Visual Perceptions

"What you see is not always what will work"
Many times client's will look around their neighborhood, in magazines, and "Online" to dream and formulate their landscaping ideas. This is a great way to stimulate the mind to think about what plants and outdoor living accessories look great and to consider personal design styles that attract to that persons interest but, a lot of times those designs and plant choice's fail to work properly in many given reality situations. Case in point... Brenda  scopes out a fabulous landscape  in Pasadena, Ca. while visiting family friends that has plenty of flowers,colors, and textures and she wants that same look at her home in Palm Desert ,Ca. There is a big problem... Brenda does not realize the plant materials she loves that looks so great in Pasadena may not work or grow very  well at all in the dry desert weather where she now lives.
In my last blog I talked about the "Right Plant For The Right Place".  This rule and principle cannot be overlooked as we move into spring and everybody it seems is in the "Gardening Mood".
Brenda need not give up on her dream of flowers and color for her desert landscape , all she needs to do is educate herself via various horticultural books like Sunset Garden books, local parks and botanical gardens in her area, and talking with local landscaping professionals ( www.clca.org . Researching the "contractor search" engine is an excellent place to get names,websites, and telephone numbers of licensed landscape contractors and professional horticultural suppliers within the city and areas where one lives here in California ) in order to get on the right track to a successful landscape.
In most cases, substituting plant materials with like growing characteristics and textures from the foothills of Pasadena with plant materials that do well in the desert regions of Palm Desert will help Brenda keep her dreams alive.
By using the process of duplication and using the knowledge that is available now-a-days there is no reason why we cannot have excellent landscapes that give beauty,food sources for native wildlife, and add value to our homes and businesses.