Well I haven't posted for a while because I went to Spain. The main purpose of my trip was to work on my Spanish and see some translations since I'm an interpreter. Interpreter first and gardener second. But while I was there I also had some time to look at some gardens to get some ideas for my second job. I was interested in the gardens there because California has a Mediterranean climate, one of only
5 regions in the world. The others being the Mediterranean basin, and parts of Chile, South Africa and Australia. They comprise only 2% of the world's land areas.
It was interesting to see so many of the same plants that we have here. One thing that especially surprised me was seeing California natives used in gardens there. Here are some pics from the gardens in the Alhambra. I was really shocked to see things like clarkia (1st pic), festuca idahoensis (2nd pic), larkspur (last pic) and more.
And craziest of all coastal redwoods. (see next entry) Who knew?
Of course our 'exotics' are natives somewhere else, so it goes to reason that the same thing happens with the coolest Cal natives. It's still surprising to see them though. Redwoods, Madrones & Manzanita in Christchurch, NZ! Traveling far away... then finding something that identifies so strongly as home. Not what I expected.
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