Conceptual Botany

The art establishment is reeling over internecine shake-ups in the Getty Center administration, but playfulness still rules in the Getty garden. Since his first meeting a decade ago with the antically witty garden's visionary creator, Los Angeles artist Robert Irwin, horticulturist Jim Duggan has been collaborating on the cultural must-see. His recent book, "Plants in the Getty's Central Garden" (J. Paul Getty Museum, $19.95), catalogues the unorthodox plant choices that give the spiraling design its puzzle-within-a-puzzle otherworldliness. Duggan, who grew many of the selections from seed in his own Encinitas Gardens nursery and still walks the garden once a month with Irwin, talks about a work-in-progress.

How did you end up installing a botanical art piece at one of the world's most famous museums?

A client of mine worked for the landscape architects hired to work with Bob [Irwin]. The design firm was having a hard time translating his artistic ideas into a garden. They had a long list of plants Bob had picked out of books. And most of these books had nothing to do with Southern California, because there aren't many books on plants in Southern California.

How can that be so?

The past couple of years a few have come out, but Southern California is unique. It's a dry coastal desert, folks. It doesn't snow; it doesn't get cold. The soils are very shallow, the water's terrible and the sun shines out there. So he shows me this list and wants to know if I can get samples and grow them in my nursery so that the artist and landscape architects can see them over time. I was trying to make ends meet. I said, ''Sure, I'm starving to death.'' They twisted my arm and gave me a chunk of money. There were nearly 500 plants on this list.

Was it different from the usual horticulture gig right from the start?

I remember he mentioned this one grass the artist wanted to use; it was a very common weedy grass, and we both kind of chuckled. But later I spent a long time with Bob. We collected nearly 50 specimens of grass and grew them and analyzed them.

How did you get from the greenhouse to the Getty grounds?

Bob and I were hitting it off. The landscape architects noticed, "Hey, he can actually talk to Bob and understand what he's saying." They came to me one day and said, ''Do you want to do the Getty with Bob?''

Is Robert Irwin an outside-the-planter-box gardener?