Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies

a February visit to the Huntington desert garden

I got caught in a rainstorm at the Huntington’s desert garden yesterday, which was magical. Storm warning

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2015 Dates to Remember

I’ve been working on 2015 plants sales and plant show dates under the heading Dates to Remember, top of the page. Please feel free to send along info on anything I’ve missed or something worthy that must not go unmentioned. … Continue reading

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Saturday clippings 2/14/15

Valentine’s Day would seem to demand a quote on love, and this one by Rilke sums it up well: Love consists of this: two solitudes that meet, protect and greet each other. No, I didn’t grab a book off the … Continue reading

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“The Artful Garden” featuring Shirley Watts, Portland, Oregon 2/15/15

Detail of mural in the new reception hall at Rancho Los Alamitos. I don’t suppose there’s the smallest chance we’ll ever see a “bullet train” built that runs to Portland, Oregon, since the voter-approved Los Angeles-to-San Francisco high-speed train has … Continue reading

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stellar agaves

The ancient Aztec riddle asked “What points its finger at the sky?” and the riddle’s answer is “the Maguey Thorn.” Left-over plans from 2014: So when I finally get around to making a Steller contribution featuring agaves, these are some … Continue reading

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happy holidays

I always find that the winter holidays have a lot in common with Silly Putty — extremely malleable, occasionally stretching a little thin, often just straddling the border of tangling up into a fine mess, and in this house anyway, … Continue reading

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weekend nursery browse

On the way to dropping off a holiday wreath at my mom’s on Sunday, I stopped for a walkabout at H&H nursery, located on Lakewood Blvd. in a power line easement near the 91 freeway. I was hoping to find … Continue reading

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agaves take Los Angeles

About a year ago I was told by a nurseryman that aloes have replaced agaves in popularity, because people have gotten wise to the approximate 8-year death spiral of agaves, the bloom-and-doom cycle, which isn’t the case with aloes, reliably … Continue reading

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Natural Discourse: Light & Image 2014, an epilogue

Ever wonder when our buildings are going to have the photosensitivity and photoreactivity of plants? Dale Clifford, with his focus on biomimetics applied to architecture, is on the case, investigating the possibility of designing a photoreactive brick inspired by the … Continue reading

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friday agave love

I had a paycheck a couple weeks back that was bigger than expected, so that’s when my ongoing cold inspection of every variegated octopus agave on offer around town turned into hot acquisition. Always expensive, always a little bit beat … Continue reading

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