Category Archives: Plant Portraits
sunday clippings 6/22/14
Future shock for me has arrived in the guise of an orange wristband. “Congratulations! You moved 24,995 steps, 12.07 miles, 249% of goal!” Jawbone’s UP pedometer calculates all that aimless garden puttering and tallies up some surprising stats. My orange … Continue reading
Posted in clippings, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged "Green is Good" by D. T. Max, 2014, Annie's Annuals & Perennials, Brillantaisia subulugurica, Cissus discolor, Commelina coelestis, Dypsis decaryi Triangle Palm, Edyn garden system, Ganna Walska, Garden Bloggers Fling 2014 Portland, Hellstrip Gardening by Evelyn Hadden, Huntington Botanical Garden plant sale June 28-29, Jawbone UP wristband, Lotusland, Musschia wollastonii, Oregon, Philodendron melanochrysum, Senecio scaposus v. addoensis, Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold', The Nature Conservancy, The New Yorker May 12, Timber Press
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museum Sunday
Frida Kahlo in the Sun by Leo Matiz In what now seems like the dim past, the family photo album was a holy book, kept on prominent display in the sitting room, perhaps atop the piano draped in a fringe … Continue reading
Cussonia spicata and the value of plants
I have these weird unwritten rules when buying plants. For example, $30 is usually deemed way too much to spend on one plant. It’s not a conscious rule, it’s just after checking the price, unless it’s spectacularly, once-in-a-lifetime rare, I … Continue reading
pod love
Garden bloggers have been giving it up for flowers, for leaves. How about some pod love? I know it’s a little early in the season for seedpods for a lot of gardens, but I happen to have dried-up, dessicated plant … Continue reading
Plectranthus ‘Emerald Lace’
Loree is talking about her favorite plant of the week today, and Pam is discussing the virtues of beautiful leaves, which of course set my eye wandering critically over a heat-ravaged landscape to find a suitable entry. Needless to say, … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits, pots and containers
Tagged Plectranthus 'Emerald Lace', shade plants
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Bloom Day May 2014
Thank goodness, unlike me, some like it hot, such as Dalea purpurea, the Purple Prairie Clover. Zoned only as far as 8* and not recommended too far south, so zone 10 was a gamble as far as lack of winter … Continue reading
on the tour; chasing variegated chimeras
A garden I visited on Saturday decidedly belonged to a devotee of the variegated leaf. (It takes one to know one.) The infatuation wasn’t apparent at first glance. This was a mature garden, well-treed, bambooed and shrubbed. But after every … Continue reading
Agave parryi ‘Cream Spike’
This is such a sweet agave for containers. Under a foot across in ultimate size, it is nevertheless a busy little mother. Just before its photo, I had cleaned out the offsets it produces so freely, which I’ll grow on … Continue reading
Schefflera actinophylla ‘Soleil’
I’ve recently added the houseplant section to my itinerary when visiting plant nurseries, a group of plants I’ve mostly been ignoring, so there’s basically no category of plants now that goes uninvestigated. Let me just say that this is an … Continue reading
on the tour; Passiflora vitifolia
The self-guided Mary Lou Heard Memorial Garden Tour stretches from my hometown in Long Beach to about 50 miles south, as far as San Clemete and Mission Viejo. For much too short a span of time, but long enough for … Continue reading