The Dry Garden: Wild in Westwood
Posted on | September 24, 2010 | 2 Comments
Katarina Eriksson, former manager of the herb garden at the Huntington and now manager of Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden's new Grow Native Nursery in Westwood. She stands on a site that last week was about to be leveled to make way for 10,000 plants. In a partnership with the federal Department of Veterans Affairs, returned servicemen and women will be working with Eriksson in the nursery, which opens this weekend. Click on the image for more information. Photo: Emily Green
For many Southern Californians, switching from a conventional landscape to a native plant garden starts on the freeways.
The best nurseries can be a long drive away. Only in recent years have some native plant outposts crept into relatively central parts of Los Angeles. The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wildflowers & Native Plants runs the most fragrant stall at the Sunday Hollywood Farmers Market, and in January Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden began selling California natives on Thursday afternoons at the Westwood Farmers Market.
This weekend marks Rancho’s expansion of that Westwood enterprise into a standing garden center in a dreamy sliver of West Los Angeles running from Constitution Avenue nearly to Sunset Boulevard. Depending on whom you ask, it’s 12 acres, 15 acres or even 25 acres. Whichever figure is right, it’s an enchanting site in a secluded vale sheltered by old stands of eucalyptus.
Click here to keep reading in the Los Angeles Times about the new native plant nursery from Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. Also watch the Times print edition this weekend for the fall planting special, which will include a piece on growing natives in containers by crack gardener and environment writer Ilsa Setziol.
Comments
2 Responses to “The Dry Garden: Wild in Westwood”
Leave a Reply
North American Native Plant Societies
After the lawn
Garden blogs
September 25th, 2010 @ 1:50 pm
Emily,
Thank you so much for the wonderful article. Many people who read the ariticle today came out to the “GNN” and garden and really loved the plants. It was a pleasure seeing you again and please come out and see the full nursery with some new wonderful plants!
Florally yours
Kat
November 7th, 2010 @ 2:44 pm
For those of you that wanted the new native nursery to be opened on weekends, we heard you loud and clear.
Starting Nov 10th, we are opened Wednesdays to Sundays, 9-5, closed Monday, Tuesdays and all major holidays. Come out and see what’s blooming!