By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer
What I like most about this scene from Julia Rice's garden in Cambria (a detail from Monday's post on artistic things to do with a dead tree) is that the color combination was inspired by the chartreuse birdhouse, a present from her husband Monty..
The chartreuse plants with the small white flowers are feverfew. Chrysanthemum parthenium `Aureum'. You might find it sold as 'Golden Feather.' The yellow flowered ground cover is a sedum of some sort. The red rose in the background is the climber `Blaze', and there's a darker red Martha Washington-type pelargonium below it.
Now here's the thing. Despite building a color scheme around it, Julia still isn't convinced she likes the color of the birdhouse and is thinking of repainting it white. Shana McCormick of Great Gardens, who took me to this garden, lobbied for keeping it as is, as did I. But I'm not sure we convinced Julia. Want to help us?
