Local Color : Garden Events

I spent a day this weekend at The Huntington again. With my daughter this time. She has a paper on 19th Century art due this week so we took our time with the exhibits before making the rounds through the gardens. They are so beautiful this time of year. The roses are spectacular and I have never seen so much color in a desert garden. (read more about my last visit here)

While we were in San Marino, I realized I was missing a local garden viewing that is my long-time favorite. Sharon is my gardening guru. The plant whisperer of our inland foothills. I have followed her advice via her email newsletters and open garden days to much success in my own garden. She advocates planting for your own specific conditions, being water-wise even with roses, and using perennials almost exclusively, all without forcing or babying anything into growing that doesn't really want to. Knowing what grows best in our corner of the world is her secret—here it's hot and dry in the summer, sometimes excessively windy, and can go below freezing in the winter. That bit of wisdom alone takes a lot of the headache out of the process. The pics above and below show Sharon's garden as it looks right now. Her garden (and one or two others) will be open again in May. If you're interested in details, please leave a comment or send an email.

There are so many home and garden events happening in this area over the next month or so, it will be nearly impossible to take them all in. Besides the small, neighborhood events like the one I just mentioned, there are larger more elaborate goings-on, some of which are listed here in the LA Times. Here are a few I'm most interested in:

I already have my tickets for the annual Pasadena Showcase House which opened today and runs through May 16. This is the 46th Showcase to benefit arts programs in and around Los Angeles. The historic, chateau-inspired Cravens Estate, built in 1929, has been given a makeover inside and out by 25+ local interior designers and landscapers. You can view their progress and get ticket information here.

After attending the Showcase House this coming Friday, I hope to make time on the weekend to head down to the O.C. for the 20th Annual Spring Garden Show held April 22-25 at South Coast Plaza. More than 75 specialty vendors will be on hand as well as display gardens full of great ideas for our own yards and patios. A big bonus: shopping at Crate & Barrel, Pottery Barn, NapaStyle, Restoration Hardware, Sur la Table and the Macy's Home Store all in the same wing.(learn more here) From South Coast Plaza it's just a short drive to one of Orange County's most beautiful garden centers: Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar. It would be a shame to be so close and not stop by.

Closer to home, from April 30-May 2, the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden will hold its annual LA Garden Show. This show focuses on green living in Southern California offering workshops, lectures and demonstrations on such things as edible gardens and water-wise plant choices. (learn more here)

Back down the coast again, on May 7th, the Laguna Beach Garden Club will host a tour featuring seven private gardens in Woods Cove, one of the oldest neighborhoods in the city. (learn more here) The 7th is a Friday so it will take some rescheduling in order to attend. Perhaps I'll just drive down on Saturday the 8th and take a stroll through the neighborhood on my own. Any day spent in Laguna Beach is a good one.

Sunday at the Rose Bowl with Eddie

Look! There I am! On a beautiful blue-sky Sunday at the Rose Bowl with Eddie Ross.

For just over two hours, Eddie led a happy group of 20 or so through the maze that is this world-famous flea market. Along the way, we stopped to listen and watch as he explained why he would choose a particular piece and what he might do with it once he got it home. These small chairs he liked for their paint potential—a glossy black, perhaps?—and the ease with which the seats could be removed and recovered. While Eddie was talking, I was totally distracted by those rush-seated, coral-red arm chairs behind him. They would be fantastic around a breakfast table and might have been mine if I had such a thing as a room just for breakfast.

This beautiful little chandelier was only $47. Click on the pic to see the details better. The combination of jade green and creamy white china was so pretty and look at the leafy accents on the arms. The fluting on the white areas gave it extra charm too. At that price, even if it had to be rewired, this light would be perfect for a bathroom, as the centerpiece in a feminine bedroom, or over a small dining table.

Eddie paused at this display of lavender glass to explain to us that it once was clear. An article I found that explains how that happens also warns of the possibility of fraud in this area of collectibles. Click on the pic if you're interested in buying only authentically sun-colored pieces. Or collect it anyway just because it's pretty. Beauty and even "antiques" are in the eye of the beholder so long as you're just decorating and not investing.

These gorgeous lamps were carved wood and quite large. Their patinaed white and gold finish was perfectly aged. A woman in our group snapped them up before Eddie was even done talking about them. Here's a good tip about lampshades Eddie gave us that I'll pass along: take a look at the Better Homes & Gardens line of shades available at WalMart. He said the shapes and fabrication are nice and that they're just as easy to customize or embellish with your own trims as more expensive shades so why not check them out?


What did I find for myself? Well, besides all the chairs that I coveted but haven't the space for, there were only a few things that caught my eye today. Two tablecloths (the bottom two of the foursome above) that I'll cut up and add to a pieced and patched table runner I'm thinking about making. And, below, an English J&G Meakin platter that will either become part of a wall display or a receptacle for jewelry on my dresser top, and an assortment of starfish and coral branches from the "shell lady" who is always there and has great items for what I think are really fair prices. (She sells her seashells at the Pasadena City College Flea Market too if you're in this area. First Sunday of every month.) With those small coral branches, I think I'll try my hand at making my own bottle toppers. You know what I'm talking about, right?

My treasures don't compare at all though to the fun of meeting Eddie and Jaithan and the opportunity to spend time with other blogger friends. My only regret is that I somehow did not get one decent pic of Jaithan as he was busy buzzing around herding the group and keeping Eddie on track. They're a pretty great team. ((Note to Jaithan: thanks for taking the perfectly-posed pic of Eddie and me!)) I was very happy to finally meet Janet of the Gardeners Cottage! She was there with her friend Melissa (visiting Janet all the way from Kauai) and they were both just as fun and genuine as I knew Janet would be. I also met another Traci (with an "i") who happens to live right here in Upland. Traci is a photographer who has recently begun a style and inspiration blog called muse margaret. Go pay her a visit. And while you're there, jump over to her professional blog and check out her gorgeous photography. So nice to meet you, Traci!

All in all, it was a very fun day! Gorgeous, perfect weather, charming hosts, loads of information and helpful hints, and new friends. Everything I expected and more. If you have the chance to attend one of Eddie's events, I say "do!".

Click here to go to Eddie's blog for his event schedule and more inspiration than you'll know what to do with. And I'm linking this post to Rhoda's Thrifty Treasure's Party over at her blog, Southern Hospitality. Click on the pic below to see what everyone else found over the weekend!

Fall? Not So Much

All the design and decor blogs (okay, not ALL, but it feels that way), and certainly all of the shelter mags, are talking about fall. Fall decorating. Fall trends. Fall wardrobes. Fall flowers and the beautiful turning leaves. Fall menus. Fall tablescapes. Fall is in the air. In the wind. In the craft stores since July for heaven's sake!!

Fall wreath via countryliving.com—not my house.

Here's what fall looks like in my backyard. This photo taken from inside the house will have to do because I am NOT GOING OUT THERE.


That thermometer is in the SHADE by the way. All day. And this has been our weather for several weeks now. Hot. Dry. A little windy. Lovely, right? Feel that nip in the air? Oh wait, that's just the AC kicking on.

Because I won't go outdoors any more than absolutely necessary, this is what fall looks like in my neglected garden. The roses are giving it a good try, but they're tired.

And whatever was in these little pots, above, was removed a couple of weeks ago because it was dead, dead, dead. There are some troopers still making a good effort despite the sun and heat and grasshoppers doing what they can to decimate everything in their paths. The succulents and sun-lovers are very happy.

The biggest part of my problem is that there's nothing remotely "fallish" about cacti and heat waves and flip flops. To cool off a little, I made a pitcher of lemonade last weekend and drank the whole thing myself in one day. Lemonade doesn't really work with pot pies and roasted vegetables. And it's too hot out to turn the oven on anyway. More salads and grilled fish for me, please.

countryliving.com offers loads of fall menu ideas—if it's fall at your house.

Because of the blogs and magazines, I'm starting to get a complex and feeling like an under-achieving party pooper because I haven't changed out my mantelscape or added pumpkins to my porch decor. Give me a few weeks and maybe I'll get into it.

Fall tablescape via potterybarn.com

It will likely be almost Halloween before it cools enough in this neck of the woods to call it fall. Just in time, the weather will change so that all the princesses and fairies in tights and tulle will freeze their patooties off trick-or-treating. For extra fun, it might even rain! That's kind of how it works around here. Blazing hot summer one day, cold blustery fall the next.

Thank you so much for allowing me to pout a little. Truthfully, I'm just jealous because I can't join in the fun. Not yet anyway. It feels so wrong to condemn an innocent pumpkin to certain rotting death on my blazing hot doorstep. On a happier note, my favorite local street festival takes place the weekend before Halloween and that always gets me in the mood for fall. Fingers crossed that it's below 80 degrees that day!

If you're here in the I.E. and haven't checked out this fair, you should. It's lots of fun!

And I suppose I should take some solace in the fact that it all evens out on New Year's Day—when those of you who celebrated fall earlier and more traditionally than I did are watching the big parade on tv, wrapped up tight in front of a blazing fire with five feet of impenetrable snow on the ground outside. In all likelihood, I'll be back in my flip flops with the house wide open enjoying the lovely mid-seventies day!

I promise not to rub it in when I'm enjoying this beautiful blue-sky weather on New Year's Day—and you're not.

Many of the streets in my neighborhood are lined with liquidambar trees like the one at the top of this post. Their leaves turn the most gorgeous shades of gold and orange and russet red before they fall. So I have hope, even on a hundred-degree day, that fall will come–such that we have it here in Southern California. Just not quite yet.

Is anyone else feeling left out by fall? Bah-humbugging seasonal decor? Please let me know I'm not alone! (Or feel free to scold me for being bitter!)

UPDATE: If you are torn about seasonal decorating like I am and want to listen to a fun (and funny!) conversation about fall and holiday decor—what works, what doesn't, and what they simply tolerate—tune in to The Skirted Roundtable's discussion on this topic. They start with fall and move right on through to New Year's Eve. Thanks Ladies! I don't feel like such a grinch now that I've listened to the three of you!