You know what I’m talking about, and it’s not bronze fennel, though he does a pretty good impersonation.
The Shuffle
The annual summer pot shuffle. Which pots shall be plucked from the margins and take pride of place, beautiful specimens of their kind? Every summer brings a different answer.
This Agave parryi’s spikes are kept well out of corgi eye range, elevated by the plant stand.
Agave geminiflora was borrowed from the front garden, initially trialed amongst diascia, then finally moved to join its brothers and sisters on the agave walk.
The large swath of the Waverly salvia and Calandrinia spectabilis calls out for an agave walk as a visual bulwark (and is just a big enough strip to hold assorted potted agaves and friends, like an occasional variegated crassula/jade plant).
Who’s languishing, concentric roots circling tighter and tighter, and in dire need of bigger digs? Who needs dead leaves cut off and snail poop cleaned from the pots? (All raise hands.)
More thoughts on pots. Looks like a rather timid collection, mostly all terracotta.
Mostly this has to do with the shuffle, that the pots get moved around frequently and pot color coordination is preferably not another element to consider. Frequently the pots are placed directly into the garden, so the more unobtrustive the pot, the better. Also, many of these plants grow large in zone 10, and the biggest pots I can find are required. Plain terracotta fills the bill in the numbers I need them. These pots aren’t focal points but integral to the garden, not the hardscape setting, and I actually prefer it when the garden surges forward and swallows up the base of the pot, as with this Aloe distans. The pot is an old portion of clay drain pipe, which hoists the long stem of the aloe aloft.
When the aerial summer display shoots skyward, the pot shuffle begins, in search of the perfect spot for each to add their unique contribution.
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden ornament, succulents
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On A Misty May Morning
Heavy mist, almost a full-blown drizzle. This has been one long, cool spring, with rain forecast for the weekend. Unheard of for May!
Carex and Echevaria nodulosa
Agave impressa, brought home from the Huntington Botanic Garden’s plant sale over the weekend, estimated size about a foot, planted in a very crowded front garden. Blades of the blue-eyed grass, sisyrinchium, lean over to make their acquaintance.
Flower-budded wands of Lespedeza ‘Gibraltar’ aching over a leucadendron.
Agave ‘Mr. Ripple’ under siege from lespedeza, brings to mind Rudyard Kipling’s poem: “If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs…” Agaves are always perfectly composed.
Posted in agaves, woody lilies
Tagged Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Agave impressa, Carex glauca, Echevaria nodulosa, lespedeza
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The Angelic Ones
I’m so glad I planted this Angelica stricta ‘Purpurea’ (from Annie’s Annuals, of course) in a pot rather than dooming another angelica by trialing it in the garden.
I’m not completely convinced the problem was soil (amended clay) but more of finding the right exposure; a good dose of morning sun and then partial shade the rest of the day, which is the exposure this pot is providing. Angelica pachycarpa for full to partial shade loves my garden, even to the point of reseeding, and the traditional Angelica archangelica also grows well here in shade, but the alluring A. gigas has been problematic. I had the good fortune to see this planted at Hinkley’s Heronswood, underplanted with electric creeping jenny, Lysimachia nummularia. What a buzz when A. gigas first started making the nursery rounds!
Having this angelica up close in a pot is making all the difference — in my viewing pleasure and in its survival. Doesn’t even matter if it blooms (but it’d be nice). I slipped in a bromeliad bought at the Huntington Botanic Garden’s plant sale May 16, Aechmea recurvata ‘Aztec Gold,’ the slim golden leaves on the left. Variegated bigeneric fatshedera is in the center (edited to add photo 5/18/10).
The dark red ‘Festival’ grass, actually a cordyline, was also melting away in the garden, and I’ve noticed it doing the same disappearing act about town. I tucked in a dying, tiny, two-leaved remnant in the pot and forgot about it, which was of course its cue to flourish. I like it much better gracefully mingling in a pot rather than the splayed-out, dejected clump it makes in the garden. This summer many of my pots are filled with such garden refugees rather than summer annual displays.
May Bloom Day
May is a heady month for gardens. Check them out at Carol’s host site for Bloom Day, May Dreams Gardens.
The pale lavender heliotrope is responding to longer and warmer days, sprawling over Oxalis vulcanicola, both perennial in zone 10. The heliotrope looks ratty in winter, when the oxalis billows and flourishes, while the reverse takes place over the summer.
Nicotianas, Salvia chiapensis, and Lysimachia purpurea:
A bigger view, including the white-flowered rehmannia and some gaillardia leaning in. The S. chiapensis is a young rooted cutting and will need lots more space than available in this spot, but it blooms well enough when small and keeps the hummers happy. The dark orange flowers in pots are Calceolaria ‘Kentish Hero.’ (Cover the autumnal, dark orange calceolaria with your hand and see how the other colors hold together better with just the lime green, burgundy and gold, but I do like that “kick” of orange. Does the orange go or stay?) The two dark-leaved shrubs are Lophomyrtus ralphii ‘Red Dragon’:
Miracle of Peru, Mirabilis jalapa, is self-sowing throughout the garden and comes true for the chartreuse leaf in the selection ‘Limelight.’
I’m not sure how much longer these Senecio stellata/cineraria will keep on going, but the cannas and castor bean plants are clamoring for elbow room.
And because there’s a big plant sale at the Huntington tomorrow, I’m sneaking in a “Foliage Followup,” the “shrubby” corner. Not very photogenic but some of my favorite plants are these tough, small-leaved shrubs and subshrubs. Potted agaves nearby add some needed heft, but I love the busy work, the fine patterns the small leaves give against the dark green, creeping fig-covered wall. Silvery Teucrium fruticans azureum and the furry, celadon leaves of Ballota pseudodictamnus make a nice backdrop for the cobaea to flaunt its blooms. A variegated solanum, Solanum rantonnetii, weaves through and is just starting to bloom quarter-size purple flowers, and the low-growing golden clump is Tanacetum vulgare ‘Isla Gold.’ Solanum pyracanthum is barely visible in this telescoped photo, but its orangey thorns are the blur just behind the potted sotol, next to the dark Canna ‘Intrigue,’ where orange arctotis pools at the base of its snail-chewed leaves. ‘Waverly’ salvia, just visible in the lower left corner, in bloom for months already, will probably need a rest by August. I’ll either cut it back or remove it after taking cuttings, since this plant is getting very woody at the base. But what a mainstay for the hummingbirds.
The Lespedeza thunbergii in the front garden is just beginning to bloom, always an early bloomer here rather than late summer. Gaura is waking up, one overwintering, plus two more bought blooming in their nursery pots. Verbascum, verbena, valerian, scabiosa, lavender, diascia, arctotis for pots and the garden, Calandrinia spectabilis still going strong. The climbing rose ‘Bouquet d’Or’ is in a second flush of blooms. Also in the front garden, the slackers dyckia and hesperaloe have bloomed this year for this first time. Now head over to Carol’s site and check out the amazing diversity of bloom in May.
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Bloom Day, Calandrinia spectabilis, Calceolaria 'Kentish Hero', Canna 'Intrigue', cineraria, Lespedeza thunbergii, Lophomyrtus ralphii 'Red Dragon', Lysimachia purpurea, May Dreams Gardens, Mirabilis jalapa, Oxalis vulcanicola, Rose 'Bouquet d'Or', Salvia 'Waverly', Salvia chiapensis, Senecio stellata, Solanum rantonnetii, Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold', Teucrium fruticans azureum
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Summer Tryouts – Geranium ‘Dragon Heart’
Hybridized by Alan Bremner of Scotland, a hybrid of the Armenian cranesbill, Geranium psilostemon, which in itself is a big plant, if of abbreviated bloom duration according to the books. I’ve never grown the species. The selections generally tend toward addressing issues of size, heading toward the more compact and extending the bloom period. But in searching for information online, over and over I find “monster” used to describe ‘Dragon Heart,’ so I’m assuming compact it is not. I’ve got two clumps planted spring 2009 that have started blooming again this past April and now are wending their way up, through, and into nearby plants, much as Geranium ‘Ann Folkard’ used to do for me but lacking AF’s chartreusiness of leaf. This exploratory trait of the trailing geraniums is off-putting to some people, who see the stay-put clumpers as a safer bet, but these magenta-petaled, black-eyed beauties can have free rein of my little garden.
Here ‘Dragon Heart’ explores a nearby yucca.
I like the annual grass Briza maxima’s fresh looks, clumping up through the geranium.
Last year was a bit of a melee. It’s not very sensible to include too many summer tryouts each year, but being sensible requires…what’s that quality called? Tip of my brain…oh, yes, self-restraint. Except for the shrubs, this central border gets almost completely reworked every year. More self-seeding grasses, purple orach, poppies, verbascum, etc., are being encouraged. By May the soil is barely visible, the tipping point indicating summer has arrived and tryouts are effectively open for 2010. It’s always exhilarating to find new perennials that manage in zone 10 low winter chill conditions and to establish little colonies of the self-sowing plants that reappear each year in new and interesting combinations.
‘Dragon Heart’ pulled July 2011. Big leaves always burned, soil too dry. ‘Ann Folkard’ much better performer in zone 10.
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Alan Bremner, Briza maxima, Geranium 'Dragon Heart', Geranium psilostemon, summer tryouts
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The Many Faces of Cobaea
Annual vine Cobaea scandens. Seems I still feel up to the challenge of including strong personalities in the garden. For two successive years in a row, I’ve had to launch emergency eradication efforts in early spring of overly boisterous and exuberant personalities from the same 4X6 patch of earth; this year the alstroemeria and last year the golden hops vine. What’s with this attraction to garden thugs? Amazing good looks, for one.
I’ve been cutting it back to minimize the “death by tendril” and throttling of nearby plants. At least cobaea doesn’t run at the root. Fairly drought resistant too. These were seeded in spring 2009 and didn’t bloom at all last summer.
This is the poor man’s version of time-lapse photography, so several blooms were involved, but all these dramatic stages of bloom present at one time make this vine very photogenic.
Garden Conservancy Open Days – Hancock Park
I did not attend this tour, but MB Maher was in attendance at a preview held last weekend, and then was sworn to sit on the photos until after the tour, yesterday in fact. So rather than a narrative of a garden tour, this post will have to serve more as a disjointed montage of design ideas and a glimpse of the gardens on tour in this well-heeled community of Los Angeles. (The mayor’s residence, also on the tour, has been in Hancock Park since 1923 but was not available for preview since the mayor was at home that day.) These formal gardens celebrate the mediterranean climate of Los Angeles by drawing liberally from the Moorish, Spanish and Italian garden design tradition: courtyards, shaded seating areas, year-round presence of evergreen hedging, strong lines to guide the foot and eye, lots of potted plants, and containment and control of precious water, whether in pools or fountains (although I was informed some of these properties also included expansive lawns and rose gardens, which would guzzle rather than sip water supplies).
In the weeks leading up to the tour, Emily Green at the LA Times did a fantastic job of previewing some of the gardens on the tour, and I’ve provided links to her articles.
Kickstarter
You know that great idea that’s burning a hole in your brain but then keeps slipping out through the hole in your pocket?
Kickstarter can patch up that hole in your pocket.
While you’re checking out the site, don’t miss Truck Farm for an ingenious take on urban farming, in which the filmmakers answer their own query:
“How do you grow your own food in the big city if you ain’t got any land?”
This project has been kicking around blogs for a while and was even covered by the Huffington Post in July 2009.
Not enough sun for tomatoes in the backyard? No problem. Put the garden in gear and drive it into the sun.
More Notes on Venice Garden Tour
Stephen Glassman pulled apart his stone, wire and bamboo sculpture exhibited at the The Late Show Gardens, a garden show held in Northern California last fall 2009, and used the materials to rebuild the stone gabion and bamboo fence for his studio in Venice. (Photos of Glassman’s Late Show installation can be seen at the end of this slideshow.)
Reusing the same materials, Glassman also created a smaller installation for his courtyard.
Glassman’s bamboo splitter tools:
Off-center post-swung gate, without hinges:
From the studio:
Gale Beth Goldberg, in her book “Bamboo Style,” quotes Stephen Glassman:
“Bamboo…allows me to work on an architectural scale with the gesture and spontaneity of drawing, and led me to the creation of ‘temporary monumental site work’…Bamboo is a model for social and technological structure that has existed for centuries in ancient bamboo cultures, but it is only just beginning to enter the Western world.”