Let's Talk Plants!

By Susan Starr. This is the last column in our series, The Real Dirt on…. In February we launch a new series, on gardening with children....

By Susan Krzywicki. Beatrix Potter, of Peter Rabbit fame, was born in 1866 to a well-off British family. From an early age, she was...

By Carol Buckley. One of the best-loved gardens in Great Britain reaches out to the English Channel seemingly at the wild edge of the...

By Susan Krzywicki. Barbara Menzies and two of her friends were the impetus behind the Stinson Beach wildflower shows that ran from 1958...

By Carol Buckley. When one thinks of the novels of Edith Wharton—and indeed, her friend, Henry James—one thinks of Americans abroad...

By Susan Krzywicki. Local naturalist Helen Witham Chamlee was one of the creators of the Canyoneers, the San Diego Natural History...

By Carol Buckley. One of Great Britain’s foremost landscape designers for decades has been the Italian-born Hon. Lady Lennox-Boyd. Born...

By Susan Krzywicki. I am working on an exhibit for the La Jolla Historical Society about canyons in San Diego—the complex ecosystem of...

By Carol Buckley. Alice Eastwood was a plucky and bright Canadian American who headed the Department of Botany at the preeminent...

By Susan Krzywicki. Interested in native plants? Calscape, created by Dennis Mudd, is an online resource you won't want to miss. The...

By Carol Buckley. I’ll never forget a talk about George Washington Carver given by an older student when I was in grammar school, but the...

By Susan Krzywicki. Sugar production in California has a long and, excuse the pun, lumpy history. But understanding the history of sugar...

By Carol Buckley. The story of landscape architect Roberto Burle Marx pivots on a paradox of colonialism. Born in 1909 in São Paulo, and...

By Susan Krzywicki. Connections always make knowledge more fun. When I saw that Harriet Strong had been educated at Miss Mary Atkins'...

By Carol Buckley. One of Australia’s foremost garden designers was born in York, England, in 1895. Edna Margaret Walling began her love...

By Susan Krzywicki. There seems to be no end to the fascinating characters that have contributed to our state’s botanical and...

By Carol Buckley. Perched on a slope high above the Pacific Ocean on Kauai, 20-year-old Horace Mann Jr. collected a fern (to be named...

By Susan Krzywicki. Peter Raven is the beloved American botanist and environmentalist who has advised the Pope, run the famed Missouri...

By Carol Buckley. As a daughter of 19th century Massachusetts, Mary Tyler Peabody Mann, born in 1806, was exposed to the...

By Susan Krzywicki. Mary Katharine (Layne) Brandegee was born in 1844 in western Tennessee and frequently moved westward with her parents...

By Carol Buckley. In these times of growing concern about land use and the need for development, the British landscape architect Dame...

By Susan Krzywicki. Ed Peterson (1905-2005) was “seedsman and volunteer extraordinaire” for the Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers...

By Carol Buckley. Perhaps the Chelsea Flower Show’s existence owes more to one person than any other: Sir Harry James Veitch. Born in...

By: Susan Krzywicki. Betty Young is a major figure in California native plant restoration nursery management. She’s “written the book” on...