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum
Photos © Alice Joyce

The Australians Part ll - A Seminar Presented by The Garden Conservancy and The Ruth Bancroft Garden

Visit .. Bay Area Tendrils for further details.

Refreshing Your Australian Repertoire:

How to mix exciting and appropriate Australian native plants in Bay Area Gardens

Friday, July 10, 2009, Civic Arts Education Center, Shadelands Campus in Walnut Creek

and a Study Tour on Saturday, July 11, 2009.

Arboretum, U.C. Santa Cruz in Winter

Tomorrow I'll be tending to business, so we're taking a quick side trip, returning to Spain in a day or so.

These photos of exuberant Banksias resulted from my first journey to Santa Cruz, south of San Francisco, where the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum is especially spectacular around this time of year.

Banskia baueri
Photos © copyright Alice Joyce

Banksia ericifolia

I was freshly transplanted to the Bay Area, having left behind my tiny town garden in Chicago for the mild, year-round gardening climate of Marin County. In preparation for my inaugural 'Garden Walks' column for the San Francisco Chronicle, I realized I could find a garden with flowers in the middle of winter. I'd already written about the Arboretum for my first book, West Coast Gardenwalks, but had based the entry on lots of research.

Picture a Greyhound bus, my mode of transportation for the return leg of the trip. Unable to drive there, I hopped a ride one night with one of the savvy horticulturists on staff. And was also given a cozy place to sleep!

The next morning, I strolled through acres of flowering, sun-loving Australian plants. Banksia baueri
.... and B. ericifolia are covered in countless miniature blossoms that blanket the huge cone forms of these evergreen species.  Particularly from January through April, the U.C. Santa Cruz Arboretum puts on an incredible exhibition, although you'll find plants in bloom any time you visit.  (The Central Coast section of Gardenwalks in California goes into detail on the Arboretum's collections.)