sage

In preparation for creating plant palettes for my projects, I typically spend hours poring over my Sunset Western Garden book.  I thrive on finding plants I haven't tried before, and I look especially for those I haven't seen in anyone's garden. Before I'll try any of these discoveries out on someone else, however, I'll pick up a sample plant and bring it home to my own garden - part science project, part proving ground to see how the plants perform away from the nursery. I've had many successes through the years and probably as many failures, but I learn something from every attempt.  What I sometimes find are plants that are