A Growing Obsession

friday clippings 7/12/19; shapes of things

Posted on July 12, 2019 by Denise

With this July being the 50th anniversary of the moon landing, it’s been nonstop space coverage here at home. I doze off and on, but Marty is absolutely rapt, so I can always quiz him afterwards on what I missed.

photo poppy-northcutt-first-woman-mission-control.jpg — Poppy Northcutt — via Time
(engineers come in all shapes — do you think there was any mansplaining going on at mission control?)

I was awake, though, to learn about Poppy Northcutt, the first female engineer in mission control, who was hired as a “computress” — where’s the movie on Poppy? It’s such an enthralling story. And she bears a remarkable resemblance to Kirsten Dunst, so the casting practically takes care of itself.

photo 1U6A0055-X3.jpg — it came from outer space…bearing tillandsias
photo by MB Maher

The shapes that inspire artists, engineers and designers are all around, and I can’t wait to learn more of the back story behind Josh Rosen’s latest creation pictured above and below.

photo 1U6A0015-X3.jpg — photo by MB Maher

The airplantman has devised a new structure/habitat that maximizes the conditions for tillandsias to flourish — in a celestial shape that the eye just doesn’t want to let go. Hopefully we’ll all know more in the next few weeks.

photo SS2817004.jpg — magnification of the structure of tillandsia trichomes, the gatekeepers and mediators of moisture for these epiphytes
via Science Source

More mesmerizing shapes. This silo belongs to the Denver Botanic Garden’s Chatfield Farms. We just got back from a road trip up the California coast into Oregon, where silos, barns, and granaries gracefully dot smallish farms with their intensely green geometric grids of summer vegetables. Whether in space or here on Earth, there’s so many inspiring shapes all around, whether purpose-built by natural selection or by us for our various schemes. I’m a city kid, born and raised, which might be why farm buildings exert such a powerful pull on my urban imagination. Buildings crafted to facilitate specific tasks are so incredibly stripped down and pure. Very reminiscent of the adaptations of plants in a way.

photo GasWorksPark3.jpg — Gas Works Park, Seattle, Washington

Here in Los Angeles, the local gas refineries, with their low tanks and slim minarets lit up and sparkling at night, were exotic, glittering cities before I knew any context for their real purpose. Incredibly, the Saturn 5 rocket that took us to the moon burned more fuel in 1 second than Lindberg’s trip across the Atlantic. Ask Marty, he’ll tell you all about it. My next question to him will be: Can we get the manned mission to Mars off the ground with biofuel?

Have a great weekend.

Posted in clippings, MB Maher, science | 3 Comments

sharing the view; driveby gardens with kangaroo paws

Posted on July 10, 2019 by Denise

Okay, I admit I’m chasing the goal of 10,000 steps a day. Chasing it all over my hometown. And it’s amazing how familiar streets by car can turn up all sorts of unfamiliar scenes by foot. So this is technically a walkby, not a driveby, or possibly a hybrid of the two — I might have initially caught that searing blur of kangaroo paws when doing errands by car then went back to investigate on foot. My old standby, a form of pale yellow Anigozanthos flavidus, is blooming as strong as ever in my garden, but the rusty oranges and egg-yolk yellow forms have died out as the back garden grows shadier. This is one of the strongest, most vibrant displays I’ve seen locally.

See that snippet of low white picket fence? That’s a clue to how this front garden accomplishes depth and scope beyond its actual footprint — because whether by design or serendipity, it’s borrowing the view from the front garden next-door that belongs to that grey, black-trimmed house with the enviable casement windows.

From this view, the garden is luxuriously deep, building up mounding textures and spikes, backed by tall kangaroo paws and leonotis blooming like solar flares against that cool blue haze of a sprawling eucalyptus — a borrowed but nonetheless spectacular backdrop. In actuality, the gum tree takes up most of that neighbor’s front garden, as seen below.

photo IMG_3582.jpg — limbed up to show that warm red trunk as is often done with manzanitas — this is what can happen when you whole-heartedly commit to a tree. You work around it. I should know. Half of my own front garden is taken up by a similarly sprawling Acacia podalyrifolia where agaves and succulents used to grow. And then there’s the issue of my back garden becoming too shady for kangaroo paws…

photo IMG_3581.jpg — what first appeared from the car to be a cut-leaf acacia, it’s more likely a eucalyptus sporting juvenile growth from extensive pruning. (Might be *Eucalyptus pulverulenta*.) The kangaroo paws and leonotis bloom in both gardens. Cooperation or competition? Just another example of how plantings often go viral in a neighborhood.

photo IMG_3583.jpg — both houses really know how to cover the ground, keeping shapes in scale.
Little blue flowers from Convolvulus sabatius, the Ground Morning Glory

photo IMG_3592.jpg — back to the shared view — salvias, lantana, golden coleonema, kangaroo paws, leonotis and agavesque yuccas

Two gardens, two houses, but I only took photos of this house because I love how it sits in the landscape, snugged into the view from the neighbor’s garden. (And privacy reasons too — the owner of the house belonging to the foreground garden was puttering outside.)

Posted in driveby gardens | 9 Comments

a quick visit with garden designer Kelly Kilpatrick of Floradora Garden Design

Posted on July 1, 2019 by Denise

Mitch’s note to me: These are the images from Kelly’s house call — she’s such a delight — thank you for producing this! I was super early and drove by her place on my way to Market Hall for coffee just to see the angle of the sun and there she was out front in the yard deadheading and prepping and I was hit by a pang of guilt that she had taken time from Sunday with her family to create a photo-friendly fantasy for me, but then I saw her dog and her husband right behind her and remembered that we are visual people and that there’s nothing better than separating delight from chaos in your own space. I hope she wasn’t exhausted! Anyway, she threw me into her contractor truck and we drove across Oakland to see her projects and it was such a blast. She has more and larger scale work in Atherton and Hillsborough on the peninsula that we made plans to see next time I’m shooting in the Bay — so much fun — best, M

photo 1U6A1578-X2.jpg — Kelly in her converted attic workshop

I’ve met Kelly a couple times on garden tours and blogger meetups, including the one she helped organize in San Francisco a few years ago, but to shoot her an email asking if she could give Mitch a tour of some gardens to photograph with just three days’ notice was a bit presumptuous, to say the least. That she said yes, after a busy workweek, says everything about Kelly’s generosity and steadfast support of garden culture. I don’t want to think about what exploiting that generosity says about me other than being mad about plants and gardens can make one appear just a tad pushy from time to time — which Kelly graciously chose to ignore because she completely understands. She is just the best.

I love that she allowed Mitch access to her work space as well, which is the converted attic of her home in the Broadway Terrace neighborhood of Oakland, California, that she shares with her husband Jay, their son Parker, and a kinetic bundle of black and white patches named Bessie.

photo 1U6A1572-X2.jpg — the sometimes breezy attic necessitates a a collection of objects for paperweights to anchor design plans

photo 1U6A1562-X2.jpg — talismanic paperweights ready for duty

But let’s step outside to check out the kind of detailed planting that’s she’s known for, in sun or shade, for spaces large or small.

photo 1U6A1862-X2.jpg — Kelly and a neighbor cooperate with borrowed views/walkways

At her own home, Kelly has cleverly persuaded a neighbor to pool their adjoining narrow side yards, ending up with a multi-interest space that is much more than the sum of its parts. In this particular instance, that maxim about good fences making good neighbors would only result in two rather forlorn narrow strips instead of these warm and welcoming shared walkways filled with ceramics and striking plants.

photo 1U6A1664-X2.jpg — Bessie chose not to sit for her portrait, she had way too much to do welcoming visitors

And about these striking plants. Somehow, despite a busy design practice and an overflowing household, Kelly has managed to steadily inch forward to becoming a landscape architect and is now very near completion. Judging by her immaculate workspace and home garden — remember the minimal to no prep time for this visit? — this is one organized woman. I think it’s fairly well established that landscape architects do not routinely begin their training with an emphasis on plants first. Kelly’s design practice is built on a bedrock of a deep knowledge of plants and a love for ferreting out the most gorgeous yet site-appropriate choices for her projects. Her background includes a stint at the beloved Bay Area nursery for all that’s rare and wonderful in the plant world, Annie’s Annuals in Richmond.

photo 1U6A1838-X2.jpg — a cussonia peeks around the corner

Even though the space available at home to garden is minimal, this is not a case of the cobbler’s children having no shoes. Kelly has exploited and polished every inch of available space. If you happen to be garden poor as far as physical space, it helps that your designer has dealt with these same issues as well and transcended them beautifully.

photo 1U6A1828-X2.jpg — Kelly says they can pass cocktails through the open window

These narrow strips surrounding homes often get short shrift, design-wise, or are at best neatly hardscaped. Here Kelly methodically builds up layers with plants — ground covers, perennials, shrubs and even small trees. The cooling effects of plants and their ability to capture carbon make prioritizing their inclusion essential in even the smallest of urban gardens. And this kind of layered planting is incredibly bird friendly, as I often observe in my own garden, offering gradations of cover and shelter. That rocky pool of water at the base of the tree is a wonderful touch as a round, reflective surface in the design as well as a source of water for small creatures.

photo 1U6A1830-X2.jpg — aspidistra, ozothamnus against the fence — a narrow side yard thoughtfully planted. And even the smallest spaces need trees for cooling as well as wildlife habitat — “*Carefully positioned trees can save up to 25% of the energy a typical household uses*.” U.S. Dept. of Energy

Great style paired with an encyclopedic knowledge of plants makes for very sexy gardens, and that is a hallmark of Kelly’s designs.

photo 1U6A1689-X2.jpg — possibly the bromeliad Quesnelia ‘Tim Plowman’

photo 1U6A1685-X2.jpg — Fuchsia boliviana

photo 1U6A1740-X2.jpg — Yucca ‘Blue Boy’

Even on such short notice, Kelly was able to arrange to show Mitch a client’s garden in her neighborhood and tour if not photograph some of her other work. The nearby garden designed by Kelly was a crisp, cleanly organized space to relax and dine outdoors filled with beautiful plants — for screening, shading, for forgetting everything else while being utterly absorbed in their shadows, movement, patterns and forms.

And, again, the cooling effects of plant-centric gardens are often a secondary consideration to aesthetics for the general public, but such effects are very real and becoming increasingly more important as cities grow warmer. Kelly has skillfully layered in here dry garden-appropriate succulents and shrubs that will also be low care for the client.

photo 1U6A1758-X2.jpg — Tetrapanax papyrifer ‘Steroidal Giant’

photo 1U6A1766-X2.jpg — Soft, textural, almost cuddly, the coastal woolybush, Adenanthos sericeus, near the bottom of the stairs is a jewel of a shrub for the dry garden

Kelly, thank you so much for letting us drop in on you! We had a wonderful visit and can’t wait to see more of your stunning garden designs.

Kelly Kilpatrick, Lic. #959336, Floradora Garden Design

kelly@floradoragardens.com
510-610-3863

photos by MB Maher

Posted in artists, design, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents | 7 Comments

that moment with the eremurus and smoke tree in the Shinn garden

Posted on June 29, 2019 by Denise

I had a little moment with this smoke bush and eremurus in the Carol & Randall Shinn garden on the recent bloggers’ tour of Colorado gardens. Hitting notes bright and deep, still in that incipient sparkle stage, buds concentrated and full of promise, not yet dissipated. Newborn fresh tints of blue-green, pale yellow, deep burgundy. Luminous spires against soft dark mounds of leaves with a flash of gold glitter from the still-hard buds that will soon transform into puffs of this tree’s eponymous smoke.

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Posted in artists, design, garden travel | 11 Comments

summer stock: Agapanthus ‘Indigo Frost’

Posted on June 25, 2019 by Denise

I have even less impulse control when plant shopping now because…summer. Of the four seasons, summer seems to be the one that we’re constantly admonished to savor to its fullest or risk being filled with inconsolable regret. And you won’t get any argument from me. It can be hot, dry, and miserable, but since about 5 years of age the season has become baked into us as inseparable from adventures, vacations, vagabonding, daydreaming, and overall freedom from boring routines. Liberación! You can’t fight that kind of hardwiring.

So when I sensed a need for a few more Sesleria ‘Campo Azul,’ because a few more of this grass are always needed, off I went to the local nursery, where I ran smack into Agapanthus ‘Indigo Frost’ and its seven swaying bloom stalks. It was definitely playing the summer card. Shamelessly playing it.

I see agapanthus all over town in summer and have never particularly desired to possess it for my garden. I’ve tried some dark, dark blues and some golden-leaved variegates as occasional novelties. But this ‘Indigo Frost’ number seemed to be a purpose-built messenger for summer: Psst, you know this summer will never come again, right? Sure, I’m a little OTT, but it’s summer! Subtlety is for losers! So what are you waiting for!?

There’s the Sesleria ‘Campo Azul’ in the foreground. A Salvia ‘Love and Wishes’ filled that pot winter and spring and needed a cutback for rebloom. But gardening is a fluid thing. A light cutback inexplicably turns into yanking the entire plant out of the pot and instantly deciding to move on to something else. Hmmm, what could it be? Oh, yes, the bromeliad just brought home from Ray’s plant sale. I’ll drop that in the pot, shove the pot a few feet this way, plant the base of it up with more sesleria, make a quick dash to the nursery to purchase said sesleria — oh, and a bicolor agapanthus too. As I say, it’s a fluid process.

And as far as losing Salvia ‘Love and Wishes,’ a great salvia btw, I’ve got a much stronger bond with the willowy, smaller-flowered Salvia chiapensis. Comparing the leaves of the two, I’ll always prefer chiapensis.

I’ve been regularly deep watering the eastern boundary cypresses, the indispensable privacy workhorses of the garden, but apparently not so much the rest of the garden other than containers. This area under the tetrapanax’s canopy was spitless dry, not easy conditions to dig a hole for a 3-gallon agapanthus. (The dry conditions and increasing shade were no doubt to blame for the poor show this year of the big clump of kangaroo paws, Anigozanthos ‘Tequila Sunrise’ nearby, which was also dug up.) After planting I must have stood watering the area in for a solid half hour. Slow hand watering — another of summer’s pleasures.

Agapanthus ‘Indigo Frost’ came bearing the Sunset Western Garden tag:

Feature: Multiple spikes of large, bicolor, white and blue flowers

USDA Zones: Hardy to 10°F – 20°F USDA Zones 8-10

Sunset Zones: 4-9, 12-21 (I’m technically in zone 24)

Special Features: Attracts Pollinators, Clumping Habit, Cut Flowers, Disease / Pest Resistance, Heat Tolerance, Upright Habit

Landscape Use: Border, Container, Cut Flowers/Foliage, Firescaping/Fire Wise

Exposure: Full sun to part shade

Flowering season: Summer (reputed to rebloom through summer)

Dimensions: 1-3′ H x 1-2′ W

Growth Rate: Moderate

Plant Type: Evergreen

Water Needs: Medium Water Once Established

Soil: Well-drained garden soil

Fertilizer: Yearly in spring and summer

Pruning: Remove old flower stalks after bloom. Divide every 2-3 years

Posted in Plant Portraits, pots and containers | 7 Comments

Denver Botanic Gardens #gbfling2019

Posted on June 20, 2019 by Denise

Since returning on Monday, I haven’t been able to shake Colorado from my mind. It’s a landscape that leaves you with a visual hangover, so this post will be hair of the dog, blog style, while the visit is still fresh and even my case of chapped lips lingers from the thin Rocky Mountain air.

photo IMG_3258 1.jpg — penstemons, blue flax/linum, grasses at DBG

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Posted in Uncategorized | 11 Comments

for the hard-core greenhouse fans

Posted on June 16, 2019 by Denise

You asked for it. More greenhouse photos from my visit to Rancho Soledad Nursery in May. I’m out of town for the moment and will be right back.

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the greenhouses at Rancho Soledad Nursery

Posted on June 6, 2019 by Denise

I have quite a history with commercial greenhouses. There was a large, abandoned greenhouse at the end of my cul-de-sac’d street, the mesh netting detached in places from the rickety structure and flapping in the breeze. Through the gap in the mesh is how my nosy, grade-school self found a way in. Once inside, clearly trespassing, I was mesmerized by the sights, the smells, the few plants remaining, the absolute quiet, and the tracery of the structure itself, which despite its frailty seemed capable of holding light and shadow captive. And then there’s the fact that I was trespassing and getting away with it, always a bonus with a Catholic school kid. Childhood lays down a roadmap that’s carelessly tossed under the front seat as you drive away. (Growing up in Los Angeles, the metaphor will be cars.) Which is just as well, since it’s mostly illegible, offers no clear way forward, and is only able to confirm a destination once you’ve already arrived. But because of that roadmap, I brake for greenhouses.

photo IMG_2307.jpg — I asked if the bare-root euphorbia and cactus were for sale — nope.

With that fading roadmap rustling under the seat, I continue to be mesmerized by its roadside attractions — growth, light, shadow, stepping into strange, transformative places. Which is why I have hundreds of photos of the greenhouses at Rancho Soledad Nursery from a visit last month.

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Posted in agaves, woody lilies, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged Rancho Soledad Nursery | 6 Comments

Ray Valentine’s neighborhood botanical garden

Posted on May 31, 2019 by Denise

photo 1U6A7449-X2.jpg — photos by MB Maher

In early April, as I was leaving a garden on the Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden tour, I noted a hand-lettered “plant sale” sign in the neighborhood and swung around to have a look.

I posted a photo of the garden attached to the plant sale to Instagram, to which garden designer Ivette Soler exclaimed “RAY VALENTINE!” I had been given a business card on the day of the plant sale but hadn’t checked the name yet. Indeed, it was the garden of Raymond Valentine, owner of Maintaining Mother Earth, “a full service landscape and maintenance company, owned and operated by Ray Valentine, License #818049-C27.”

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Posted in driveby gardens, garden visit, MB Maher, photography, succulents | 12 Comments

some recent driveby gardens

Posted on May 26, 2019 by Denise

Documenting my enthusiasm for gardens seen on foot or driving through Los Angeles neighborhoods has migrated to Instagram, which seems more suited to a quick visual blast without background information on how such landscapes came to be. But I’m making an exception for these two beauties, which happen to be directly across the street from each other in the Hancock Park neighborhood. The intelligent interplay of house and garden, the crisp outlines and massing of plants alternating with negative space, strong verticals, all done with an aim of limited supplemental irrigation, not to mention the amazing stonework in one and tilework in the other — I was so smitten I had to go back and get some photos for the blog. And do you think I got enough photos of that multi-trunked Yucca rostrata? Enjoy!