Tropical blooms in the Conlon Garden at GWA Pasadena
I traveled to Los Angeles last month for the Garden Writers Association Symposium in Pasadena, which included an afternoon of three private garden visits. The first one we saw was Don and Marilyn Conlon’s, a formally designed garden filled with bold tropical blooms, like this hot-pink bougainvillea piled atop a long white arbor.
Bougainvillea is fairly drought tolerant, but lawn is not. As the California drought wears on, the owners replaced their small plot of turf with a faux lawn. Fallen bougainvillea petals help disguise its perfect artificiality.
Brugmansia grows bigger out here!
A long pergola stretching across the rear garden supported streamers of Indian clock vine (Thunbergia mysorensis). To walk through, you had to part them like a jungly veil.
Here’s a closeup of the unusual red-and-yellow blossoms.
White-flowering mandevilla was twining up a post.
Attending GWA is also about meeting people, not just attending talks and garden visits. Here are some of my fellow bus passengers listening to an introduction about the garden.
And here are three friends, some old, some new (from right to left): Austin garden designer and Statesman columnist Diana Kirby of Sharing Nature’s Garden; horticulturist and Phoenix garden coach Noelle Johnson of AZ Plant Lady; and Andrea Whitely, a garden designer from Perth, Australia (!), who flew all the way to attend GWA and do some traveling in the U.S. A fun group of smart women to hang out with!
By the way, if you’re interested in garden communications or already do some by blogging, garden coaching, etc., consider joining GWA and attending the annual symposium, where you’ll rub elbows with editors, publishers, authors, columnists, speakers, nursery professionals, and photographers. The networking opportunities are very good. And when you join, please name me as your referral or sponsor, and I’ll get a small discount on my next membership dues. Hope to see you in Atlanta for next year’s symposium.
Up next: The formal-with-a-xeric-twist Barrett Garden. For a look back at my visit to a cool L.A. garden shop, Potted, click here.
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Austin-area gardening friends, come to the Inside Austin Gardens Tour this Saturday! My garden will be on tour, along with 6 others. Tour tickets may be purchased at each garden for $5 each or $20 for all. I’ll also have autographed copies of my book Lawn Gone! for sale ($20), if you’re looking for fall reading or an early holiday gift.
Inside Austin Gardens Tour
Saturday, October 17, 2015
9:00 am to 4:00 pm
All material © 2006-2015 by Pam Penick for Digging. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
All of those tropicals look so pretty as they are able to grow big and beautiful there.
Yes, they have beautiful growing weather, except for the little trouble with water these days. We Texans sure can sympathize with the latter. —Pam
What was the overall reaction of the group to the artificial turf? Will the owners keep that indefinitely or are they planning to convert to something natural as they get a chance? In a photo (from a distance) it looks convincing, but in person is it comfortable and springy to stand/walk on? I’m trying to wrap my head around the idea of using artificial grass, but it feels more like a missed opportunity to replace lawn with some other ground cover/s. Not as though they’ll face freezing weather…
I don’t know what the overall reaction was, as our group scattered across the garden (hence no long shots, as every space was full of garden writers). But the small group I was with had mixed reactions. This particular lawn had a bit of shininess to it and was uniformly green, which I feel looks less natural than some I’ve seen. But the bougainvillea bracts and other tree litter actually helped it seem more real. It was comfortable to walk on.
Considering the research on faux lawns that I did for my book, including talking with designers who use it and reading about the numerous environmental concerns, I felt that this was an appropriate use. Artificial turf serves a purpose but only for very limited and particular circumstances: a small, defined space (not covering your whole yard, or even a lot of the yard) that’s at least partly shady, and only if you really want or need a small bit of turf for walking on. If you don’t need to walk on it, there are plenty of groundcover options for every climate that would keep a space cooler and allow more air and water to pass through to the soil. —Pam
What a wonderful day-this garden was beautifully prepared and coping well with the drought. I’m not fan of the artificial turf at all but the bouganvillea looked pretty falling on it.
Andrea, it was pleasant to spend the afternoon touring gardens with you and hearing about Sleep No More in NYC. I’m glad to have met you! —Pam
Wow, that brugmansia knocked my socks off (and it’s a cold night, darn it!) The jungly veil of Thunbergia mysorensis looks really cool! Is that a bird’s nest in the close up shot? Glad y’all had a good time!
Well, I did not even notice that bird’s nest, if that’s what it is. Thank you for pointing it out, Peter! —Pam
Hi Texas Deb! The area with artificial turf is a very recent conversion from a lawn. This particular area is particularly keep looking as expected. The owners frequently entertain in this area- so it is suffers from heavy traffic and shade. With water so precious now- such conversion means more of the existing landscape can get enough water to stay reasonably healthy. What isn’t shown in photos, but I love- is the shade structure had its own shade structure over the vines. The food production area is completely set apart- so chemicals leaching into the soil would not be an issue
Thanks for the behind-the-scenes info, Lydia. —Pam