Tag Archives: echeverias

echeverias in a vase

Valentine’s Day quiz: A small vase holds the short stem of a ruffly rosette that’s not a flower. What can it be? a) some kind of kale b) I don’t know, but whatever it is it’s monstrous and obscene c) … Continue reading

Posted in cut flowers, succulents | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

tricks for the plant collector

A garden book among the many I’ve read that I’m reminded of almost daily is Pamela Harper’s “Color Echoes.” My synopsis goes like this: The eye is lonely and craves relationships, and will wander around restlessly to seek them out, … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, journal | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

birthday plants

My birthday took up just about every single day last week, and more days on the weekend, which is how I rationalized a trip on Saturday to find that hitherto unknown-to-me, unmet, spectacular plant that would forever after be marked … Continue reading

Posted in plant crushes, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

succulent container with ocotillo

Running errands in Orange County yesterday, I popped into the new Rolling Greens again to see if their selection of outdoor plants had arrived. Yes, a good range of succulents was in, including this fabulous variegated beaucarnia or Pony Tail … Continue reading

Posted in design, garden ornament, plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Foliage Followup April 2012

Grasses and agaves, yes, of course, solidity and movement, so why not grasses and aloes? A youngish Aloe marlothii and the evergreen cold blue steel blades of Blue Oat Grass, Helicotrichon sempervirens. I can’t imagine keeping a plant in the … Continue reading

Posted in Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

Occasional Daily Weather Report 1/4/12

Unusual for January 4, 80 degrees, dry, and piercingly blue sky. Sweaty weather for garden work. Great weather if you’re a succulent.

Posted in Occasional Daily Weather Report, succulents | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Hortus Chaotica

So many contradictions, so little time. A love of spare, austere, sculptural plantings. Yet every summer I still invite the circus to camp in my garden.

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Occasional Daily Photo, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Succulents In Your Face

Now that their former stigma as strictly hobbyists’ plants has been exploded by proselytizers like Thomas Hobbs and Debra Lee Baldwin, the moment for succulents is undeniably now. If tulips and bulbs are the lipsticks of the garden, succulents are … Continue reading

Posted in succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , | 15 Comments