Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou art more lovely and more temperate:
Rough winds do shake the darling buds of May,
And summer’s lease hath all too short a date;
Sometime too hot the eye of heaven shines,
And often is his gold complexion dimm’d;
And every fair from fair sometime declines,
By chance or nature’s changing course untrimm’d;
But thy eternal summer shall not fade,
Nor lose possession of that fair thou ow’st;
Nor shall death brag thou wander’st in his shade,
When in eternal lines to time thou grow’st:
   So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,
   So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.

                            William Shakespeare

Hear the Poem

 

About the Poet

William Shakespeare was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world’s pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England’s national poet and the “Bard of Avon.”

In Sonnet 18, the speaker asks whether he should compare the Fair Youth to a summer’s day, but notes that he has qualities that surpass a summer’s day. He also notes the qualities of a summer day are subject to change and will eventually diminish.

About the Pollination Garden

The Pollination Garden is a celebration of our native flora and fauna, particularly the species local to the Palos Verdes Peninsula. In the style of French garden designer and nurseryman, Olivier Filippi, this garden showcases the colors, textures and forms of the coastal sage scrub in a naturalistic but curated style. The majority of the plant palette are native Californian species sourced from the Palos Verdes Peninsula Land Conservancy and the Theodore Payne Foundation, but there is a sprinkling of plants from the other Mediterranean-climates and annual flowers for seasonal interest. As the garden grows and matures, we will start to see the undulating effect of the design. Native plants are great choices to plant in the garden, since Southern California is home, they need much less tending and water than conventional garden plants.

About Native Plants

Native plants and animals are indigenous to a particular region of the world. For example, the honeybee (Apis mellifera) is not indigenous to California, rather they originate from Europe. Whereas the squash bee (Peponapis pruinosa) is indigenous to California and is specialized at pollinating squashes and relatives. Our native flora and pollinators have evolved together and rely on each other to complete their life cycles. Plants provide food as a host or nectar plant and habitat in the form of shelter, while pollinators ensure that plants bear fruit for animals and seeds for the next generation. Plant some native plants in your garden to help recreate habitat for our local fauna in an urbanizing world.

We want to thank the South Coast Chapter of the California Native Plant Society for their generous support which will go towards caring for the native plants in the Pollination Garden.
 

Want to learn more about California native plants and gardening in a Mediterranean climate? Check these resources out: