Category Archives: Plant Portraits
summer notes
Though I’ve been practicing lots of garden math — some addition but mostly subtraction and a little light division — the garden still seems almost unchanged and very familiar this summer, and I haven’t decided yet if that’s necessarily a … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, garden visit, journal, Plant Portraits, shop talk, succulents
Tagged ' Plant Delights Nursery, 2012, Anemanthele lessoniana, Atriplex hortensis, Bouteloua gracilis 'Blonde Ambition', Christopher Lloyd, Colocasia 'Diamond Head', Colocasia esculenta 'Mojito', Euphorbia characias 'Silver Swan', Giovanni Battista Amici, Leycesteria formosa 'Golden Lanterns', Lilium 'Lankon', Oenothera macrocarpa ssp. incana, San Diego Cactus & Succulent Society, SDCSS plant sale June 2 & 3, Stipa arundinacea, Teucrium hircanicum 'Paradise Delight', Tibouchina granulosa 'Gibraltar', Tweedia caerulea, Xanthosoma 'Lime Zinger'
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Teucrium hircanicum ‘Paradise Delight’
Summer-blooming spiky flowering plants under 3 feet. In garden design parlance, the verticals. We all need some, right? Herbaceous varieties of salvias and veronicas include lots of contenders. Although I’ve had some success with veronica, herbaceous salvias often melt away … Continue reading
tobacco-free zone
Note to self: Stop planting Nicotiana mutabilis in full afternoon sun. Note to garden: Stop spitting out my favorite plants. Friday morning my Nicotiana mutabilis that wintered over from last year looked like this. Obviously still trying to get the … Continue reading
Posted in creatures, Plant Portraits, science
Tagged flowering tobaccos, fusariuim wilt, Nicotiana mutabilis, tender perennials
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Bloom Day May 2012
Carol’s hosting of Bloom Day is one of the highlights of the month in garden blogdom. Yes, blooms can be had year-round, but instead of scratching around to find them as we do some months, May delivers them by the … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, Bulbs, MB Maher, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers
Tagged Ammi visagna, Anigozanthos hybrids, Athanasia acerosa, Begonia 'Gumdrops Coco Rose', Begonia partita, Briza maxima, Convolvulus sabatius 'Compact', Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca, Cotula lineariloba, Derry Watkins Special Plants Nursery, Gerbera 'Drakensberg Carmine', Glaucium flavum aurantiacum, Impatiens glandulifera, Oenothera macrocarpa ssp. incana, Orlaya grandiflora, Ornithogalum dubium, Pelargonium 'Gary's Nebula', Pennisetum messiacum, Sideritis cypria, Tetrapanax papyrifer, Verbascum 'Clementine', Verbena bonariensis 'Lollipop'
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mother’s day 2012
And my mom is on a bus heading north on the Atlantic seaboard to join up with a cruise off the coast of Canada. But there were birthdays to shop for yesterday, so naturally (selfishly?) I headed for a destination … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden ornament, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged ' Black Caterpillar Grass, Agave potatorum, Aloe marlothii, besom broom, Ceanothus griseus horizontalis, Corona Del Mar, Harpochloa falx 'Compact Black, High Country Gardens, Roger's Gardens, Southern California, Variegated Carmel Creeper
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saturday’s clippings 5/12/12
Quote of the week: “I can’t believe I burned down a tree older than Jesus,” philosophized a 26-year-old woman who torched a 3,500-year-old bald cypress known as The Senator last January, one of the 10 oldest trees on earth, while … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, clippings, journal, Plant Portraits, shop talk, succulents
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, Anemanthele lessoniana, Anigozanthos 'Yellow Gem', Argyranthemum haouarytheum, Cotinus 'Grace', Cra, Crassula expansa subsp. fragilis, Hesperaloe parviflora, Nancy Ondra, Nicotiana 'Ondra's Brown Mix', Ornithogalum dubium, Pennisetum 'Princess Caroline', Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple', Salvia canariensis var. candissima, Salvia wagneriana, Stipa arundinacea
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Huntington plant sale swag
Sunday’s plant sale at the Huntington was the best I’ve attended in many years. The succulents and cactus sale tables are always reason enough to attend, but the herbaceous stuff has been unexciting in recent years bordering on the moribund. … Continue reading
freeway wildflowers
Two Sundays ago, on Earth Day, in fact, I bounded out of bed early to head for a strip of wildflowers I’d been watching gain momentum for weeks and which looked to be approaching peak bloom. Instead of driving miles … Continue reading
Posted in garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged aloes, California native plants, Centuarea cyanus, Cistus purpureus, Escholtzia californica, Kalanchoe beharensis, kniphofias, Layia platyglossa, Mediterranean climates, Mimulus aurantiacus, Pennisetum alopecuroides, Pennisetum messiacum, Phacelia crennulata, Red Bunny Tails Fountain Grass, scorpionweed, Verbena lilacina
5 Comments
the clematis club
I’m referring to a club in the informal sense, with really only one criterion for membership. And that is to push on past the inevitable early disappointments associated with growing clematis until one is found that will bloom in your … Continue reading
Occasional Daily Photo 4/21/12
Some mornings the poppies do an especially fine job of arranging their blooms throughout the gravel garden. Orange notes from Papaver rupifragum and dyckia (I know I keep referring to this bit of garden as the “gravel garden,” which it … Continue reading
Posted in Occasional Daily Photo, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged Dyckia species, Papaver rupifragum
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