Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies
what Dustin Gimbel does with gazanias
The humble gazania, that kaleidoscopic daisy from South Africa overused in years past as the go-to municipal ground cover, is undergoing a minor local revival. I included a few for this summer in my full-sun back garden, the LA Times … Continue reading
day trip to Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden
It’s pushing the concept of a day trip to its limit when it takes five hours each way, there and back, but the DBG was having their spring plant sale and, dammit, I needed to go. So the math worked … Continue reading
when agaves become homebodies
I’m sure these images have been kicking around design blogs for some time, but if they have I’ve missed them. (Found here at Miluccia, via the magazine Ideat.) It’s easy to become numbed by the tsunami of photos of interiors … Continue reading
Jardin Majorelle, Morocco
What I know about Yves Saint Laurent, the fashion designer, as opposed to his enormous, well-known cultural celebrity, is limited to sewing up some of his “rich peasant” and stunning Russian collection designs off of Vogue patterns in high school. … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged bleu Majorelle, Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent, general director Jardin Majorelle, Hugh Johnson, Hugh Johnson's The Principles of Gardening, Jacques Majorelle, Jardin Majorelle, Madison Cox, Marrakesh, Morocco, Robert Pogue Harrison, Suzy Menkes, The Principles of Gardening
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beauty’s best bargain
for me will always be plants. 401ks and SEPs may crash and burn, but I’ll always be able to live on the cheap surrounded by some of the most gorgeous patterns and shapes on earth. Some of the results from … Continue reading
exploring a coastal garden with Lili Singer
This Pacific Palisades garden was the final garden we visited 1/24/13 with Lili Singer via the LA County Arboretum Thursday Garden Talk series. Despite being firmly in the grasp of winter this January morning, or as firm a grasp on … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, driveby gardens, garden ornament, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Big Daddy's Antiques, Daniel Hinkley, Fleur Nooyen and Associates, formal gardens, garden designer Fleur Nooyen, garden designer Joel Lichtenwalter, garden designer Richard Hayden, garden designer Ryan Gates, Graptopetalum paraguayense, Grow Outdoor Design, Hayden Landscape Design, Irving Gill, Leucadendron ‘Wilson’s Wonder’, Lili Singer, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Mediterranean gardens, Solandra maxima
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driveby garden: Baker Street, San Francisco
For those who plan to attend the garden blogger meetup in San Francisco this year, known as the Garden Bloggers Fling, here’s a tiny glimpse of what the City offers mid January. And if you haven’t decided to attend yet, … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, driveby gardens, garden travel, garden visit, succulents
Tagged aeoniums, Agave americana var. medio-picta 'Alba', Agave bracteosa, beschorneria, bulbinella, Chamaerops humilis 'cerifera, dyckia, Euphorbia characias wulfeniii, Garden Bloggers Fling 2013, Magnolia stellata, Palace of Fine Arts/Exploratorium, phormiums, San Francisco, sempervivums, Yucca filamentosa
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UCBG Natural Discourse: Form and Function 1/11/13
The final event in the unique, year-long collaboration that the University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley undertook with “artists, architects, scientists and poets in the garden,” Natural Discourse, was held Friday, January 11, 2013. As co-curator Shirley Watts explained … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents
Tagged Agave stricta, Aloe capitata, Aloe sabaea, Beavertail cactus, Berkeley Natural History Museums searchable database, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, Dr. Marie Csete, Euphorbia cooperi var. cooperi, Euphorbia grandialata, Gail Wight, Gerard Dosba, Mary Anne Friel, Oliver Ranch Sonoma County California, Opuntia aff. prolifera, Paul Licht, Puya venusta, Ronald Rael, Shirley Watts, Steven Oliver, The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, The International Garden Festival at Chaumont sur Loire, UCBG "Natural Discourse", UCBG's "Plants Illustrated" 1/19/13 - 2/8/13, University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
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2012’s end
What a beautiful, tragic, maddening, saddening, intoxicating, infuriating, sublime and silly year 2012 was. While I indulge a bittersweet mood with Picasa’s collage editor, I’m wishing you the very, very best for 2013 — heavy on the sublime, light on … Continue reading
starting over with Kalanchoe ‘Pink Butterflies’
Its lifespan as fleeting and evanescent as a butterfly’s, the mother plant’s single stalk ultimately elongated to over 4 feet tall, bloomed, and dropped all but the topmost leaves. All in less than two years’ time. Seen here in better … Continue reading