On Monday, June 11, Rubin joins an elite group of area garden leaders and legends when he is honored as 2018 Horticulturist of the Year by the San Diego Horticultural Society. The duo followed that bestseller with the plant-centric “Drought-Defying California Garden” three years later. In 2013, he poured his science-based approach and expertise into his first book, “The California Native Landscape,” co-authored with Lucy Warren. “I have been called Reverend Rubin on occasion,” he acknowledges with a chuckle. While building his business, now credited with some 700 native landscapes around Southern California, Rubin passionately promoted California’s diverse flora to anyone who would listen - from garden clubs to landscape pros and horticultural societies. But in the mid-’90s, with a contractor’s license, handful of credit cards and support from his mentor, Las Pilitas native nursery founder Bert Wilson, Rubin took the leap, switching careers to start California’s Own Native Landscape Design ( ) in Escondido. For a few more years, horticulture and garden design remained hobbies while the California-born aviation buff pursued a successful engineering career. The native plant garden he ultimately created for his parents became his first award-winner, placing in a Sunset magazine contest.
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