The annual garden tour sponsored by the Pacific Palisades Garden Club will take place, rain or shine, from 1 to 5 p.m. on Sunday, April 25. The tour is self-guided and gardens may be visited in any sequence. One of the highlights of the tour is a plant market at 14820 Pampas Ricas Blvd., where refreshments will be served. The market offers a variety of interesting and unusual plants, many grown by members. Tickets are $15 (children 12 and under are free) and can be purchased in advance at The Outdoor Room, 17311 Sunset, or at any of the featured homes on the day of the tour. Proceeds from ticket sales are used to beautify the community and to provide horticultural scholarships at Cal Poly Pomona. The Bountiful Garden 15468 Albright Street What is found at the heart of this garden? Edibles! One owner’s joy is gourmet cooking, and south-facing terraces supply organic produce planted according to the season. Tomatoes are a favorite, as is basil, which she uses along with other classic cooking herbs including rosemary, sage, parsley and thyme. The other owner’s specialty is gourmet baking, and for his tarts he uses the variety of fruits growing here. Peach, plum, and a Beverly Hills apple grow in the undulating bed. A beautifully shaped navel orange flourishes by the brick steps. Other citrus, on dwarfing root stock, grow in pots. Flowers for the table mingle with the vegetables. Unusual plants in the undulating bed are Patersonia glabrata from Australia, and Pieris. Roses (above), including climbers, miniatures, shrubs, standards and hybrid tea, are found throughout the garden. The front garden is planed for year-round leaf color, as in the deep reds of Heuchera ‘Crimson Curl’ and Loropetalum. Westringia forms a see-through hedge along the steep drop to the drive; there a diamond patterned espalier of Trachelospermum delights the nose and eye. Carol Plotkin and Janice Hoskins, landscape designers, created this bountiful garden. A Mediterranean Garden With Sculptural Pottery 1310 Napoli Drive One of the five oldest houses in the Palisades, this 1923 Spanish-style structure is approached up steps that follow curving terracing walls, providing privacy and planting space (above). A loose symmetry in the color and placement of plants in beds is a practical technique: an unbalanced pair is not a calamity. Melaleuca quinquenervia is found here and throughout, unifying the whole design. A small formal area features box parterres planted with Meyer lemons. Beyond the fountain are huge Vietnamese pickle pots. A white gate hides the dog run, a fun-loving spoof of an English country garden. The rear garden is made exuberant by the large scale of space and furnishings. Three large Chinese pots are planted with fragrant lemon and lavender. Up the brick steps is a large pot planted with papyrus to grace the pool beyond. Credit goes to the owner for the artistic selection and placement of these extraordinary pots. Between a pair of orange trees is the remaining half of a sport court, now the dance floor, the perfect completion to an expansive garden for pleasure and delight. The garden was designed and installed by Wendy Katz of Ruby Begonia. A Tropical Vacation 449 Ocampo Drive The owners of this 1931 early California Spanish-style house knew what they wanted’a tropical vacation’and now they have that right at home in a lush but low-maintenance garden. The entry courtyard is enlivened by a splashing fountain and edged by the ‘coffee porch’ where the sun shines on cheering pots of succulents, Fiesta impatiens and trailing variegated Vinca minor ‘Illumina-tion.’ The back garden is a blue-walled room anchored by a California pepper tree, a fireplace seating area and a tall Queen palm. Also featured is a palapa sheltering a dining table and chairs and a mosaic-tiled spa. Fed by a waterfall (right), the spa is presided over by two curved Queen palms and is half-hidden by a multi-trunk palm. A red trumpet vine clambers across the house. Timber bamboo ( Bambusa oldhamii) screens for privacy. Variegated Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse karr’ mingles with papyrus and elephant’s ear to create a luxuriant border. Past a work area, a brick path leads to a sunroom garden, with wisteria, orange clock vine (Thunbergia gregorii) and roses gracing walls and beds. The owners collaborated with garden designer Heidi Sanschi. The Garden with an Orange Accent 1028 Chautauqua Boulevard This garden’s motif’restrained geometry punctuated by exciting orange accents’is first stated in the motor court. Behind a bamboo hedge are two Canary Island pines, two orange chairs, a green grass rectangle and orange plumed bird of paradise. Through the gate is the surprise glimpse of a dominating pool. The pool, inherited by the owners and once bemoaned as a serious eyesore, has been transformed into a prime asset. A cantilevered sunning deck breaks up the egg shape. Accenting the pool’s deep green pond-like color is the bronzy orange of two sedges and Libertia peregrinans. Near the front door is the outstanding Abutilon hybrid ‘Big Orange”well named! Beyond the graveled dog run, the hillside, with banks blue with Senecio and orange accents of flowering aloe, was planned to create space for gardening and a quiet retreat. Terraces hold roses, herbs and vegetables. On the upper terrace, large cement pots exhibit a fine collection of succulents. Rob Steiner, landscape architect, worked carefully with the owners to create this handsome garden. A Garden of Grays and Greens 710 Napoli Drive Within the Pittosporum crassifolium hedge, a flagstone terrace and its broad steps welcome guests and meander to the front door. This garden design is subtle, with every plant selected for its contribution to the whole. Grays and greens from plants and stones predominate and harmonize with the Shaker-style house. Deep reds, blues, whites and other colors are subordinate to the grays and greens. Two magnificent Eucalyptus globulus, one with gray green Helichrysum massed at its base, buttress the garden’s edge. Rusty gears (see left), once a dumbwaiter, now a sculpture, echo the color of the house. A trough is now a quiet fountain. The leafy screening to the east, an example of the harmonious yet variety of different hedging styles that surround the property, includes a cow itch tree (Lagunaria patersonii) and the yellow trumpet flowers of Brugmansia ‘Charles Grimaldi.’ Three giant Eucalyptus sideroxylon, distinguished by striking rusty black bark, contribute to the impression that this garden, designed by Chris Rosmini, has been here forever. A Woodland Garden for A Craftsman House 14410 Villa Woods Place This four-year-old beautifully detailed Craftsman-style house begged for a wooded setting, and that is what its owners designed for it. Trees beautify all, bringing serenity and a calming presence. A majestic sycamore towering near the garage, a jacaranda abutting the curb, an elegant oak shadowing the swings, and a fast-growing redwood all are fine anchors to the front garden design. One enters the main garden under the branches of a grove of unusually large Japanese maples (above). On the fence is a collection of birdhouses, some made by the owner. Many handsome river rocks, remnants of the former Japanese-style garden, provide a subtle underlying stability. A path edged by two kinds of bamboo leads to a trellised bench from which there is a fine view of house and garden. Under a commanding Aleppo pine is a gate to a side yard, where there is an unusual collection of carefully tended species. Here find the genus Porschius, species convertibilis, variety 1960, and two members of genus Corvettius, varieties 1960 and 1966. These are perennial, appearing mostly in spring and summer.
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