Category Archives: design

Sunday clippings 9/3/17

Did the Powerball mania descend on your home too a couple weeks back? Just because I never buy Powerball or lottery tickets, magical thinking really kicks in when news of the big jackpots reaches even my normally oblivious state of … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, clippings, design, garden travel, garden visit, succulents | Tagged , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Re-post: Amsterdam houseboat gardens

In the aftermath of the 500-year storm event in Texas and the horrendous suffering it has inflicted, offering lovely houseboat scenes may seem overly naive, if not downright cruel, but just try not to dwell on the design issues that … Continue reading

Posted in climate, design, MB Maher | Tagged , | 3 Comments

the Virginia Robinson Garden

There’s always a local, hometown garden or two that we never get around to visiting, right? And that holds true even in garden-starved Southern California. The Virginia Robinson Garden in Beverly Hills has been written and rewritten in seemingly vanishing … Continue reading

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cooling down the house with a garden; a modest proposal

I know I mostly talk about plants with a micro focus trained on their singularly gorgeous attributes, like Echium wildpretii above, but with this post I’m going to pull out of that narrow focus a bit and go wider. Normally … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, climate, design, Occasional Daily Weather Report, pots and containers | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments

musing on Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden

Today I’m coveting this long water tank “rill” in British landscape designer Tom Stuart-Smith’s garden flanked with bearded irises, Stipa gigantea, and astrantia, a scene possibly from late spring/very early summer? The first two I can grow here in zone … Continue reading

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Summer Nights in the Garden at L.A.’s Natural History Museum

Wisps of Dalea greggii with opuntia and ‘Sharkskin’ agave atop the Living Wall. Sunset and St. Catherine’s Lace, Eriogonum giganteum Finally, an opportunity to grab some “magic hour” photos of Mia Lehrer’s entrance garden (former parking lot) at the Natural … Continue reading

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Susanna Dadd in Pacific Horticulture

This summer issue of Pacific Horticulture is so much fun, filled as it is with lots of familiar faces and voices. All kinds of echoes and ripples from the virtual garden community spill over into this issue. Not only does … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, blog, design, garden visit, MB Maher | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

discovering The Potting Shed on a Lark at Sourced Collective

There’s retail that does vintage and architectural finds well, and there’s retail that does plants well. Haven’t you wished somebody with a passion for both would combine them under one roof? I know I have. Consider it handled by The … Continue reading

Posted in artists, commerce, cut flowers, design, edibles, garden ornament, MB Maher, photography, plant nurseries, shop talk | Tagged , , , , , , , | 9 Comments

Rancho Reubidoux up close

Continuing the documentation of Rancho Reubidoux now that Reuben and Paul are moving on from their widely loved home and garden, as promised, here’s a companion piece to the previous post, a parting look at how Reuben styles the sitting … Continue reading

Posted in artists, climate, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged , | 7 Comments

the light is left on at Rancho Reubidoux

I’ve been dreading completing this post, but since Reuben and Paul have officially decamped from their house and garden at Rancho Reubidoux as of last week and moved into their new home, it’s time to unpack these last images and … Continue reading

Posted in agaves, woody lilies, artists, climate, design, garden ornament, garden visit, MB Maher, pots and containers, succulents | Tagged | 9 Comments