Category Archives: garden travel
cochineal
“Under the seams runs the pain.” ― Anne Carson, Autobiography of Red I’ve been going over my notes the past couple months from Dr. Alejandro de Ávila’s remarkable lecture “Blood on a Fountain,” which he gave this past January at … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, science, succulents
Tagged Amy Stewart, cochineal, Dactylopius coccus, Dr. Alejandro de Avila, dyes, Helen Quinn, Jardín Etnobotánico de Oaxaca, Monte Alban, Montezuma cypress, opuntia, Opuntia ficus-indica, Stenocereus marginatus, Taxodium mucronatum, The Drunken Botanist, The Ethnobotanical Garden of Oaxaca, UCBG "Natural Discourse", University of California Botanical Garden at Berkeley
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March evening/April morning
Walking off Easter dinner, what caught my eye last evening was a petite bloom on the melianthus, the first I’ve seen on this cultivar ‘Purple Haze.’ I’m really starting to believe now it is the holy grail, a dwarf melianthus, … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Agave gypsophila, Argemone munita, Buck & Yvonne Hemenway annual garden tour/plant sale, Dustin Gimbel Second Nature Garden Design, Gasteria 'Little Warty', Linaria 'Licilia Peach', Papaver setigerum, Pilocereus azureus
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it’s show time
Last week I planted out in the garden the remaining plants I brought home from last summer’s travels. All winter I eyed these purchases nervously, as though they were exhibits in a trial of my weak character. I knew they … Continue reading
Posted in garden travel, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged bromeliads, Cassinia X ozothamnus, Echeveria multicaulis, Euphorbia ammak, Far Reaches Farm, Hechtia epigyna, Neoregelia 'Devroe', Neoregelia 'Punctatissima Rubra' x 'Tigrina, Orange County Cactus and Succulent Society, pitcairnia, plant sales, plant shows
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day trip to Phoenix’s Desert Botanical Garden
It’s pushing the concept of a day trip to its limit when it takes five hours each way, there and back, but the DBG was having their spring plant sale and, dammit, I needed to go. So the math worked … Continue reading
Jardin Majorelle, Morocco
What I know about Yves Saint Laurent, the fashion designer, as opposed to his enormous, well-known cultural celebrity, is limited to sewing up some of his “rich peasant” and stunning Russian collection designs off of Vogue patterns in high school. … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged bleu Majorelle, Fondation Pierre Bergé - Yves Saint Laurent, general director Jardin Majorelle, Hugh Johnson, Hugh Johnson's The Principles of Gardening, Jacques Majorelle, Jardin Majorelle, Madison Cox, Marrakesh, Morocco, Robert Pogue Harrison, Suzy Menkes, The Principles of Gardening
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hidden mesoamerican palaces
not in Central America but here, in Los Angeles. Frank Lloyd Wright’s Sowden House, of textile-block construction, built for friend and photographer John Sowden in 1926. Renovations by a new owner in 2001 included restoring the stonework and the addition … Continue reading
exploring a coastal garden with Lili Singer
This Pacific Palisades garden was the final garden we visited 1/24/13 with Lili Singer via the LA County Arboretum Thursday Garden Talk series. Despite being firmly in the grasp of winter this January morning, or as firm a grasp on … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, driveby gardens, garden ornament, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Big Daddy's Antiques, Daniel Hinkley, Fleur Nooyen and Associates, formal gardens, garden designer Fleur Nooyen, garden designer Joel Lichtenwalter, garden designer Richard Hayden, garden designer Ryan Gates, Graptopetalum paraguayense, Grow Outdoor Design, Hayden Landscape Design, Irving Gill, Leucadendron ‘Wilson’s Wonder’, Lili Singer, Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden, Mediterranean gardens, Solandra maxima
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Aloes in Southern California
It’s that time of year again to catch the displays of these spectacular South African succulents in bloom around town. These photos were taken mid-day at the Los Angeles County Arboretum and Botanic Garden 2/7/13. Aloe vryheidensis. Many were of … Continue reading
Dear Delphine
Dear Delphine, Like the movie Being John Malkovich, the doorway to your fertile imagination is waiting for me whenever I need an infusion of inspiration, and you never disappoint. I still find it astonishing that I can see the world … Continue reading
scenes from Versailles
As promised, photos of the gardens of Versailles, the apogee of the French formal garden style, designed by landscape architect Andre Le Notre for King Louis XIV of France (September 5, 1638 – September 1, 1715). With itinerant photographer MB … Continue reading