Category Archives: garden visit

Fall Planting Festival at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden 11/2/13

Posted on November 1, 2013 by Denise

“California is defined by its Mediterranean climate. It is the smallest floristic province in North America, but has the greatest diversity of plants north of Mexico. It includes such characteristic vegetation as chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and grassland. … Continue reading →

lost in Florence

Posted on October 28, 2013 by Denise

Zadie Smith’s essay “Love in the Gardens,” describing complicated family relations against the backdrop of visits to two gardens, the Boboli in Florence accompanied by her father, and the Borghese garden in Rome after her father had died, gave me … Continue reading →

Posted in garden travel, garden visit | Tagged Boboli gardens, Florence, Italy, The Duomo, The New York Review of Books 11/7/13, Uffizi Gallery, Zadie Smith's "Love in the Gardens" | 4 Comments

Stanford’s New Guinea Sculpture Garden

Posted on October 20, 2013 by Denise

More updates from the Bay Area, this one from occasional AGO photographer and contributor MB Maher. I’ll let him tell this adventure in his own words: “Shirley Watts messaged me to keep my Wednesday evening open. And per her instructions, … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, garden visit, MB Maher, photography | Tagged MB Maher, Robert Pogue Harrison, Shirley Watts, Stanford University, The New Guinea Sculpture Garden at Stanford | 4 Comments

in the news

Posted on October 17, 2013 by Denise

Since the government shutdown, I’ve been checking in with The New York Times at an increasingly feverish pace, several times a day, (and doing little else, it seems), so it was in real time that the story on James Golden … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, clippings, design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged Cindy McNatt, dirt du jour, Dustin Gimbel, James Golden, MB Maher, Michael Tortorello, non-secateur, Orange County Register, The Garden Conservancy Open Days, The New York Times, View From Federal Twist | 8 Comments

Cevan Forristt

Posted on September 25, 2013 by Denise

My timid approach to incorporating a bit of the exotic in the garden got me thinking about gardens that boldly embrace the exotic, gardens that become a country wholly unlike the one in which they nominally reside. There’s always a … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers | Tagged Bay Area gardens, Cevan Forristt, Hortisexuals, ornament, stone, The Christian Science Monitor | 13 Comments

Clianthus formosus

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Denise

I stopped in at the Sherman Gardens recently to check in on the succulent garden, which I visited a couple years ago and wrote about here. Although that garden looks the same as the day I visited, there was a … Continue reading →

Posted in garden visit, Plant Portraits | Tagged >Australian National Botanic Gardens, Australian plants, British navigator William Dampier, Chiltern Seeds, Clianthus formosus, Fabaceae family, Kew, Sherman Library & Gardens, Sturt's Desert Pea, Swainsona formosa, The Royal Botanic Gardens | 12 Comments

hillside with Schwentker Watts Design

Posted on September 14, 2013 by Denise

I was in a wonderful garden the other night, but was caught flat-footed as far as having any photos to show for it. Although only 7:30ish, twilight doesn’t last long in this Los Angeles neighborhood but is quickly swallowed up … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, climate, design, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Bocconia arborea, Cupressus macrocarpa 'Citriodora', Franco-Giacomo Carbone, Harvey Watts, James Schwentker, landscape architecture, Los Angeles, MB Maher, mediterranean climate, Schwentker Watts Design, Silverlake, The Los Angeles Times | 5 Comments

warm thoughts on formal gardens

Posted on September 7, 2013 by Denise

Have I mentioned how hot it’s been lately? It’s the kind of heat that gives a boho plant nut a deeper appreciation of the cool, austere lines of a formal garden. A garden built not on the scaffolding of flowers … Continue reading →

Posted in climate, design, garden ornament, garden visit | Tagged Acacia podalyriifolia, California, formal gardens, Katherine Spitz, Katherine Spitz Associates, Mar Vista, mediterranean climate, pittosporum, Southern California | 2 Comments

Yucca ‘Blue Boy’

Posted on September 3, 2013 by Denise

I’ve brought a couple home under the name Yucca aloifolia ‘Purpurea,’ but I’ve recently been seeing it tagged as Yucca desmetiana ‘Blue Boy,’ as it was here at Cornerstone Sonoma, in the Transcendence garden designed by Delmar McComb and Peter … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents | Tagged Cornerstone Gardens Sonoma, Delmar McComb, garden design, Peter Hanson, Yucca aloifolia 'Blue Boy', Yucca aloifolia 'Purpurea', Yucca desmetiana 'Blue Boy' | 9 Comments

scenes from Long Island

Posted on September 1, 2013 by Denise

It looks like the heat is fairly evenly distributed across the U.S. this Labor Day weekend. In between dipping into a steaming hot garden to cut back agastache, anthemis and senecio, I’m catching up on work and going through summer … Continue reading →

Posted in garden ornament, garden travel, garden visit, pots and containers | Tagged Aruncus aethusifolius, begonias, greenhouses, Knautia macedonia, Landcraft Environments, Long Island, Longhouse Reserve, Ltd., Lysimachia punctata, Madoo Conservancy, New York, Old Westbury Gardens, Solandra maxima, Vireya rhododendrons | 6 Comments