Category Archives: clippings

Kate Ballis’ Infra Realism; Palm Springs as you’ve never seen it before

Posted on February 23, 2018 by Denise

In a sharp rebuke to my last post about how balmy the weather has been, this unexpected February cold front afflicting the West Coast has me and the cat cooped up in the garden hut/office as close to the space … Continue reading →

friday clippings 2/16/18

Posted on February 16, 2018 by Denise

dark background is the creeping fig wall (Ficus pumila covering 6-foot high CMU wall, extending 2 feet up from the top, for a privacy-enhancing 8-foot wall) It’s been an incredibly balmy week in Los Angeles, notwithstanding a teasingly insufficient bit … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, clippings, design, garden travel, journal, MB Maher, pots and containers | Tagged California, Jay Griffith, Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty', Venice | 8 Comments

monday clippings 2/5/18

Posted on February 5, 2018 by Denise

There’s an unexpected addition to the container garden, and not one that I’d necessarily pick out of a lineup as an especially attractive succulent, like Agave ‘Kissho Kan’ in the foreground. I encountered this little space oddity on a walk … Continue reading →

Posted in clippings, journal, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Agave 'Kissho Kan', Agave vilmoriniana 'Stained Glass', Aloidendron 'Goliath', Euphorbia lignosa, Euphorbia xanti, Kalanchoe bracteata, Selenicereus anthonyanus | 5 Comments

the week in plants 1/28/18

Posted on January 28, 2018 by Denise

Aloe striata is getting ready to bloom. The Coral Aloe is not an uncommon aloe in Southern California, but it is in my garden. Sometime during summer, as I bring plants home from nurseries and shows, this aloe inevitably loses … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings, edibles, journal, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Agave 'Mateo', Aloe 'Jacob's Ladder', Aloe striata, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, annuals, Atriplex hortensis, Chiltern Seeds, Heliophila longifolia, Los Angeles Grand Park, Mangave 'Lavender Lady', Salvia 'Marine Blue', seeds, Wild Garden Seed, Women's March 2018 | 7 Comments

clippings 1/3/18

Posted on January 3, 2018 by Denise

What do you think? Can 2018 possibly get any crazier than 2017? Early evidence certainly points to 2018 getting a running head start. Here’s my own personal, crazy-killing antidote. Finding landscapes like this. And this. And more of this. Elemental, … Continue reading →

Posted in clippings, garden travel, garden visit | Tagged "Natural Discourse", Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Desert Botanical Garden, Phoenix, Shirley Watts | 6 Comments

winter solstice 2017

Posted on December 13, 2017 by Denise

The winter solstice is little more than a week away, on December 21st, after which point the days will blessedly begin to lengthen again. Huzzah! There will at last be more and more light, always cause for celebration, even if … Continue reading →

Posted in clippings, edibles, inspire me, journal, MB Maher, photography | Tagged Heceta Head Lighthouse, winter solstice | 8 Comments

some upcoming dates October 2017

Posted on October 19, 2017 by Denise

I was at the Huntington last Sunday to attend a talk by author Andrea Wulf (“The Invention of Nature“) on Alexander von Humboldt. If Ms. Wulf has scheduled speaking engagements in your area, I urge you to attend. She is … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, clippings, plant sales, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged "Natural Discourse", a, Andrea Wulf's The Invention of Nature, Artistic License Fair, Cornerstone Sonoma, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, Dustin Gimbel, Fullerton Arboretum, Huntington Botanical Garden, LA County Arboretum fall plant sale, Mediterranean Garden Society, Oaxaca Ethnobotanical Garden, Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative, San Diego Botanic Garden, Shirley Watts, Theodore Payne Foundation Nursery, U.C. Riverside Botanic Garden, Visual Voyages | 6 Comments

dog days of August bite garden

Posted on September 9, 2017 by Denise

My leaning Cussonia gamtoosensis took a serious dive earthward in late August. Like a watched pot that never boils, it’s difficult to discern when a chronically leaning tree is in imminent danger of failing, but clearly the cabbage palm was … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings | Tagged Agave 'Snow Glow', Bilbergia 'Hallelujah', Passiflora 'Witchcraft', Senecio palmeri | 7 Comments

Sunday clippings 9/3/17

Posted on September 3, 2017 by Denise

Did the Powerball mania descend on your home too a couple weeks back? Just because I never buy Powerball or lottery tickets, magical thinking really kicks in when news of the big jackpots reaches even my normally oblivious state of … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, clippings, design, garden travel, garden visit, succulents | Tagged Austin Val Verde, Casa del Herrero, Isabelle Greene, Laure Joliet, Mediterranean Garden Society 23rd Annual General Meeting, Montecito, Toro Canyon House | 7 Comments

keep on planting

Posted on August 14, 2017 by Denise

image of Iris reticulata from Wikipedia Commons Collections of Virginia Woolf’s copious letters and diaries have sustained me through some dreary, uninspiring times. By turns bitchy and transcendent, but always dependably filled with trenchant and unflinching observations of her life … Continue reading →

Posted in artists, books, Bulbs, clippings | Tagged Iris reticulata, Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Vox | 10 Comments