April Meeting - Fitting CA Native Plants in CA-style Gardens

SUSAN KRZYWICKI
Fitting California Native Plants into California-style Gardens

The San Diego Horticultural Society welcomes a leading authority on California native plants, Susan Krzywicki. Susan will discuss Fitting California Natives into California-Style Gardens. California native plants have an exciting place in our gardens if we understand which plants perform well in which conditions. They bring a sense of heritage and they look to the future. They offer an ecologically sound way of blending the requirements for a highly cultivated place with a need to conserve resources and minimize exposure to chemicals.

We can change our image of native plants as being appropriate mainly for the hiking trail and hillsides, to seeing their great potential in all sorts of garden settings. When we understand the criteria for selecting the right plants they will perform well and bring beauty, color, scent, and their friends in the bird and butterfly worlds.

Susan is owner of Krzywicki Consulting, a California native plant landscaping firm. She has lived in San Diego off and on since she was five. She has gardened in dorm rooms, patios, balconies and a New York City apartment, but when she moved back to San Diego at the beginning of the century she was able to settle down and dig in. Her passion for native plants began in 2003, when she bought a 1960s ranch house with neglected gardens. After intensive study into native plants and their applicability for home gardens, she not only created her own garden, but also has become a leader within the California native plant community.

Susan is on the board of the California Native Plant Society of San Diego, the state of California committee for California Native Plant Week, and is co-chair of the CNPS gardening committee.