I find it hard to resist a symposium dedicated to the lighthearted side of gardening.
Obviously I am not alone: I am told that tickets to the Pacific Horticulture symposium "Gardening Under Mediterranean Skies VIII: Style and Whimsy in the Sustainable Garden" are selling quickly. Some events are nearly sold out.
To be held Sept. 23 to 26 at various locations in Pasadena, the program will feature architecture and garden tours including the Greene & Greene house shown above and the modernist pool at right, both of which we've featured previously. Lectures will address low-water landscaping, and workshops will focus on making hypertufa containers and broken-concrete paths, stairs, walls and seating areas. Speakers include noted designers Patrick Anderson, Jeffrey Bale, Steve Brigham, Marcia Donahue, Anthony Exter, Steve Gerischer, Keeyla Meadows, Richie Steffen and L.A. at Home contributor Debra Prinzing.
Each day will begin at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden with three lectures and an alfresco lunch. Afterward, buses will take participants to three gardens for tours with the owner, the designer or both. The gardens are private and therefore not handicapped accessible. I look forward to checking out a steep hillside lot that has been converted into an amphitheater of "grassy-covered broken concrete terraces and many recycled materials."
Registration with full payment is required. You may register to attend one, two or all three days. Fees range from $135 per day to $394 for three days. Discounts are available to people under 35, horticulture students and members of the L.A. County Arboretum or Mediterranean Garden Society, among others. Rates will go up after Sept. 15. Free events, including a tour of Arlington Garden, will be held on Sept. 23 and 24, but you must register to reserve a space. For more information, e-mail symposium@pacifichorticulture.org or call (760) 295-2173.
-- Lisa BoonePhoto credits, from top: Gabriela Yariv Landscape Design; Steve Gunther; Arlington Garden
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Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams is hosting another sale: The Los Angeles showroom is offering 20% off special-order upholstery, tables, lamps, rugs and accessories.
The sale includes the items pictured above: The Chester sofa, regularly $2,460, is now $1,968. The Rebecca chair, normally $1,120, is now $896. The Duncan cocktail ottoman, regularly $1,480, is now $1,184. The Horizon rug, normally $1,595, is now $1,276, and the Orion table lamp, regularly $295, is now $236.
The reductions run through Oct. 11 at 7960 3rd St., Los Angeles; (323) 651-0200.
-- Lisa Boone
Photo credit: Mitchell Gold & Bob Williams
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A selection of textiles by designer Paula Smail are 60% off in Henry Road's first fabric sale, ending Tuesday.
Translation: Fabric that was $50 per yard is now only $20.
I checked in with Smail on Sunday, and she assured me that she has more than 40 yards of fabric left to sell. Some designs are available in increments as small as three yards, but don't let that stop you: Think pillows. Smail's Studio City store is filled with fun accessories -- sachets, pillows, table runners -- that demonstrate what you can do with her colorful prints.
You can view the fabrics in the online sale. All of them measure 58 inches wide and are 100% cotton duck, so be sure to preshrink any purchase by washing it in warm water before you start sewing.
-- Lisa Boone
Photo credit: Henry Road
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While many people might think of a vacation as time to get away from family, there are many reasons to take a vacation with elderly parents, including bridging a generation gap.
Rosemary McClure tried it. And liked it. And wrote about it in her It's All Relative column.
"Traveling with parents to places that were important in their earlier lives can be important and meaningful for their life review and give the younger generations traveling with them insights into the ways that their parents' or grandparents' lives have shaped their own," says USC psychologist Bob Knight.
That was certainly true in my case, McClure says. She mingled with relatives, listened to their Southern drawls and learned about customs that had seemed alien. People dressed up on Sunday morning to go to church, were polite to one another, expected to be addressed as "ma'am" and "sir" and loved to go to Churchill Downs, home of the Kentucky Derby and a favorite pastime for Louisville residents.
-- Mary MacVean
Illustration credit: Blair Thornley / For The Times
Last spring, horticulturist Lili Singer remarked to me that one of the most touching mistakes she sees made by novice dry gardeners is timidity in pruning their sages. And so, in the summer edition of the Theodore Payne Foundation’sPoppy Print newsletter, she nudges native gardening converts to do it.
With thanks to Lili for the push, I am going to echo the prompt in this column in the hope that others may learn to work out their frustrations on their gardens in such a timely fashion.
If it seems late, it isn’t. Only the most ferociously organized gardeners dead-head sage as soon as the flowers fade in June. Watching the flush of flowers drying on the branch through July and August makes for too many sunset grace notes. As Lili notes, birds move in and glean the seeds. Yet by late August, those fluttering elegies to spring just look dead, and it’s as obvious to the mostlaissez fairegardener as it is to the fire marshal that it is time to prune.
How hard to cut back sage depends on the species. Salvia apiana I leave alone until the inflorescences begin to go black, then I cut them to the first live joint. Experts far more expert than I recommend deeper cuts to achieve a dense, round and bush-like form the following year. If space demands, do this. But I love this plant precisely because of a habit that yawns and stretches, and only cut vividly dead or dying old flower stalks. Passing dogs and kids then knock limbs off and contribute to the shaping process.
By contrast, if it is looking leggy and ragged, Mexican sage can be and should be cut almost to the ground – leaving 6 inches to a foot or so of stalk and some flowers to placate the angry hummingbirds (take those off after the cut branches recover).
Salvia greggii and its brittle-limbed ilk, whose spring clouds of fragrant foliage and flowers now look like a mass of kindling, benefit from two passes with the pruners. The first should reduce and shape the crown. The second should get at the tangle of old undergrowth, removing dead wood and getting out any grasses and weeds near the trunk.
Mediterranean kitchen sage and its wild California cousins such asS. Clevelandiiwill tell you where to trim. Old, dark inflorescences should go. Ditto deadwood. Once the flowers are removed, think of it as a woody shrub rather than an herb. Reduce, thin and shape it, but avoid severing main branches. Do not under any circumstances stump these plants as one might a Mexican sage, unless of course you are trying to kill it.
Two flamboyant Mediterranean sages often seen in California areJerusalemand Canary Island sage. My Jerusalem sage generally gets reduced by half, cut to the point where I can see new foliage starting, then it’s thinned and cleaned up. I love the look of this plant, but compared with natives, it’s got mediocre wildlife value here in California. What saves it from removal every year is a long show of yellow flowers and handsome foliage that make it a handsome sentinel almost year round.
No sage gets the pruning hand itching quite like Salvia canariensis. When Canary Island sage flowers in June and July, its mauve to purple flowers are glorious, but in a single season, this plant is perfectly capable of growing to 8 feet tall and becoming just as wide. When cutting, it will need reducing by two-thirds, even three-fourths, which can leave a large gap 10 months of the year.
If you want to remove it, now is the time to do it. The last of mine is about to have its swan song this year, leaving a large and tantalizing gap to put a better-proportioned, more fragrant and nectar-licious native in its stead come fall planting season.
-- Emily Green
Photos: Top: Black sage flower. Middle: white sage and ceanothus in need of pruning, in front of sunset palms. Bottom: Cleveland sage flowers that were purple for most of the summer, then provided seed for birds and are ready for pruning. Photos by Emily Green.
When she started "greening" her Los Feliz bungalow, Julia Russell was unusual. Now home renovations that conserve water or take advantage of the sun for light, or include vegetable gardens are growing common. And Russell is ready to retire.
This summer she held the final tours of Eco-Home, the house she made into a laboratory for energy conservation. She reminisced and talked about her plans to spend time with family and decide what she'll do next. One thing she won't have to do is worry so much about housekeeping now that her home won't be open to the public.
-- Mary MacVean
Photo by Francine Orr