{"id":84667,"date":"2018-04-30T16:00:58","date_gmt":"2018-04-30T20:00:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=84667"},"modified":"2018-04-30T16:00:58","modified_gmt":"2018-04-30T20:00:58","slug":"monday-clippings-4-30-18","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/?p=84667","title":{"rendered":"monday clippings 4\/30\/18"},"content":{"rendered":"

Have you checked on your dudleyas lately? (“Stolen succulents: California hipster plants at center of smuggling crisis; Demand in China and Korea has led to thousands of dudleya being stolen from California as officials lament \u2018plant poaching<\/a>.”)<\/p>\n

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Lots of pruning and shaping going on here. It’s like editing a novel, one written by a verbose writer like Thomas Wolfe, but then the garden miraculously finds its stern editor Maxwell Perkins. (Sometimes the editor is asleep on the job for years.) The garden definitely develops a story I wasn’t aware I was writing, like how I’ve started to plant in bays of shrubs infilled with lower-lying plants. Carefully pruning a leucadendron throws into relief the shapes of Beschorneria albiflora and Yucca ‘Blue Boy.’ The yucca snakes a few feet on the ground before turning upright to 3 feet. New growth eventually turns that plummy shade. I like this phase of editing almost as much as planting, this building around what’s flourished, which takes the sting out of remembering what hasn’t.<\/p>\n

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I’m actually being accused of having gone too far, because there’s (gasp!) ground showing. And I decided to gravel mulch the portion of the back garden filled with succulents rather than using plants as a living mulch, which requires more irrigation and can cause air flow problems for some of the aloes. The annual poppies have been pulled, the Centranthus lecoqii thinned out (a lilac-pink type), and I’m vowing that Yucca ‘Bright Star’ will not be engulfed and buried in summer growth.<\/p>\n

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Pruning discipline allows light to reach everybody<\/em> — look, a happy verbascum!<\/p>\n

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In a Vase on Monday: Because I hate the fact that vases of flowers are such an emphatic microcosm of death in the garden (another weird trait of mine), I rarely keep them around the house. But here’s an indestructible combination I hit on at the popup, a Frankensteinian hybrid, part floristry, part assemblage, that’s strictly for outdoors because it’s so dang heavy. A large branch of a tree-like Euphorbia tirucalli sheared off in some high winds earlier in spring, so I saved it with no real purpose in mind. Wanting something with a little height for the popup, I ended up sticking it in this pipe supported in a square container of gravel. Surprisingly, it drew a lot of comments, and even some offers of purchase. Hating to take it all apart, I potted up the euphorbia with enough soil to keep it alive, shoved it back in the pipe, and planted up the base of the pipe with Echeveria agavoides. Yesss! Industrial-strength floristry.<\/p>\n

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More such mad botanical scientist experiments ensue. A big patch of Agave parryi was thinned, and who could throw away such perfect rosettes? This one has been out of the ground for a couple months. Just in case anyone doubted whether I have very weird taste…<\/p>\n

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Finding ways to bring height into the mix is a recurring theme. I found this plant stand in a dumpster yesterday. In my defense I was still all keyed up after visiting the flea market, still in that swivel-head search mode. The plant stand legs were sticking up out of the dumpster as we drove by enroute to fish tacos, and though it seemed full of interesting, garden-type detritus, we grabbed just this and ran, like true dumpster desperados. The nondescript shrub in the yellow pot is Acacia craspedocarpa, the leather-leaf acacia. It’s not a terribly exciting shrub, but it is as tough as old leather boots, a fact reinforced last Friday when I saw it flourishing in the Huntington’s desert garden.<\/p>\n

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And by the way, it’s a great time to visit the desert garden, with the palo verdes and puyas in bloom.<\/p>\n

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From the flea market yesterday, more of my weird taste. I love putting plants on a pedestal. <\/p>\n

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And if it’s a see-through, wiry, architectural pedestal, so much the better. (Former trash can.) This will be loads of fun to play with.<\/p>\n

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Adenanthos sericeus, the Coast Woolybush from Australia, has shot up this spring after languishing in the winter shade band. I think it’s tall enough now to remain in light most of the year. <\/p>\n

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Peter and Kris are to blame for this new acquisition, Senecio candicans ‘Angel Wings’ that I mail-ordered from Annie’s Annuals.<\/p>\n

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Another silver new to the garden this year, Centaurea ragusina, seems to be thriving. A couple of early losses are two California native annuals, which succumbed to this amended-for-30-years-but-still-clayey soil. That’s my guess. (Thistle Sage, Salvia carduacea, and White Pincushion, Chaenactis artemisifolia)<\/p>\n

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The ‘Single Black’ carnations are exploding in bloom.<\/p>\n

Some upcoming events you should check out while I’m in Austin attending the Garden Bloggers Fling:<\/a><\/p>\n

May 5-6, Mary Lou Heard Memorial garden tour<\/a> <\/p>\n

May 5-6, San Francisco Botanical Garden 50th annual spring plant sale<\/a> <\/p>\n

May 6, Los Angeles, Garden Conservancy Open Days<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/big><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you checked on your dudleyas lately? (“Stolen succulents: California hipster plants at center of smuggling crisis; Demand in China and Korea has led to thousands of dudleya being stolen from California as officials lament \u2018plant poaching.”) Lots of pruning … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[28,2281,2478,551,898],"tags":[4938,2539,4891,4937,4939],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paNJ2E-m1B","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84667"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84667"}],"version-history":[{"count":94,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84667\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84873,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84667\/revisions\/84873"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84667"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84667"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agrowingobsession.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84667"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}