A Tiki Revival Garden

The Mary Lou Heard garden tour led us to this Tiki Revival garden in Yorba Linda.
 photo tiki6409_zps8542c09a.jpg
The signs were helpful.
 photo tiki6410_zps829fad91.jpg 
Tiki style--sex, rum, and WWII--was born in 1934 with the opening of Don the Beachcomber, a Polynesian-themed bar and restaurant in Hollywood, California. 
Buddha with bling:
 photo tiki6432_zpsf44d359e.jpg
This fantastical interpretation of Polynesian culture threads like a tropical vine through the culture of the time--cocktails (mai tai), books ("Tales of the South Pacific", 1948), movies ("Blue Hawaii", 1959), music (Arthur Godfrey and his ukelele), and yes, the garages and gardens of  Americans in search of their own--piece of eden, if you will.  
Gone bananas for the tropics
 photo tiki6437_zpsf44c6f4f.jpg 
Tiki style faded in the dispair of the oil embargoed, discoed 1970's and revived as ironic hipsterism* in the optimism and prosperity of the late 1990's.  Somewhere in that revival emerged a less kitschy garden style of water gardens, palm trees, thatched huts and aloha pillows.  
Shhh!  The baby is sleeping!
 photo tiki6413_zpsfdcdefa3.jpg
In regards to vegetation, tiki revival gardens can be as simple or as elaborate as the owner desires.  
 photo tiki6430_zps1e6daefb.jpg
This particular garden had a simple palette of palms, hibiscus, cordyline, Strelitzia, Philodendron, bananas, Plumeria, Taro, and jasmines, all plants readily available in this area and easy to grow.  
 photo tiki6417_zpsa850a81b.jpg
A newer version would have lots of bromeliads, tillandsias tied to driftwood, and a goji berry patch.  

Garden long enough and you can nail the year the garden was built by the plant selections.
 photo tiki6411_zps30199c80.jpg 
Much effort had been put into the many thatched hut seating areas and the water gardens.  
And cool Philodendron lamps!
 photo tiki6429_zps834c33d8.jpg
 One of many shady places to sit:
 photo tiki6416_zps4aa3b1f8.jpg 
One of the water garden inlets:
 photo tiki6427_zpsbb34004a.jpg
Hippos are not Polynesian, but neither are koi.
 photo tiki6415_zps23ddadbb.jpg  
The palms reflected in the pool with its koi tiles:
 photo tiki6422_zpsfdb11b4f.jpg
Beyond a tiki dream, the real landscape:
 photo tiki6421_zpsb56d5b80.jpg 
Garden as fantasy, dream, aspiration. 
And cool Philodendron lamps!
 photo tiki6433_zpsbcb5b12c.jpg
From tiki revival to to the next and last tour garden we visited.  It was a hot day.  The next garden recalled for me the heyday of California, the homeowner-immigrant's dream of year round fresh fruit, vegetables and endless warm sunshine.
Another California Dream:
 photo tiki6444_zpsb07aaac0.jpg
It was a sunny garden of precisely crafted drip irrigation, orderly fruit and vegetable beds framed by decomposed granite pathways, a bit of whimsy...

 photo tiki6446_zpsbf889119.jpg
...some impressively large cacti grown from 2" pots...
 photo tiki6450_zps3eeffdf0.jpg
...everything meticulously thought out.  Clever bird nets for the blueberry shrubs:  laundry bags from a big-box store.
 photo tiki6454_zpsd53b0862.jpg 

 Even running out of paint looked good:
 photo tiki6442_zps6ac9a927.jpg 
I loved the thought that went into the garden.  One of the homeowners is an efficiency expert, and it showed--though it is not a cold, fussy garden--there is golden light.
 photo tiki6455_zpsf596effe.jpg
A place of order and raspberries is as much a dream as a tiki room.  Two different pursuits of happiness.  The gardener is the garden. 
 photo tiki6449_zps56996f6a.jpg   

*90's hipsterism, that is.  Today's is Victorian-style facial hair, writing apps and trucker hats--no, that was last week...
 

Comments

  1. I had no idea Tiki was a garden style. Apparently, I'm not very hip. I don't have a trucker hat or facial hair, either. I'm starting to realize there's no reason to get up and doing anything anymore. I'm obsolete with my cottage garden. But I do love the garden. I feels very California.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was a fun garden.

      For me, hip is a problem due to over-consumption of ice cream.

      Delete

Post a Comment

Always interested in your thoughts.

Any comments containing a link to a commercial site with the intent to promote that site will be deleted. Thank you for your understanding on this matter.