A Visit to Seaside Gardens

One of the very best days I spent on my California trip was an outing to Seaside Gardens in Carpinteria. Seaside GardensWhy?  Because it isn’t often at all that you find a retail nursery that devotes more than three-quarters of its space to a demonstration garden creatively highlighting the plants it sells by their geographic regions!Garden Map

In fact, having seen just the African garden the day before on my way north from LA, I decided to drive back south from Santa Barbara to spend several hours there. African Garden I went back into the African garden and surprised an Anna’s hummingbird nectaring on the Aloe maculata.Female Anna's hummingbird on aloe

The coast coral tree (Erythrina caffra), called kafferboom in South Africa, was in full, glorious bloom. Erythrina caffra-coral tree

Pretty purple and white African daisies (Osteospermum sp.) formed a flowery carpet under the leucadendrons.Leucadendron & Osteospermum

Leucadendron ‘Safari Sunset’ is an understandably popular cultivar of this member of the Protea family.Leucandendron 'Safari Sunset'

In the Native California garden designed by Tim Doles, California irises look lovely with lilac verbena (V. lilacina).Native irises & Verbena lilacina

And naturally, since it was late March, there were huge drifts of shimmering, orange California poppies everywhere (Eschscholzia californica).

California poppies-Eschscholzia californica

I was entranced by the flowers of the California plane tree (Platanus racemosa) with their dangling, red button flowers. A riparian species, it was sited appropriately along the wetland area.

California sycamore - Platanus racemosa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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In the Asian garden, a photinia (Photinia x fraseri) was attracting bees to its white flower clusters, and I was struck by how a plant one normally sees pruned into a tight hedge can redeem itself by appearing so beautifully au naturelPhotinia

As I walked on, I passed a woman walking her dog.  “Do you come here often?” I asked. “It’s so beautiful.”

“Yes, I do,” she replied with a smile.  “I’m the owner.” I had just bumped into Dr. Linda Wudl.  Both she and her husband Fred are prominent scientists and philanthropists, and Seaside Gardens is her retirement project. I mentioned I was on a self-designed California garden tour and had returned to Seaside to spend more time photographing the plants, which seemed to delight her.  She made sure to praise the staff — “it’s their hard work” — and then resumed her walk, adding over her shoulder:  “Just look at the Chinese fringe tree – isn’t it lovely?”  It certainly was. Chinese fringe tree-Chionanthus retusus

Bees were everywhere, like these honey bees nectaring on the statuesque pride-of-Madeira (Echium candicans) and foraging for pollen in the California poppies.Pride-of-Madeira & California poppy

There was a charming cottage garden, with lots of old-fashioned flowers and some new takes as well, like this pretty combination of Chinese ground orchids (Bletilla striata) and irises alongside white azaleas.

Bletilla & Pacific iris with azalea

I walked through the sunken terrace of the Mediterranean garden, past the splashing fountain and under the arch decked in Lady Banks roses (R. banksiae). Mediterranean Fountain

The path took me past a big ornamental grass collection, the Mediterranean fan palm, Mediterranean fan palm

and a curving path alongside a fragrant rosemary hedge buzzing with bees. Rosmary Hedge

In fact, as a honey bee photographer, I was delighted to see that bees were everywhere at Seaside gardens, on the ‘Marshwood’ Spanish lavender…..Honey bee on Lavender

and all over the pink rock roses (Cistus cv.) too. Honey bee on rock rose

Hours of bliss later, I suddenly realized I was hungry and it was time to drive back to Santa Barbara for a late lunch.  But I wanted to find a gift for my dinner host for that evening.

Would it be a plant from one of the geographically-arranged areas in the nursery? Australian-section

An extravagant creation from Seaside’s own talented designers?  Garden decorThat would have been nice but a little more than I needed.

In the end, I selected four $3 pots of succulents and a pretty aquamarine ceramic dish and assembled my own creation at a handy potting table, using Seaside’s free container Succulentssoil mix. What a great, generous idea, from a great, generous nursery!  And what a wonderful visit I’d had, learning all about the myriad plants that flourish in California’s benign climate.

Carpinteria

The first actual stop on my California coastal garden tour was the little oceanside town of Carpinteria, just south of Santa Barbara.  A friend spends several weeks there each winter and I wanted to have a look at it.  Let me see, shovel snow in Toronto the entire month of February, or read books and gaze out on the ocean from one of these balconies?  Hmmmm… tough choice. Carpinteria

Carpinteria has a population of around 13,000.  It hosts the California Avocado Festival on the first weekend of every October.  There’s a lovely beach for walking and whale-watching, but the naturally occurring surface asphalt in this petroleum-rich area sometimes presents a sticky hazard for beachcombers. That asphalt, incidentally, is how the town got its name, for in 1769 Spanish soldiers found the native Chumash Indians building and repairing their canoes around “some springs of pitch”.  So they called the area La Carpinteria, meaning “carpenter shop”. Tar Pits Park celebrates the designation of Carpinteria as one of five natural asphalt lake areas in the world.  During the winter, whales can often be spotted offshore here. The weather in late March was a little chilly for beach picnicking, but it didn’t stop these intrepid women.   Carpinteria Beach

At the far end of the beach was the Carpinteria Salt Marsh Preserve, a series of coastal estuaries between the Santa Ynez Mountains, the creeks that drain them, and the sea.Carpinteria Salt Marsh

A favourite spot for birdwatchers, the salt marsh was quiet the Monday morning I walked its path and read its interesting interpretive signs.Salt Marsh Sign

Driving through town, I had my first look at the kinds of colourful shrubs and flowers that grace this part of the state in early spring. In an effort to adapt to California’s three-year drought, many gardeners are turning to the state’s own drought-resistant native flora, but the message didn’t seem to resonate with gardeners here. Almost all the landscaping consisted of plants native to somewhere else in the world, South Africa, the Mediterranean or Australia.  But they are beautiful and were balm for this winter-weary soul.

Bird-of-Paradise

Bird-of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) from South Africa and bougainvillea from South America.

Agapanthus

Agapanthus (A. africanus) (A. praecox — thank you David Feix!)

Cistus purpureus
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Purple rock rose (Cistus x purpureus) from the Mediterranean.

Limonium perezii

Sea lavender (Limonium perezii) from the Canary Islands.

Echium & Euryops

Tall purple pride-of-Madeira (Echium candicans) from the Portugese island of the same name and yellow daisy bush (Euryops pectinatus) from South Africa.

Polygala 'Bibi-Pink' & Tecoma stans

‘Bibi Pink’ sweetpea shrub (Polygala myrtifolia) and cape Honeysuckle (Tecomaria capensis) against a saltwater-sprayed iron fence at the beach. Distictnis buccanitoria

The spectacular blossoms of the gorgeous red trumpet vine (Distictis buccinatoria) from Mexico were blanketing walls and fences in town.

In an upcoming blog, I’ll introduce you to one of my favourite stops on the entire trip: a charming garden-centre-cum-display-garden in Carpinteria called Seaside Gardens.