Monthly Archives: July 2010
Limonium peregrinum
The shrubby statice, also goes by Limonium roseum, from South Africa. I just uncovered its true identity this morning using a Google Image search. The one and only time I’ve seen it offered at a nursery, I bought it, and … Continue reading
The Rhythm of the Heat
The cannas are finally head-high, but it’s taken them a while in this very cool summer on the coast in Southern California. California is breaking records for cool temps, while record-breaking mostly everywhere else has been going in the other … Continue reading
Up On A Pedestal
Which is where I place plants, figuratively and literally, as in this plinth of glass blocks for a frosty astelia. If something is laying around here long enough, it will eventually be recruited to combine with plants in some form … Continue reading
Bivouaced with Pacific Horticulture
The July/August/September 2010, Volume 71, Number 3 Up front I have to admit I’m not a current subscriber to this venerable West Coast horticulture journal. At some point in the last 20 years, I realized my copies were piling up … Continue reading
Descanso’s Camellias are Short-Timers
From 7/27/10 New York Times on how public gardens are scrambling to keep visitors interested: “Because of environmental concerns, Descanso Gardens, near Los Angeles, is doing the once-unthinkable: it plans to uproot its historic — but nonnative — collection of … Continue reading
This Plant Stinks
Plectranthus neochilus, a very nice plant, similar to the Cuban oregano, Plectranthus amboinicus. but this plectranthus really stinks. I’m hoping it can fill nepeta’s shoes, a plant impossible to grow with cats roaming the garden. Something tough and textural, not … Continue reading
School Gardens
The April 2010 issue of The Atlantic, which I grabbed for haircut reading yesterday, published letters to the editor (“Grading the Gardens”) in response to their January/February article by Caitlin Flanagan entitled ‘Cultivating Failure.” Readers of Gardenrant might remember the … Continue reading
Posted in essay
Tagged Caitlin Flanagan, Dolichos lablab, Eric Schlosser, Fast Food Nation, Garden Rant, school vegetable gardens, The Atlantic
6 Comments
July in the Front Garden
The Spanish poppies, P. ruprifagrum, are still blooming, but if I pull out the wayward stalks with their seed capsules leaning every which way, I can manage to get some photos of the other plants that live here. This narrow … Continue reading
Samphire
You’d think selecting plants based on leaves, flowers, bark, and berries would be more than enough criteria to consider, but occasionally the quest for plants takes in other, less tangible considerations, at least for me, and certain plants can edge … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Annies Annuals, Crithmum maritimum, samphire, umbellifer
5 Comments
Weather Report
A couple days of over 90-degree heat woke the tropicals up. Tibouchina heteromalla But we’re back to overcast skies and drizzle, lovely for late July. In the Tom Waits-inspired, emotional weather report category, we’ve been frantic about a baby mockingbird, … Continue reading