Gift of Persia: Exotic Gardens  for California

…to take place on Friday July 15th at The Gardens at Heather Farm.

Fountains Nishat Bagh Mughal Gardens: Wikipedia by Mckay Savage

The day-long event boasts an impressive roster of speakers, with an agenda encompassing horticulture and garden design history. Promising to be thought-provoking, challenging and inspirational, talks include a presentation by Patrick N. Hunt, PhD, archeologist/art historian from Stanford. Hunt will be discussing how elements of the Persian garden moved to other cultures.

Courtyard Garden in Rajasthan India (photo: Garden Conservancy)

Seminar participants can look forward to a lively recounting of recent trends in a presentation by Zahid Sardar, author of New Garden Design: Photography by Marion Brenner.  Sardar’s tantalizing topic: Inspiration for Private Paradises.

Torre de las Damas Photo © Alice Joyce

Uber-designer Davis Dalbok of San Francisco’s Living Green will speak on ‘Romance Plants for Northern California.’ Since moving to the Bay Area, I’ve had instances of rapture when encountering Dalbok’s work in outdoor settings exhibiting high drama and unmistakable panache. I hope to gather fresh ideas when listening to Dalbok muse on “plants and design borrowed from East and West of the Mediterranean.”

Horticulturist Michael DeHart is at the helm of the gardens at the Getty Museum in Brentwood, and the Getty Villa in Malibu. DeHart’s expertise extends to native flora of ancient sites in Italy and France, which should pique the interest of California gardeners who look to the Mediterranean for drought-tolerant species. DeHart’s  presentation:  ’California’s Getty Villa – Roman Architecture with an Italian Sensitivity of Planting.’

Landscape architect Todd R. Cole will shares his thoughts on how a classical garden style translates in a cool,contemporary garden design.

Below: A secret garden in Granada … with a design that reflects Moorish influence.

Carmen de los Martires Photo © Alice Joyce

Christy Edstrom O’Hara, a landscape architect on the faculty of California Polytechnic State University, has gained renown for her research on historic landscape preservation and restoration. Prof. O’Hara presents: The Rain in Spain: Moorish Lessons in Planting Design and Water Use; combining a practical emphasis on sustainable and green solutions along with a keen understanding of garden architecture and history.

Bancroft Garden (Photo: Brian Kemble)

To top off the day at the close of the seminar, participants will leave The Gardens at Heather Farm for a reception with wine and plants at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. The reception provides a not-to-be-missed opportunity to hear the Bancroft Garden’s curator and resident aloe hybridizer, Brian Kemble “talk plants.” I always find it engaging to bask in Brian’s expertise!

El Generalife gardens Photo © Alice Joyce

An unforgettable profusion of roses and refreshing water features appear at every turn when you experience the beauty and brilliance of the Alhambra palaces and Generalife gardens on a Spring day.

The wonders of this world heritage site are the high point of a journey to Granada, the magnificent capital city of Andalusia, overlooking the Sierra Nevada mountains, some 40 miles inland from the Spanish coast. In May you can expect the days to be wonderfully warm, with clear azure skies.

Generalife - Patio de la Acequia Photo © Alice Joyce

Patio de la Acequia - El Generalife: The presence of water – so integral to Islamic garden design – represents a life source, nourishing the body and the spirit. The Patio de la Acequia, as shown, is named for the acequias or channels for the irrigation system, which supplied water from outside the walls to the palaces and gardens.

Alhambra - Architectural Detail Photo © Alice Joyce

Muqarnas: The unique tiered ornamentation mentioned in a previous feature exemplifies the exceptional craftsmanship which emerges in the architecture of the Alhambra.

A fascinating example of a modernist architectural addition to the ancient monument, the new Teatro or concert arena is a space composed of hard-edge forms and stark planes. The Generalife’s lush arrays of evergreen trees, clipped shrubs, imposing sculpted hedging and garden rooms overflowing with scented roses tend of soften the effect of the contemporary layout.

Generalife's Teatro - Concert Arena Photo © Alice Joyce

Generalife Gardens © Alice Joyce

Should the Arab world be outside your reach, you’ll find that most memorable effect fully realized in the gardens of the Alhambra, looming over the city of Granada in southern Spain’s Andalusia region. Despite the crowds you may expect to encounter, a tour of Granada rightly pivots upon the Alhambra’s wonders:  The immense hilltop complex standing as a testament to eras of occupation by Romans, Goths, and the control of Christian monarchs after 1492. Yet, the grandeur of the Alhambra monument resides in neither the surviving citadel nor the palace of Charles V, but rather in the Medieval epoch’s Nasrid palaces, and the exquisite gardens of the sultan’s retreat, El Generalife – created by Muslim rulers.

Alhambra - Torre de las Damas Reflection Photo © Alice Joyce

Avid hikers may choose to follow a maze of narrow, winding streets to the monument’s gateway, but a bouncing ascent aboard a minibus is the usual transport from Granada’s centrally located Plaza Nueva: The Nasrid Palaces - Inside the gracefully proportioned halls of the Nasrid palaces, a spell is cast by vast sweeps of rhythmically carved motifs, covering plaster walls and soaring wooden ceilings. The visual feast is heightened by the carvings known as muqarnas: A unique tiered ornamentation that adorns countless domes, vaults, niches, and at times emerges in the shape of stalactites.

Generalife Roses Vignette Photo © ALICE JOYCE

El Generalife - Positioned high above the surrounding river valleys, the Moorish-designed royal gardens of the Alhambra and the Generalife manifest the ideals of an earthly paradise in sheltered courtyards cooled by shallow marble fountains or mirror-like pools of water. Providing an escape from the intense Mediterranean sun the gardens are replete with luxuriant vegetation; cypress, myrtle, and box shrubbery; abundant citrus, plum and magnolia trees. A floral perfume sweetens the air of the Generalife, where peering through arches sculpted out of massive, architectural hedges, you’ll savor images of canals flanked by allées of roses.