Susan Morrison, owner and principal designer at Creative Exteriors Landscape Design, has created hundreds of gardens in California’s East Bay area. Her designs incorporate comfortable outdoor rooms into landscapes of all sizes, from hillside estates to postage-stamp front yards.

Susan’s home garden features thoughtfully arranged spaces for relaxing and entertaining enfolded in an artful, water-wise plant palette. Focal point plants in key locations draw the eye through the landscape, inviting visitors to explore. In this episode, Susan describes her thought process for siting focal point plants, and shares some of the eye-catching cultivars she uses most often.