HOME & GARDEN
TOP: Jasmine and Scott Fitzwilliam
sitting on the front porch of their San
Diego home overlooking colorful cactus
and succulents. Their dog, Matilda, aka
Tilly, enjoys this spot too. BOTTOM: Arti-
choke rosettes are edible but also add a
decorative element to the garden.28 JULY/AUGUST 2019 SUNSET
never seen a cactus before visiting Califor-
nia,” says Jasmine Fitzwilliam, surveying
her garden and the half-dozen species it
now contains. “It was eye-opening. We just
had to move closer.” Jasmine and her hus-
band, Scott, were on a camping trip to the
Salton Sea when she saw a cactus in the wild
for the first time; now her garden stands as
a monument to that and other trips. “I
wanted the garden to feel like Joshua Tree
in front and Palm Springs in back,” she says.
Fitzwilliam, owner of Let’s Frolic To-
gether photography (letsfrolictogether.com),
and Scott, a tech engineer, didn’t start out
as plant lovers with desert-chic style. “I
thought I had a black thumb until we moved
to California, and I started growing cactus
and succulents,” she says. The first succu-
lents she ever grew were jade plants in vin-
tage teacups. “My first one got too big too
fast. I felt bad for it because it was bursting
out of this little container. So, I had to plant
it outside. Then we moved and I was devas-
tated,” she recalled. “That’s when I knew I
needed a garden of my own.”
The quest kicked into gear when the cou-
ple left Toronto, where they attended col-
lege, and acquired their home in Normal
Heights, San Diego, in 2015, finishing the
interior before moving on to the garden in
- By summer 2018, they’d completed
work. “From the beginning, we knew there
were going to be lots of cactus and succu-
lents,” says Jasmine. “We also wanted to fit
several entertaining areas, space for pets,
and plants into a property that’s under
5,000 square feet.” Realizing they could use
some help organizing their wish list, the