Category Archives: garden visit

windows on the world

Posted on April 7, 2012 by Denise

Thank you, Paris Review, for continuing Windows on the World, a wonderful “series on what writers from around the world see from their windows,” as drawn by Matteo Pericoli, first commissioned by The New York Times. My introduction to this … Continue reading →

Posted in books, design, garden visit | Tagged Matteo Pericoli, The Paris Review, Windows on the World | Leave a comment

things to do in the Bay Area after a garden show

Posted on April 1, 2012 by Denise

or any other preposition that fits your schedule — before the show, between visits to the show. Of course, you don’t have to wait until the next garden show in 2013 for a visit. Building REsources, discussed before here and … Continue reading →

Posted in design, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits | Tagged Aloe castanea, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Bay Area, Big Daddy's, Building REsources, Cornerstone Sonoma, Eupatorium sordidum, geum, Homoglad hybrids, MB Maher, Roger Raiche, Ruth Bancroft Garden, salvage, San Francisco, San Francisco Botanical Garden, sideritis, Suzanne Biaggi, The Dry Garden, Topher Delaney, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden | 4 Comments

winter walkabout

Posted on March 6, 2012 by Denise

Les of A Tidewater Gardener frequently posts some of the most beautiful landscape photography to be found on garden blogs. On his blog you may be introduced, as I was, to John Irving-esque names of natural phenomena like The Great … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, Plant Portraits, succulents, The Hortorialist | Tagged A Tidewater Gardener, Aloe striata, Furcraea foetida 'Mediopicta', George Nelson bubble lamp, Opuntia littoralis, Salvia spathacea, Winter Walk-Off, Yucca rostrata | 8 Comments

blue/yellow/green

Posted on March 3, 2012 by Denise

Where were we? I’ve been working at the day job like a navvy, trying to clear some time for spring garden visits, shows and whatnot. But the garden in March initiates a measured sequence of distractions, which can really mess … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden visit, succulents | Tagged Agave 'Blue Glow', Agave bovicornuta, Agave potatorum, Aloe marlothii, Andrea Cochran, Echeveria elegans, garden design, Papaver rupifragum, Sedum rupestre 'Angelina', Sideritis cypria, Sideritis syriaca | 6 Comments

the children’s garden at the Huntington

Posted on February 21, 2012 by Denise

The last time I visited the Huntington Botanical Garden a few weeks ago, the prevailing theme for the day was kids in the garden. Moms with toddlers and strollers were everywhere. Field-trip kids in the cactus garden trudged along the … Continue reading →

Posted in garden travel, garden visit | Tagged Children's Garden, Huntington Botanical Gardens, Jeff Karsner, The Los Angeles Times | 8 Comments

Hazel White: Aesthetics of Inundation

Posted on February 19, 2012 by Denise

UC Berkeley Botanical Garden’s symposium “Natural Discourse” held February 10, 2012, has been constantly in my thoughts this past week, whether riding the train, driving freeways, staring at the garden. I’d never visited UCBG before and found the physical location … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, essay, garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged "Natural Discourse", "Peril As Architectural Enrichment", A Pattern Language, Berkeley Natural History Museums, California College of the Arts, Chris Carmichael, Christopher Alexander, Hazel White, Isabelle Greene, Jay Appleton, Kelsey Press, Luis Barragan, Mary Anne Friel, MB Maher, Pacific Horticulture, Paul Licht, Personal Helicon, Richard Turner, Saxon Holt, Seamus Heaney, Shirley Watts, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden | 6 Comments

“Natural Discourse” 2/10/12 UC Berkeley Botanical Garden

Posted on February 7, 2012 by Denise

The kick-off symposium to the year-long collaboration between UCBG and invited artists and writers will be held Friday, February 10, 2012, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. “Natural Discourse” co-curators are Shirley Watts and Mary Anne Friel. Any attendees of … Continue reading →

Posted in garden travel, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged "Natural Discourse", Mary Anne Friel, MB Maher, Shirley Watts, UC Berkeley Botanical Garden | Leave a comment

garden of flowing fragrance in miniature

Posted on February 5, 2012 by Denise

The architectural scale model of the Huntington’s Garden of Flowing Fragrance, Phase One completed and opened to the pubic in February 2008. The scale model was mesmerizing. A miniaturized, perfect world unto itself. I haven’t seen Phase I yet of … Continue reading →

Posted in design, garden visit | Tagged Garden of Flowing Fragrance, Huntington Botanical Gardens, miniatures, scale models | 4 Comments

mid-week garden jaunt

Posted on February 3, 2012 by Denise

There is a beloved, family-owned nursery in Pasadena that, over the past couple years, has become breathtakingly expensive. My now-20-foot Chinese fringe tree was bought here as a sapling they raised from seed. Many of my agaves were found here, … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden visit, plant nurseries, succulents | Tagged acacias, Aloe dolomitica, Aloe vanbalenii, aloes, Chionanthus retusus, Golden Barrel Cactus Echinocactus grusonii, Huntington Botanical Gardens, Montezuma cypress, opuntia, puyas, Romagna Purple artichokes, veltheimia | 4 Comments

percolating

Posted on January 3, 2012 by Denise

The garden continues to percolate along in a quiet January fashion. Poppies, lunaria, Orlaya grandiflora, and Geranium maderense seem to be what’s on the menu for spring — their seedlings are everywhere. A nice problem to have and easy to … Continue reading →

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, garden visit, Plant Portraits | Tagged Agave guadalajarana, Agave snout-nosed beetle Scyphophorus acupunctatus, Ammi visagna, Athanasia acerosa, Helleborus argutifolius, paperwhite narcissus, phormiums, Senecio mandraliscae | 5 Comments