Tibouchina Organensis

presented by Aerin, our resident garden muse (when next in Berkeley, don’t forget to visit the Magic Gardens Nursery. If you mention MuseGreen you’ll receive a 10% discount off your nursery purchase!)

In many of the gardens I see, I can often tell what time of the year were planted. When they visited the nursery, they bought most of their plants in bloom at that time of year; and most commonly in the spring. Even though we live in a temperate Mediterranean climate here in the Bay Area, many Bay Area gardens have little late fall or winter color. However, many beautiful plants are available to create abundant year round color in your garden.

A study by the US Department of Agriculture found that more plants (and probably more variety) could be grown in Oakland, California (the location of the East Bay test station) than most places in the world. In the inner East Bay we can grow many tropicals and subtropicals, as well as many hardy plants.

In my own garden, because I am so busy in the spring, I don’t focus on spring color. Instead, I love going out in the dead of winter and having a choice, such as:

• Camellia
• Hellebore (Christmas or Lenten Rose)
• Kniphofia ‘Royal Strain (Red Hot Poker)
• Salvias (S. holwayi, S. semi-atrata, S. gesneriiflora ‘tequila’, S. purpurea and others),
• Bergenia crassifolia (a good cut flower)
• Tibouchina organensis (lavender and white princess flower), or
• winter flowering Aloes in full bloom.

The deciduous magnolias are at their peak in winter with their showy blooms borne on bare branches. There are so many other winter bloomers. For inspiration take a walk through the U.C. Botanical Garden or Strybring Arboretum. On a gloomy day, color in the garden can be very uplifting.

I worked on a garden design where a woman suffered from winter depression. She had almost no winter color in her garden at all. As the garden faded into winter dreariness it added to her depression. She wanted much more winter color, especially out her kitchen and dining room windows. We added a number of winter blooming plants to this area and the next winter she shared with us that her mood improved greatly.

In many discussions about design, the emotive context of the garden is left out of the discussion. For centuries, there has been a tradition of healing gardens that have profound impact on our psyche and feeling of connection to the world. Studies of hospitals have been duplicated to show that hospital rooms with garden views compared to those with views of buildings have a beneficial effect on patients’ recovery rates.

I feel like I have been successful as a designer when clients tell me that their garden has had such a positive impact on their lives. I love hearing when someone has walked into one of our gardens, stopped, taken a deep breath and their whole being is impacted by the beauty and peace of mind the garden gives them.

So, consider bringing more year round color into your garden and allow yourself to feel the garden nourish and fill you. Seeing a beautiful flower on a dreary winter day can uplift your spirit and help you feel more connected to life around you.

Enjoy your garden,
Aerin

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Aerin is the owner of Magic Gardens, a nursery in Berkeley that specializes in perennials and flowering shrubs. He has been designing and creating beautiful gardens throughout the greater Bay Area for over 25 years. Several of the gardens Aerin has designed have been featured on prominent tours, as well as in books and magazines. An extensive portfolio of Aerin’s gardens can be found at the Magic Gardens website. Aerin grew up gardening under the direction of his grandfather, a farmer from Washington State who taught him about soils, fertilizing, and pruning. His mother was an avid gardener who taught him about propagation techniques and raising different plants when he was very young. At his childhood home in El Cerrito, Aerin was continually experimenting with new annuals and perennials. Now, his love of plants is still being lavished on his one-acre garden in the Oakland Hills, where many new plants are propagated for the nursery. Magic Gardens grows many of its own plants, and Aerin is always on the lookout for new, as well as old but no longer cultivated plants that are suitable for Bay Area gardens.

729 HEINZ AVE. BERKELEY, CA 510.644.2351