STYLEL: GARDENS : Paradise Found

Odd spiderlike plants that sprout from the sides of trees and catch their food from misty air, bromeliads lead a rough life in our typically arid city. But in Los Feliz’s Laughlin Park, on an estate once owned by actress Deanna Durbin, Michele and Barry Sohnen have a fine collection of the exotic epiphytes. In their own Hawaiian-style grotto--created by landscape designers Patrick Turnbull and Collie Valadez--bromeliads spray from a lava-rock wall amid hanging moss and spouting ferns. Come spring, the grotto pops with blooms, their waxy forms a contrast with more common flowers nearby.

How did a plant colony from the tropics land a role in an Italian-villa garden? Hollywood, pure and simple. “Tropicals went with the lava rock,” says Turnbull, pointing to the original, ‘20s-era garden wall. As for the rapid growth of the touchy bromeliads, he cites the mysteriously hospitable conditions of this small corner of Los Angeles: “There’s a strange energy here. Plants either grow to prehistoric heights or else they die.”

To prevent the worst, Turnbull and Valadez installed an automatic drip mister in addition to conventional irrigation. They see that plant roots have good drainage as well as air circulation and six hours of screened light every day. “If you replicate their original environment,” Turnbull advises, “their drama will take your breath away.