{"id":83942,"date":"2018-03-26T18:32:59","date_gmt":"2018-03-26T22:32:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=83942"},"modified":"2018-03-26T18:32:59","modified_gmt":"2018-03-26T22:32:59","slug":"spring-rush-2018","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=83942","title":{"rendered":"spring rush 2018"},"content":{"rendered":"

Can you believe spring is here? Maybe it’s not full-on spring yet in your neck of the woods, but I’ve been on a tear the past few days, covering a lot of counties, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles, just trying to keep up. Mostly I’ve been stalking plants; some to simply admire, some to sell on at the popup, and some to keep. And let me just say those last two categories are extremely fluid.<\/p>\n

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Looking down at Theodore Payne greenhouses from Wildflower Hill<\/small><\/p>\n

At the Theodore Payne<\/a> Poppy Day Spring Plant Sale on Saturday I found Ceanothus ‘Valley Violet,’ a UC Davis Arboretum All-Star<\/a> recommended for small gardens, tolerant of summer-dry garden conditions as well as varying amounts of supplemental irrigation. I’m debating whether to pull out a couple clumps of summer-blooming agastache for this spectacular spring-blooming shrub. Still mulling over this seasonal trade-off.<\/p>\n

(Note<\/strong>: The Theodore Payne Foundation is graciously donating two pairs of tickets for the 15th Annual Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour<\/a> to give away at our upcoming popup on April 14th at Urban Americana<\/a>. More details soon!<\/em>)<\/p>\n

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What I did immediately plant in the garden from the sale was Salvia carduacea, an annual known as the Thistle Sage. (Car jack stands make excellent cat exclusionary devices, dontcha know.) A bunch of little dudleyas bought at the sale are earmarked for the popup.<\/p>\n

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The tall aloe in the green pot is a gift from Hoov\/Piece of Eden<\/a> — be careful when admiring a potted plant in her garden! <\/p>\n

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Now, with this aloe on the other hand, I literally begged for a division. Aloe megalacantha, a stunning, profusely blooming, golden-flowered variant from Arid Lands.<\/p>\n

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That’s Sisyrinchium ‘Stripey’ at the base of the tall pot, a fairly new variegated Blue-Eyed Grass getting a tryout this spring too.<\/p>\n

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The little aloe in the stamped pot was bought at the Baker garden on Sunday, a fabulous “Coffee in the Garden” event sponsored by the Southern California Horticultural Society<\/a>. Since the ’70s this former horse property in Tarzana has been sculpted into gardens and planted with renowned rarities: <\/p>\n

“Donna Marie\u2019s late husband Bill Baker was responsible for collecting, hybridizing and introducing a number of plants to the nursery trade, including Pachyphytum \u2018Bill Baker\u2019, Dyckia \u2018Brittlestar\u2019 and Aloe \u2018Hercules.\u2019 As a team, they also collaborated on many high profile landscape installations throughout Southern California<\/em>.” <\/p>\n

Royce Wood, artist, botanical illustrator and landscape designer, and Tim Thomas, botanist and co-author of the book Southern California Mountains Wildflowers, both spoke movingly of their friend Bill Baker. <\/p>\n

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Before and after the talks there was greenhouse after greenhouse to explore filled with bromeliads, cactus and other succulents, all for sale at very competitive prices.<\/p>\n

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Enormous tillandsias.<\/p>\n

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A variegated ponytail palm of this size is hard to find for less than a hundred, and this one was way under that price. <\/p>\n

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An overwhelming selection, with literally thousands of plants to choose from. Bench after bench devoted to just dyckias! I admit to total spontaneity as far as purchases. I gave up on scrutinizing small plants and focused on the great deals available in larger sizes. For example, this rhipsalis. Its intense coloration completely won me over. <\/p>\n

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I love it temporarily spilling out of this ventilator\/fan thingy. Possibly Rhipsalis crispata?<\/p>\n

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Just one more, I promise — Euphorbia horrida, another incredible find from the Baker garden sale.<\/p>\n

Now that we’re closing in on April, it’s all coming thick and fast. Here’s some upcoming dates<\/a> to keep in mind:<\/p>\n

April 4-8, 2018, San Francisco Flower & Garden Show<\/a><\/p>\n

April 7, 2018, San Diego Horticultural Society Spring Garden Tour “Enchanting Encinitas”<\/a><\/p>\n

April 5-7, 2018, Dwell on Design LA<\/a> <\/p>\n

April 7-8, 2018, APLD Garden Conference, Los Angeles, California<\/a><\/p>\n

April 14, 2018, “Cross-Pollination,” a pop-up plant fair<\/a>, 12-6 p.m., Urban Americana<\/a>, 1345 Coronado Ave., Long Beach, CA 90804<\/p>\n

April 14, 2018, UC Santa Cruz Spring Plant Sale<\/a><\/p>\n

April 14-15, 2018, Theodore Payne Native Plant Garden Tour<\/a><\/p>\n

April 26-29, 2018, 29th Annual At Home in the Garden Show<\/a>, South Coast Plaza, Costa Mesa, California<\/p>\n

April 27-29, 2018, Huntington Botanical Garden Annual Spring Plant Sale<\/a><\/p>\n

April 30, 2018, Garden Conservancy Open Days, Pasadena<\/a>, California, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.<\/p>\n

<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Can you believe spring is here? Maybe it’s not full-on spring yet in your neck of the woods, but I’ve been on a tear the past few days, covering a lot of counties, San Diego, Orange, and Los Angeles, just … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[112,842,4906,898,27],"tags":[4912,4910,4909,4911,4913,4907,4908],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-lPU","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83942"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=83942"}],"version-history":[{"count":139,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83942\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84084,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83942\/revisions\/84084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=83942"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=83942"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=83942"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}