Category Archives: clippings
garden miscellany 2/28/22
A quick garden report then we can all get back to doomscrolling. (Here’s a list of solid, experienced relief organizations that can help.) Another atmospheric river is hitting the Oregon coast, but here in coastal Long Beach we’re climbing into … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, journal, pots and containers
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clippings 2/21/22
Seen on T-shirts and protest signs around the world, now multimedia artist Patrick Martinez has worked Greek poet Dinos Christianopoulos’ words to electrifying effect in neon (which comes from the Greek word for “new”). A sign of and for the … Continue reading
Posted in artists, clippings
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clippings 9/30/21
A self-sown manihot made an exquisite canopy of uniform growth to 4 feet in its first summer — consolation for the loss of a similar but shorter-lived performance from a young Schefflera taiwaniana, which unlike the manihot had a strong … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Botanica, clippings, journal, succulents
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garden clippings 9/7/21
Yes, that is a box full of chrysanthemums. Let me explain why such a wildly uncharacteristic flower, for me, is blooming in my otherwise mostly austere and dryish garden. It’s part of the ongoing experiment of trying cut flowers in … Continue reading
Six on Saturday
‘Eurydice’ lilies opened this week, an asiatic with martagon-esque, downward-facing blooms. Zone 10 gardeners are reminded that lilies do not necessarily return every summer for us, so arborator cave (grower beware!) 2. The echeverias are blooming — the one above … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, clippings, journal, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
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clippings 4/28/21
For Southern California gardeners: Melianthus ‘Purple Haze’ was spotted at Plant Depot in San Juan Capistrano this month, a single plant. After planting, try not to move it around too much; in zone 10, placement that avoids afternoon sun is … Continue reading
clippings 3/23/21
The poppies self-sown into the new gravel area have grown so tall I wasn’t sure if they were my old standbys, the smaller statured Papaver setigerum. Blooms opening this week confirmed that indeed they are, but just gaining a bit … Continue reading
Posted in Cinema Botanica, clippings, journal, succulents
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clippings January 5, 2021
Happy New Year news: We’re waitlisted for a corgi puppy with an Oregon breeder! The arrangement seems nebulous at best, but it’s the closest we’ve come to envisioning life with another dog since Ein shared his life with us, our … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, journal
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friday clippings 8/21/20
“When we sow a seed, we plant a narrative of future possibility,” Sue Stuart-Smith, a British psychiatrist and psychotherapist and wife of garden designer Tom Stuart-Smith, writes in her new book, “The Well-Gardened Mind.” (The New Yorker 8/24/20 “The Therapeutic … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, journal
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making the most of it
Emotionally, this summer feels like summers when I was 12 or 13 — when I stuck close to home because I wasn’t allowed yet to get in trouble with friends with cars. I’m regressing to the point that I’ve even … Continue reading