Category Archives: The Hortorialist
Foliage Followup December 2011
400 South Hope Street, Los Angeles Mellon Bank Center An enormous agave (A. weberi?) in a sea of Senecio mandraliscae, ribboning out into massed plantings of dwarf phormium, then masses of a smaller agave, replaced by blocks of feather grass. … Continue reading
walkies
We’ve been pushing ourselves to take long walks, sometimes early morning, sometimes early evening, as much as 4 miles, mostly through Long Beach’s old downtown, which has seen many of its older buildings become frozen mid loft conversion. (Probably too … Continue reading
Sean Hogan at Flora Grubb Gardens
On Sunday, July 17, 2011, Sean Hogan of Cistus Nursery, Portland, Oregon, gave a talk at Flora Grubb Gardens in San Francisco, California, entitled “The Art of the Rosette.” I’ve visited Cistus Nursery twice, so I know first-hand that it’s … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents, The Hortorialist
Tagged Agave 'Spot', Agave schidigera 'Black Widow', Agave schidigera 'Durango Delight', Agave schidigera 'Shira ito no Ohi', Aloe 'Brass Hat', Cistus Nursery, eucomis, Flora Grubb Gardens, Hechtia texensis, Mangave 'Bloodspot', Mangave undulata 'Chocolate Chips', Opuntia fragilis, Plantlust, Sean Hogan, Tradescantia sillamontana, Yucca angustissima 'Southside', Yucca nana, Yucca rostrata 'Sapphire Skies'
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Bold Succulents at the Seashore
Out for a walk at the beach with the corgi today, these imposingly tall jars of succulents on a porch caught my eye across four lanes of traffic. (There’s always ample opportunity to survey the surrounding area when walking Ein, … Continue reading
Posted in garden ornament, succulents, The Hortorialist
Tagged aeonium, Echeveria, Portulacaria afra, Senecio radicans, succulent containers
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Storm Damage/The Politics of Eucalyptus
The recent heavy rains in Southern California brought down a half dozen or so eucalyptus at a local park. A spectacular sight but not all that unusual. The gum trees are notorious for dropping branches and sometimes heaving out of … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits, The Hortorialist
Tagged Acacia cultriformis, alleopathy, eucalyptus, Eucalyptus gunnii, Eucalyptus pauciflora subsp. debeuzeville, Gardens Illustrated, knife-leaf acacia, Palmengarten Frankfurt, Robert Santos "The Eucalpytus of California", tree damage, Ursula McHardy
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More Talk About Buildings and Plants
I left work in Santa Monica yesterday afternoon and fought the traffic east down Wilshire to check out the new Rolling Greens store on Beverly. Stopped at a light, I was very surprised to see these hard-core, drought tolerant containers … Continue reading
Plants, Get Thee Behind Me
Just wanted a quick outing, a bit of plant gawking after a week of far too much sitting. But the flesh, as usual, was weak. Too many mid-summer temptations at the nursery. The eggplant-colored beauty is Pseuderanthemum ‘Black Varnish.’ I … Continue reading
Posted in The Hortorialist
Tagged Colocasia 'Mojito' Russelia equisitiformis, Pseuderanthemum
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Second Nature Garden Design
MB Maher paid a visit to the home of Southern California landscape designer Dustin Gimbel of Second Nature Garden Design, as part of an ongoing series of photographic house calls to landscape designers. Dustin has an amazingly stellar background in … Continue reading
Dendromecon harfordii (David’s Catalina Tree Poppy)
Driving by, I slow down to shout at David, who’s laying a recycled concrete paver/DG (decomposed granite) path in the front yard. Don’t you love neighbors who drive by slowly and shout at you while you’re hard at work? I’ve … Continue reading
Unidentified Giant Composite
If you saw 8-foot tall daisies planted to the very edges of the geometric template that usually holds a suburban front yard lawn, in an upscale community in San Francisco, wouldn’t you assume the owners of the house were a … Continue reading
Posted in MB Maher, The Hortorialist
Tagged Elements Hotel, garden show, Lithodora diffusa, San Francisco, Senecio glastifolius
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