Add a touch of the exotic in your garden with colorful and surprisingly versatile bromeliads.  Dozens, if not hundreds of kinds of bromeliads are offered in nurseries and at society sales. They range from the tiniest, clumping Tillandsia, the so-called “air plants” whose icy green, te

In other parts of the country, last summer’s garden is a memory and next spring’s garden is a dream. Here in Southern California, however, winter gardening is our best gardening. Really! While the air is cool, the days are short, and – hopefully – we get some rain, this is the time to

California has more rare, threatened, and endangered plants than any other state. Plant populations disappear as homes, shopping centers, schools, and other developments replace habitats. Native plants are also lost to too-frequent wildfires, to climate change, and to human overuse an

There aren’t many waterwise summer blooming bulbs for Southern California’s hot and dry climate.  Most waterwise bulbs bloom in spring here, then go dormant.  But there are a few that bloom in summer with a very little irrigation, and an extraordinary few that bloom with no irri

A number of years ago, I was touring gardens in Shady Canyon, then a brand new development of grand homes in Irvine, California. The homes wound up and down the side of a hill – each property with a gorgeous view. As we stood in the backyard of one home under construction, I looked do

  — Nan Sterman (Continued from last week’s blog) How to attract pollinators to your garden Water, habitat and food are the basics for attracting pollinators into your garden. Water Offer pollinators a constant drip or a shallow dish of water or water in a birdbath. A

— Nan Sterman   Visit a beautiful waterwise garden and you’ll notice the amazing colors and textures, fabulous structures and gorgeous flowers. Birds and bees and butterflies flit through the garden. Lizards scurry about. Each garden is an oasis all of its own, as you’ll se

— Nan Sterman It’s emerald green. It’s soft underfoot. It smells great when it’s cut. It’s fun to play on. There are many reasons to like grass, but there are also reasons not to have a lawn in your garden. How grass lawns got here Lawns are new to California. They arrived durin

— by Nan Sterman You might wonder if the drought means the end of home grown fruits. Thankfully, it doesn’t. There are many kinds of fruiting trees, shrubs and even succulents that produce lots of fruits with little, if any, irrigation once the plants are established. Here are t

— by Nan Sterman My phone has been ringing off the hook (do phones still have hooks?) and my inbox is overflowing with queries from people asking for help removing their lawns, designing new gardens, and redesigning outdated gardens. Finally, Californians are getting the message