Previewing the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour

Two very different gardens -- one lush and colorful and the other coolly elegant and restrained -- are among the six featured on the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour in Pasadena on April 25.

The gardens in Dr. Harlan Bixby’s 1922 Spanish Revival home were redesigned in the early 1990s by landscape architects Owen Peterson and Bob Erickson. Since Bixby bought the property 10 years ago with his wife, Sally, he has been the garden’s champion, carefully tending the unusual cacti, agaves, yucca and euphorbia that share the 1-acre space with roses, bromeliads, ferns and decorative grasses.

Here Bixby and his chocolate Labrador, Nell, play on the garden steps leading to the pool. The staircase is flanked by aloe plicatus, or fan aloe, a great hummingbird attractor. A large aloe tree is at the upper left. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

March 8, 2014 2:19 AM PT

Two pergolas, painted a bright, cheerful blue, anchor one end of the swimming pool and provide shade. Rose bushes in large terra-cotta pots parade down two sides of the pool. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

A short wall at the far end of the swimming pool is covered with Delft tiles. A third pergola, draped with wisteria, shelters another patio. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Alstromeria grows like a weed in the Bixbys’ garden and crops up even in pots. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Specimens for the desert garden were selected by a curator at the Huntington Library’s botanical gardens. In the background, from left, are the slender column Neobuxbaumia polylophus, from Brazil; Cereus Hildmannianus Monstrosus, from Peru; towering Euphorbia Ammak, or African Candelabra, from East Africa and Yemen; and Euphorbia Tetragona, from South Africa. In the foreground are groups of notocacti and California barrel cactus. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Agave Victoria Regina (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Fanciful decorative tiles from the previous owners’ collection adorn many of the walls throughout the garden. In the foreground are notocacti. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

At least 400 showy rosebushes are scattered throughout the Bixbys’ garden. Those here appear to take their hue from the vibrant orange wall behind them. (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

Rios Clementi Hale Studios designed an elegant, contemporary garden well suited to Ann and Peter Murphy’s beautifully restored 1906 Mission-style home. Work began in 1996, when the backyard was stripped to its perimeter and the garage and driveway were demolished to make way for the swimming pool and lawn. The garden was expanded in 2002 when a neighboring property became available. Large mature sycamore, crape myrtles, Chinese fringe trees and London plane trees give the 1½ -acre space an expansive, park-like look. The grounds also include rose gardens, a raised vegetable garden with fruit trees, an outdoor kitchen, several patio and dining areas, and a basketball court for the owners’ two sons.

At the rear of the house poured-in-place concrete pavers, aligned with geometrical precision, draw visitors to a bubbling “pond.” Steps on either side lead down to the lawn and swimming pool beyond. The lanterns were designed by Rios Clementi Hale to suit the large scale of the house and gardens. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The pond is planted with water lilies, cattails and society garlic. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

A mature sycamore tree was air-lifted into place to help shade the swimming pool. The designers used the concrete from the old driveway for the steps and edging. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Recycled concrete was stacked to create several garden lanterns. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Deep purple iris and lavender pincushion border a rose garden. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Recycled concrete also was used to define the beds in the 40-by-20 feet raised garden planted with sweet peas and Meyer lemon, lime, grapefruit, tangerine, apple and peach trees. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

The outdoor kitchen features a wood-burning pizza oven and cutting garden, in the foreground, planted with lettuce, tomatoes, onions and celery. Miniature kumquat trees, right, are lined up underneath a window. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Chinese fringe trees with their white feathery blossoms. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

A patio just outside the dining room is used for everything from reading the newspaper to entertaining. The eight London plane trees are surrounded by clipped boxwood, repeating the symmetry of the concrete pavers. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

Water gently flows over the fountain faced with narrow glass tiles from Ann Sacks. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)

With its liquidambar trees strung with lights, decomposed granite “floor” and soft red table and chairs, this raised dining area reminds Ann Murphy of a Parisian park.

Tickets for the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days tour in Pasadena are $5 per garden or $25 for six. Go to www.opendaysprogram.org or call (888) 842-2442. Tickets may also be purchased the day of the tour at the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals building, 125 S. Grand Ave., Pasadena.

For updates on our garden coverage follow us on Facebook. (Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)