Category Archives: agaves, woody lilies
Fried Cannoli & The Banyan Tree
My aunts and cousins called my mom, who called me. Our bakery was back in business after what turned out to be just a brief hiatus of a couple years. The owner decided early retirement was not the answer, reopened … Continue reading
July in the Front Garden
The Spanish poppies, P. ruprifagrum, are still blooming, but if I pull out the wayward stalks with their seed capsules leaning every which way, I can manage to get some photos of the other plants that live here. This narrow … Continue reading
Cutting Back the Agave Walk
As I’ve written before, this little walkway is often under siege by sprawlers (or gloriously festooned with plant life, depending on your point of view). When half the path disappears under plants, even I know it’s time to do some … Continue reading
Ruth Bancroft Garden
If you have an Internet connection and a love of plants, you probably also have many unmet friends with those same two attributes. Finally meeting up with them is thrilling. When they arrange to take you to marvelous gardens you’ve … Continue reading
Laughter in the Distance
Not a title to a pulpy romance novel but a snippet of Hinkley’s hilarious prose from his infamous Heronswood nursery catalogues. (The nursery was opened in 1987, bought by Burpee in 2000 and closed by them in 2006.) The catalogues … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, essay, Plant Portraits
Tagged Begonia grandis, Ceanothus thrysiflorus var. griseus 'Kurt Zadnik, Clematis recta, Dan Hinkley, Embothrium coccineum, Garden Cottage Nursery, Heronswood, Melianthus 'Purple Haze', Monrovia, Olearia 'Henry Travers', restios, Rhodocoma capensis, Roger Raiche, Roger's Gardens, Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain', Stiga gigantea, Vita Sackville-West, Windcliff
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The Shuffle
The annual summer pot shuffle. Which pots shall be plucked from the margins and take pride of place, beautiful specimens of their kind? Every summer brings a different answer. This Agave parryi’s spikes are kept well out of corgi eye … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden ornament, succulents
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On A Misty May Morning
Heavy mist, almost a full-blown drizzle. This has been one long, cool spring, with rain forecast for the weekend. Unheard of for May! Carex and Echevaria nodulosa Agave impressa, brought home from the Huntington Botanic Garden’s plant sale over the … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies
Tagged Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Agave impressa, Carex glauca, Echevaria nodulosa, lespedeza
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At the Garden Show/Mall
The show was held in an Orange County mall, the South Coast Plaza. If retail therapy is your thing, this mall is the Dr. Freud’s couch of retail therapy. Yves St. Laurent, Tiffany’s, Dolce Gabana, etc. The garden show seemed … Continue reading
Agave ‘Kissho Kan’
Dwarf Variegated Butterfly Agave. Slow-growing to only a foot. Translation “Happy crown” or “Lucky crown” On the West Coast, these formerly pricy, collectible agaves are really dropping in price. If I see one in a 4-inch pot, I swoop. I … Continue reading