Author Archives: Denise
Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch- Cherry Bomb
Anyone else curious enough about “The Runaways” movie last year, based on the eponymous, all-girl, Los Angeles-based band of the mid ’70s, to see it in a theater? Cherry Bomb was their big radio hit, Joan Jett the post-Runaways star. … Continue reading
Lemon Arbor
Arbors of roses, wisteria, grapes, long trusses of laburnum…timeless horticultural cliches under which one glides lost in the quandary of which Jane Austen heroine one resembles most. (Fanny Price of Mansfield Park.) Never had I walked under an arbor of … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit
Tagged arbor, Fanny Price, Jane Austen, lemons, limoncello, Lotusland, Mansfield Park
3 Comments
Photographer James Wojcik
Possibly one of the most visually inventive editorial product photographers working today. Some garden themes. James Wojcik
Bloom Day April 2011
Southern California, a mile from the ocean, zone 10, spring a couple months ahead of most of the country. With the grasses joining the frothy euphorbias in bloom, there’s now a supercharged atmosphere that animates the garden. I love it … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, Plant Portraits
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, ' Euphorbia 'Ascot Rainbow', Aloe thompsonii, Annies Annuals, Bloom Day, Euphorbia characias 'Silver Swan', Fuchsia 'Hawkshead', Geranium maderense 'Alba', Geum magellanicum, Libertia peregrinans, Luzula sylvatica 'Aurea', May Dreams Gardens, Patersonia drummondii, Pennisetum spathiolatum, Salvia verticillata 'Purple Rain'
6 Comments
Free-Range Succulents
At Lotusland (USDA zone 10), it was thrilling to see succulents set free from ceramic pots to creep and spill over rocks. Increasingly, even in frost-free gardens, succulents have become the darlings of container designs, but where they can overwinter … Continue reading
Posted in design, garden visit, succulents
Tagged Lotusland, succulents, USDA climate zones
5 Comments
Occasional Daily Photos/Lotusland
The clamshell beach at Lotusland Backed by a low retaining wall dripping with dudleyas and other succulents (Thank you, Kathy!)
Posted in garden travel, garden visit, Occasional Daily Photo, succulents
Tagged California, Lotusland, Montecito
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Changing Tastes
I visited a couple nurseries today and was a bit horrified by the seemingly overnight invasion of flat after flat of “spring color,” a reaction which made me wonder if I’m growing snobbish. So am I a snob? I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in design
Tagged bearded irises, beschorneria, Henry Mitchell, Rose 'Bouquet d'Or', Stipa gigantea
5 Comments
Riches of Rancho Reubidoux
Faithful readers of Reuben Munoz’s blog, Rancho Reubidoux, will have followed Reuben’s decision to join the Riverside Flower Show and Garden Tour, cheering him on as he underwent the harrowing process of qualifying to be on the tour and then … Continue reading
Sage Vice
Who can say at what number an enthusiasm or “keen interest” ends and a collection of plants begins? 20 hostas? 6 agaves? 114 daylilies? When the genus is as diverse in leaf and flower as salvia, a collection interspersed throughout … Continue reading