Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies

tricks for the plant collector

A garden book among the many I’ve read that I’m reminded of almost daily is Pamela Harper’s “Color Echoes.” My synopsis goes like this: The eye is lonely and craves relationships, and will wander around restlessly to seek them out, … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, journal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

succulents around town

I’ve been accumulating photos of the ever-present succulent arrangements I see all over town. All over town might be an exaggeration. It’s just possible that I tend to gravitate to places where there will be succulents. But there’s no denying … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

studies in orange

(Agave “Mr. Ripple’ gets his portrait included because, as Van Gogh wrote, “there is no orange without blue.”)

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Plant Portraits | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

cochineal

“Under the seams runs the pain.” ― Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red I’ve been going over my notes the past couple months from Dr. Alejandro de Ávila’s remarkable lecture “Blood on a Fountain,” which he gave this past January at … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

March evening/April morning

Walking off Easter dinner, what caught my eye last evening was a petite bloom on the melianthus, the first I’ve seen on this cultivar ‘Purple Haze.’ I’m really starting to believe now it is the holy grail, a dwarf melianthus, … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

tuesday clippings 3/26/13

Nothing too thematic, just some odds and ends. To prove I left the plant sale tables briefly and did a lap in the show room at the recent Orange County CSSA show, here’s a Dyckia ‘Brittle Star’ hybrid that won … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings, Occasional Daily Photo, plant crushes, Plant Portraits | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

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

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, driveby gardens, MB Maher, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

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

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, garden visit, succulents | Tagged , , , , | 11 Comments

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

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, pots and containers | Tagged | 3 Comments

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 , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments