under overcast skies at last

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Denise

We’ve been watching an old Swedish detective show, Wallander, which is subtitled in English. I’m crazy for that soft, muted Swedish light, which I can only imagine is similar to what we’ve been getting the past few days, creating a pale backdrop for the tetrapanax’s lengthening candelabra of flower buds. Pearly, opalescent — all good words for describing the light the past couple days. I love catching up on garden blogs this time of year, now that we’ve all turned that corner past summer, the fascinating descriptions of how the dream of the perfect summer garden is suspended for a short while, to be picked up again next spring. So much momentous stuff happens to a garden in fall. The first rains, first frost, fall color or a lack thereof. For me every summer is another lesson in existentialism, a sweaty season to be experienced moment to moment. Fall feels like taking charge of destiny again, making plans. I will go here, do this, that, and the other thing. If summer is body, autumn is mind. Spring is emotion. Winter is…I don’t know. For dreaming?


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Here we’re all reviving under these much kinder skies. Echeveria imbricata, plumped up and refreshed.

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Euphorbia lambii’s leaves have finally stopped drooping and yellowing.

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The Eryngium padanifolium made good size this summer, bottom left. Those whipsawing, strappy leaves have the sinuous vitality of an octopus. Agave desmettiana ‘Joe Hoak,’ on the table, has been moved back into the gentler version of full sun offered in late October.

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The mist was heavy enough this morning to make the coronilla look like this.

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We’ve all started to come out of the shade and back under a much kinder sun.

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Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

driveby agave garden

Posted on October 20, 2012 by Denise

I have the Long Beach Marathon to thank for finding this garden.
No, I didn’t run the marathon, more like actively avoided it. The marathon barricades cut off much of my end of Long Beach on October 6, so trying to get a few errands done was a circuitous challenge. I ended up in neighborhoods I don’t often see, such as the one where this front garden fills a corner lot. I vowed to return. Last night, 13 days later, I found it again, even though I had misremembered the street name. Who needs street names with a garden like this? I bet locals use it for reference: “Hang a right at Little Lotusland…”

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Continue reading →

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Foliage Followup 10/16/12

Posted on October 16, 2012 by Denise


Hosted by Pam Penick at Digging

Two of the great memes in garden bloggery, Bloom Day on the 15th and the Foliage Followup on the 16th. Pam’s photo above of an anole in her Austin, Texas garden suggests a third meme, for wildlife, which would really ratchet up demands for a good camera kit and a steadier hand and eye than my own. Just throwing the idea out there (Deanne, yoohoo!)

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I did go back to Brita’s this weekend for the Albizia ‘Summer Chocolate’ and will have to see how this potential 20-footer likes being kept in a container. (The fate of Brita’s nursery is still undecided at this point, which I wrote about here.)

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Arundo donax ‘Golden Chain’ has been very slow to establish. It’s reputed to lack the thuggish ways of the species, and so far this has been borne out by its performance in my garden, for which I’m so grateful. I’d hate to give it up. Hardy to zone 7, maybe 6.

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The arundo shares ground with Macleaya cordata, which is definitely fulfilling its reputation for having adventurous roots.
I haven’t grown macleaya in quite a while and missed having those enormous, scalloped, jade-green leaves around, especially on foggy mornings like this one.

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An agave must be included, and this is one I don’t post about too often.
The striations of Agave americana var. striata are almost too subtle, but as it matures they are getting more pronounced.
The overall hazy blue-green effect is lovely, reading much better at a distance.

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This agave has been relatively slow growing for an americana and hasn’t even pupped yet, another mark in its favor.

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Sonchus canariensis growing lush in October. A member of the asteraceae/sunflower family, it will bloom with dandelion-esque flowers in spring.
A pup of Agave ‘Kara’s Stripes’ was tucked in at the base of the pot.
Full sun, easy on water, not too big in a container, 6-8 feet.

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The banana Musa ‘Siam Ruby’ likes it hot, even for a banana, and really started to enjoy life when the days pushed into the 90s and stayed there. Not much action from it until the high temps kicked in.

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Canna ‘Intrigue’ has been moved probably more than any other plant in the garden. On the plus side, it’s relatively slim for a canna, but it still thickens up fast and quickly crowds other plants. This is new growth since being transplanted in August. The last canna in the garden. I love them, but they’re unabashed garden hogs.

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And, lastly, not a great photo but one that shows the size of my wonderful Tree Cabbage, Cussonia gamtoosensis, which I described in more detail here. The more common Tree Cabbage, Cussonia paniculata, has been in its 6-inch pot forever, at least a couple years, finally managing to push out a set of new leaves this summer from its swollen base, still without a proper trunk, but nothing fazes the Gamboos Cabbage Tree. I’d definitely recommend this more robust tree cabbage for pot culture in colder zones.

Thanks again, Pam, for giving leaves in their infinite and fascinating variety a day of their own.


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Bloom Day October 2012

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Denise

A nice little rainstorm rolled into town last Thursday. For a sweet, brief moment, it almost seemed like autumn, but the heat has returned this week. Still, the garden has had a reasonable soaking, a rare thing for October, which is helping to settle in the new fall plantings. Much of the summer 2012 garden has already been changed out and replanted. Tough choices have been made to kick out nice plants like Amicia zygomeris in favor of trying out newcomers like Diascia personata, and there’s quite a bit of soil showing, another rarity here, but lots of familiar faces have been left in place for next year.


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Persicaria amplexicaulis continues its marathon bloom and will definitely be returning next year, two sizable clumps of it.

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Melianthus ‘Purple Haze’ seems to be a much meeker sort of melianthus, not at all vigorous and prone to leaping to 6 ft in a season, which is a good thing here, but it may not be robust enough for iffier zones. I’m very happy with its performance, which lives up to its reputation for compactness, though it did seem to languish in the heat more than other melianthus I’ve grown. One tiny blue flower is showing, I swear, for this Bloom Day on that golden ceratostigma, which suffered horribly in full sun after the smoke tree was removed.
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This is cheating, I know. I picked up this Zaluzianskya capensis a month ago already in bloom.

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The scent of this infamously fragrant plant so far eludes me, but I’d grow it anyway for its trailing habit and those wine-colored buds that unfold into little white pinwheels.

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Nicotiana ‘Ondra’s Brown Mix’ started from seed last spring generously donated by Nancy Ondra of Hayefield. The plants are just now bulking up and blooming. Nicotiana would probably rather be started in fall here, since they definitely bloom better in the cooler weather of spring, but they can easily damp off as seedlings over winter. A bit tricky to find the right balance for them. Nicotianas can be short-lived perennials here, and I’m hoping this nice strain will bloom a bit this fall then rest up over winter, to return next spring. That’s my plan anyway — we’ll see what they have in mind.

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Although it’s been blooming for months, I haven’t included the tall Mexican succulent Pedilanthus bracteatus in prior Bloom Day posts because — well, it is so very tall now, over 6 feet, that it’s difficult to get photos of the blooms.

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This is a marvelous plant for sunny, dry gardens, with a profile similar to ocotillo but without the spines.
It’s completely indifferent to a watering schedule.

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The coloring on the bracts is not as strong as it could be, and it really should be moved out of its pot and into a patch of the driest, sunniest ground, which at the moment is in short supply. I’ll be pondering where to show this beauty off to its best advantage. It does lose all its leaves in winter.

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Lotus jacobaeus has started blooming again in October.

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As has the Gerbera ‘Drakensberg Carmine.’ I wish I could find the peach colors of this good garden strain, because it’s been an amazingly good plant here, blooming since early spring, only going bloomless in the hottest weather.

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The salvias in bloom are Salvia chiapensis.

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And the remarkably long-blooming Salvia ‘Wendy’s Wish’


I’ve been enjoying some fine blog reading all day from the linked blogs at the host site for Bloom Day, May Dreams Gardens. What an amazing diversity of shapes and colors are represented by the autumn gardens there. Thanks, Carol.

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Mina lobata, the sequel

Posted on October 15, 2012 by Denise

The WordPress blogging platform that hosts AGO suffered a catastrophic system failure over the past few days. I understand very little about what caused the problem, but only know that a very nice person named Matt at Apis Networks acted as my intermediary with the angry computer gods. After the gods stopped hurling lightning bolts at WordPress and the smoke cleared, the irrevocable damage appears to be just one blog post gone forever, the one on the annual vine Mina lobata.

So one more time. The annual vine Mina lobata, aka Exotic Love Vine, Firecracker Vine, Spanish Flag.
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Sunday the 85-ton space shuttle Endeavour arrived at its final resting place at the California Science Center, after crawling through Los Angeles’ streets at a speed of 2 mph all day Friday and Saturday, while a lone sky diver hurtled 24 miles back to Earth at speeds over 800 mph.
A weekend to ponder our technological journeys perhaps? I know I did.

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The gist of the post on Mina lobata was that it wilted in its afternoon western exposure all summer, which is what it is doing again, as temps crawl back up into the 90s. And that I like this candy corn-colored vine a lot.

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garden lanterns

Posted on October 9, 2012 by Denise

Seedpods of Asclepias physocarpa transformed into garden lanterns.

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Another “light painting” by photographer MB Maher.


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dog days of summer take toll on local nursery

Posted on October 8, 2012 by Denise

I’ve been scouring local nurseries for calamint recently and stopped by Brita’s Old Town Gardens in Seal Beach, California, last week as the likeliest possible local source for Calamintha nepeta. Brita always has interesting stuff, the kind of plants the chain nurseries don’t even know exist. No calamint this time, but there were some gallons of the Achillea ‘Terracotta,’ which I’m planning for large drifts next year. I grabbed a couple gallons of the yarrow, at which point Brita informed me she’d be having a big sale this weekend, and to come back then for a better deal.

Which says it all about Brita: knowledgeable, great eye for plants, scrupulously honest and fair.
There were also a couple large, ever-spendy Albizia ‘Summer Chocolate’ that I was hoping to catch marked down.


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photo found here.

Saturday was busy all day, but I returned early Sunday, to find a huge banner on the fence with the icy words LIQUIDATION SALE, along with this little note attached to the fence:


“I love what I do, I enjoy all the reasons you come to visit this
nursery, but this summer’s heat has kept most of you at bay.

To stock for the next season;
Everything and Anything that is not tied down is on Sale.

This is a Liquidity Event!!!

Iron display stands, the Old Metal Gazebos are up for grabs. Amazing pots can be yours!

Many ‘One of a Kind Items’ so come early for the best selection.”


Last week Brita hadn’t mentioned the sale was anything but a routine end-of-summer sale. As soon as the gates opened (yes, I was that early), I rushed up to Brita and stammered, “You know, for a minute there, seeing that banner, I thought you might be…I thought this was…but when I read the little note I realized you’re just clearing stuff out for the new season. What a relief!”

Brita replied, “Actually, no. If this sale doesn’t do the trick, I’m done. On top of the recession, with the extreme heat of the last two months and everyone just staying home, I can’t buy in new stock for fall. We sold about one-sixth of what we needed to sell yesterday. Tell your friends.”

My stomach hurt all day Sunday after hearing this news. Sure, there’s always mail order sources for rare and hard-to-find plants, but there’s no substitute for browsing at a good nursery. For example, I’ve read catalogue descriptions of Phylica pubescens before and been intrigued, but it was only after seeing it at Brita’s yesterday that I became truly smitten with this tender South African shrub for zones 9 and 10. (The unsuspecting ballota that had this spot in my garden Saturday had become woody, so it was about time to remove it anyway. Both the ballota and phylica are wonderfully textural and fuzzy, though the phylica may get taller, possibly up to 5 feet.)


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Brita’s prices are going to continue to drop until…well, the future is uncertain at this point, and let’s not dwell on that. If I had any shade left, I’d have brought home Bergenia ciliata, which I’d only read about before, and if I had any more room for trees that dark-leaved mimosa would be mine. There’s tree aloes, more South African shrubs, huge agaves, a wonderfully curated succulent selection, ironwork, enormous pots. This is my selfish appeal to supporters of independent nurseries to get over to Brita’s ASAP!


Brita’s Old Town Gardens
225 Main Street
Seal Beach, California 90740
Monday – Saturday
9:00 AM to 5:00 PM
Sunday
10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
(562) 430-5019

It’s not as easy for small, independent nurseries to recover from the dog days of summer as it is for…well, small dogs.

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Update 11/4/12 – The “Liquidation” sign has been removed. Noted was a small sign advising “Christmas trees available November 23.” Fingers crossed…

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Los Angeles’ Grand Park

Posted on October 5, 2012 by Denise

I worked at the courthouse in downtown Los Angeles today. I love these occasional work assignments downtown. We drove up Broadway, taking in an early morning dose of awe at its many ghostly, majestic movie palaces like the Orpheum, now housing optometrists and bargain shops. It wasn’t until I was dropped off at the courthouse steps on Hill Street, preparing to brave the security queue, that I caught that distinctive flash of magenta out of the corner of my eye. I instantly knew where I’d be spending the lunch hour.


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The courthouse borders part of the new 12-acre Grand Park, which replaces the moribund Los Angeles County Civic Center Mall, about as inviting a space as a name like that implies. There have been lots of financial complications and physical challenges leading up to the opening of Grand Park in July 2012, which can be read here. But today I wasn’t interested in the sausage-making back story. This was my first look, and I was ready to be dazzled. Yes, the new park is sited awkwardly in places. Yes, it’s a compromise location. And it strikes me as more plaza than park, probably because it’s not heavily treed and is unapologetically angular and geometric. But, oh, I do most definitely approve.

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Landscape architects Rios Clementi Hale Studios were not only bold in their choice of seating but in their selection of plants as well.

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It was the plants that coaxed and lured me deeper into the park. A lunch hour wasn’t nearly enough time to explore it all.

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The openness of the park allows for wonderful views

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Large bunch grasses like miscanthus are seldom seen in Los Angeles. Here were great sweeps of them.

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The movable metal street furniture was designed inhouse by Rios Clementi Hale and manufactured by Janus et Cie.

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It’s about time Los Angeles decided to be included in the pantheon of cities with great urban parks.

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The opening of the fourth and final segment will be celebrated this Saturday, October 6, 2012.

From Rios Clementi Hale Studios website:

“Our design for Grand Park has no smaller aim than to express the global multicultural diversity of Los Angeles through landscape design and architecture to create a spectacular, iconic park for Downtown Los Angeles. Thematically, the park celebrates Los Angeles’ identity as a 21st-century multi-cultural global city metropolis composed of an amazing diversity of authentic ethnic communities and neighborhoods, set in a County where 244 distinct languages are spoken.

Over its length, the site is divided by two city streets and a challenging 90-foot grade change. Our design makes a series of grand park gestures to tie the four-block site together, and create a connected, unified park. We used Grand Park’s significant grade changes as an asset, rising to the challenge of softening Bunker Hill’s natural incline with pedestrian-friendly and ADA-accessible ramps and broad steps. The new rampsĀ extend existing below-grade ramps to the north and south to create a series of central terraces leading down into the park from Grand Avenue with a great view of the restored fountain. The terraces are adaptable to an array of uses, including al fresco dining, event seating, meeting enclaves, and general gathering places. The historic Arthur J. Will Memorial Fountain has been restored and expanded to increase its sustainability as well as its viability as a dynamic water feature for park users.”

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cross-pollination 9/29/12

Posted on October 2, 2012 by Denise

Annette and Gustavo Gutierrez hosted another “Cross-Pollination” on Saturday. These get-togethers were initiated by garden designer Dustin Gimbel, who’s already hosted a couple dinners, and are a hybrid between a revolving conversation society and garden party. There was just enough time before nightfall for a few photos.

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The tantalizing aroma of Gustavo’s paella permeated their 100-year-old, two-story Craftsman (see Apartment Therapy’s tour here), while in the garden off the kitchen plumeria poured its scent into the warm night air. The Hollywood sign in the nearby hills, visible from the deck, along with the ring of palm trees encircling their street, are the kind of party props you just can’t rent.

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photo from Apartment Therapy.


Annette Gutierrez and Mary Gray, at their Atwater Village shop Potted, are providing Los Angeles a much-needed source for modern, vibrant options in outdoor design. (Now, via online sales, everyone else can get Potted too.) At home, Annette mixes many of Potted’s furniture and signature pottery with vintage chairs, built-in banquettes, tile-top tables by Tracey Reinberg’s line of Kismet cement tile, showing how bright-hued Fermob and Bend chairs and tables co-exist beautifully with other materials and styles.

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It’s wonderful to see a love of strong color and pattern spill out into the garden, bringing together an outdoor space that, instead of being considered an afterthought, is as personal, idiosyncratic, and irresistibly welcoming as what’s inside the house. Maybe more so. Where else but at a garden party can you be entertained by a dog eating avocados falling from the tree?

Thank you, Annette and Gustavo, for hosting a fabulous evening of Cross-Pollination.
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some cool customers

Posted on September 30, 2012 by Denise

For a reliable dose of cool, deep greens and blues are the colors to choose.

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Yucca whipplei, Agave ‘Blue Glow,’ Elymus arenarius, Blue Lyme Grass

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Cool comes smooth, barbed, spiked, sometimes all at once, like the barbs of Furcraea macdougalii

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Cool can take the heat. (Thank you, Aloe marlothiii, for remaining flawlessly poised during this interminably hot summer.)

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Always more cool to discover. From unknown to me before July 2012 to ecstatic possession in September 2012, Agave celsii var. albicans ‘UCB.’ A Pasadena nursery was having a 35% off sale, and there he was, an agave I’ve never seen offered locally before. The kismet of cool.

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