Brugmansia, with their sweet and haunting fragrance, share space with exotic multicolored heliconia, bromeliads, gingers, hibicus and five varieties of bananas. Ajax, a squawking, vibrant blue and gold macaw, sits on his roost and hungrily eyes the leaves of the rare banana plant Musella lasiocarpa . The melodious sounds of Hawaii, part of Masnada's large collection of early Hawaiian music, and the gentle tinkling of the moss-covered fountain add to the ambiance. Kelly Watson, of Karydas Watson Landscaping in San Francisco, maintains the garden. Lawrence is a designer and has a great eye for beauty, so he is driven to seek out unusual things.
Constant moisture is an important requirement.
Set to timers, the system emits a gentle spray several times a day and transforms the garden into a cloud forest environment. The men, who were new partners that year in a designer showroom called Shears and Window, decided they wanted more innovative landscaping. So when the late Michael Postl, a friend and landscape designer, suggested they consider replacing the English garden with a tropical one, they leaped at the suggestion. The site offered promise as a tropical paradise. The house, which faces west, forms a windscreen and provides the eastern garden with its own microclimate.