Author Archives: Denise
a brief but well-timed visit to the Disney Concert Hall garden
Sometimes I take the Metro train from Long Beach to visit family near Downtown Los Angeles. Yesterday Mitch and his daughter Domino picked me up at the usual stop on Grand Avenue, and we explored the Broad Art Musem and … Continue reading
Posted in Bulbs, design, garden visit, MB Maher
4 Comments
clippings 2/6/25
The Purple Fernleaf acacia was radically limbed up while I was in Oregon, due to its canopy encroaching on neighboring roofs and fences. It was one of the more shocking sights in the garden upon our return in October. Marty … Continue reading
Posted in climate, clippings
6 Comments
Bloomday January 2025
The 15th of every month occasions a long-running tradition for bloggers to post on blooms in their gardens wherever situated on the globe (started by Carol J. Michel). In my currently stripped-down SoCal garden, made lean on a diet of … Continue reading
Posted in Bloom Day, climate, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents
4 Comments
winter-blooming aloes go about their business
Returning from a 10-day trip over Thanksgiving, the garden buzzed with energy from emerging aloe flowers. Seeing the refreshed garden after the weeks of cleanup in October/November was a pretty special homecoming. Catching the aloes starting their winter bloom cycle … Continue reading
Posted in plant nurseries, pots and containers, succulents
8 Comments
fence project status
(A quick recap. Creeping fig, Ficus pumila, covered the south CMU wall of the back garden since we bought in ’89. Clinging tightly, it grew tall and thick and provided excellent evergreen privacy. A couple years ago, the neighbor on … Continue reading
infrastructure week in the SoCal zone 10 garden
Now that the back garden has been (mostly) cleared and sorted, it’s a little weird to find that some of the remaining plants have now turned into nameless strangers. Especially the aloes. The one pictured, with the elegant scroll-worked leaves, … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents
9 Comments
Bilbergia ‘Violetta’ (my how you’ve grown!)
In November 2020 I moved a couple pups of Bilbergia ‘Violetta’ under Grevillea ‘Moonlight,’ along with a large astelia and other odds and ends. Only the bromeliads and Callisia fragrans survived. (The callisia aka Basket Plant or False Bromeliad, also … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024
10 Comments
caudiciform plants for the win
I confess the loss of Beaucarnea ‘Gold Star’ was one I dreaded the most during our extended absence. It was one of the first plants I rushed to check upon return. Survival of caudiciform plants was a theme. Right up … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, pots and containers, succulents
10 Comments
taking stock of the runaway garden
I know “runaway garden” is an oxymoron, but even so the SoCal garden (zone 10) seems to have been on a journey without me, cycling through various caretakers, some benign, some less so. The last few days have been the … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, pots and containers, succulents
11 Comments
soaking it all in
Even though I’m the main instigator, this late-season crescendo of growth astonishes me. While the garden has morphed into a late-season mosh pit, there has been one summer-long standout that still rises above and coolly surveys the garden’s autumnal slugfest: … Continue reading
Posted in journal, Oregon garden, Plant Portraits
7 Comments