Elements of Surprise

SAN MATEO | the client’s vision was to be fully immersed within a garden of varying textures and an abundance of leaf color. instead of overlooking the garden from the periphery, the client wanted to feel like she was a part of the space. under the expanse of a dominant oak, the flat terrain was mounded in certain areas to modulate the elevation with the soil itself. this created separate enclosures for meditation and reflection.

plant palette

trees | T-1 cercis canadensis ‘forest pansy’ (easter redbud)

shrubs | 1 berberis thunbergii ‘aurea nana’ (dwarf golden japanese barberry) 2 camellia japonica ‘april remembered’ (april remembered camellia) 3 fatsia japonica ‘spider’s web’ (speckled japanese aralia) 4 grevillea ‘peaches and cream’ (grevillea) 5 leucadendron salignum ‘red gem’ (red gem cone bush) 6 mahonia eurybracteata ‘soft caress’ (soft caress grape holly) 7 osmanthus heterophyllus ‘goshiki’ (goshiki false holly) 8 viburnum tinus ‘spring bouquet’ ‘compactum’ (spring bouquet viburnum)

ferns | 9 asparagus densiflorus ‘myers’ (myer’s asparagus fern) 10 blechnum spicant (deer fern) 11 dryopteris erythrosora ‘brilliance’ (japanese shield fern) 12 woodwardia fimbriata (giant chain fern)

grasses | 13 carex divulsa (european grey sedge) 14 carex testacea (orange new zealand sedge) 15 festuca idahoensis ‘siskiyou blue’ (blue hybrid fescue)

groundcover | 16 sedum mexicanum ‘lemon ball’ (lemon ball stonecrop)