One way to add interest to a garden is to add accent plants. These plants have a contrasting color, form, flowers, texture or size compared to the adjacent plants. Color Accents Red Japanese Maple is a good contrast to the surrounding green foliage. The weeping Willow is also a good accent. Red Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifolius…

Spring is the time for most of the wildflowers in the Sierra Foothills. Although small, the native wildflowers at Dawn Gardens are beautiful. Shooting Star (Dodecatheon hendersonii) Unknown wildflower in many places at Dawn Gardens Chinese Houses (Collinsia heterophylla) bloom in April and May and by June we weedeat them to the ground. There are…

April thru June are the months that are the most floriferous at Dawn Gardens. We generally have open gardens at the beginning of May. There are also many flowers in the summer but it is generally too hot to hold open gardens. Here are some scenes from spring of 2021: Chinese Houses wildflowers Halimiocistus wintoniensis…

Photographers love to come to Dawn Gardens to photograph their clients in a beautiful garden context. Wedding pictures, graduation photos, high school senior pictures and other special occasions can be enhanced by flowers, green scenery, water features and moss covered rocks. In the Spring season there is an abundance of flowers including Flowering Cherries, Daffodils,…

The Station Public House is an outdoor restaurant in Auburn, California maintained by Dawn Landscaping. It was opened in 2020 and has been very successful. We try to keep flowers in the beds blooming year around. Tulips, Daffodils and Grape Hyacinths are the favorites for Spring. Zinnias and Vinca are the best for tolerating summer…

Trees create the ambience of a garden. They provide shade to cool off the day and provide color in their flowers, seeds and fall foliage. Without trees a garden would not have a feeling of space or protection. Deciduous Trees Golden Rain Tree (Koelreuteria paniculata) This is a dwarf variety of the Smoke Tree (Cotinus…

Junipers are some of the most drought and poor soil tolerant plants used in gardens. They have been used so much in the 1950’s and 1960’s that they have become a cliche and are seldom used any more. Junipers are so carefree that I have started to use them at Dawn Gardens. Here are four…

Winter and spring bulbs at Dawn Gardens are in bloom from January through May. About 5,000 bulbs have been planted almost every year since 2002. Even though over 50,000 have been planted there are probably more than 250,000 flowers now every year because the bulbs, especially the daffodils, multiply every year. Many people ask how…

I have used many different vines to grow on the wire fences and trellises at Dawn Gardens. Here are a few of them: Chilean Bellflower (Lapageria rosea). National flower of Chile. Variegated Porcelain Berry (Ampelopsis brevipedunculata ‘Elegans’)  The birds and the bees love these berries which are green, purple, rose, blue, white and pink. Deciduous…

The following is a series of photos of the same spot at Dawn Gardens showing different weather conditions at different seasons. The photos go backwards in time. Note the different lighting conditions in the different seasons and different weather. April 17, 2021 April 2, 2021 March 14, 2021 February 21, 2021 before sunrise. Hills are…