Sure, we can grow camellias in Southern California, but our camellias will never burst against a tangy orange bald cypress, and you won't find them lingering beneath the edges of ancient live oaks draped with Spanish moss. Our daytime visit to Airlie Gardens in coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, preceded the evening...
Dappled with Japanese maples and scented by white mollis azaleas, the Mackler family garden sits on three-quarters of an acre in Takoma Park, Maryland. The terrain is diverse and romantic but also has an incredible unity of effect — thanks to robust collections (of plants like crepe...
In this season of highly electrified plants — when any branch that can hold a string of lights gets lit — mistletoe generates its own spark. No batteries required. Placed above a doorway, a sprig of mistletoe is the official kiss-inducer of Christmastime. But out in...
In terms of landscape juju, the iconic California canyon home occupies a wavelength all its own. Its mystique is tied to the idea of backyard as wildlife theater, and to the feeling you get there — a gravity-defying feeling that is, somehow, also very down-to-earth....
Modeled after the gardens of the Ming Dynasty, Portland’s Lan Su Chinese Garden is — with its smudgy florals, sharp stone edges and tastefully placed calligraphy — a bit like wandering around an illustrated scroll. The garden was our second stop during our trip to Portland,...
Despite what the song says, you should absolutely go chasing waterfalls when you travel. And during our recent trip to Portland, Oregon, there were over 90 cascades in the Columbia River Gorge to choose from. There’s the famed Multnomah Falls, the state’s tallest at 620...
Over the past several weeks, Chantal and I have been operating the Horticult from opposite coasts. This year I performed my annual training for the Naval Reserves in Charleston, South Carolina — a.k.a. Lowcountry, a.k.a. the Holy City, a.k.a. Chas — a complete shift from...
One half of the Horticult is traipsing around Charleston, SC, this week, taking in lots of Queen Anne architecture and eating his weight in oysters. Ryan’s also getting his fill of the South’s iconic summer bloomer: the crepe myrtle. Sculptural branches, sizzling autumn leaves, and bark...
“The Polynesian voyages are probably the most epic journeys ever undertaken by man,” says Mike DeMotta, the assistant director of horticulture at the National Tropical Botanical Garden. We're in Kauai, and he says this by way of introducing Ryan and I to the two dozen...
Last weekend we headed up the coast in search of indigenous plants, and were amazed by the colorful diversity we found. The low-lying chaparral we expected was punctuated by shocking, shoulder-high clouds of wild lilac (Ceanothus) and flannel bush blooming yellow, and one of the...