Natural History Wanderings

One of California’s Top Native Plant Gardens

This past weekend I had an opportunity to visit the Fleming Garden in the North Berkeley Hills. It was the first time I have seen it in the fall. It is also probably the last time I will get to see it. The owners of the garden have both died in the last few years and the property will be sold in the near future. The garden was designed and developed by Jenny and Scott Fleming and has been maintained since 2002 by gardener and garden designer Luke Haas. It was created before gardening with native plants was popular.

Luke describes the garden on his website:

“Designed and built in the early 1950’s by Scott and Jenny, it is considered one of the oldest and most beautiful California native plant gardens in a private home. “

Luke Haas is the author of two articles on the Fleming garden:
Scott and Jenny Fleming’s Garden Pacific Horticulture, July 2004
Jenny Fleming’s Garden in Manzanita  Summer, 2008

There is also an article, “ A Native Plant Garden in the Berkeley Hills”  by Jenny Fleming about the garden published in Fremontia http://www.cnps.org/cnps/publications/fremontia/Fremontia_Vol34-No4.pdf

The Fleming Garden was an inspiration to native plant gardeners and a perennial favorite at the annual Bring Back the Natives home garden tour. Jenny Fleming collected plants in many parts of California and would tell stories about where and when she found them (this was before one needed permits to collect wild plants).

Here are a couple of quick photos I took of the garden with a compact camera.

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To see photos by professional garden photographer Saxon Holt that better show off the Flemings’ garden and are during prime bloom season go to  http://www.photobotanic.com/database/index.html  and search for Fleming and you will find 38 photos of the Flemings’ garden.

It is sad to think of what will happen to the garden in the future.