Monthly Archives: February 2012

poppies, a minor obsession

Newt is taking time out of her busy day to helpfully point out where the poppies will be blooming this year. Last year’s runnel of poppies was in the crevice along the back porch, but this year they’ve jumped a … Continue reading

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the children’s garden at the Huntington

The last time I visited the Huntington Botanical Garden a few weeks ago, the prevailing theme for the day was kids in the garden. Moms with toddlers and strollers were everywhere. Field-trip kids in the cactus garden trudged along the … Continue reading

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Hazel White: Aesthetics of Inundation

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden’s symposium “Natural Discourse” held February 10, 2012, has been constantly in my thoughts this past week, whether riding the train, driving freeways, staring at the garden. I’d never visited UCBG before and found the physical location … Continue reading

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Foliage Followup February 2012

Pam at Digging hosts this sequel to Bloom Day on the 16th of each month, a chance to stand up for photosynthesis and plead a case for the slighted leaf, doomed in most gardens to forever playing second fiddle to … Continue reading

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Bloom Day February 2012

February is a very exciting month. So much to take note of, I rarely make it through a hot cup of coffee on a February morning. The anigozanthos is growing in leaps, now almost chin-high. This is ‘Yellow Gem.’ Tulips … Continue reading

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long weekend in San Francisco

I took precious few photos over the long weekend I spent in the Bay area. And not because there wasn’t the usual excess of riches to see and do. There were acacias in bloom, these cutleaf acacias seen at Flora … Continue reading

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“Natural Discourse” 2/10/12 UC Berkeley Botanical Garden

The kick-off symposium to the year-long collaboration between UCBG and invited artists and writers will be held Friday, February 10, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Natural Discourse” co-curators are Shirley Watts and Mary Anne Friel. Any attendees of … Continue reading

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garden of flowing fragrance in miniature

The architectural scale model of the Huntington’s Garden of Flowing Fragrance, Phase One completed and opened to the pubic in February 2008. The scale model was mesmerizing. A miniaturized, perfect world unto itself. I haven’t seen Phase I yet of … Continue reading

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mid-week garden jaunt

There is a beloved, family-owned nursery in Pasadena that, over the past couple years, has become breathtakingly expensive. My now-20-foot Chinese fringe tree was bought here as a sapling they raised from seed. Many of my agaves were found here, … Continue reading

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Occasional Daily Weather Report 2/1/12

Sunny, summer-dormant, South African bulb Lachenalia ‘Romaud’ Dry, balmy weather continues. Daytime in the 70s, nighttime in the mid-40s. Just don’t tell a gardener how “nice” the weather is for February. It’s not nice. It’s a cloud rebellion, a cumulus … Continue reading

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