Category Archives: garden visit

freeway wildflowers

Posted on April 30, 2012 by Denise

Two Sundays ago, on Earth Day, in fact, I bounded out of bed early to head for a strip of wildflowers I’d been watching gain momentum for weeks and which looked to be approaching peak bloom. Instead of driving miles … Continue reading →

Posted in garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents | Tagged aloes, California native plants, Centuarea cyanus, Cistus purpureus, Escholtzia californica, Kalanchoe beharensis, kniphofias, Layia platyglossa, Mediterranean climates, Mimulus aurantiacus, Pennisetum alopecuroides, Pennisetum messiacum, Phacelia crennulata, Red Bunny Tails Fountain Grass, scorpionweed, Verbena lilacina | 5 Comments

Saturday’s Clippings 4/28/12

Posted on April 29, 2012 by Denise

I enjoyed this article very much earlier in the week, well worth a Sunday read: “Any patch of earth, large or small, turns out to be a mad surprise party of species — fluid, unpredictable and wild — and a … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, clippings, design, garden ornament, garden visit, plant nurseries, pots and containers, science | Tagged "Counting Species on a Little Patch of Earth", Agave 'Felipe Otero', Agave attenuata 'Kara's Stripes', Agave attenuata 'Raea's Gold', Agave Coast Landscapes, arctotis, B&D Lilies, Carol Kaesuk Yoon, Catalina Ironwood, Desert to Jungle, Dustin Gimbel, Fermob garden chairs, Gary Hammer, Huntington Botanical Garden plant sale April 2012, Laura Dalton, Lily 'Lankon', Lyonothamnus floribundus, Potted gifts for the garden, San Marcos Growers, Sarah Robinson/Sarah's Gardens, Second Nature Garden Design, South Coast Plaza Spring Garden Show, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Times | 2 Comments

selections from Mar Vista’s Green Garden Showcase

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Denise

A quick look back at one of the gardens on the Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase last Saturday, which was a huge tour, with over 80 houses participating. Careful logistical preparation is required, researching and winnowing through descriptions online, mapping … Continue reading →

Posted in design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged Acacia podalyriifolia, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Daniel Rhodes, Hidcote, Italian gardens, Katherine Spitz, Los Angeles Times, Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase, Pittosporum tobira 'Wheeler's Dwarf' | 2 Comments

Carex pansa

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Denise

“Somewhere out there in nature, he reasoned, there had to be a grass…that would be naturally low-growing, drought-tolerant, evergreen, and trampleable: a natural lawn grass.” – The New Yorker, August 19, 1996, “The Grassman.” Carex pansa, the California meadow sedge, … Continue reading →

Posted in design, garden visit, science, shop talk | Tagged California meadow sedge, Carex pansa, John Greenlee, lawn substitutes, Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase, The New Yorker 8/19/96 "The Grassman", Wade Graham | 5 Comments

friday’s clippings 4/20/12

Posted on April 20, 2012 by Denise

Friday’s Clippings is a handy blog closet into which accumulated stuff can be shoved at the end of the week, things I want to refer to again that might be of wider interest. And speaking of odds and ends shoved … Continue reading →

Posted in clippings, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, journal, science | Tagged Colony Collapse Disorder, Dustin Gimbel, Mar Vista Green Garden Showcase, neonicotinoid insecticides, South Coast Plaza, Southern California Spring Garden Show 2012, Why Trees Matter by Jim Robbins | 2 Comments

when the world gets too koyaanisqatsi

Posted on April 9, 2012 by Denise

I heard this phrase a couple weeks back and thought it an instant classic, the perfect shorthand for those moments when life gets a little too fractured, too fragmented, too…out of balance or koyaanisqatsi, referring to that 1983 art house … Continue reading →

Posted in garden visit, Plant Portraits | Tagged Centaurea clementei, Dustin Gimbel, Godfrey Reggio, koyaanisqatsi, sonchus species | 4 Comments

windows on the world

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Denise

Thank you, Paris Review, for continuing Windows on the World, a wonderful “series on what writers from around the world see from their windows,” as drawn by Matteo Pericoli, first commissioned by The New York Times. My introduction to this … Continue reading →

Posted in books, design, garden visit | Tagged Matteo Pericoli, The Paris Review, Windows on the World | Leave a comment

things to do in the Bay Area after a garden show

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Denise

or any other preposition that fits your schedule — before the show, between visits to the show. Of course, you don’t have to wait until the next garden show in 2013 for a visit. Building REsources, discussed before here and … Continue reading →

Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits | Tagged Aloe castanea, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Bay Area, Big Daddy's, Building REsources, Cornerstone Sonoma, Eupatorium sordidum, geum, Homoglad hybrids, MB Maher, Roger Raiche, Ruth Bancroft Garden, salvage, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, sideritis, Suzanne Biaggi, The Dry Garden, Topher Delaney, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden | 4 Comments

winter walkabout

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Denise

Les of A Tidewater Gardener frequently posts some of the most beautiful landscape photography to be found on garden blogs. On his blog you may be introduced, as I was, to John Irving-esque names of natural phenomena like The Great … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents, The Hortorialist | Tagged A Tidewater Gardener, Aloe striata, Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta', George Nelson bubble lamp, Opuntia littoralis, Salvia spathacea, Winter Walk-Off, Yucca rostrata | 8 Comments

blue/yellow/green

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Denise

Where were we? I’ve been working at the day job like a navvy, trying to clear some time for spring garden visits, shows and whatnot. But the garden in March initiates a measured sequence of distractions, which can really mess … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden visit, succulents | Tagged Agave 'Blue Glow', Agave bovicornuta, Agave potatorum, Aloe marlothii, Andrea Cochran, Echeveria elegans, garden design, Papaver rupifragum, Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', Sideritis cypria, Sideritis syriaca | 6 Comments