January’s Yard of the Month is a home landscape established in 1970 by San Marcos resident Aurora Lopez, who marked 103 years of age last year. Still living in her home on Sycamore Street, just a block from Cheatham Street and the river, this local centenarian now relies on her son Paul to tend her yard, with daughters Linda Acosta and Susie Mendoza caring for her, but enjoys her connection with an unusual and beautiful collection of plants. Spring Lake Garden Club is honored to feature the Lopez landscape as the first in the new year.
The Lopez yard features roses (pink, cream, and red) and red lantana ringing a thriving magnolia tree planted about 25 years ago, after the passing of Aurora Lopez’s mother. The landscape includes wide level walkways of rectangular concrete pavers laid in a smooth mosaic, installed by Paul Lopez. He drew on his experience in construction to add surfaces easy for his mother to walk on as she continued to supervise plantings and specify additions to the landscape. He also learned to propagate plants from cuttings, ensuring favorite flowers continue through the years. When near freezing weather is predicted, he covers a number of plants more suited to warmer climates, including a huge red hibiscus in a large planter pot near the house.
Potted plants sharing the protected space along the front of the house also include a begonia, a green cup leaf succulent, a large asparagus fern with red berries, and a smaller version of the Purple Velvet plant established near the front curb. Leaves of the Purple Velvet plant (Gynura aurantiaca), an evergreen perennial from southeast Asia, are actually green but appear purple when mature as their surfaces are covered with reddish purple hairs. More commonly grown as a protected houseplant, the Purple Velvet sprawls as stems lengthen, so it is also popular in hanging baskets. The color purple is mirrored in a shrubsized mound of purple bougainvillea beside the driveway.
In his gardener role, Paul Lopez recalls his mother sitting and weeding at the shady front of her house, and showing patience with plants, and he adds, “a whole lot of work.” Paul and his sisters now take pictures of plants on their phones and share the photos with their mother. Her love of plants continues even after she has “retired” for active gardening, but her landscape legacy lives on.
