Category Archives: Plant Portraits
passionflower
Passiflora loefgrenii, also known as the garlic passionfruit vine from Brazil, is making an unlikely, late-December flowering debut in my garden. This December show is probably a one-time fluke for a summer bloomer that will settle down to a more … Continue reading
gift-wrapped
Yesterday was the winter solstice, so one of the best holiday presents of all, the gift of lengthening days, has already been delivered. I’ll take that over new socks any day. Huzzah! I’ve gift-wrapped AGO in some images from 2012, … Continue reading
friday clippings 12/7/12
The tulips are planted, and now the vegetable bin in the fridge is once again restored to its rightful purpose of chilling vegetables. I went beyond the required six weeks of prechilling this year, but overchilling is not the problem … Continue reading
flowering tobacco in December
I’m still puzzling over the winter exuberance of the nicotiana I sowed from seed early last spring. Now over 5 feet tall, the seed came from ‘Ondra’s Brown Mix,’ a selection made by Nan Ondra from her garden Hayefield. Annie’s … Continue reading
how to gift wrap an agave
I had some time late yesterday afternoon so decided to dip my toe into holiday retail. In truth, all I did was look at plants. And even bought a few. For myself. This season of giving is off to a … Continue reading
still life with castor bean plant
The inspiration to include some seed pods from the castor bean plant in leftover Thanksgiving vases already filled with chamomile and hypericum came from this photo from thequintessentialmagazine. Nice touch with the alocasia leaf too. Like a bloody echinops, the … Continue reading
Plant portrait; Agave attenuata and St. Augustine grass
Clean, bright simplicity. Agave attenuata underplanted with variegated St. Augustine grass, by garden designer Dustin Gimbel. This tough, subtropical grass works beautifully in holding this slope, and is allowed to grow long and shaggy or clipped and tidy, according to … Continue reading
Occasional Daily Photo 11/14/12
I planted this Hibiscus acetosella in a big, salvaged industrial tank in July, replacing some Verbena bonariensis ‘Lollipop’ that finished unexpectedly early, and it grows so much better in the steadier conditions of a container than in the darwinian struggle … Continue reading
Gomphrena decumbens ‘Airy Bachelor Buttons’
A space oddity of a gomphrena, is the Airy Bachelor Buttons. When it grew in my garden, I didn’t know its full name, only that it was a perennial gomphrena in zone 10 with a very lanky habit, that grew … Continue reading