Hello Friends –

What are you doing in your garden this spring? We have some great ideas: Grow some veggies to enjoy this summer; add a garden chair in a sunny corner; maybe plant a tree?

The simple additon of a chair transforms a garden.

We have lots to offer for spring. For planting your edibles, the next two weekends' events here at the nursery will provide you with tons of inspiration, and we'll be well-stocked with veggies, fruits, and herbs. For chic outside comfort we've found an amazing, locally made furniture line, Old & Board. We've received a truckload of Japanese maples that are blowing our minds with their leaf shapes and colors. And for your indoor garden, we've been talking up trees. Take a look below, and come visit us soon!

Time to Get Your Edibles in the Ground – Two Weekends of Free Talks

Eating food you've grown yourself is so satisfying. It connects us to the cycles of sustenance that can seem so distant from our urban lives. Even just plucking tonight's dinner herbs from a pretty container garden will make you glad. We'll have two of our favorite urban farmers on hand to get you started.

This Weekend: Sunset's Edibles Expert, Johanna Silver

Johanna will be discussing vegetable gardening and introducing the 2012 edition of that handy encyclopedia of gardening, The New Sunset Western Garden Book. She'll show you all the new features that help make gardening in the West so amazing.

Next Weekend: Our In-House Edibles Expert, Clarke de Mornay

Clarke de Mornay, our edibles buyer, has an illustrious past as a food gardener. He has gardened in the foggiest, windiest corners of the city, and on the hottest slopes of the Sierra foothills, so whatever your farming challenges are, Clarke will have information you can use. According to Clarke, "If you've got an hour's worth of sunshine and a little bit of space you can grow some food – and I'll teach you how to do it."

Japanese Maples

We've found a gorgeous array of rare Japanese maples for you from our grower, Buchholz & Buchholz.

We have an extraordinary collection of Japanese maples for you this spring. Our grower, Buchholz & Buchholz Wholesale Nursery in Oregon, grows some of the most beautiful varieties we've seen, many of them their own introductions. The staff who prune these young specimens are masters of their craft. The result is a perfect treasure of nature and craft. Take a look at their Flora Wonder Blog to get a sense for Buchholz's contribution to West Coast horticulture and some of the thinking behind what they do.

Old and Board Chairs

Hello Old and Board chairs, welcome to my garden. We are always so excited to find great products that are made right here in San Francisco, and it's a bonus when they are constructed entirely of recycled materials – in this case, used pallets. They're even more comfortable than they look; we just love these chairs. Each is one-of-a-kind, with a sturdy, rough-around-the-edges appeal. And if you'd like to customize colors or finishes it'll be no problem. Come on into the store and try one out for yourself.

Flora Grubb Gardens Design Department

Our garden design consultants, Daniel Nolan and Patrick Lannan, love helping our clients create beautiful gardens. One of Daniel's favorite recent projects has been a collaboration with a client who loves bold combinations with succulents. Take a look at the results.

If you'd like our help designing your garden, give us a call at 415-694-6454 or email us at design@floragrubb.com.

Garden Conservancy Event

A view of the vegetable garden at Medlock Ames Vineyard and Winery designed by Thomas Woltz, who is also a speaker at the seminar. Photo by Marion Brenner.

Our friends at the Garden Conservancy are bringing together some of the best minds in the world of landscape history, design, and horticulture for a seminar on the history of the American personal garden from Jefferson's Monticello to today. If you're interested in garden design, farming at home, and estate gardens, you won't want to miss this event.

For more information, and to register, visit http://www.gardenconservancy.org/events/details/473-PrivateLivesSeminar

The Giant Indoor Tree – in The Wall Street Journal

A thriving tree holding court indoors brings a touch of organic surrealism to our sheltered lives, conjuring a mood from Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are. The Wall Street Journal contacted us recently for their story on growing trees indoors [pdf]. Our favorites include the fiddle-leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) and tall specimens of the rhapis palm.

The rusty-leaf fig, Ficus rubiginosa, provides a deep green canopy for beer lovers.
Photo by Bruce DaMonte.

We recently worked with Boor Bridges Architecture to add some green to their latest project, San Francisco's newest brewery restaurant on Treat Street in the Mission, Southern Pacific Brewing. We suggested rusty-leaf fig trees that could grow both inside their restaurant and outside in their beer garden.

Join Us on Facebook and Twitter

It's just like neighbors chatting about their gardens over the fence, but digitally. Please join us on Facebook and Twitter.

Come and see us.

– Flora and everyone at Flora Grubb Gardens