Category Archives: Plant Portraits
Garden Puzzles
Working with a small garden can be a bit of a puzzle. This powder blue Agave potatorum, or ‘butterfly’ agave, was planted a couple years ago deep in the recesses of the gravel garden, much too out of the way … Continue reading
Chasing Plants
Post-Internet I’ve noticed plant desire has turned into a thinner and weaker strain now that it’s so easily satisfied. The really big desire, the kind that used to build up unrequited for years and years, is as analog as a … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, garden travel, plant nurseries, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Annies Annuals, Cirsium rivulare 'Atropurpureum', Cistus Nursery, Digging Dog Nursery, Mathiasella bupleuroides, Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden, Mildred Mathias, San Marcos Growers, The Dry Garden North Oakland, Yucca aloifolia 'Blue Boy', Yucca aloifolia 'Purpurea'
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Occasional Daily Photo 9/3/11
Asteeelia, you’re breaking my heart… But only because you’re so constantly, shimmeringly gorgeous. Ever-gorgeous is what you are. Allow me to sing your praises. This large pot of Astelia chathamica ‘Silver Spear’ has sat in the center of the back … Continue reading
Bulletproof (I Wish It Was…)
Eccremocarpus scaber, Chilean Glory Flower. Allegedly a rambunctious annual vine, possibly perennial in my zone 10. Usually characterized as a vine to cover sheds and vast expanses of unsightly fence. In other words, bulletproof. Image from Jungle Seeds “Blooms early … Continue reading
Posted in Plant Portraits
Tagged Bulletproof...I Wish I Was, Chilean Glory Flower, Eccremocarpus scaber, Radiohead
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Square Stems & Other Botanical Curiosities
Studying taxonomic classification and “keying” out the physical characteristics of plants almost 18 years ago was incredibly absorbing, but the detailed vocabulary has mostly slipped from memory from disuse. Still, it’s a rare occasion that I look at a salvia … Continue reading
Into The Fog
Every August we head for mists and fogs, usually those that creep on cat’s paws and shroud the coastline of Oregon. But this year, squeezed by budget and time constraints, we took the advice of Far Out Flora and Gardenbook … Continue reading
Posted in garden travel, Plant Portraits
Tagged Angelica stricta 'Purpurea', Bupleurum fruticosum, Digging Dog Nursery, Digitalis lanata, Echeveria agavoides 'Ebony', eucomis, Kniphofia thompsonii var. snowdenii, Lobelia tupa, MacKerricher State Park, Mendocino Coast Botanical Gardens, Mendocino Headlands State Park, Van Damme State Park
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Foliage Follow-Up August 2011
Thank goodness Pam at Digging hosts a Foliage Follow-Up to May Dreams Gardens Bloom Day. The blooming lineup in my July Bloom Day post can stand in with very little revision for August. Holding down the fort and keeping the … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, Bloom Day, Plant Portraits, succulents
Tagged ' Amicia zygomeris, ' Euphorbia 'Diamond Frost, Achillea ageratum, Agave 'Mr. Ripple', Anemanthele lessoniana, Aralia cordata ‘Sun King’, Arundo donax 'Golden Chain, Coreopsis 'Full Moon', Coronilla valentina subsp. glauca, Cupressus macrocarpa 'Citriodora', Darrell Probst, Dorycnium hirsutum, Echeveria 'Opal Moon', Echium gentianoides 'Tajinaste', Euphorbia bracteata, Leycesteria formosa 'Golden Lanterns', Musa 'Siam Ruby', Olea europaea 'Little Ollie', Passiflora sanguinolenta, Phormium 'Alison Black', Stipa arundinacea, Tanacetum vulgare 'Isla Gold', Teucrium 'Fairy Dust', Trombetta di Albenga
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Begonia partita
The begonia genus is so vast, that the best approach is to find a guide or mentor to help wade through the many species and hybrids to find the really interesting plants and those most suitable to your tastes and … Continue reading
Occasional Daily Photo 7/29/11
Echeveria ‘Afterglow’ and Allium senescens. This little mid summer-flowering onion is sweet consolation for an allium-less garden up to this point. Unlike me, the early-blooming, flamboyant drumstick alliums don’t enjoy a zone 10 garden and prefer chillier winters. And although … Continue reading
Sherman Gardens & Library
I took the day off yesterday to check out some local nurseries for dahlias and eucomis in flower. (All my eucomis were bought as bulbs, some with leaves purportedly of varieties as dark or darker than ‘Oakhurst,’ but all instead … Continue reading
Posted in agaves, woody lilies, design, garden travel, garden visit, Plant Portraits, pots and containers, succulents
Tagged Agave 'Royal Spine', Agave ferdinandi-regis, Agave macroacantha 'Blue Ribbon', Agave ovatifolia, Begonia luxurians, Echinocactus grusonii, Eriogonum giganteum, Matthew V. Maggio, Nicolaia elatior, Pacific Horticulture, Sherman Library & Gardens, succulent garden
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