![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010702.jpg\")
<\/p>\nWhile it seems everyone else is diligently topping off their water table with generous rainfall and\/or snowfall, there’s no use denying it’s already chair cushion season here. Los Angeles in February decided to go high 80s, tipping into the 90s. It feels like a Peanuts\/Charles Schultz setup, with Charlie Brown (me) trusting Lucy (weather people) not to pull the football (El Nino) away again as he winds up for a mighty kick of faith, only to fall on his ass for the umpteenth time. But it’s hard to be grumpy about the lack of rainfall when it’s so gosh-darn beautiful outside. When the drought-driven apocalypse comes to Southern California, we will all be wearing flip-flops and T-shirts and sipping the latest artisinal cocktail. Like the last days of Pompeii, we won’t know what hit us.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010794.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010942.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Aloe ‘Safari Sunrise’<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010938.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Aloe conifera<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010937.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leucadendron ‘Wilson’s Wonder’<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010933.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Euphorbia atropurpurea<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010945.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Leucadendron ‘Winter Red’<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010423.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Glaucium grandiflorum<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010839.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Grevillea ‘Robyn Gordon’<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010716.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Helleborus argutifolius<\/p>\n
![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/january2016\/1-P1010772.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Bocconia frutescens<\/p>\n
N.B. This seems like such a sensible idea. Maybe it’s been around for a while and I just haven’t noticed. It goes like this: We get the special-order plants we want while avoiding the heavy shipping costs that mail order often entails, sometimes costing more than the plants themselves. I just noticed that Monrovia is accepting online orders<\/a> of their plants, which are delivered to a nursery near you for pickup. However, since I haven’t tried it out yet, I’m not sure if there is a handling charge involved. Now, if other wholesale growers like San Marcos Growers, Annie’s Annuals, and Native Sons jumped on this train, my plant budget would grow by leaps and bounds.<\/p>\n N.B.B. For spring plant orders, Chanticleer’s gravel garden plant list 2015.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" While it seems everyone else is diligently topping off their water table with generous rainfall and\/or snowfall, there’s no use denying it’s already chair cushion season here. Los Angeles in February decided to go high 80s, tipping into the 90s. … Continue reading