Category Archives: succulents

abandonment issues

With just one week until we depart for Oregon, the Long Beach garden has finally taken a shape that feels horticulturally logical to me, according to my tastes and the slim resources it will have available in my absence. A … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bulbs, climate, journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, pots and containers, succulents | 6 Comments

O Huntington!

It’s been too long! In my absence the past few years, there are now reservation requirements, QR codes, and repeated checkpoints throughout the gardens to reverify the QR codes. There’s also sushi in the very crowded cafe to refuel after … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, garden visit, succulents | 6 Comments

Erodium pelargoniflorum and other indispensable reseeders

Erodium pelargoniflorum is commonly described as a perennial, but it behaves as a late winter/spring annual in my zone 10 Long Beach CA garden. It reseeds as prolifically as California poppies, and sheets of seedlings carpeted the front garden every … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, succulents | 5 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

Posted in journal, Los Angeles garden post 2024, pots and containers, succulents | 7 Comments

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

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

Hoffman’s Center for the Arts: The Wonder Garden

The Hoffman Center for the Arts in Manzanita, Oregon, celebrated its 20-year anniversary Saturday August 31. Out of their many programs — clay, writing, visual arts — I became acquainted with the HCA through their horticulture program. The Hoffman’s Wonder … Continue reading

Posted in garden travel, garden visit, Oregon garden, plant sales, succulents | 7 Comments