Monday, April 8, 2013

Succulent Hilltop Creates Quite The Scene In San Diego County


A succulent garden
stole the show at the Poway garden tour, my first of the tour season in San Diego county on April 6, 2013. This was a great garden to start both the day and the season, and at the end of the day it was still my favorite of the six private gardens on tour, sponsored by the San Diego Horticultural Society.


The garden is only two years old, designed by Linda Bresler, and was named garden of the year 2012 in the local San Diego Home and Garden magazine.
 I was aware of the honor beforehand but didn't see any photographs.


So my expectations were high for this hilltop home


with a great view of mountains


and canyons alike.


It kinda blew me away.  I wasn't alone.
Visitors were clearly fascinated and kept the designer (center, with white slacks)
and the homeowner busy with questions and conversation.


When I first saw all the red, yellow


 and orange low to the ground
it made me think me of embers glowing in a fire place.


Other visitors thought it looked like coral reef in the ocean.
I get that, too.



In any scenario, it was unusual and beautiful. The range of colors here proves there is more than one way to plant a colorful garden, and substantially keep the water bill down at the same time. Succulents are resilient and sustainable in dry, arid locations because they store up lots of water. 


From dark Aeonium 'Zwartkop' (bottom corners) to bright Euphorbias and everything in between, this might be the most colorful, and definitely most succulent garden, I have ever seen.


Elfin thyme surrounds the pavers and the garden is filled with numerous varieties of succulents 


including Senecio, Euphorbia, Echeveria and Aeonium.


 I have become more of a succulent fan the longer I have gardened
and I do have several in my own garden now. 


 They are quite useful in ways we might not normally consider. Cut succulents can be wired and used in floral arrangements and they last for months, as I learned from the designer at the Succulent Perch who hosted a table of her displays at the garden. Then they can be replanted again. 


Indeed, even the homeowner's water fountains were dripping with them!

Poway Garden Tour to be continued...


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