April 2026 Newsletter: April, Full-on Spring

Greetings, friends –

It’s April, full-on spring! It’s a great time to visit gardens and get some new ideas for yourself. Whether you go to a botanical garden, a demonstration garden in a local park, or one of the many garden tours that benefit various community organizations, now is the time.

We really like the small, self-directed local tours of private gardens. Typically, you pay a fee to an organization such as a water district or garden club and get a list of addresses. Then you can drive by on your own schedule during the allotted tour dates. These are almost always small spaces maintained by the owners and full of ideas that can relate to your own capabilities. I could do that too!

For the design tips section this month, we decided to show a three-photo profile of one such garden we toured one April, an Eco-tour for the local water district. It was the first time we had ever seen the native California Wax Myrtle pruned as a hedge. We had no idea it could be done so beautifully.

And don’t forget to visit your native habitats in April. Find time to take a hike in a beautiful local ecosystem where plants are thriving on their own.

~ Saxon Holt and Nora Harlow

April Blog Post: Woolly Blue Curls

Woolly blue curls (Trichostema lanatum) is well known to California’s native plant gardeners, but likely less so to gardeners elsewhere who might have the climate and soils to grow it well. Native to sandy or rocky soils in the coastal mountains of central to southern California and northern Baja California, T. lanatum is a superb evergreen flowering shrub or subshrub for gardens in summer-dry climates.

Read On

Instagram Memories

April 7, 2023

“The South African hill at UC Berkeley Botanic Gardens with Babiana, Ursinia, and Lampranthus among rocks and Aloe.”

(For any of you perceptive readers who may have questioned that Aloe ID in the original caption, we since found out it is actually Brunsvigia josephinae).

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Garden Tour Inspiration

Morella californica (syn. Myrica californica) California Wax Myrtle evergreen native shrub as privacy hedge in hillside garden by street, Northern California.

Gardeners with small spaces are almost always looking for privacy hedges. Evergreen shrubs that can grow tall and be pruned hard are not easily adapted to summer-dry climates. The traditional English boxwood is the classic look, but tall ones are very hard to pull off in our climate. Too often we see boring and invasive Texas privet. When we saw this California Wax Myrtle hedge during a local garden tour, a lightbulb went off, followed by multiple questions such as “why haven’t I seen this before?”

Northern California hillside summer-dry border with Lomandra ‘White Sands’ mixed with English lavender and Blue Fescue, framed by Leucadendron and Salvia.

When we saw this garden designed by Allison Blume, the beautiful variegated Lomandra ‘White Sands’ (also sold as ‘Platinum Beauty’) was just becoming popular and being recognized as a very tough, low water plant. We already grew it as a specimen plant and focal point in our garden, but here multiple plants are used very effectively, framed by a Leucadendron and purple Salvia, with the repeated shapes of sheared balls of English lavender and Blue fescue. We are always looking for plants with interesting foliage color and textures that have long-lasting appeal, and here is a great combination.

Quercus agrifolia, California live oak tree seen through Wax myrtle hedge in Northern California hillside garden.

It is really unusual to find full-grown trees in small residential gardens, and anytime we can find an example, we learn from it. This California live oak tree was on the site before the house was built and had to be pruned very carefully away from the neighboring garage. It will need to continue to be well cared for so that it does not become top-heavy, but that is true for any major tree that is pruned as it grows into its site. We find it inspiring to know an oak tree can fit into this space.

Want to learn more?

By choosing naturally occurring, climate-appropriate plants, gardeners can promote healthier ecosystems and make a difference from their own backyards. Gardening in Summer-Dry Climates guides you through the journey of cultivating a stunning, biodiverse landscape with gorgeous pictures, detailed advice, and an expansive plant compendium. Plus, when you order it directly from us, we will autograph it for you.

Get More Ideas in our Book

Links We Like

There are numerous garden tours in every community every spring. In Northern California, one of the longest running and most respected is Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour. This year it is May 2 & 3, so there’s still time to see it.

Timely Links

We would love to hear about any resources you would like to pass along. We all get these snippets from our news feeds and inboxes. Let’s share the best, and we will keep the running list so you can find them later on the Links We Like page.