Category Archives: plant nurseries
Cussonia spicata and the value of plants
I have these weird unwritten rules when buying plants. For example, $30 is usually deemed way too much to spend on one plant. It’s not a conscious rule, it’s just after checking the price, unless it’s spectacularly, once-in-a-lifetime rare, I … Continue reading
a long weekend (and a local plant sale)
Name me three other words in the English language that can be strung together to produce as exciting an effect as A…Long…Weekend. The pergola table will have to be cleared for weekend breakfasts and dinners. (I never seem to eat … Continue reading
Agave parryi ‘Cream Spike’
This is such a sweet agave for containers. Under a foot across in ultimate size, it is nevertheless a busy little mother. Just before its photo, I had cleaned out the offsets it produces so freely, which I’ll grow on … Continue reading
this is my brain on spring
Spring is such a massive distraction, and that’s coming from just my own little garden, which apart from work* I rarely want to leave. For the first time in my adult life, I drove by a multiplex theater on Sunday … Continue reading
Posted in garden travel, plant nurseries, succulents
Tagged alcantarea, Andy's Orchids, bromeliads, Cerbera odollam, Cosmos 'Yellow Garden', eiphyllums, Entada sp., epidendrums, Graptopetalum pentandrum ssp. superbum, Graptopetalum superbum 'Cotton Candy', rhipsalis sp., Southern California Spring Garden Show 2014, tillandsias
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planting notes 2014
Every year brings a new crop of preoccupations in the garden, such as: Will the beschorneria choose this spring for their first bloom? How about the puya in the gravel garden? Feel like blooming this year? Some plants really do … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, garden travel, journal, plant nurseries, succulents
Tagged Aloe marlothii x castanea, Anigozanthos 'Yellow Gem', Annie's Annuals & Perennials Nursery, Asphodeline lutea, Beschorneria X 'Martin Grantham Hybrids', Cirsium occidentale, Cistus 'Snow Fire', Crambe maritima, Eryngium padanifolium, Glaucium grandiflorum, Lessertia montana, Leucadendron 'Ebony', Puya mirabilis, Ricinus communis 'New Zealand Purple', self-sowers, Sideritis oroteneriffae
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rhipsalis in the Bay Area
I was up in the Bay Area for two days, helping to launch a vegetable garden, which was just enough time to squeeze in a couple brief plant shopping forays at Flora Grubb Gardens and Annie’s Annuals & Perennials. At … Continue reading
Bloom Day April 2014
A day late for the Bloom Day report, with the above photo of the back garden taken this overcast morning and most of the closeups taken the past couple days. It’s all shockingly rumpled and disheveled already, but I still … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, journal, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits
Tagged Albizia 'Summer Chocolate', Arundo donax 'Golden Chain, Baltic parsley Cenolophium denudatum, Coprosma 'Plum Hussy', Derry Watkins Special Plants Nursery, Digiplexis 'Illumination Flame', Euphorbia lambii, Far Reaches Farm, Gladiolus papillio, Kniphofia thompsonii, Lavandula multifida, Linaria reticulata, Melanoselinum decipiens, Olearia virgata v. lineata 'Dartonii, Orlaya grandiflora, Papaver setigerum, Pelargonium caffrum X 'Diana', Priory Plants, Prostanthera ovalifolia 'Variegata', Robin Parer's Geraniaceae plant nursery, Salvia curviflora, Salvia pulchella x involucratya, Senecio leucostachys (vira-vira), Stipa gigantea, Sue Mann, Tom Stuart-Smith's exotic meadow, Verbena bonariensis
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Alstroemeria ‘Rock & Roll’ (consider yourself warned)
A mind-numbing, eye-hemorrhaging, variegated alstroemeria has been unleashed at Southern California nurseries this spring. I reached for the camera phone when I saw big displays at two nurseries over the weekend. Alstroemeria ‘Rock & Roll.’ The tag predicts that it … Continue reading
Australian Native Plants Nursery
For just a two-hour drive up the coast, we ended up covering a lot of continents on Tuesday, botanically speaking, of course. Australia and especially South Africa were well represented. This was a much-anticipated trip to Jo O’Connell’s Australian Native … Continue reading