Category Archives: Plant Portraits
Is It Too Late?
Too late to depose the poinsettia and install the leucadendron as the preferred bracts and leaves of Christmas? Please? Poinsettia has had a great run. Time for some fresh sap. (A sap that’s not caustic.) If the polls are still … Continue reading
Foliage Follow-Up December 2010
When asked only for a show of leaves, my zone 10 garden in December can give a much less angst-ridden performance than, for example, yesterday’s post, which was drawing solely on flower output. Today I realized I forgot to include … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged angelica pachycarpa, Annies Annuals, Begonia luxurians, Canna 'Bengal Tiger', Canna 'Intrigue', Coprosma 'County Park Red', Euphorbia characias, Foliage Follow-up, Helleborus argutifolius, Mangave 'Bloodspot', Rachel Warne, Tibouchina heteromalla
5 Comments
Bloom Day December 2010
(Actor Slim Pickens riding the bomb in Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove.) A December Bloom Day post begs for a little goofiness. No other word describes prowling a drizzly garden for photos in non-existent light searching for non-existent blooms. The roster for … Continue reading
Phlomis
Phlomis can be such fine plants year-round, with many kinds suited for gardens colder than my zone 10 garden. The familiar Jerusalem sage, Phlomis russeliana, is hardy to 0-10F. Mine came labeled as P. aurea, but it’s not showing much … Continue reading
Grace’s Technicolor Coat
I’ve been eagerly anticipating the moment when the smoke tree Grace drops her leaves, at which time we have a pruning date scheduled to rein in her exuberance. Planted as 4-inch rooted cutting in the northeast southeast corner, she’s now … Continue reading
Winter Whites
The gift of Solanum marginatum from Dustin opened a chilly-looking bloom yesterday. For a solanum from Abyssinia, the White-Edged Nightshade really knows how to dress for winter. (Labeled from the grower as S. marginata, but my trusty Hortus Third says … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Dustin Gimbel, nightshade, noxious weed, Second Nature Garden Design, Solanum marginatum
3 Comments
Winter Sun ‘Variegata’
I never met a variegated leaf I didn’t like, which might be considered the equivalent of a horticulturalist recessive trait, a weakness of character, a penchant for the flashy. In other words, not in the best of taste. Variegated derives … Continue reading
Potting Up
Real estate may still not be improving much, but in the garden houses are always moving, as with this Agave americana var. medio-picta ‘Alba’ that has been upsized to a new home that can be comfortably inhabited for several years, … Continue reading
Studies in Tetrapanax
Blooms in the classic rosette or composite shape would seem to be selected by many humans as the ideal flower, but gardens throughout the seasons reveal a much more complicated diversity of inflorescence. Though it may not cause one to … Continue reading
The Montezuma Cypress
Wandering a botanical garden such as the Huntington, one cannot but give thanks to rich industrialists for their interest in botany, whatever their sins. We can only hope the likes of Mark Zuckerberg, Bill Gates, or George Soros will follow … Continue reading