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from The Los Angeles Times<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n <\/center><\/p>\n Marty, both parakeets, and I were jolted awake a little after 6 a.m., when the predicted storm slammed into town, escorted by raucous thunder, lightning, and high winds. (Nothing wakes increasingly deaf Ein.) In a quintessentially LA touch, the lightning struck and fired up several palm trees across the county, some of which could be seen from that major player in all our lives, the sclerotic 405 freeway (pronounced in the local dialect as “four-oh-five<\/em>.”) <\/p>\n I can’t leave you with that end-of-the world, palm-on-fire photo, so how about some soothing photos from the garden in the last week or so?<\/p>\n My beloved ballota. I think mine is Ballota acetabulosa. I always thought the name was interchangeable with B. pseudodictamnus. This maroon osteospermum just might keep me from throwing money away at chocolate cosmos this year. Thank goodness for the osteospermum’s unflagging, robust nature. If only it had Cosmos atrosanguineus’ extra long stems too.<\/p>\n Bulbine ‘Athena Compact Orange’<\/p>\n First bloom on rat-tail cactus. <\/p>\n Echeveria agavoides are in bloom all over the garden. Offsets quickly make new, thick colonies of this echeveria, one of my faovorites.<\/p>\n Glistening from the previous rainstorm a couple weeks back, my potted Leucadendron galpinii is going to love life in this container all summer. Right? Are we agreed? I’ll take that as a yes.<\/p>\n N.B. Read here<\/strong><\/a> on how to check your citrus for signs of the Asian citrus psyllid.<\/p>\n <\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" from The Los Angeles Times Marty, both parakeets, and I were jolted awake a little after 6 a.m., when the predicted storm slammed into town, escorted by raucous thunder, lightning, and high winds. (Nothing wakes increasingly deaf Ein.) In a … Continue reading ![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/botanizeme035\/P1011251.jpg\")
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\nApparently that’s not the case, and one kind is slightly superior to the other. It’s not an easy plant to track down by any name, so I’ll probably never know the distinction. Whatever this one is, I love it. Reseeds for me. Buy it under any name if you’re in zone 7 and above and want some knobby, woolly texture for a dry garden. And be patient, for it doesn’t look like much the first six months to a year after planting.<\/p>\n![\"](\"http:\/\/i52.photobucket.com\/albums\/g23\/botanizeme\/botanizeme035\/P1011243.jpg\")
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