Category Archives: succulents
Plant Hunting in Namibia
I didn’t need to know too much about the Crassula mesembryanthemoides I bought last week, just some elaboration of the nurseryman’s comment that the stem tips drop, root, and spread everywhere. Very few search hits available. Add its home, Namibia, … Continue reading
Plug & Play
I briefly escaped the desk yesterday and checked out a couple local nurseries. Fall is when some interesting plants start to appear again in Southern California nurseries, for planting in the cooler temps, to be settled in by winter rains. … Continue reading
Wake-Up Call
This morning the eaves were dripping and a foghorn blew for the first time in months. In other words, the season for succulents has begun. Summer’s siege is over. If you’re an aeonium in Southern California, or any other mediterranean … Continue reading
Chasing Plants
Post-Internet I’ve noticed plant desire has turned into a thinner and weaker strain now that it’s so easily satisfied. The really big desire, the kind that used to build up unrequited for years and years, is as analog as a … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Annies Annuals, Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum', Cistus Nursery, Digging Dog Nursery, Mathiasella bupleuroides, Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, Mildred Mathias, San Marcos Growers, The Dry Garden North Oakland, Yucca aloifolia 'Blue Boy', Yucca aloifolia 'Purpurea'
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From Pot to Garden
Ah, the synergy of pots and garden. Apart from the infinite aesthetic considerations, from a practical standpoint, pots can render any garden effectively zoneless or, as in my very small garden, they can stretch available planting space. In a process … Continue reading
Palms & Lawn
I’ve had a very interesting past couple of days. (Interesting in my usual narrow, horticultural sense of the word.) Thursday I finally made it to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to check out up close the new Eli … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden travel, MB Maher, succulents
Tagged Agave guiengola 'Creme Brulee', Anne Raver, Austin, drought, Eli Broad, Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta', Getty Center, Jim Dugan, Kelly Griffin, LACMA, lawn replacement, Licuala peltata, Mark Simmons, Rancho Soledad Nursery, Ravenala madagascariensis, Renzo Piano, restoration ecologist, Richard Serra's Band, Robert Irwin, Texas, The New York Times
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Foliage Follow-Up August 2011
Thank goodness Pam at Digging hosts a Foliage Follow-Up to May Dreams Gardens Bloom Day. The blooming lineup in my July Bloom Day post can stand in with very little revision for August. Holding down the fort and keeping the … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bloom Day, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, ' Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost, Achillea ageratum, Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Anemanthele lessoniana, Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’, Arundo donax 'Golden Chain, Coreopsis 'Full Moon', Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca, Cupressus macrocarpa 'Citriodora', Darrell Probst, Dorycnium hirsutum, Echeveria 'Opal Moon', Echium gentianoides 'Tajinaste', Euphorbia bracteata, Leycesteria formosa 'Golden Lanterns', Musa 'Siam Ruby', Olea europaea 'Little Ollie', Passiflora sanguinolenta, Phormium 'Alison Black', Stipa arundinacea, Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold', Teucrium 'Fairy Dust', Trombetta di Albenga
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Inter-City Cactus Show & Sale
I went to the show, had my mind blown, took some pictures. In other words, a typical succulent show…except that I introduced myself to a best-selling author on succulents in the landscape and containers and then gushed and fawned and … Continue reading
Succulent Experiments: A Tutorial
What a surprise that Apartment Therapy liked the hanging planters for succulents I blogged about recently. The ones made from…um…car jack stands. Which we just happen to have in abundance here at home because there’s a couple 1970’s Volkswagen vans … Continue reading
Blue Bottle & Finial
I cleaned out my garden shed the other day and found this blue bottle buried under twine and dirty garden gloves dried into angry fist shapes. There was apparently attraction enough at one time for me to squirrel the bottle … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden ornament, succulents
Tagged bottle tree, Building REsources, cobalt blue, Echeveria elegans, finial, glass bottles
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