Category Archives: succulents
Bulbs, Poppy Pots, and Echeveria imbricata
By the first week of December, any activity that’s not directly holiday related can seem a bit, well, selfish. But it’s also the time when the bulbs that have been prechilling in a crisper drawer in the fridge since September, … Continue reading
Outdoor Rooms Need Shelving
Outdoor furniture, kitchens, fireplaces. Outdoor fabrics have come a long way for dirt and UV resistance. But anyone else notice something lacking? Maybe I’m just not looking in the right places, but it seems to me that for sturdy outdoor … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden ornament, pots and containers, shop talk, succulents
Tagged Building REsources, outdoor rooms, salvage, shelving
10 Comments
some quiet plant conversation
I suggest we leave the main table with its overturned wine glasses, scattered pie crumbs, gravy stains and increasingly madcap discussions and gather in an out-of-the-way corner to quietly talk plants. A kind of horticultural digestif. A couple weeks ago … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, creatures, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Anthericum saundersiae 'Variegata', Armstrong Nurseries, Aster Frikartii 'Monch', Chlorophytum saundersiae, Echeveria ciliata x nodulosa, Gerbera 'Drakensberg Carmine', Graham Rice, Hayefield, Lilium 'Lankon', Monterey Bay Nursery, Nan Ondra, pollinators, Salvia littae, The TransAtlantic Plantsman
2 Comments
Bloom Day November 2011
It can’t be November already. But the winter-blooming salvias don’t lie. Rosebud-like blooms are forming on Salvia wagneriana, and the slender wands of Salvia littae from Oaxaca, Mexico are budding up. The latter’s tall, lanky growth habit is very reminiscent … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged ' Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost, Aechmea recurvata ‘Aztec Gold', Crassula sarmentosa, Hakonechloa macra ‘Emerald Glow’, Linaria maroccana, Passiflora sanguinolenta, Salvia chiapensis, Salvia littae, Salvia madrensis, Salvia wagneriana, Tetrapanax papyriferus, Thunbergia alata, Vriesea gigantea
12 Comments
Villa Mundo Nuevo
This fall photographer MB Maher revisited this Northern Californian residential garden designed by landscape architect Jarrod Baumann of Zeterre Landscape Architecture and built by contractor Jim Everett of EvLand LLC that won the 2010 California Landscape Contractors Association Trophy Award. … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, edibles, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged 2010 CLCA Trophy Award, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Evland LLC, formal gardens, Interleafing, Jarrod Baumann, Jim Everett, landscape architecture, Laura Livengood Schaub, mediterranean climate, Northern California, Villa Mundo Nuevo, Zeterre Landscape Architecture
9 Comments
seeing double
At Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery in West Los Angeles yesterday, I was surprised to find double blooms on a couple of popular summer tropicals, abutilon and mandevilla, something to keep in mind for next summer’s containers. (Abutilon for shade, mandevilla for … Continue reading
Posted in plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, shop talk, succulents
Tagged Abutilon 'Victorian Lady', bonsai, Ginkgo biloba, Hashimoto Nursery, Mandevilla 'Tango Twirl', Monrovia, sempervivums, Support Your Independent Nursery Month, The Jungle, West Los Angeles, Yamaguchi Bonsai Nursery
6 Comments
Lipstick Traces
Artful smudging. Irving Penn’s 1986 ad for Loreal. Artless smudging. Kalanchoe luciae ‘Fantastic,’ Variegated Paddle Plant.
Posted in design, succulents
Tagged Irving Penn, Kalanchoe luciae 'Fantastic', photography
3 Comments
Anatomy of a Pot of Tender Plants
There’s some great names in the plant world, and Cussonia is up there with some of my favorites. And for pure enjoyment, no history of the name is necessary, just an appreciation for vowels and syllables. Also lends itself to … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Araliaceae, Cabbage Trees, Cottage Gardens of Petaluma, Cussonia gamtoosensis, Cussonia paniculata, Delosperma sphalmanthoides, High Country Gardens, International Garden Center & Floral Design, plantzafrica, Support Your Independent Nursery Month, Tufted Ice Plant
3 Comments
Bloom Day October 2011
The highest temps all summer hit last week, an unwelcome intrusion into fall planting season. Limbing up the big smoke tree a few weeks ago allowed a lot more light into the back garden, setting in motion some deadly domino … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bloom Day, Bulbs, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged Dahlia 'Chat Noir', Digging Dog Nursery, Grevillea 'Superb', Nerine sarniensis, Persicaria amplexicaulis, Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple', Rudbeckia triloba, Salvia canariensis var. candissima, Salvia madrensis, Selinum wallichianum, Thunbergia gregorii
9 Comments
Sedum & the Summer of Neglect
A tale of invincibility. The sedum, with the survivability of a cockroach, has been performing every trick I’ve asked it to. Way back in January I planted up these hollow flues pried out of our chimney when some repairs were … Continue reading