Yep, it has been another dry winter for California, the second in a row — from San Diego, 40 percent below normal rainfall, to Eureka, 20 percent below. You know the story if you've been around California for a while in the last 35-plus years. We've... more »

March won't be the same around my garden this year. After somewhere between 10 and 20 years, our Ceanothus 'Ray Hartman' went out in blaze of blue glory. Every spring you could count on two or three weeks of a mass of the brightest, deepest blue,... more »

When I worked for a California magazine company, the business folks thought that February was the time to invite prospective clients to the home office, a place with a big garden and patio for outdoor entertaining — a perfect setting for a little brainwashing... more »

With cheer-bringing blossoms on bare stems in the dead of winter, the flowering quince is an ancient Chinese symbol of an auspicious New Year. At least as cheering to me would be seeing a Big 10 football team lose the Rose Bowl to a California team (go... more »

As a way to make us appreciate what we had, I guess, my mother used to tell a girlhood story about trudging through the California foothills gathering red toyon berries to sell for holiday decorations. She wasn't the only toyon bandit. In the 1920s collecting... more »

Other than the smell of a turkey roasting in the oven or the sight of a quarterback tossing a football to a receiver in the flat, nothing makes me feel better about November than a persimmon tree fully loaded with gleaming orange fruit among foliage turning... more »

Fall is prime planting time in Southern California. The well organized among us are rumored to plan all year long so that they're ready to spring into action the instant the hot weather subsides (usually by mid-October). The shorter days, cooler nights... more »

If you want further proof of how different California is, watch a Notre Dame football game on TV this month. I'm not talking about the more exciting way California teams play the game but about the fall scenes on Notre Dame's Indiana campus — gorgeous... more »

Back in the 1960s, with a baby daughter and another on the way, I had a second job working at a nursery on weekends (and needed a third). Each fall we brought out the banners calling autumn “California’s second spring.” This... more »

September in Southern California is a transition from summer back to springlike weather — warm days, crisp nights and a chance of hot, dry Santa Ana winds. Over the next few months, we'll see the shift at local nurseries from summer bloomers to winter... more »

August is synonymous with heat and drought in most areas of Southern California. Feel free to put those ambitious garden projects on hold until things cool down. Focus on watering needs, harvesting summer crops and fire... more »

Things are heating up throughout Southern California as June Gloom wanes in the coastal areas. With the hotter, longer days of summer here, we’re entering peak fruit and veggie season. Active growth in the garden means lots of deadheading,... more »

In 1837 the exploration ship HMS Sulphur brought back to England seeds of Ceanothus thyrsiflorus — the first California plant species introduced to European gardens. Maybe (or maybe not) it's appropriate to think of ceanothus like a Romantic... more »

Witness the delicate, pendulous blossoms that hang against Chinese lantern's foliage, and you'll wonder if this shrub has been decorated with handmade paper ornaments. Commonly seen as a potted houseplant, Abutilon hybrids are making the transition outside.... more »