Cassy Aoyagi: Going Native

Los Angeles Times. December 11, 2010. By Patt Morrison: Once upon a time, California wholesaled its fabulous flora. The searing brilliance of poppies and lupines and the pale greens of grasses spread themselves like titanic picnic cloths over a seemingly endless landscape. Now, of course, much of this vast plant menagerie has been plowed or paved or plucked away to the margins, even toward extinction. Horticulturist Theodore Payne saw this unhappy prospect when he came here more than a century ago from England as a teenager; in his 70 years in Southern California, he crafted native plant legacies in gardens from Santa Ana, Exposition Park and Caltech to Descanso Gardens.

Get to Know Natives

Glendale News Press. May 19, 2010. By Riley Hooper: Karen and Peter Veloz are living in sustainable luxury in the hills of Glendale. About two years ago, with the help of FormLA, a Los Angeles landscape design company that focuses on sustainability, they ripped out their back lawn and put in hardscapes amid a landscape of California-native plants.

The concept behind the design was to create outdoor living spaces, Karen Veloz said, and so the backyard features outdoor seating areas, a fire pit, barbecue and bar, wine cellar and infinity spa pool, or “spool.”

Travel the World at Home

Home Wizards. May 14, 2010. With Cindy Dole: It’s the next best thing to being there – bringing Australia, Chile, South Africa and the Mediterranean to your garden and your world! In Southern California, plants from those regions are ideal because of the similarity in climate.

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