Category Archives: Plant Portraits
Sudden Mediterranean Plant Collapse Disorder
I made that name up. But it’s true, collapse and then a swift death does come suddenly to mediterranean plants in lusty health mid-summer. Which is why I’m ecstatic that this one cutting of Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca ‘Variegata’ has … Continue reading
Urbane Nasturtiums
I’ve been transplanting a few self-sown nasturtiums and tucked a couple in with some eucomis bulbs to spill out of an ancient cast-iron sewer pipe that somehow made its way here years ago. I wonder which previous car’s shocks had … Continue reading
Pelargonium ‘Splendide’
From Robin Parer’s nursery Geraniaceae “A scandent shrub; leaves are pinnate, grey and hairy; a truly splendid hybrid with red upper petals, a dark center and almost white lower petals; do not leave outside in rain and prune very carefully.”
The Kashmir Cypress
A pre-dinner garden tour at Dustin’s. “What is it?” I asked. “You asked me that last time,” he answered patiently. “It’s psoralea.” “Oh, the Kool-Aid something or other?” (Strange, how memory works.) “Right,” he explained, “from Annie’s.” His psoralea is … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged Annies Annuals, bocconia, Cedrus deodara 'Feelin' Blue', Cupressus cashmeriana, Dustin Gimbel, Echeveria agavoides, Huntington Botanical Garden, Kashmir cypress, Nancy Goslee Power, Orostachys iwarenge, Power of Gardens, Psoralea pinnata, San Marcos Growers
7 Comments
Bloom Day April 2011
Southern California, a mile from the ocean, zone 10, spring a couple months ahead of most of the country. With the grasses joining the frothy euphorbias in bloom, there’s now a supercharged atmosphere that animates the garden. I love it … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, Plant Portraits
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, ' Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow', Aloe thompsonii, Annies Annuals, Bloom Day, Euphorbia characias 'Silver Swan', Fuchsia 'Hawkshead', Geranium maderense 'Alba', Geum magellanicum, Libertia peregrinans, Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea', May Dreams Gardens, Patersonia drummondii, Pennisetum spathiolatum, Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain'
6 Comments
Sage Vice
Who can say at what number an enthusiasm or “keen interest” ends and a collection of plants begins? 20 hostas? 6 agaves? 114 daylilies? When the genus is as diverse in leaf and flower as salvia, a collection interspersed throughout … Continue reading
Some Plants to Forget
You won’t be rushing home from work to check on how these plants are holding up on a hot, dry summer day. Just forget about them. Aeonium with a nice, snaky curve, ballota, sedum, golden sedge, and a little pelargonium … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged Aeonium arboreum, Ballota 'All Hallows Green', Ballota acetabulosa, Ballota pseudodictamnus, geraniaceae, Marrubium bourgae, nutmeg geranium, Pelargonium x fragrans 'Joanne's Spring Clover', Robin Parer, scented geraniums, Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', Valerie Finnis
2 Comments
Man-Eating Corydalis
There’s a man-eater loose in the neighborhood Image found here. Not a tawny blur of shadowy stripes, but a flutter of ferny glaucous leaf, 4X4 feet. Big enough for a tiger cub to hide behind. Corydalis heterocarpa, Corydalis heterocarpa var. … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged B&T World Seeds, Corydalis heterocarpa var. japonica, Plant World Seeds, zone 10
4 Comments
Do It In The Garden
The couch was occupied by a lower back temporarily refusing to face another day, so the person attached to the lower back had on the TV to ease the situation. (Not my lower back, still capable of a good dig … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Geranium maderense 'Alba', Harvey Keitel, Martin Scorcese, Mean Streets, Robert DeNiro
5 Comments
West Los Angeles Nursery Crawl
I don’t explore West Los Angeles and Santa Monica nearly enough, since getting there means battling some of the worst traffic in Southern California. But yesterday afternoon I had to work in the 1800 block of Sawtelle, roughly between Olympic … Continue reading