Friday, August 24, 2007

The Plantscape to go along with the hardscape

A couple photographs of the plant scape :

The evergreen foundation shrub is the very deer resistant Choysia ternata.
Oh , did I mention that along with the challenging sun and shade dilemma that this is also a pretty active deer browsing site.
It could be called Bambi’s Salad Bar.

Infront of the Choysia is a wonderful variegated Carex morrowii.
Across the path in the raised terrace is a swath of lamium . In back of the Lamium is the wiry foliage of Chondropetalum tectorum and some Asparagus ferns.



The left side of entry holds a Rhodie, Phormium, Contorted Blue Spruce , Juncus and some sedums.


There is a set of steps off of the side that leads you down from the garage.
You pass the Contored Blue Weeping Spruce ( which the husband is not found of but tolerates,... like I said, they are cool clients )
And a calla liy at the corner that has grown to such unreal proportions .
Last time I did a ‘drive by siting’, it was blooming its head off and standing at 5 feet tall.
It is the largest calla lily I have ever seen !
In this photo the garden is newly planted so it looks a little sparse.



A dwarf red Japanese maple and a Hinoki Cypress.
Sitting on top of a rock is a red glazed ceramic pot with a bonsai in training - a contorted juniper.

5 comments:

Christopher C. NC said...

In a way this is one of my favorites because it is such a challenging site; narrow, on the road, on a slope, half day sun and deer. Amazing transformation.

Anonymous said...

Thanks! Us amateurs have a hard time letting go of the plants.

At first I thought that Calla was a philodendron! Is it an abnormally happy Z. aethiopica? There are some giant cultivars that I think must be different species, like this, and a hideous green-spathed one of similar size.

Deviant Deziner, aka Michelle said...

Wowza !
That is some gigantic calla lily !
I think the one I planted is the same species .
I picked it up at Home Cheapo in San Rafael CA.
It did not have a label, well, actually it did have a label but I am almost positive that it is not Escallonia compacta !
Gotta love Home Cheapo some days ! The prices are right and sometimes even the plants are quite alluring but the staff is usually clueless and the labels leave much to be trusted.

I wish I had bought a couple of these callas for my own garden.
I had no idea that it was going to grow to such proportions.
Thought it was the common Z. aethiopica. , but obviously it is Z. aethiopica Steroideo !

chuck b. said...

The giant calla is 'Hercules' and it's everywhere. There's a whole freakin' grove of 'em at Strybing under the Metasequoias. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have a 'Hercules', but it hasn't gotten very big yet.

It's a thing to hose down stone before photographing it, huh? It looks very nice.

Phillip Oliver said...

I love the stone work and I love your blog. You have my dream job! Keep up the great work.