Author Archives: Denise
a faithful February friend
The Cactus Geranium, Pelargonium echinatum, has been brightening my February for over a decade. And it just might be one of the most well-documented plants on the blog. This photo from February 12, 2013, is one of many over the … Continue reading
monday clippings 2/5/18
There’s an unexpected addition to the container garden, and not one that I’d necessarily pick out of a lineup as an especially attractive succulent, like Agave ‘Kissho Kan’ in the foreground. I encountered this little space oddity on a walk … Continue reading
the January report
Another January gone. There have been nine reported on the blog. A lot has changed, but a lot is still weirdly the same. (For example, my obsession with poppies and agaves.) Inconsistent, ambivalent, flighty — those are the words that … Continue reading
Australian garden design
Australia. Big continent. Vast, you might say. My familiarity with Australian garden design, however, is the opposite of vast. Southwestern Australia is one of the five true mediterranean climate zones, like where I live here in Los Angeles — dry … Continue reading
Natural Discourse 2018 update
photo by MB Maher Natural Discourse, the series of lectures and accompanying exhibits that started back in 2012, focusing on collaborative efforts among scientists, naturalists, and artists to illuminate our increasingly fraught relationship with the natural world, is ongoing through … Continue reading
Posted in artists, design, garden travel, inspire me, MB Maher, science
Tagged "Natural Discourse", deimatic behavior, Gail Wight, Jenny Kendler, MB Maher, Shirley Watts, Space 151
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plants on walls
Plants on walls…need some convincing? I do too. Last time I checked out botanical wallpaper, it was still under the thrall of William Morris, with dense geometric patterns wound so tight that having them on my walls would make me … Continue reading
the week in plants 1/28/18
Aloe striata is getting ready to bloom. The Coral Aloe is not an uncommon aloe in Southern California, but it is in my garden. Sometime during summer, as I bring plants home from nurseries and shows, this aloe inevitably loses … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, clippings, edibles, journal, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Agave 'Mateo', Aloe 'Jacob's Ladder', Aloe striata, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, annuals, Atriplex hortensis, Chiltern Seeds, Heliophila longifolia, Los Angeles Grand Park, Mangave 'Lavender Lady', Salvia 'Marine Blue', seeds, Wild Garden Seed, Women's March 2018
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tracking down a tillandsia
Up to as recently as a few weeks ago, I confess I didn’t pay much attention to the various species of tillandsias (aka air plants, bromeliads adapted to a basically rootless life as epiphytic tree dwellers.) The darlings all curl … Continue reading
French chateau succulent garden
There I was, biking through French chateau country, rounding a bend in the zig-zag roads stitched with Lombardy poplars. And just as I was brushing the wind-blown hair out of my face, doing my best impersonation of Jeanne Moreau in … Continue reading
Charles Jones, gardener & photographer
“Jones, the son of a master butcher, was born in 1866 and trained as a gardener from an early age. At the age of 27, he began working at Ote Hall in West Sussex tending the estate’s fruit trees and … Continue reading
Posted in books, photography
Tagged 19th century, botanical photography, Charles Jones, estate gardens, Ote Hall, The New York Review of Books
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