DonateWooded Dell
Peaceful grove
Formal Gardening in the Shade
The Wooded Dell is a display garden that evokes the peaceful shade of a grove of coast live oak trees (Quercus agrifolia). Formal plantings of shade-loving species create swaths of color throughout the year. These beds invite your eyes to curve along the path, showing how native plants can beautify a formal garden setting. Although they have a reputation for ruggedness, many species of California’s native plants actually favor these sheltered habitats. In the wild, oak woodlands have dense understories featuring many of the plants found in the Wooded Dell.
Noteworthy Plants
Coast live oak
Quercus agrifolia
One of the few native oak species that thrive in a coastal environment, a few of the largest specimens in California are thought to be around several hundred years old.
Snowberry
Symphoricarpos albus
A close relative of honeysuckles (Lonicera sp.), this shrub produces pink bell-shaped flowers in the summer and white berries in the fall.
Western redbud
Cercis occidentalis
This plant is most striking in the early spring, when it is a mass of bright pink flowers but before the new season’s leaves have grown in.
Coral bells
Heuchera sp.
Coral bells grow in many different habitat types but often prefer shade. Species tend to have small ranges and many native to California are rare.
Currants and gooseberries
Ribes sp.
Gooseberries and currants both have edible fruits and are closely related. The difference between them is that gooseberries tend to have spines, while currants do not.
Wild irises
Iris sp.
There are 19 species of wild iris native to California, and their beauty has inspired plant breeders to create dozens of cultivars. The Garden has developed three popular cultivars: ‘Canyon Snow’, ‘Canyon Sunshine’, and ‘Canyon Velvet’.