Author Archives: Denise
the awkward age
My garden has lived through lots of them and will most likely continue to do so while I’m in charge. The latest awkward age involves a flowering agave and a young tree. Or maybe it will be a shrub. Neither … Continue reading
on the subject of the southern hemisphere…
Remember the old surfing movie The Endless Summer, where summer is chased around the globe? Well, I do. My older brothers took me to all the surfing movies. You can see where I’m going with this…it’s summer in Australia, and … Continue reading
Bernard Trainor’s Landprints
Ages and ages ago (last July in fact) a bunch of us garden bloggers visited gardens in Northern California at last summer’s meetup known as the Fling. For the temperate Bay Area, it was an incredibly hot day, and we … Continue reading
Posted in artists, design
Tagged Australian plants, Bernard Trainor, California native plants, Garden Bloggers Fling 2013 San Francisco, Jason Liske, Landprints; The Landscape Designs of Bernard Trainor, Marion Brenner, Southern California Horticultural Society, Susan Heeger, Testa-Vought garden
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Bloom Day November 2013
By November my garden has turned into a curiosity shop of oddities and seedpods. Like the racks of antler-like blooms on tetrapanax, seemingly more blooms than leaves this years after I clipped away some of the sunburnt foliage. Limbing it … Continue reading
glass artist Amanda Dziedzic
As someone who has had the same Vilmorin Andrieux prints of oversized vegetables in the kitchen since we moved in 20 years ago, I’ve always admired artists who respect vegetables. The Design Files recently did one of their signature, long-form … Continue reading
Posted in artists, design
Tagged Amanda Dziedzic, Australian design, glass art, the design files, Vilmorin Andrieux prints
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November garden dispatches
We all have our favorite months in the garden. Our sentiments aside, the November garden continues sending out dispatches, oblivious to any seasonal bias. dispatches from plectranthus tillandsias and cryptbergias urgent communications from Echeveria gigantea Candy-corn-colored Morse code from Mina … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged aeoniums, Agave 'Blue Flame', Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Agave desmettiana 'Joe Hoak', Agave geminiflora, Agave lophantha 'Quadricolor', Corokia virgata 'Sunsplash', Echeveria gigantea, Mina lobata
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So Cal Hort’s “Coffee in the Nash Garden”
Potted dwarf pomegranate Southern California Horticultural Society sent out a “Coffee in the Garden” invitation to its members for a late October visit to Donivee Nash’s garden in Arcadia, redesigned by Judy Horton in 2009. Participation in hort. society events … Continue reading
AGO/non-secateur flea market pop-up shop 12/15/13
I’ve been checking out local flea markets to get a sense of how this whole thing works from a seller’s perspective, which is totally foreign to me. I still have stuff from flea markets I bought when I was in … Continue reading
the colors of Bilbergia nutans
The first bloom of the common Queen’s Tears bromeliad, Bilbergia nutans, is just so very startling when it arrives, especially if you’ve only seen it in photos before. Like drop-your-coffee-cup startling. As though David Hockney was in the garden overnight … Continue reading
Posted in design, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits
Tagged Bilbergia nutans, bromeliads, Euphorbia mauritanica, Euphorbia rigida, Gomphrena 'Fireworks', Huntington Botanical Gardens, Lavandula multifida, Lavandula pinnata var. buchii, Pelargonium crispum 'Variegatum', Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold', Western Hills Nursery and Garden
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Fall Planting Festival at Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden 11/2/13
“California is defined by its Mediterranean climate. It is the smallest floristic province in North America, but has the greatest diversity of plants north of Mexico. It includes such characteristic vegetation as chaparral, coastal sage scrub, oak woodland and grassland. … Continue reading