I've had quite a few emails asking for some details of the holiday we just
took, with special emphasis on the plantlife side of it, of course. ;-) So
I thought I'd post some stuff on here, just in case anyone else is thinking
of a US holiday on the west coast or in Hawai'i.
We started with 5 nights in LA, staying in Santa Monica. Friends organised
our every minute and we covered a lot! Absolute must-sees, IMO, are the
Getty Gardens and Museum and the Huntington Gardens. The former is a
terrific design concept, taking full advantage of its position high on top
of a hill. A little railway takes you up there and the museum itself is a
masterpiece of white stone, shipped from Italy and looking like a modern
idea of a castle. The gardens fall away below with a cleverly designed and
constructed stream running through the middle. The stream bed is paved with
brick and the odd rock is placed just so, to give that satisfying
water-over-stone noise. We could have argued over some of the planting but
very little, to be fair. One or two things were either out of place or
unhappy in shade when they needed sun, for example but the good points far
outweighed such quibbles. For example, there are some very tall, metal
structures with spokes radiating from the top and Bougainvilleas have been
carefully trained to climb up inside the 'stem' and cascade over the top.
It's a lovely idea and gives a stunning effect. There's a very large pond
which has a low growing hibiscus 'maze' planted in the middle of it - a
wonderful sight, even in November.
Huntington Gardens is a very large and originally private, garden with a
good tea room and lovely gift shop. The planting is enormously diverse,
loads of orange trees near the entrance to the garden, masses of agaves and
aloes and a lot of geraniums, such as palmatum and maderense. The Japanese
garden is worth the visit alone. I've always felt that Japanese gardens
aren't very satisfactory unless designed by a Japanese - the meaning and
philosophy behind every single stone is so much part of their culture. This
one was so designed and is still maintained by an old Japanese gardener who
nurtures it wonderfully. Just the first glimpse of it is enough to give an
immediate shot of tranquillity! I was particularly taken with Loropetalum
chinense which we later saw growing in all sorts of places; trimmed to be
'tidy', they look like natural bonsai - fascinating! There is an area with
many different kinds of Salvias which is really lovely - we were very
jealous of their Salvia involucratas because here we nurse them through the
winter and are proud of ourselves - theirs are 5 or 6 feet high and bursting
with vim and vigour! The large rose garden has a great number of different
roses, all labelled and in bloom even in November and there's also a palm
collection. I wouldn't rate this garden highly just as a garden but the
many varieties to be seen make it of great interest to the gardener or
plantsman.
Leaving LA, we drove up Highway 1 to San Francisco, which is a gorgeous
adventure in itself. On the way, we stopped the night at Santa Barbara so
that we could visit San Marcos growers where they are licensed to propagate
and wholesale Ray's Nemesia 'Bluebird', so for us that was a very
interesting visit with a chance to talk to a fellow nurseryman working in
such totally different conditions.
We went to Montecito to see the amazing and outstanding gardens at
Lotusland. This once belonged to an opera singer called Madame Walska who
had 5 or 6 husbands, all of them but one very rich! She wasn't very
interested in flowering plants, so almost all the planting is very
structural. There are simply loads of epiphytic plants, groves of
eucalyptus, again, vast swathes of agaves, aloes and aeoniums. She believed
in planting in really huge numbers and it has made the most staggering
effect. In the flowering line, I particularly liked Callistemon viminalis
and Syzygium paniculata. There was also the most lovely shrub they call
'Breath of Heaven', Coleonema album. When one brushes against it, it
releases a wonderful scent. She had cleverly planted it at the entrance to
a little sculpture garden, so that as people come and go they have to push
past it and smell its perfume. There is a lot of water in this garden; huge
ponds filled with water lilies and one has a vast rock, bridging two of its
'shores'; the rock alone cost $40,000! I fell in love with the weeping
bamboo, Chusquea coronalis and the hammock and chain ferns. As one might
imagine, there were small woods of various kinds of tree ferns, giving a
lovely lacey 'enchanted garden' sort of feel. Madame was clearly deeply fond
of cacti and they are *everywhere*. One by the front door of the house must
be about 60 years old and it is one of those long thin, trailing, gangly
types - it looks like it could get up and walk away any minute!
We pushed on up the Highway to San Francisco where Ray was absolutely
thrilled to see 'Bluebird' planted at the foot of the large stone saying
"San Francisco Historical Maritime Park" down on Fisherman's Wharf where the
cable cars turn around! We did the requisite and fascinating tours of the
city and the Bay and on one morning took a tour that led us over the Golden
Gate Bridge and up to Muir Woods to see those wonderful, soaring redwoods.
The peace and beauty is beyond my power to describe and we felt it
especially after being in a city for a few days.
Hawai'i was a tropical feast of planting. Waikiki Beach Hilton is a sort of
upmarket Club Med! They have shops selling everything from coffee beans to
diamonds and they clearly don't want you to leave the place! The gardens
are beautifully planted and tended and again there is a lot of water. We
enjoyed the North African penguins, the swans, flamingoes and many species
of ducks. I can't possibly list all that we saw but it was just astonishing
to see things like Thunbergia gregii growing as a wild plant on roadsides,
and the same for jade vines (unfortunately not flowering in November)
Ipomoeas and again, cacti, marching across the landscape. The latter
'escaped' from the garden of our accommodation in Kaua'i, Kiahuna
Plantation. When it was a private house, the owner's wife, Mrs Moir brought
her cacti collection with her from USA and much of it remains. But it has
certainly spread its offspring all over Kaua'i! The car parks were lined
with Albizias and there was a lovely deep pink flowered tree they called the
Hawaian tulip tree. I don't think we ever did get the proper name of that
one. We saw loads of different kinds of Cassias and Callistemons, just out
in the wild, Euryops were everywhere

in article , sacha at
wrote on 30/11/02 11:00 am:

I've had quite a few emails asking for some details of the holiday we just
took, with special emphasis on the plantlife side of it, of course. ;-) So
I thought I'd post some stuff on here, just in case anyone else is thinking
of a US holiday on the west coast or in Hawai'i.
We started with 5 nights in LA, staying in Santa Monica. Friends organised
our every minute and we covered a lot! Absolute must-sees, IMO, are the
Getty Gardens and Museum and the Huntington Gardens. The former is a
terrific design concept, taking full advantage of its position high on top
of a hill. A little railway takes you up there and the museum itself is a
masterpiece of white stone, shipped from Italy and looking like a modern
idea of a castle. The gardens fall away below with a cleverly designed and
constructed stream running through the middle. The stream bed is paved with
brick and the odd rock is placed just so, to give that satisfying
water-over-stone noise. We could have argued over some of the planting but
very little, to be fair. One or two things were either out of place or
unhappy in shade when they needed sun, for example but the good points far
outweighed such quibbles. For example, there are some very tall, metal
structures with spokes radiating from the top and Bougainvilleas have been
carefully trained to climb up inside the 'stem' and cascade over the top.
It's a lovely idea and gives a stunning effect. There's a very large pond
which has a low growing hibiscus 'maze' planted in the middle of it - a
wonderful sight, even in November.
Huntington Gardens is a very large and originally private, garden with a
good tea room and lovely gift shop. The planting is enormously diverse,
loads of orange trees near the entrance to the garden, masses of agaves and
aloes and a lot of geraniums, such as palmatum and maderense. The Japanese
garden is worth the visit alone. I've always felt that Japanese gardens
aren't very satisfactory unless designed by a Japanese - the meaning and
philosophy behind every single stone is so much part of their culture. This
one was so designed and is still maintained by an old Japanese gardener who
nurtures it wonderfully. Just the first glimpse of it is enough to give an
immediate shot of tranquillity! I was particularly taken with Loropetalum
chinense which we later saw growing in all sorts of places; trimmed to be
'tidy', they look like natural bonsai - fascinating! There is an area with
many different kinds of Salvias which is really lovely - we were very
jealous of their Salvia involucratas because here we nurse them through the
winter and are proud of ourselves - theirs are 5 or 6 feet high and bursting
with vim and vigour! The large rose garden has a great number of different
roses, all labelled and in bloom even in November and there's also a palm
collection. I wouldn't rate this garden highly just as a garden but the
many varieties to be seen make it of great interest to the gardener or
plantsman.
Leaving LA, we drove up Highway 1 to San Francisco, which is a gorgeous
adventure in itself. On the way, we stopped the night at Santa Barbara so
that we could visit San Marcos growers where they are licensed to propagate
and wholesale Ray's Nemesia 'Bluebird', so for us that was a very
interesting visit with a chance to talk to a fellow nurseryman working in
such totally different conditions.
We went to Montecito to see the amazing and outstanding gardens at
Lotusland. This once belonged to an opera singer called Madame Walska who
had 5 or 6 husbands, all of them but one very rich! She wasn't very
interested in flowering plants, so almost all the planting is very
structural. There are simply loads of epiphytic plants, groves of
eucalyptus, again, vast swathes of agaves, aloes and aeoniums. She believed
in planting in really huge numbers and it has made the most staggering
effect. In the flowering line, I particularly liked Callistemon viminalis
and Syzygium paniculata. There was also the most lovely shrub they call
'Breath of Heaven', Coleonema album. When one brushes against it, it
releases a wonderful scent. She had cleverly planted it at the entrance to
a little sculpture garden, so that as people come and go they have to push
past it and smell its perfume. There is a lot of water in this garden; huge
ponds filled with water lilies and one has a vast rock, bridging two of its
'shores'; the rock alone cost $40,000! I fell in love with the weeping
bamboo, Chusquea coronalis and the hammock and chain ferns. As one might
imagine, there were small woods of various kinds of tree ferns, giving a
lovely lacey 'enchanted garden' sort of feel. Madame was clearly deeply fond
of cacti and they are *everywhere*. One by the front door of the house must
be about 60 years old and it is one of those long thin, trailing, gangly
types - it looks like it could get up and walk away any minute!
We pushed on up the Highway to San Francisco where Ray was absolutely
thrilled to see 'Bluebird' planted at the foot of the large stone saying
"San Francisco Historical Maritime Park" down on Fisherman's Wharf where the
cable cars turn around! We did the requisite and fascinating tours of the
city and the Bay and on one morning took a tour that led us over the Golden
Gate Bridge and up to Muir Woods to see those wonderful, soaring redwoods.
The peace and beauty is beyond my power to describe and we felt it
especially after being in a city for a few days.
Hawai'i was a tropical feast of planting. Waikiki Beach Hilton is a sort of
upmarket Club Med! They have shops selling everything from coffee beans to
diamonds and they clearly don't want you to leave the place! The gardens
are beautifully planted and tended and again there is a lot of water. We
enjoyed the North African penguins, the swans, flamingoes and many species
of ducks. I can't possibly list all that we saw but it was just astonishing
to see things like Thunbergia gregii growing as a wild plant on roadsides,
and the same for jade vines (unfortunately not flowering in November)
Ipomoeas and again, cacti, marching across the landscape. The latter
'escaped' from the garden of our accommodation in Kaua'i, Kiahuna
Plantation. When it was a private house, the owner's wife, Mrs Moir brought
her cacti collection with her from USA and much of it remains. But it has
certainly spread its offspring all over Kaua'i! The car parks were lined
with Albizias and there was a lovely deep pink flowered tree they called the
Hawaian tulip tree. I don't think we ever did get the proper name of that
one. We saw loads of different kinds of Cassias and Callistemons, just out
in the wild, Euryops were everywhere

Whoops! I inadvertently sent this before I'd quite finished but on
reflection, it's quite long enough! I will just add that we toured Allerton
Gardens which are in a fabulous valley, sweeping down to pure white sand,
bordered by volcanic rock and a sparkling blue sea - definitely my kind of
place! Some of the trees and shrubs they grow there for research purposes
are so toxic that the area is barred to the public, just in case. They also
had a very curious Euphorbia which had very long 'leaves' which were in
fact, more like the aerial roots you'd see on some plants. Loads of
Plumeria, gorgeous Hibiscus hedges, Spanish moss dripping from the trees
and to top it all - the very best thing - a fantastic flight in a helicopter
along the Na Pali coast and right into the very heart of the extinct
volcano. There were many, many glorious waterfalls dropping thousands of
feet from Mt. Waleaile, the wettest place on earth with 500 - 600 inches of
rain a year and this is where the opening shots of Jurassic park were
filmed. It was the most fabulous experience as the pilot gyrated the
helicopter inside the crater, not saying a word but just letting us drink it
all in. I'm ready to go again any day!
--
Sacha
www.hillhousenursery.co.uk

The message
from sacha contains these words:

I've had quite a few emails asking for some details of the holiday we just
took, with special emphasis on the plantlife side of it, of course. ;-)

That was a real gardening treat on a grey wet winter day, Sacha,
thanks a lot.

Janet.