Inspiration from Clarke de Mornay's Patio Garden
If you’ve spent any time here at Flora Grubb Gardens—any time at all, like even five minutes—you’ve most likely experienced the warmth, plant genius, and general fabulousness of our beloved Clarke de Mornay. Clarke’s been part of the FGG family for seventeen years (!!), making his mark on hundreds of Bay Area gardens with his vast knowledge and unique botanical style.
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As a little kid, Clarke was already obsessed with plants, devoted to growing his own food. By the time he was a teen Southern California, he’d become a native plant fanatic, but when he moved up here to foggy SF in 1984, the obsession evolved to include the spectacular range of plants that thrive in our Mediterranean climate, including succulents, which weren’t as ubiquitous in gardens of the ‘80s as they are now. When Clarke eventually came to work at Guerrero Street Gardens (way back before it was FGG), his interview with Flora famously took about three minutes: “She asked me about my favorite plant, I said I was into agaves, and she was immediately like, ‘You’re hired!’”
Red bromeliad at left: Alcantarea julietta. Leafy plant at center: Solanum betaceum. Red banana plant: Ensete ventricosum. Palm in large pot: Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palm).
Clarke’s garden at his home in SOMA is a lush, inviting space with dozens of potted plants arranged in gorgeous layers and swoops, every detail impeccably tended. It’s also a jewelbox of exquisite rarities that would make any collector weak at the knees. Clarke says, “As a kid I got inspired visiting Mexico and Baja, seeing these courtyard gardens with so many plants kind of stuffed together in such a careful way. Obviously, for this to work, you need to select your plants really carefully based on the conditions. So that’s one of the things I try to do with my garden and for other people: to create these enclosed garden spaces with lots and lots of plants that will do well together.”
Bromeliad at top left: Alcantaera imperialis. Top right corner: Aloe arborescens. Dark-leaf begonia at center: Begonia bolivensis ‘Sparks Will Fly.’ Large leaf at bottom left: Alocasia calidora.
The garden is built on the brick patio of a building dating all the way back to 1907. Almost every plant here is growing in a pot, and they’re all drought-tolerant, so Clarke only has to water once a week. Some of the plants he’s had for over thirty years, like the Aloe arborescens pictured above (top right corner). The open parking lot next door creates an empty southern exposure (“That’s the one good thing about living next door to a parking lot!”), but seasonal conditions in the garden can be a challenge: For a couple of weeks in mid-summer, the whole patio gets full sun, but in mid-winter it’s completely in shade. “Plants have to put up with that,” Clarke says, “so of course that influences what I can grow back here.”
Clarke and his partner, Bryon, enjoying the garden on a Galanter & Jones heated bench.
Large fan-shaped leaf: Philodendron selloum. Arrow-shaped leaf: Alocasia calidora.
Building a beautiful small-space garden with such a large number of plants means making deliberate choices each step of the way. “It’s hugely important how you choose your palette of pottery,” Clarke says. “There’s a lot of eclectic pottery in my garden, but it’s all in these earthy, warm tones.”
He also emphasizes that a bit of formality can help pull the design together. “You can even try placing the same plants in the same pots in different parts of the garden, to break up the ‘onesiness’ a little,” he says.
Building little “swoops” of plants by layering pots in curves is another one of Clarke’s tricks. “You want to try and arrange things so that you’re not enhancing the rectangular shape of the space.”
Purple bromeliad, top center: Alcantarea julietta. Fan-shaped aoe at center foreground: Aloe plicatillis.
Large trunk in pot: Beaucarnea recurvata (ponytail palm).
With his wide expertise in Mediterranean-climate plants, Clarke has an almost clairvoyant ability to figure out which plants will be happiest in hard-to-garden spots like roof decks, balconies, and of course courtyards. As a Sales Specialist and designer, he loves to help people balance their desires and tastes with what’s practical for their gardens and homes.
Want to get inspired to transform your own small-space garden? Keep scrolling for more stunning shots of Clarke’s little jewelbox, along with some more info about the specific plants he grows.
Cleistocactus strausii (silver torch cactus, center, in terra cotta pot) catches the light with its fuzzy spines, which have a metallic sheen. Other plants: top left purple bromeliad is Alcantarea julietta. Pale variegated columnar euphorbia at center left: Euphorbia ammak. Green columnar euphorbia at center right: Echinopsis pachanoi. Papaya plant at right: Vasconcellea.
Alcantarea imperialis, often grown as a houseplant, will live happily outdoors here in cool coastal SF.
Rhopalostylis sapida, the Nikau palm or shaving brush palm, has a vibrant green color and elegant upright form.
Fig in top left: Ficus benghalensis ‘Audrey.’ Blooming cactus in foreground right: Rhipsaladopsis gaertneri.
Slender, multi-trunked Chamaedorea costaricana makes a nice delicate screen against a concrete wall. Growing in the white pot: Rhipsalis paradoxa.
Echeveria and other rosette-style succulents stand in for more traditional flowers in Clarke’s garden.
Center left: Russian kale. Yellow leaf at left: Plectranthus ciliatus ‘Troy’s Gold.’ In glazed red bowl: Aloe polyphylla (spiral aloe). In speckled brown bowl: Agave ‘Blue Glow.’ Lower left corner: Ficus decora. Lower right corner: Euphorbia bupleurifolia.
The dramatic arrow-shaped leaves of Alocasia 'Calidora’ layer beautifully with the equally dramatic fan-like ruffled leaves of Philodendron selloum for a lush tropical look.
Aloe plicatillis (fan aloe), the succulent with the fans of silvery leaves in the center left of this photo, makes an interesting textural contrast with the other surrounding succulents, cactus, and leafy plants.
Clarke has been growing the jade plant pictured in the top left of this photo (Crassula ovate) since the early ‘80s! The Japanese maple is Acer palmatum dissectum ‘Inaba Shidare.’
Some of Clarke’s epiphytic bromeliads and tillandsias are simply sitting inside the tops of his pots, nestled in with the other plants. The bromeliads hanging out with the Rhipsalis in this wild composition (above) are actually affixed to lava rocks that are just tucked into the soil.
Clarke’s collection of tillandsia air plants is vast and fascinating. A lot of our customers grow tillandsias indoors, but here in the Bay they can also thrive outside, especially when paired with companion plants that require similar care and conditions.
The soft greens and silvery grays of the tillandsia palette look stunning with the rich earthy tones of Clarke's pots. And the occasional tillandsia bloom offers a striking flash of yellow or purple!
Some of Clarke's tillandsias are clustered in tight groups to mimic their natural growth habit, while others are given a showcase on their own for textural contrast.
Thanks so much, Clarke and Bryon, for sharing your exquisite garden with us!
Follow Clarke on Instagram @atlasblume for his own spectacular plant photos.
Photos by Caitlin Atkinson
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