Drought tolerance in business setting

The Modesto Garden Club has gone commercial for its latest Garden of the Month.

The August selection is more of a landscape than a garden – the exterior of the new Starbucks at 800 Oakdale Road.

The garden club selected the business landscaping to show how “attractive ‘drought-friendly’ landscaping can be,” according to a news release.

Garden club members are familiar with this locale – the scape is on the northeast corner of Oakdale Road and Scenic Drive, just up the block from the One Church where garden club meetings are held.

According to the garden club release, “Starbucks designs their stores to be community gathering places and are deeply concerned about the impact the current drought has on the people of Modesto, environment and economy.

“Local management works closely with facilities managers and landlords to determine the types of plants that support Modesto’s local environment and tailored the landscaping to fit the needs of our community,” the release continued.

The corner landscape features several grasses such as mondo, toffee twist and Mexican feather grass, providing a constantly moving backdrop. To add color, day lilies with bright tangerine-colored flowers were planted, as well as white flowers on fortnight lilies. Color and texture are provided with bottlebrush and boxwood.

A wrought-iron fence surrounds a patio area, with a few tables for customers to enjoy the flora.

In addition, the shop’s drive-through lane is lined with miniature pink roses among the boxwood. There are several jasmine-covered trellises on the masonry wall on one side and small cypress trees on the other.

This story was originally published July 29, 2015 at 12:47 PM with the headline "Drought tolerance in business setting."