friday clippings 6/5/15

Late spring conversation at our house sums up living in a “mixed” household (gardeners/nongardeners):

Duncan, from the back porch: Whatcha doin’ out there?
Me, from deep in the garden: Sitting in a field of poppies.
Duncan (scanning for alleged field of poppies): Okay.

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Disembodied voice from deep in garden continues: It’s just one plant really, but I’m pretending. And it’s not a poppy exactly, but in the poppy family. Glaucium grandiflorum from Iran, a country we don’t get much good news about, and yet there grows this poppy that is so…so…

Duncan: Pretty?

Voice from deep in garden: Yes! So very pretty.

Duncan: Okaaay.

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Voice from deep in garden continues talking to now-empty back porch:

Botanists should be the ones in charge of things, politics, treaties, border disputes…What’s good for the plant world will necessarily be good for everything else…

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(plant-drunk words and theorizing continue to drift over poppies)

In other news…

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Cyrtanthus elatus x montanus is in bloom, a hybrid of a South African bulb. I haven’t noticed any real dormancy requirements with this one, where watering needs to be withheld to let it rest. Makes it easy.

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And in still other news (real news), if you’re not on Facebook, you may have missed the announcement that Sunset is moving its offices to Oakland. Its test gardens and kitchen will be moved to Cornerstone, Sonoma, Calif. (read here). Cornerstone is a collection of outdoor gardens, shops and restaurants inspired by the International Garden Festival at Chaumont-sur-Loire, curated by owner Teresa Raffo. It was the site of possibly my favorite garden show ever, “The Late Show,” in 2009. Sunset at Cornerstone makes perfect sense.

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There are permanent installations by artists, designers, and landscape architects to visit year-round, like the “Garden of Contrast” by James Van Sweden and Sheila Brady

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“White Cloud” by Andy Cao and Xavier Perrot

And yet another change for a major garden publication, Better Homes and Gardens announced recently that Stephen Orr will be the new Editor-in-Chief. I loved Orr’s book Tomorrow’s Garden, fresh and forward-looking, all which bodes well for BHG.

And this weekend Toronto hosts the Garden Bloggers Fling, so there should be lots of good reading from attendees in the weeks ahead.

The first week of June, and it’s still mild and overcast (glorious!) here in Los Angeles. Enjoy your weekend!

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3 Responses to friday clippings 6/5/15

  1. Alison says:

    I wondered what was going on when I read that Sunset was closing its headquarters. Glad to hear it’s moving to an even cooler space. Never heard of The Late Show, but checked out the website. Looking forward to reading lots of posts about the Fling.

  2. Lisa says:

    Haha, I love that conversation about poppies :). I understand perfectly that difference between plant lovers and plant indifferents. Beautiful plant from Iran, by the way!!

  3. Denise says:

    @Alison, I’m glad we stopped by the Menlo Park Sunset headquarters with the SF bloggers fling. Very impressive operations and property there.
    @Lisa, I’m so glad somebody else gets it! Somebody asks me an innocent question, and they end up getting more of an answer than they bargained for.

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