Impressionism's Best

This weekend I visited the new exhibit on sailing at San Francisco's Legion of Honor.  With the likes of Renoir and Monet included in the exhibit, it was easy to sit and soak in all the 'action' in the paintings.

Many of the paintings are scenes of regattas and life along harbors.  All these had amazing reflections of boats, buildings, and people in the water.  Reds, yellows, greens [generally every shade but blue] blended together to make awesome rivers and oceans.  Some of the boats are blue so we can tell where the water starts!

This adventurous use of color, shading, and juxtaposition made the visit special.  There are so many ideas to absorb at the show.  It's definitely a fun overwhelming.

Thinking Gardening

Gardening is more than planting, dividing, watering, and pruning.  A great deal of gardening is thinking about what there is to plant, divide, water, and prune.

Visitors to Wildwood Farm often arrive looking for new ideas about what to plant.  They usually find many new ideas. Sometimes they like help deciding what plants to use in their garden, even asking us to visit their garden to make suggestions.

On a recent visit to a home in Sonoma, I found a young landscape with mostly deer resistant, drought resistant, gopher resistant Olives, Flax, Hopseed, Rosemary, and Sage.  Definitely a Mediterranean look.  The owner would like to incorporate Maples and is open to adding other types of plants.

So, what's the best way to go from Mediterranean to Californian?

Wildwood visits Menlo Park

Wildwood Farm traveled to Menlo Park, CA this weekend.  It felt like home away from home.

The destination was Sunset Magazine Headquarters.  There aren't rows and rows of grapes but there is a Sunset Wine Club.  We were stationed next to the Wine Club for Celebration Weekend.  After their complimentary tasting, people were in a fairly jolly mood when they moved on to us.

With our extra tall tent we created a mini forest for people to walk through.  In a ten by ten booth we had twelve different varieties of dogwoods in bloom, eleven varieties of maples, six varieties of dwarf ginkgos and more!

Many of the plants are back home at Wildwood now.  They promise to be on their best behavior when guests from the South Bay arrive.

About Time

It has been a few years since Wildwood Farm updated its About Us page.  In plant time, that's not too long.  In tech time, that's a long time.

Don't worry, we didn't pave over Wildwood Farm.  And there hasn't been a change in ownership.  You'll still be talking to the same folks when you visit or call.  There's over 100 years of plant knowledge combined between Ric, Sara, and I...

There are new pictures of us and new language about what we've done the past few years at Wildwood.  Plus, some addition by subtraction - websites need to be weeded every now and then too.

How about you? Let us know if you're planning to update your garden!

Will They Hold On?

Wildwood Farm is revving into event mode with Sunset's Celebration Weekend right around the corner.

Squeezing four acres of gardens and nursery into a 10' x 10' booth can be a tricky chore.  Hence, all the to and fro debating about what plants to bring.  The big question is if the Asian Dogwoods will still have flowers in ten days.  With all the heat and wind we've had, the bloom season for the East and West Coast Dogwoods was very short.  Many of the Asian Dogwoods are holding on to vibrant white and pink blooms though...

We'll definitely showcase Summer Fun and Wolf Eye, with their stunning variegated leaves, regardless of blooms or no blooms.  Plus, we'll have all our dwarf Ginkgos.

And, all our maples - oh wait they won't all fit!

Can You Grow Maples In Full Sun?

Yes, is the short answer.

There are maples from across the globe, not just Asia, and many of the can take full sun.  Maples from the Middle East, with rolled up leaves, are especially adapted to scorching weather.

In a little less forgiving climate, many Asian Maples will tolerate hot sun with frequent watering.

In the picture to the left, the A.p. Novum is growing in full sun in Wildwood Farm's center circle.  This red maple needs the sun to maintain a vibrant glowing red throughout the summer season.  If it was in the shade, the red would fade to green during the summer.

As a full sun centerpiece, it turns colors through the summer months.  Tones of rust, orange, and red rotate until fall when it turns a bright orange red. 

Check back in a few months to follow the color progression!

The State[ment] Poppy

It's tough to keep track of which poppy is the CA state flower [Eschscholzia californica] and which is the CA state poppy [Rhomneya coulteri].

Both plants have bright showy flowers and survive in terrible soil.  Both are tough to grow in containers.  The orange poppy [state flower] is a bit tougher than the white poppy to grow in containers because it's an annual. 

Wildwood Farm purchased several Matilija Poppies earlier this year for different projects.  One of them was redesigning the highway frontage.  When all the other perennials were going in gopher baskets and asking for extra water to get established, the Matilija Poppies waved off all the attention and grew happily in 'amended' road base.

Now, when the early 85 degree weather feels like 95 and we need a little lift to get out gardening, we look at the Matilija Poppies.  The massive white flowers with big yellow centers cheer us up.

Whether you need a powerful statement or a happy statement in your garden, consider the State Poppy.