(above) Award-winning garden designer, Docent Mayita Dinos,   explains the benefits of the 'Rain Garden' (located on 1027 Princeton) during the Fourth Annual Green Gardens Tour  'Gardening with Intent: Water Management' on Saturday, April 26, 2008. The rain water garden, which she has been working on for the past 6 years, is drought-tolerant and will save 80,000 gallons of water per year. (top) Steve Gerdes and his wife Michelle, who drove up from Long Beach for the tour, walk through the 'rain garden' on Saturday. The Green Gardens Tour is a celebration of what is beautiful and possible - and together with the Virginia Avenue Project, helps to sustain our planet one kid and one garden at a time! The tour benefits the Virginia Avenue Project, a not-for-profit arts organization that uses the arts to help kids discover their full potential.

Roses in full bloom, absorb sunshine in front of City Hall On Thursday, April 17, 2008. The rose is a flowering shrub of the genus Rosa, and the flower of this shrub.There are more than a hundred species of wild roses, all from the northern hemisphere and mostly from temperate regions. The species form a group of generally prickly shrubs or climbers, and sometimes trailing plants, reaching 2–5 metres tall, occasionally reaching as high as 20 metres by climbing over other plants. Rose hips are sometimes eaten, mainly for their vitamin C content. They are usually pressed and filtered to make rose hip syrup. They can also be used to make herbal tea, jam, jelly and marmalade. Rose hips are also used to produce an oil used in skin products. Rose shrubs are often used by homeowners and landscape architects for home security purposes. The sharp thorns of many rose species deter unauthorized persons from entering private properties, and may prevent break-ins if planted under windows and near drainpipes.

Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans)  blooms along the  Santa Monica Beach Boardwalk  on Friday, March 28, 2008. Pride of Madeira is a large evergreen shrub-like woody perennial with small white or purple blossoms in dense 20" long cone shaped clusters; this plant flowers through spring and ends by the start of summer. Pride of Madeira is from the borage family (boraginaceae) that grows up to eight feet in full sun.

A  Strelitzia Reginae (aka Bird of Paradise)  blooms at Santa Monica College on Saturday, March 15, 2008. Bird of paradise is a tropical-looking plant with paddle-shaped leaves and exotic flowers that resemble a bird's beak. 

Author-designer and proprietor of The Flower Box , Brenda Berkley demonstrates how to create floral designs for the holidays during her presentation, “Flora Fusion: The Art of Zen in Holiday Floral Design” on Saturday, November 10, 2007 at Santa Monica Public Library. "Simplicity is always better," she explained during her presentation.

TOP (Right to Left) Artist Sharon Kagan, Artist Leslie Yagar, Volunteer Nat George, Volunteer Kathleen Zadikian and Artist Lana Shuttleworth from the group PiNK (an acronym for the artists' tools: Pins, Needles and Knives) assemble the topsy-turvy poppy field  art  installation, "Plays Well With Others" at Santa Monica College's Pete & Susan Barrett Art Gallery on Tuesday, November 06, 2007. "The orange blossoms will dangle and sway overhead, enveloping the viewer into a new spatial experience," Kagan says. "Created from more than 100 polyvinyl street cones, thousands of yards of natural and synthetic fibers, and more than 10,000 coffee filters, the garden will be as amazing and beautiful as it is unique."  The opening reception will be held from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. Friday, Nov. 16. The gallery will be closed Nov. 22-24 for the Thanksgiving holiday.2) (R to L) Volunteers Kathleen Zadikian, Nat George and artist Lana Shuttleworth place the blossoms. 3) Artists Sharon Kagan, (right) and Leslie Yagar work on their  installation.