California Gardening: Variegated Liquidamber, 1 by jkom51

jkom51 wrote:
When we started the first phase of our landscaping, I special-ordered two trees. One was a pink melaleuca, which eventually died. But the other was a variegated Liquidamber (sweetgum). Much as I love the fall colors of a standard Liquidamber, they are too tall for my small garden beds, in addition to being serious sidewalk lifters.

My gardener had never seen one of these, and like me he loves variegated plants. Although it's listed as a moderate-grower in the Sunset Western Garden book, this tree has grown amazingly well in the 7 yrs since planting. You can judge its height by the 6' garden fence in the original photo, below. (I wish we could post more than one photo in a single message-hint, hint, DG!)

Do you have any plants that are very rare? Another one I treasure is my Lavatera olba 'Aureum'. I bought it from either Berkeley Hort or East Bay Nursery, but have never seen it show up again.