By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Photos by Alicia Martin

We can't wait to check out the Late Show Gardens, a brand new garden show at Cornerstone in Sonoma, California focusing on design and sustainability. We've been looking forward to it for months since the contributors are some of the biggest names in horticulture—essentially the who's who of the garden scene—from the Bay Area and beyond.

As you can imagine, pulling together a garden show is a major undertaking. It involves endless planning and organizing, and the week before the show, when designers actually start building the display gardens, is especially intense. Tons of soil are hauled in, along with large trees, landscape art, and accessories—the photo above is a behind-the-scenes look at two displays, Growth Melt and Overgrowth, in progress. We can't wait to see what they look like when they're done!

The show kicks off this Thursday 9/17 with an evening preview party, and runs through Sunday 9/20. I'll be there Friday—hope to see you there!

For info and tickets, go to thelateshowgardens.org or call 415/721-1550.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

What does it say about me that I'm attracted to these seriously mean shoes?  Oops, maybe I'm sorry I said that.  Please don't tell me.  At any rate I was. 

I picked up these three note cards, which are based on acrylic paintings done by Prescott, Arizona artist Carolyn Schmitz, at the Big Red Sun in Venice, thinking they would be fun additions to my inspiration board.

But then I noticed on the artist's website that these paintings and others along the same theme are also available as prints.  And I love the thought of having a big version of one of these on my office walls.  Should convince people I'm not as sweet as I look, wouldn't you think?  Now I just have to decide which one.

San Rafael Spikes, depicting agave leaves, San Rafael poppies, and yucca fiber

Scorpion Country, agave and sotol leaves, datura pods, scorpion tails

Agave Country, agave, sotol, datura, mesquite, globemallow, scorpion tails

If these are all too evil for your taste, you might like Schmitz's "Sunset Wedgies" or "Chilean Roses" mules. 

Me, I'm leaning towards "Scorpion Country."  They're just evil enough.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

We wrote about the new Hamilton Children's Garden here recently.  If that didn't convince you to pay Quail Botanical Gardens another visit, this event might.

Pearl Fryar, shown opposite, will be the guest artist at Garden Expressions, an annual celebration of artistry in all forms, which takes places at the Gardens on Sunday, August 23.

Fryar is the owner and creator of Fryar's Topiary Garden, a 3-acre garden in South Carolina that has become world famous.  Especially after the 2006 documentary called "A Man Named Pearl."

The topiary artist will be creating living works of art at noon and again at three that day.  No one, including Quail staff, know quite what Pearl and his power trimmer will come up with.  But it won't be your usual topiary.  "I'm not into animals and teapots," he says.  "I'm into the abstract and working with the negative spaces."

Below is a sample of his work.

 If you like Fryar's creations at Quail, you might be able to go home with one.  I understand his topiaries will be auctioned off after the demonstrations.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Cambria, California, a beautiful little community snuggled in pines and coastal fog, about a four hour drive up the coast from Santa Barbara, feels like horticultural heaven.  Plants thrive in the area's gentle temperatures and moist air, and everything looks beautiful under that soft gray diffused light. 

But gardening here isn't as easy as it seems.  Cambria only gets about 14 inches of rain a year.  Strong winds topple the shallow-rooted local pines with regularity.  And they have a large deer population to contend with.  ("300-lb. gray squirrel equivalents", local garden designer Shana McCormick calls them). But we'll save how Cambria gardeners contend with these things for later posts.  For now, how about a small slide show?

The Butterfly Garden at the Cambria Pines Lodge

A scene from the Redwood Walk at Cambria Pines Lodge.  The pretty silver plant that is lighting up this shady vignette is Calocephallus brownii.

I love the way artists embellish their gardens, and Cambria is full of artists.  This is from the garden of artist Jeanette Wolff, and the crows now permanently residing in her garden are an example of her work.

Possibly the healthiest, happiest tree ferns I've ever seen, thriving under old oaks in the magnificient shade garden of Betty and Harry Pflaumer.

A great place for lunch if you happen to be in Cambria.  The Tea Cozy has "guy" stuff like ploughman's lunch and Cornish pasty as well as tea sandwiches, scones with double Devon cream, and the usual girlie stuff.  And everything was scrumptious.

Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

When we think of garden art, we think of statutes or abstract sculpture.  Or sun dials and birdhouses.  Or bas-reliefs or architectural fragments or vintage tools hung as wall art.  But always we imagine three-dimensional.

But now that more than ever gardens are becoming genuine outdoor rooms, homeowners are looking for two-dimensional art suitable for outdoors as well.

We featured Ketti Kupper's glicee prints, one of which is shown opposite, in a previous post.

We found another example at Sunset Celebration recently.  The dramatic Aaron Chang photograph shown immediately below, `Silver Palm', graced the Modern Cottage installation.

The prints are made with a photo-sublimation process that utilizes water-based, earth-friendly inks, says Chang.  The image is then printed on recycled aluminum that is 90% post consumer, and the pieces coated with a UV protector.  The prints are fade resistant for up to 3 years depending on how much exposure they are subjected to, says Chang.

Below are two additional examples of his photography -- `Samoan Ginger' and `Jungle Light.'  See the Aaron Chang Gallery website for more.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Here Aaron Chang combines photography and function.  This wall hanging also doubles as a recirculating fountain.  Water cascades down the print in the areas where the waterfalls cascade in the photo.  The clear tank at the bottom holds the recirculating water.  And, to add to the illusion, lava rocks and living plants as well.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Artists always create the best gardens.  Their outdoor spaces are like their indoor spaces--every inch is personal; every detail is important.  Ketti Kupper's garden, shown below, which is featured in our June issue, is no exception.  But the image we chose for the story doesn't include my favorite detail from the garden.  So after you read the story, skim down to see what it is.

This confident little athlete is my favorite detail in the whole garden.  I admire the girl's energy, confidence, and leading-with-her-chin attitude. 

And I'd love seeing her face every day before I walked out of the garden and into the world.  She'd remind me that how things were going to go that day and every day was largely up to me.

And that is pretty much the print's purpose, says the artist.   This print, "Meet Yourself There", like the rest of Kupper's prints, is designed to remind you to pause and "center" yourself before entering the public world. 

The prints are also reminders to shake off the world when you return before re-entering your private realm.

Kupper's art prints are developed from details taken from her larger collage paintings.

They are glicee prints manufactured using canvas textured durable vinyl with specially formulated fade-resistant pigments, on high tensile polypropylene sealed with a UV resistant matte laminate.

And here's how our fearless, young athlete looks in the context of the whole garden: