I've featured Ann Nichols' extraordinary garden in Piedmont, California
before. It was much later in the season. Trust me, it's even more kick-ass now---click on the highlighted link to compare....and eat your heart out. I did. Trust me...
Forgive me if I don't label things: I trust you recognize spiral aloe (
Aloe polyphylla). I confess, I don't recognize 90% of the plants in this garden...not that you need to know the names. The garden speaks for itself!
A view from afar...
Egad. What can you say? A bromeliad extravaganza!!!
You'll see this path at the end as we go back....totally different look...
Betcha dollars to donuts that's a Marcia Donahue sculpture (she lives nearby)...
There's the first glimpse of Ann this time. Admiring a lot of rare ferns Kiamara Ludwig brought to the garden for me to take home...(I'm a lucky guy)...
These alpine strips had just been planted my last visit.
Kiamara helps Ann in the garden. Kiamara is EVERYWHERE in the East Bay. She has become one of my idols--she's done so many things for me and gardening I can't begin to acknowledge her...she deserves a handful of blog posts, which I may one day get around to.
Is this not delightful? I asked Ann where to photograph her--she wanted the cat on her head!
Blechnum occidentale: I admired it and went home with a big clump dug up by Kiamara...
Going down the pathway: totally different!
I didn't notice the Pleiones going up the path...
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| Glimpse of the amazing Ace Hardware garden center 700 feet away from Ann's house |
And finally a closeup shot of Ann at Gardens at Merrit Lake where she helps maintain the spectacular Vireya Rhododendron garden...which also has fine collections of passionflowers and begonias as you can see. Few gardeners on the planet pack such gardening vision and skill, and fewer still are as utterly lovable as this petite powerhouse of talent. How lucky we've been to visit her garden again (and again!) and hopefully again soon!
