Leaders in the Gardening Renaisance~ Village Nurseries Open House ~ Anthony Tesselaar ~ Part 2 of 3

"What a desolate place would be a world without a flower! It would be a face without a smile, a feast without a welcome. Are not flowers the stars of the earth, and are not our stars the flowers of the heaven. "

~A. J. Balfour  

Anthony Tesselaar is his name. Easy care roses  are his claim to fame. With distribution planted around the globe, the firm he and wife Sheryl, branded with his name ,is headquartered in Australia. His team is dedicated to pleasing the new generation  of gardeners who demand high -end beauty for for the thriftiest time-stressed gardeners. 

Flower Carpet Roses now come in a rainbow of colors

The horticultural titan works hard so gardeners don't have to. Tesselaar Flower Carpet Roses look  deceptively dainty; but they are no sissies. 

At the Village Nurseries Open House, he explained the rigorous testing process- the years devoted to creating plants which land on the market in "over-night" success. Then he served a course  on what it takes to garden successfully in sun-challenged climates. 

The test gardens are in Silvan, roughly an hour's drive outside Melbourne. Here, distinctive plant varieties are trialed over a multitude of seasons. Peak performance under harsh conditions of hot weather and little water, with nary a blemish, is what elevates a contender to a winner worthy of wearing the company logo. One planting of  Flower Carpet roses was dug in a 108 F day. Successfully.

Mr. Tesselaar smiled as he shared what is needed to boost performance in the hotter, drier weather of recent years.

• Most gardens are traditionally over-watered. Many are as luxurious when consuming 35% less water. 
• Don't let trees die. In a real pinch- trees can survive on 25% of normal irrigation.
• Watering systems timed to drip intermittently allow for water retention where intended. 
• Be generous with mulch. 3 "  is most effective to insulate soil moisture and temperature.

Tesselaar's Carpet Flower Roses marries beauty with efficiency. Most are self-cleaning bushes, blooming up to 10 months out of 12, with only periodic pruning. If size isn't an issue, it is said some go as long as 3 years between heavy prunings. Grown on their own roots, it is asserted that some landscapers (don't faint)  mow with tractor blades set on high.

Glenda Bona, Master Gardener transplanted to Henderson, Nevada- as Red Carpet Roses thrive in full-sun at the Adelaide, Australia  Airport- Mr. Tesselaar suggests this could be the rose for you. Their two-tier root system promises high hopes to make it through desert conditions. Just like your grandchildren, baby them at first- then wean the water as they are ready.  These roses are as rugged as a cowboys.

Beautiful Rose. Happy Bee.

A shout-out to Diane Blazek, Executive Director,  the National Garden  Bureau. 

She is on a campaign for us to"Bee aware". Join the movement to heighten awareness of habitats for pollinators. Learn more and register  here. 

City of Diamond Bar Residents- watch the gestation of the Red Carpet Roses filling in our NEW water-wise median plantings, the miracle of growth as catalogued  in Ladera Ranch:



From stubs








To toddling roses

To buxom beauties.

The beauty of roses is more than their petals. They are problem-solvers.

Municipalities take note. Planting groundcover roses en masse may save lives. Not more than waist high, is there any more beautiful way to discourage jay-walking than fear that roses might scratch? In their 2004 report, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported that just over 4,700 pedestrians were killed and another 68,000 injured in pedestrian- vehicle incidents that year.

Golf courses  and event centers, take note. Roses are crowd-control experts. Here a mixed planting of Carpet Roses pleasantly guides strollers down the pathway, while simultaneously providing an effective border between ambling and splashdown.

Homeowners, take note.  Flower Carpet roses are beautiful, non-invasive groundcover. Requiring mininal water, pruning or chemical feedings- these are first in class back-friendly slope holders.

Next up-  Notes for the talk by  Nicholas Staddon, Plantsman and  Living Saint of US Gardeners. 

Until we meet again, Thank You for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful 

Lydia 

* A special thanks to  Judie Brower, fellow GWA member, who expedited the images from the Tesslaar Image Gallery . 

Leaders in the Gardening Renaissance ~ Village Nurseries Dry-Lush Open House Part 1 of 3

CL Fornari "gets it". Landscapes nourish body, mind, heart and soul. 

Writing from the opposite corner of our country, one of my personal heroes is CL Fornari. She says

"Many of us see a gardening revival going on. Maybe it's a response to our oh-so-digital world where we are all connected and working all the time. Or maybe it's a reaction to the fact that there aren't many places where we can be in touch with the natural world on a frequent basis. It could be that we're all longing for simpler times...I don't know. But I do know that there's a new 'back to the land' thing going on. People want to create healthy, restorative environments. They long for safe, flavorful food. And they want to be creative inside and outside. All of this adds up to people of all ages putting hands in the dirt."

Strawberries with flowers displayed together at event. 

CL's spirit was with me when I opened the invitation to Village Nurseries Customer Appreciation Day. This amazing company's commitment to providing quality plant material is matched by their generous spirit. These events are always informative, joyous celebrations tailored to those fortunate enough to make a living spreading the gospel of gardening. In California, this means promoting plantings dry in thirst, yet lush in look.

For the event, a series of low-water lush plantings was assembled 

Village Nurseries Garden Centers  Customer Appreciation Day gathers the galaxy of horticultural business interests; branded labels,  garden designers, installers, big box retailers, public garden maintenance crews. And some very fortunate garden communicators.

When the invitation announced  the open house would feature two bright stars in the plant galaxy, men who believe in can-do attitude, Anthony Tesselaar and Nicholas Stadddon.... I could barely contain the anticipation...

Suzie Weist and Nicholas Staddon happily announced prize winners

It was secondary that the firm was offering good odds that attending meant guests would come home with plant and soil amendment samples... possibly even a 50" flat screen TV.

Libations flowed to a full  Italian lunch served by Carolina's Italian Restaurant . Before the program, seated at umbrella shaded tables, over 100 guests traded stories of an industry on the upswing.

Jim Peterson, editor of the swoon-inducing publication, Garden Design Magazine was on hand. With no advertising, printed on high quality paper, with images and stories which are both timely and evergreen, this truly is one of the best investments a person with interest in U.S. gardens can make.

The Reigning Queen of Succulents, surrounded by her subjects. Image by Josh Endres .

In the current issue is a feature on one  of the first people I met through GWA (Now the Association for Garden Communicators), Debra Lee Baldwin.

Village Nurseries success was earned the old fashioned way. Vision, hard work and building relationships.To learn more about the California Garden Centers, please link here.

Next up-  Notes for the talk by Anthony Tesselaar, the man responsible for low maintenance roses which will thrive in hellstrips.

Until we meet again, Thank You for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful 

Lydia 

* A special thanks to Garden Design Magazine for allowing us to share the last 2 images in this post.

The New Garden Loves The Color Wheel. Let's Talk about Brown

It is hard to imagine a slogan which did more to harm  California agricultural interests and gardening enthusiasm than the slogan on this sign.

NO!

I am not a drought denier. I am the wife of an engineer. The kind of man who harnessed creativity to science to make real things which never existed outside a dream. Inventions hard to roll out on the tongue, like  automated video imagery database using photogammetry. Gerry has accomplished feats I shall never fully comprehend. But observing him solve problems for 40 years, he taught me that scientific opinion is not a firm monument in the way of the 10 Commandments. Observations change. Goals change. Knowledge changes. The more knowledge man obtains- the more profound the case for God's existence. 

He has given man great power- but not the power to change brown to green like Jesus turned water into wine. 

The sage green wall is the perfect foil for 'Love and Wishes' Salvia (from the Sunset Collection), milkweed and the monarch butterfly

California history may record 2015 as the year of the year of  California's drought-induced clinical garden depression.  On signs and billboards, paid for by the taxpayer, that "Brown is the new green. " Hogwash.  Who says? Science. The color spectrum. The color wheel.

In 1666, Sir Isaac Newton looked up from his study of falling apples to rationally arrange the structural relationship of colors to each other. Since then, the study of color is of encyclopedic range. However, not until the great water panic of 2015, has man panicked into hallucinating that brown and green are interchangable. Here's the truth:

Greens are composed of differing portions of blue and yellow.

According to Wikipedia "Brown is a composite color which can be produced by combining red, yellow and black,^[1] or by a combination of orange and black."

Brown squirrel. Green lawn. 

Which is the ideal to predominate in a garden? Isn't it cheerier to see the brown squirrel leaping across a green lawn than it were a green rodent scampering across brown thatch?  

In Ode: Intimations of Immortality From Recollections of Early Childhood, Williams Wordsworth did not reflect on love in a scratchy hayfield. Rather he wrote: 

What thought the radiance which was once so bright

Be now forever taken from my sight, 

Though nothing can bring back the hour

Of splendor in the grass, of glory in the flower

We will grieve not, father find

Strength in what remains behind

Brown has its  honored place in gardens. Brown tree trunks, branches and composting leaves lead the eyes through the garden, leaving us in contemplative rest. But beware: brown in the garden should be like black in a home. Not so much as to be oppressive.

One of my favorite brown is compost tea for the garden

The quality manure tea bags Annie Haven makes on the family ranch tickle an amber liquid to quench the garden. Hint: make sure the family does not switch this brew with the family sweet tea: not unless you don't ever wish to be in charge of refreshments. Again. Ever.

The drought humbled us. The cost of water made us rethink our gardens. But it did not kill our desire for beautiful spaces. Instead, it makes us crave the sustaining beauty of gardens even more.

The Celebration Garden at the Huntington 

Stay tuned. My prediction for the Spring of 2016 is the start of the Great Gardening Revival. Intelligent by design, beautiful by desire.

Until we meet again, thank YOU for all You do to make the world more beautiful. 

Lydia 

Get Your Ticket for California Dreamin' this Mother's Day Weekend

"Gardening is the art that uses flower and plants as paint, and the soil and sky as canvas."

~ Elizabeth Murray 

Iamge  from Previous Tour, courtesy of RSSM 

The Rose Society of Saddleback Mountain (RSSM), a non-profit American Rose Society (ARS) affiliate, is pleased to announce the 25th Elegant and Enchanting Garden Tour. 

Where: South Orange County 

When:  Saturday, May 7, 2016 from 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM

What: Four unique and innovative private gardens 

Don't let the sponsoring organization's name restrict your imagination in what the tour features. The event is about more than roses. It is about the full-spectrum of the opportunities to create beauty. And happiness. In personal gardens.

The cliffside home of Rick and Julie Borgens included a spectacular view of the Pacific Ocean

The garden selection process is rigourous. RSSM master gardeners select sites for variety, special features, and floral elegance. The tour date promises gardens blooming in full spring splendor with magnificent floral and plant displays, garden architecture, and ideas for environmentally sound garden practices.

A very traditional garden vignette in the garden of Patricia and Steve Buice

The  RSSM Elegant and Enchanting Tour is a unique opportunity to go behind the gates of some very special private properties not normally open to the public. While the pictures are from past tours, let the descriptives of two whet your appetite for this year's gardens.

Isn't this the best  Mission Project display by Patricia and Steve Buice 

The 2016 tour theme is California Gardens/California Dreamin’. This year's selected gardens include a hillside San Clemente California ranch  with the diversity of plantings our region is known for. Besides the vegetable garden, the landscape is abundantly planted with specimen California trees, fruit trees, roses, Pride of Madeira, and aloes. It is a sanctuary for birds and pollinators.

Garden Designer Dawn Saunders arranged plants with a masterful eye towards color and ease of maintenance. The garden has been photographed by a MAJOR publication for release at a later date.

This year, plan on visiting a discrete upper San Clemente  stucco home. Ornamentation includes beautiful Spanish tiles. The owner, a landscape architect, has an incredible collection of succulents.  The piece de resistance: a rose climbing over the garden wall, the adjacent fountain luring visitors down the garden path.

The remarkable garden of Maria del Carmen Calvo led to cover article  for  Western Art and Architecture. 

Tickets from prior tours  have funded more than $50,000 in scholarships.RSSM funds Horticulture and Plant Science-related scholarships for college and university students at Cal State

University Fullerton, Saddleback College, Cal Poly Pomona, and other institutions.

Purchased in advance, tickets are only are $25.00. To order tickets, visit the RSSM website

www.rosesrosesroses.org or call 949-837-2141

The day of the event, tickets will be available for $30 each, at  the residence located at 3 Maracay, San Clemente, CA 92672.

Romance in the Garden - Seal Beach Presentation

"What I do and what I drink

include thee

as the wine must taste of its own grapes."

~Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Romance in the Garden. This was the promised topic to present the  Leisure World Garden Club of Seal Beach. 

Sunset from our backyard

Preparing for the talk, visions of romantic moments tumbled through my conscience.  So varied the experience of a romantic setting; there are as many possibilities as moments in life.  

                              Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Brueghel the Elder, The Garden of Eden(1615) 

Time to stop. Think. "What is the common thread?" I asked myself. How do I explain the sublime beauty of why love made real requires more than passion? More than scheming. More than hard work. 

Reno loves, and is loved.

My thesis is that the divine difference between man and beast is that while both are capable of love, only humans are capable of romance .

May 2011. My husband with our dogs

  Our dogs give us love. We give our dogs love. Only my husband and I are capable of romance with the other. 

My neighbor, Sandra, when she looks over the fence, this is her bird's- eye view of our garden in middle spring.

Just because the heat bares down hard here, calling this a "hell strip" isn't accurate. 

Truth is beauty. Beauty is truth. Romance is both.  When romance emanates from the garden, it fills the world with what the world needs more of. Doesn't it? 

Gardens begin with a bit of dirt. A vision of what could be, if only... 

Through desire, mystery. With anticipation. And excitement...

Pruning is an opportunity for fragrant bouquets

Romance elevates the ordinary to extraordinary.  By imagining beautiful gardens, and finding ways to incorporate inspiration, in a way which is authentic to our lives, this is the truest path to happiness in this life.  

The slide presentation was filled with examples from my own garden, as well as my scouting and writing career. From just a pot to over an acre- plots, gardens begin with a bit of dirt. A vision of what could be, if only... Through desire, mystery. With anticipation. And excitement...  a romantic garden is accessible to all. 

Some potted roses, live mint and a copy of Denise Schreiber's  delightful spiral bound Eat Your Roses were given out as prizes to the wonderful audience, who blessed me with their time and attention. 

(L-R) Judy Duvall, Me and Trisha Bowler. 

Until we meet again, THANK YOU for all you do to make the world more beautiful. 

Lydia 

Extraordinary Ordinary

"Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet our heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?"

~Matthew 6:26

Look who is back. The Red- shouldered hawk.

 He let me walk fairly close to him before taking off across the valley, annoyed with my stalking him with the camera.

 

 In the potted- up ficus tree just outside the sliding door to the back, a hummingbird nest is awaiting new occupants. I've read these tiny wonders will re-use a nest. So we hope.

Open wide

We've had Robins visit us before. But not in flocks like over the past few weeks.

At times there have been dozens. Too many to count. Taking turns with the dove and finch  at the water features. Hopping about the lawn and keeping a look out from high places.

One year Weeks Roses mailed me a Dick Clark rose. It is tall and nearly ever-blooming. Even in the semi-shaded spot.

Gerry's sister Nancy

 Recently, we got together with Gerry's side of the family at Fish Camp Restaurant in Huntington Beach. His sister and her granddaughter popped in from Wyoming for a visit with Nancy's mom. Melva Plunk, while Billie and Eric went to see her side of the family in Kentucky.

Tyler and our niece, Abby are a longtime "item"

Our waiter wasn't around for a group shot, so Gerry did the honors.

Back at home, Easter ( or if you prefer, Spring) Cactus- hybrid Rhipsalidopsis gaetneri is a happy camper on the patio table.

I can't speak for anyone else's window on the world, but this was mine this morning. Finch at the feeder. Robins at the bird bath. Matilija Poppy, Romneya coulteri,  has naturalized in the  back canyon.  With 3 surgeries in 6 months, I've been banned from climbing uneven ground until the muscles have stabilized. I'll have to hire help to thin the stand which is choking one of our fig trees.

The dove on the gate reminds me how fortunate I am.  Time "off" turned into a time to get my life in order. To prioritize. To make peace and gather strength. To decide in the wisdom of  Matthew 6:26. The most useless way to occupy time is with worry. Like a rocking chair, it will keep you busy, but won't solve a thing.

Until we meet again, Thank YOU for all YOU do to make the world more beautiful.

Lydia