Author Archives: Denise

something different in an alstroemeria

The Alstromeria isabellana that I brought home from Far Reaches Farm in Port Townsend, Washington, opened its first bloom in my garden in Southern California a couple days ago. Sean Hogan had pointed it out to me in a display … Continue reading

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snapshot of August 2012

August is always a truth-telling time in the life of a garden and a good month to take a snapshot of it. The hoses have been deployed this week to deep water the trees and soak the now bone-dry soil. … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, creatures, garden visit, journal, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

melianthus at the getty and other controversies

The incomparable Herb Ritts and Titian were also at the Getty Center in Los Angeles, and some of Marie Antoinette’s hand-me-down furniture too. I think it can be safely said that gardeners are connoisseurs of the perfect moment, and last … Continue reading

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bringing it home

Visiting first-rate plant nurseries necessarily involves purchasing plants, or so I’ve always believed — even if the purchaser is thousands of miles from home and has to shove the pots into an already bursting suitcase and then into the cramped … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, creatures, garden travel, garden visit, journal, plant crushes, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Joy Creek Nursery

Continuing the posts on my recent visit to Oregon and Washington with some unabashed flower porn courtesy of the display gardens at Joy Creek Nursery, a retail and mail-order nursery in Scappoose, Oregon. (The buddleia might be ‘Evil Ways’) I … Continue reading

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Cistus Nursery

The second installment of my recent visit to Oregon and Washington (or How I Mispronounced Botanical Latin for Six Days While Touring Gardens and Nurseries of the Pacific Northwest). My own peculiar zonal filter can’t help but color these posts; … Continue reading

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summer 2012 road trip: Pacific Northwest

I find vacations in the Pacific Northwest have a lot in common with Chinese food; after being home for a few days, you’re hungry for another serving of Puget Sound, please. I’m sitting at a table in my garden in … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, creatures, design, garden travel, garden visit, journal, plant crushes, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 16 Comments

a week in the PNW

Day one of a week touring gardens and nurseries in the Pacific Northwest. Here’s a clue to our first stop after landing in Portland, Oregon. Still stumped? More clues… Obviously, this can only be Loree’s incredible garden (the Danger Garden), … Continue reading

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The Low Line (really)

Credit goes to New York for currently being the city with the most moxie, ingenuity, and brass-balled chutzpah in creating new public parks. (See Frank Bruni’s 7/14/12 piece in the NYT’s Sunday Review “Our Newly Lush Life.”) New York’s recent … Continue reading

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Bloom Day July 2012

I’m taking the last few weeks of July off work, which means sitting at a computer is the last thing I want to do. But miss a Bloom Day? Never! Since I’m heading out on more adventures this week, I’m … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bloom Day, garden ornament, garden travel, garden visit, plant nurseries, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments