Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies
pattern seekers
That’s one thing at least we all have in common. And a craving for pattern is thankfully one of the easiest (and possibly the healthiest) to satisfy. Unknown objects found at flea market. The seller thought they may have been … Continue reading
driveby gardens; more on the disappearing lawn
I got a very late start on the self-guided Lawn-to-Garden tour Saturday, thirty gardens from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., just because Friday was an unusually odd workday and I lingered and wallowed far too long in the glory of … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, driveby gardens, garden visit, succulents
Tagged Agave desmettiana, Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor', Agave vilmoriniana, Calandrinia spectabilis, Dymondia margaretae, Helichrysum petiolare, Leonotis leonorus, Salvia leucantha, Senecio amaniensis, Senecio mandraliscae, Spanish Revival architecture
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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 ' Plant Delights Nursery, aeoniums, Agave 'Blue Flame', Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate', Anthericum saundersiae 'Variegata', Arundo donax 'Golden Chain, Chlorophytum saundersiae 'Agristripes', echeverias, Eryngium pandanifolium, Euphorbia cotinifolia, Isoplexis canariensis, kniphofias, mangaves, Pamela Harper's Color Echoes, Pennisetum 'Princess Caroline', phormiums, Scrophularia aquatica 'Variegata', Tetrapanax papyrifer, Yucca recurvifolia
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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 Aeonium 'Kiwi', Aeonium balsamiferum, Agave 'Blue Glow', Agave americana 'Variegata', Culver City, dyckias, Echeveria agavoides, Echeveria cante, Echeveria peacockii, Echeveria prolifica, Echeveria subsessilis 'Variegata', Euphorbia tirucalli, Furcraea macdougalii, Inner Gardens, knotwork, Portulacaria afra, Rolling Greens Culver City, Sedum morganianum, Senecio radicans, Spring Garden Show at South Coast Plaza
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studies in orange
(Agave “Mr. Ripple’ gets his portrait included because, as Van Gogh wrote, “there is no orange without blue.”)
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 Amy Stewart, cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, dyes, Helen Quinn, Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, Monte Alban, Montezuma cypress, opuntia, Opuntia ficus-indica, Stenocereus marginatus, Taxodium mucronatum, The Drunken Botanist, The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, UCBG "Natural Discourse", University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
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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 Agave gypsophila, Argemone munita, Buck & Yvonne Hemenway annual garden tour/plant sale, Dustin Gimbel Second Nature Garden Design, Gasteria 'Little Warty', Linaria 'Licilia Peach', Papaver setigerum, Pilocereus azureus
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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 Agave americana var. striata, Dyckia 'Brittle Star', Geranium maderense 'Alba', Isoplexis isabelliana, Melianthus 'Purple Haze', pittosporum, poppies, Prostranthera ovalifolia 'Variegata, tillandsias
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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