APLD ~ APLD Members ~ Member of the Month

APLD Members ~ Member of the Month

Choosing Plant Materials to Match Varied Environments

Debe Holland, APLD

A Santa Fe Garden:

Santa Fe gardens are high chaparral, 7,000 feet, so the plant material needs to be xeric or tolerant of little water. Temperature challenges too--from the low teens (in fact last December it got down to 1 degree Fahrenheit), to the nineties. With intense sunshine almost every day of the year, this is a unique, challenging and beautiful place to garden.

The plant material in this garden consists of Russian sage, Blue Avena grass, Jupiter’s beard, Boxwood, Virginia creeper, Miscanthus along a meandering pathway leading to a sitting area.

Water is quite the issue here in the city of Santa Fe, limiting water features in the garden to bubbling stones.

A Hawaiian Garden:

Gardening in Hawaii is a real treat. What we may know elsewhere as a house plant, in Hawaii it grows to what it is intended to be--a tree or large shrub. Plants and trees would bloom and re-bloom constantly year round, without ever displaying fall color. Plants grow so quickly in Hawaii that landscape maintenance business flourishes.

While the north shore area, Haiku/ Hana, is lush like a tropical rain forest due to the amount of rain, where I lived in Kihei, Maui it is hot and dry. The landscape needs irrigation to get the lush garden look and designs typically consist of a swimming pool or a natural outcropping of rock for pool and hot tub combination. In this garden the plant material includes Areca palm, false Heather and Ixora in pots, Rhaphiolepis Indica, Mondo grass, and Oyster plant.

The Oregon Garden:

Oregon, the plethora of the plant material world, has a mild climate that supports strong plant growth, especially so with good soil amendment and proper drainage. There is no limit on the style of water feature you can apply to your designs including a tremendous variety of aquatic plants and fish to complete the ambience.

Fall is my favorite time of year with the colors ranging from golden yellow to crimson reds with the intense light across the sky along with the crisp fresh air.

In this garden the plants are Corsican mint, Full Moon maple, ornamental grasses, dwarf Rhododendrons, evergreen Clematis and a purple smoke tree.

Certified Members seeking to be profiled should send before and after photos with SHORT design intent statement to:

Bethany Dennis
APLD Communications Manager
Email: communications@apld.org
Phone: 717-238-9780

* PHOTOS SHOULD BE CLEAR COLOR PRINTS OR JPEG COMPRESSED FILES