Liriope and Ophiopogon are tough shade plants often used as ground covers in the garden. Mondo Grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) is a dark green grass like plant that is actually in the lily family. It creeps slowly with underground rhizomes becoming a dense shade loving groundcover. It can get 6” tall and has purplish flowers rarely….

This is the time of the year that has the most color at Dawn Gardens. The thousands of Daffodil flowers in the Spring can’t compare to the millions of colorful leaves in November. Red Split Leaf Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Crimson Queen’) Green Split Leaf Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum ‘Dissectum’) Smoke Tree (Cotinus ‘Grace’) Pacific…

Oak root fungus is a common root problem of ornamental plants. It is a common cause for the death of trees and shrubs. The scientific name is Armillaria mellea and the visible signs are mushrooms growing around the base of the plants or on the main roots.   The mushrooms appear in the late fall…

Grey plants are usually drought tolerant because they reflect the light and don’t get as hot as other plants so they don’t need as much water. Grey Leaved Groundcovers: Tanacetum densum ssp. amani Artemisia versicolor ‘Sea Foam’ Silene uniflora ‘Druetts Variegated’. Many of the variegated plants like this one have a grey effect in the…

During the hot months of summer a lot of water is required to keep a large garden looking good. Fortunately Dawn Gardens has an inexpensive source of water from a canal about a mile away. The canal delivers water to an 8” pipe through stainless steel filtering screens to homeowners in Iron Mountain Estates and…

  As I get older I realize that it will be harder and harder to maintain a large garden. Rock gardens are becoming more interesting to me because you can fit a lot of plants in a small place. Rock garden plants blend with rocks to give an alpine feeling to the garden. The rock…

There are many plants in Dawn Gardens that are interesting and unusual. I am a plant collector at heart and have plants that have unusual flowers, leaves, bark, fruit or roots. Here are a few of them: Beautyberry (Callicarpa bodinieri)   Double Clematis (Clematis ‘Multi Blue’)   Deutzia ‘Pink-a-Boo’ Pink Leaved Beech (Fagus sylvatica ‘Tricolor’)…

It is hard to find a plant that loves full shade but Hostas have hundreds of varieties and all of them do well in full shade. They are completely deciduous in the winter so it might be prudent to plant them with evergreen ferns so there will be something to look at in the winter….

Digger Pine (some people prefer to call it the Gray or Foothill Pine) is native to California’s foothills up to 4500’. Its botanical name is Pinus sabiniana. One of the most notable aspects of the Digger Pine is the huge cones. The pine cones are very large and heavy and can be dangerous if one…

Dawn Gardens are mainly for ornamental plants but I installed some vegetable beds and a fruit orchard for clients who want to see how it is done. FRUIT: Raspberry ‘Heritage’ Raspberry ‘Fall Gold’ Watermelon Bartlett Pear Apple-Pear Dwarf Peach 6 different types peaches grafted on one tree Pumpkin Cantaloupe Persimmon (Diospyros kaki ‘Hachiya’) Dwarf Pomegranate…