Author Archives: Denise

Bloom Day April 2013

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Denise

Spring is moving fast here in Southern California. I’ve already checked out some of the gardens on our host’s site for Bloom Day, Carol at May Dreams Gardens, and saw lots of traditional spring shrubs and bulbs and perennials like … Continue reading →

Posted in Bloom Day, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Albuca maxima, Anigozanthos, Argemone munita, begonia, Centranthus ruber 'Alba', Chionanthus retusus, Digging Dog Nursery, Erodium pelargoniflorum, Euphorbia lambii, flowering tobaccos, Isoplexis canariensis, kniphofia, Nepeta 'Walker's Low', Nicotiana 'Ondra's Brown Mix', Nicotiana langsdorfii, poppies, Prostranthera ovalifolia 'Variegata, Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple', Salvia chiapensis, Senecio anteuphorbium, Senecio stellata, Stipa gigantea, Tweedia caerulea, Zaluzianskya capensis | 9 Comments

Rolling Greens Culver City (tillandsia porn)

Posted on April 13, 2013 by Denise

A fresh shipment of tillandsias had just arrived when I visited Rolling Greens yesterday for their 75 percent-off sale, which ends today. Almost all of these little bromeliads were in bloom or about to bloom. Lordy. Like agaves, most tillandsias … Continue reading →

Posted in design, plant nurseries | Tagged bromeliads, monocarpism, Rolling Greens Culver City, tillandsias | 2 Comments

Lili Singer’s Thursday Talk with Isabelle Greene

Posted on April 12, 2013 by Denise

“Sixteen years ago I was writing only prose and what I consider now traditional garden writing for magazines. And then one day I was in my office looking at a landscape architecture magazine, turned the page, and there was an … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design, garden visit | Tagged Greene & Greene, Hazel White, Isabelle Greene, landscape architecture, Lili Singer, Longwood Gardens, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, The Gamble House, UCBG "Natural Discourse", Women in the Dirt | 2 Comments

more poppy drama

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Denise

Ferocious winds all day Monday left the poppies leaning, some struck down entirely by Tuesday morning. I was clipping off broken branches and thinning, trying to trim their sail should the winds return, when Marty walked through noting, “Hey, that … Continue reading →

Posted in creatures, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits | Tagged Annie's Annuals & Perennials, annual poppies, bees, Papaver setigerum | 7 Comments

squirrel week

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Denise

I didn’t know that the Washington Post’s squirrel week has been an ongoing tradition, but I’m glad to see squirrels getting their due. Maybe we fawn and make too much over what wildlife manages to get a toe-hold in our … Continue reading →

Posted in creatures | Tagged Fox squirrel, Sciurus niger, squirrels, The Washington Post's Squirrel Week | 2 Comments

birthday plants

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Denise

My birthday took up just about every single day last week, and more days on the weekend, which is how I rationalized a trip on Saturday to find that hitherto unknown-to-me, unmet, spectacular plant that would forever after be marked … Continue reading →

Posted in plant crushes, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Australian Native Plants Nursery, bromeliads, echeverias, Leucospermum cordifolium 'Yellow Bird, pincushion proteas, Roger's Gardens, South African plants, succulent containers, Ursinia anthemoides 'Solar Flare' | 16 Comments

Geranium maderense ‘Alba’

Posted on April 7, 2013 by Denise

I wasn’t sure I’d get blooms this year. Oh, there were plenty of self-sown seedlings from the one plant I brought home after it flowered, but with biennials, those plants that bloom in their second year, I always lose track … Continue reading →

Posted in Occasional Daily Photo, Plant Portraits | Tagged biennials, Geranium maderense 'Alba', island of Madeira | 4 Comments

studies in orange

Posted on April 6, 2013 by Denise

(Agave “Mr. Ripple’ gets his portrait included because, as Van Gogh wrote, “there is no orange without blue.”)

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Plant Portraits | Tagged Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Aloe capitata, Anigozanthos, Bulbine frutescens, Echeveria multicaulis 'Copper Roses', Isoplexis canariensis, Nasturtium, Ornithogalum dubium, Papaver rupifragum, Tropaeolum majus | 6 Comments

cochineal

Posted on April 5, 2013 by Denise

“Under the seams runs the pain.” ― Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red I’ve been going over my notes the past couple months from Dr. Alejandro de Ávila’s remarkable lecture “Blood on a Fountain,” which he gave this past January at … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents | Tagged Amy Stewart, cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, dyes, Helen Quinn, Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, Monte Alban, Montezuma cypress, opuntia, Opuntia ficus-indica, Stenocereus marginatus, Taxodium mucronatum, The Drunken Botanist, The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, UCBG "Natural Discourse", University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley | 6 Comments

studies in pink

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Denise

Lepismium cruciforme (its tiny white flowers just opening will stay with the theme when they turn into hot pink berries) Another epiphytic cactus, the rat tail cactus, Disocactus flagelliformis And poppies

Posted in Occasional Daily Photo | Tagged Disocactus flagelliformis, epiphytic cactus, Lepismium cruciforme, Papaver setigerum | 7 Comments