Steps allow you to get around in a garden. You can add interest by varying the material, the color, the edges and the thickness. Here are a few photos of the steps in Dawn Gardens: Slate steppingstones Cut 12″x24″ flagstone steppingstones One large thick piece of flagstone These are 4×12 beams elevated by 2x4s nailed…

Dawn Gardens has many different ornamental grasses that are used for their drought and poor soil tolerance: Alkali Sacaton (Sporobolus airiodes) Shenadoah Switch Grass (Panicum ‘Shenadoah’) Giant Feather Grass (Stipa gigantea) Japanese Silver Grass (Miscanthus sinensis) Evergreen Miscanthus (Miscanthus transmorrisonensis) Pennisetum orientale ‘Karley Rose’ Pennisetum orientale ‘Tall Tails’ Pennisetum ‘White Lancer’ Love Grass (Eragrostis sp….

Most plants with large leaves like the shade or part shade. They give a coarse texture to the garden and make the area seem smaller. They are a good contrast to the finer texture plants. Chinese Mayapple and fruit (Podophyllum pleianthum) Hosta Lily (Hosta cv. ) There are hundreds of cultivars of Hosta Lilies, most…

Violas are perennials that are usually treated as cool season annuals in the garden. These include Pansies (Viola wittrockiana). They are usually planted in the late fall when the weather is cool. They will bloom throughout the winter and spring giving the garden much needed color. As the weather gets warmer in the spring they…

Dawn Landscaping maintains the landscape at Confluence Church in Auburn, CA. Confluence Church is in Placer County at 1101 Auburn Ravine Rd. and has the main sanctuary building, the gym, and Legacy Christian School. SPRING FLOWERS: 2000 Daffodils at entry slope 2022 2023 2024 Front entry 2026 Lawn pathway tulips – 2024 After tulips are…

Autumn is a second Spring When every leaf is a flower – Albert Camus Here are some fall colors for 2024 at Dawn Gardens: Sugar Maples (Acer saccharum) Tupelo (Nyssa sylvatica) Sierra Dogwood (Cornus nuttallii) Hornbeam (Carpinus betulus) Japanese Maple (Acer palmatum) Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria ‘Grace’) Smoke Tree (Cotinus coggygria ‘Purpureus’) Golden Spirit Smoke…

The Station Public House is an outdoor restaurant in Auburn, California maintained by Dawn Landscaping. It was opened in 2020 and because of COVID it was the only restaurant allowed to be open in Auburn for several months since it was an outdoor restaurant. Tulips and purple Primula obconica We try to keep flowers in…

Most conifers are evergreen but a few are deciduous and have beautiful fall foliage. This is a pleasant surprise to most gardeners. Gold Rush Dawn Redwood (Metasequoia glyptostroboides ‘Gold Rush’) Bald Cypress (Taxodium distichum) is native to the SE US and grows in the swamps. Bald Cypress knees in the water serve to exchange air…

Many summer bulbs are native to South Africa where they get rain in the Winter and lots of sun in the summer. At Dawn Gardens they are planted in February so they get the advantage of the winter rains and bloom in the warm season. Crocosmia ‘Lucifer’ Tiger Flower (Tigridia pavonia) Crimson Flag (Schizostylis coccinea)…

In August of 2024 I traveled to Portland Oregon to visit several gardens hosted by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon. Then in July of 2025 I visited Bountiful Farms. ROZENBOOM RESIDENCE Gene Rozenboom is especially interested in dwarf conifers and Japanese Maples. The dwarf conifers are beautiful and very slow growing so they need…