About the drawings, I made them after the fact - not to steer the design of the garden. I'm with you guys on that. Why pin yourself down? No point.
I just got a new shrub from down your way, Acacia merinthophora. The popular name is "Zig zag Wattle". I find its leaves hang down like a Calder mobile. I've also got what we call an Australian Tea tree, Leptospermum laevigatum that was one of the first trees I planted. I suppose most of the southern hemisphere plants I have come Chile and south american generally. The plants from Oz you see everywhere are Agapanthus and Kangaroo paws. The grevelias and others of the protea family are much admired but so hard to grow.
I feel pretty much the same way you do about growing natives, except that many that are from California are new to me anyway. So if they look amazing I'll take them. I consider their being well adapted a bonus but I'm no purist. There are lots of purists around here who think there are moral reasons to grow only natives. I just grow what pleases my eye and I have no xenophobia toward plants from other places.
I just got a new shrub from down your way, Acacia merinthophora. The popular name is "Zig zag Wattle". I find its leaves hang down like a Calder mobile. I've also got what we call an Australian Tea tree, Leptospermum laevigatum that was one of the first trees I planted. I suppose most of the southern hemisphere plants I have come Chile and south american generally. The plants from Oz you see everywhere are Agapanthus and Kangaroo paws. The grevelias and others of the protea family are much admired but so hard to grow.
I feel pretty much the same way you do about growing natives, except that many that are from California are new to me anyway. So if they look amazing I'll take them. I consider their being well adapted a bonus but I'm no purist. There are lots of purists around here who think there are moral reasons to grow only natives. I just grow what pleases my eye and I have no xenophobia toward plants from other places.
