A garden of love

Costa Mesa resident Diane Keller has fond childhood memories of her grandmother snipping bird of paradise flowers from her garden and arranging them in vases around her house in Long Beach.

The tall clumps of the tropical flower in Keller’s front yard today come from the same bird of paradise plants her grandmother planted around her house in 1936.

Keller’s parents started their own garden from the plants in the 1950s, which she later inherited, along with a love of all things green and growing.

“My mom was always out in the garden — it’s kind of the way I grew up,” Keller said.

Today, Keller’s front-yard garden is spilling over with colorful succulents like plumeria and tropical plants like king palms. The design conserves water because most of the plants in it need little water.

Keller is one of 10 eco-friendly gardeners selected from 50 to 60 gardeners across the county as a finalist in Roger’s Gardens’ California Friendly Garden Contest. The gardening contest sponsored by a Corona del Mar landscaping company is giving new meaning to the term “green thumb.”

The contest rewards environmentally friendly gardeners in Orange County with prizes for landscaping that conserves natural resources, including water.

Runoff from irrigated and artificially fertilized landscaping often ends up polluting coastal waters, said Ron Vanderhoff, nursery general manager at Roger’s Gardens. Lush gardens not suitable to Orange County’s dry, sunny climate also can drink up a lot of precious water. The contest was created to encourage people to think about designing gardens that are as easy on the environment as they are on the eye, he said.

“The garden has to be absolutely beautiful, but also needs to manage its water use efficiently,” said Vanderhoff, who also will help judge the contest. “A lot of it has to do with plant selection — they need to have plants that thrive in our climate.”

Keller credits her success to “awesome landlords” who let her do what she wanted with the yard. Her garden is constantly evolving as she experiments with different plants, she said. Succulent plants, which thrive on sun and need little water, are Keller’s favorite.

Her garden overflows with exotic varieties that range in size from ankle-high to an octopus-like agave plant that almost towers over Keller.

If Keller wins the $2,500 grand prize money for her green thumb, she says she’ll consider taking a vacation from her job as a cashier and flower arranger at Ralphs grocery store.

“I think I’ll go on a plant-finding expedition — I’m always looking for new things,” she said.

BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.