Gardens

Olive green above, dusky purple below -- these are the leaves of Arabian lilac, an evergreen shrub that provides year-round color in the garden. Arabian lilac (Vitex trifolia 'Purpurea') is not a true lilac but, rather, a cousin to the chaste tree (Vitex agnus-castus), a Mediterranean native. The term "lilac" comes from those purple-bottomed leaves, pleasantly fragrant and occasionally divided into three ovals ("trifolia" means "three leaves").

Brenda Wehle is appearing on Broadway in "Come Back, Little Sheba," which opened last week at the Biltmore Theatre. John Carroll Lynch is in Vancouver shooting "Traveling," a film with Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston. . When the actors complete their out-of-town commitments, they will return home to a different sort of show: their fragrant, joy-inducing garden in the San Fernando Valley. "It's a real haven," Wehle says, from her New York apartment.

IT'S a great time of year for kitchen gardeners. Good rains mean great greens, and we've been happily tracking muddy footprints into the house as we bring in fresh-cut large-leaf mache or Italian wild arugula. At the same time, we're thinking about what to plant for spring and summer harvesting. For near-immediate gratification, plant radishes and spring onions right away as well as another round of lettuces and greens.

Far from the frenetic pace of modern China, hidden behind a Wall of the Colorful Clouds in suburban San Marino, a placid garden links botany with poetry and a scattered ethnic community with the elegant grandeur of its ancient civilization. In the 12-acre site on the grounds of the Huntington Library, Art Collections and Botanical Gardens, colorful carp glide through a shimmering lake. Chinese bamboo mingles with California live oaks.

Tucked into a tough Pomona neighborhood behind a bamboo-camouflaged metal gate is an otherworldly garden that once was a magnet for horticulturists and designers experimenting with plants and landscapes. The contained wildness still beckons with a sense of mystery. Hundreds of exotic plants crowd meandering paths leading to a maze of hidden outdoor rooms and patios. Lush vines and plants dangle from branches of dead trees.

Tea drinkers descended on Inviting the Mountains Terrace to gaze at the San Gabriel peaks in the distance. Children romped across the arched Jade Ribbon Bridge. Men in cowboy hats and women in colorful silk jackets strolled along the Corridor of Water and Clouds, pausing to marvel at scholars' rocks and moon gates.

LIVING downtown with limited space to garden doesn't necessarily mean a bleak, gritty landscape, short on plants, with only the urban skyline to stare at. It can be lush and green, extremely livable and packed with fascinating plants. Take a few lessons from the Northwest, where garden designers recently mounted elaborate displays using containers and planters to artfully landscape small urban spaces.

FOUNDED in the 1880s as a Wells Fargo stagecoach stop, the town of Ballard never became the seat of Santa Barbara County, but it's hardly a one-horse town. Here, equestrians and weekend ranchers own rolling paddocks where landscaping often involves little more than split rail fences and hay bales on pastures dotted with conifers and cactus. For Helene Aumont, however, this is a small part of a much prettier picture.

AS a gardener, Katrina Rivers dreamed of a home where she could see green from every window. As a mother, she wanted a place where her children could ride safely on their bikes. And as a writer and self-described healer, she yearned for a house with "magic." Anyone who wonders if Rivers could conjure such enchantment need only approach her bit of bohemia on Mount Washington, where twin griffin-like creatures greet visitors from high atop a Balinese door.

Some people have a window office. Greensman Robbie Penny has the great outdoors. "I've always been involved in horticulture," says the Auckland, New Zealand, native. "My mother and father were both very keen gardeners, and my father worked for a company called Turners & Growers. I've never really been that interested in much else." Penny studied horticultural science with an emphasis on landscape design and nursery management at Massey University.