Chaparral comes home: A San Mateo landscape mimics wild plant communities - Northern California Garden Guide

Sunset, May, 2002 by Kathleen N. Brenzel

* As planting schemes go, the chaparral Garden at coyote Point Museum in San Mateo is sterling. Layers of trees and shrubs mingle together as they would on an untamed hillside-some mounding, some loosely informal, some upright-with lower plants stepping up to taller ones behind. The plants are native to California and other Mediterranean climates, so they adapt well to the Bay Area's summer-dry conditions and don't need much water once established. Flower and foliage colors and textures blend well too; brushlike lipstick red flowers of Callistemon viminalis 'Little John' and tiny deep rose leptospermum flowers, for instance, create high notes near the brooding bronze smoke bush (Cotinus coggygria) and the sprightly apple green manzanita foliage.

The Chaparral Garden is one of four plant display areas; there's also Hummingbird Garden, Butterfly Garden, and Nature's Marketplace Garden, featuring plants used by Native Americans to make baskets, dyes, and more.

"These are outdoor classrooms," says Suzanne Tognazzini of Plant Schemes, in Foster City, who designed the gardens and worked with head gardener Pierre Vendroux and volunteers to install them. "The garden is a masterpiece of textures," adds Vendroux. "It's also a labor of love."

Coyote Point Museum. Starting this month (May 18-August 18), visitors can check out an interactive gardening exhibit, Healthy Soil, Healthy Food, Healthy People, in the museum's main gallery, as well as other events scheduled for the museums Summer of Gardens. 10-5 Tue-Sat, 12-5 Sun, $4. 1651 Coyote Point Dr., San Mateo; (650) 342-7755 or www.coyoteptmuseum.org.