Archive for the ‘plant information’ Category

Valen­tines Day Succulents

Why is love always rep­re­sented by a heart image? I thought our brains facil­i­tate love. I guess it’s not very sexy to say “I brain you” instead of “I (heart sym­bol) you”. The human race has some weird tra­di­tions. How­ever, Woody Allen did say “the heart is a resilient lit­tle mus­cle” in his film Han­nah and Her Sis­ters.

I needed some cen­ter­pieces for my lovely mother-​in-​law Ruth’s birth­day party on the 12th of Feb­ru­ary. I pur­chased 3 metal con­tain­ers at Rolling Greens Nurs­ery in Cul­ver City, and filled them with suc­cu­lents from my gar­den, and a lit­tle moss. I pur­chased a dozen roses and put 4 in each con­tainer in reser­voirs. Voila — the 3 cen­ter­pieces cost me about $84.00 total, and made a nice gift for 3 peo­ple to take home.

I have a lot of fam­ily birth­days in Feb­ru­ary: Happy Valentine’s Day birth­days to Ruth, Lau­ren, Edwina and Holly, my daugh­ter, who turns 21 on the 14th!

V Day 2012

Glo­ri­ous Gar­dens Nursery

Any­one who has known me for more than a minute soon real­izes I have an obses­sion with suc­cu­lents. It seems as if the rest of the world is join­ing me — hence we have more suc­cu­lent­cen­tric nurs­eries such as Glo­ri­ous Gar­dens Land­scape. Located in Leu­ca­dia in San Diego just off the 5 free­way, Glo­ri­ous Gar­dens Land­scape may carry the largest vari­ety of suc­cu­lents, cacti and tilland­sia in San Diego County. Started by land­scape design­ers Emma Almen­darez and Linda Fox 2 years ago, they spe­cial­ize in the unusual, whim­si­cal and unique. Cus­tomers can select plants and pots and the nurs­ery will plant them while you wait. They are going to be offer­ing classes; the first will be in Feb­ru­ary and will demon­strate glass blow­ing. Go to their Face­book page (www​.face​book​.com/​g​l​o​r​i​o​u​s​g​a​r​d​ens) to see their land­scape projects. (www​.aglo​ri​ous​gar​den​.com)

By the way, I know it’s painful for my east coast/​midwest read­ers to see be able to look and not touch these suc­cu­lents year round. While it’s always best to sup­port your local nurs­ery, in a pinch the West Elm (www​.west​elm​.com) web­site is offer­ing boxes of very inter­est­ing smaller suc­cu­lents for sale. They also have infor­ma­tion on plant­ing a terrarium.

How to repur­pose your used vehicle.…On the web:

Sales:

• Plant Depot/​San Juan Capis­trano has an inter­net coupon thru ³⁄₁₆ for $10.00 on a 50.00 pur­chase. (www​.plant​de​pot​.com)
• Sheri­dan Gar­dens Nursery/​Burbank starts a Super­bowl Sat­ur­day sale today — 25% off almost every­thing (www​.sheri​dan​gar​dens​.com)

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, ²⁄₄:

• Annual Camelia Fes­ti­val @ Des­canso Gardens/​La Canada/​Flintridge: Come and see the largest camel­lia col­lec­tion in North Amer­ica in full bloom. Also: Faery tours of the enchanted for­est, walk and talk, tea time and more. (www.descanso gar­dens and more)
• Theodore Payne Foundation/​Sun Val­ley: “Natives: The big pic­ture” with Lisa Novich (www​.theodor​e​payne​.org)
• Los Ange­les Arboretum/​Arcadia: Pacific Rose Soci­ety Annual Auc­tion (www​.arbore​tum​.org)

An Eng­lish cloud hedge with a Japan­ese lad­der from Niwaki.

Now that I’ve dis­cov­ered “cloud” hedges, the green blobs that hedges have been to me in the past are no longer a nec­es­sary evil. Bel­gian designer Jacques Wirtz has brought this style to pub­lic con­scious­ness, although vari­a­tions have been around for­ever, espe­cially in Asia. This hor­ti­cul­tural manip­u­la­tion requires patience, a build­ing block of the gardener’s arse­nal. Mature plants are needed to sculpt into the val­leys and peaks of cloud hedges.The words “courage and insan­ity” have been used to describe the process in the begin­ning, but it seems to pay off in the end. Or in the immor­tal words of Phyl­lis McGin­ley: the trou­ble with gar­den­ing is that it does not remain an avo­ca­tion. It becomes an obsession.

For more infor­ma­tion go to www​.jake​hob​son​.com; for tools, www​.niwaki​.com.

Thig­amotrope Satel­lites with Air Plants from Flora Grubb

Thig­motrope Satel­lite is the eas­i­est way to make a ver­ti­cal gar­den indoors. Just screw it in the wall and your tilland­sias have a styl­ish new home. Thigmotrope Satel­lite is a steel tri­pod with a threaded base, designed to be a screw-​in perch for tilland­sia air plants.

A close up thigamotrope

A Christ­mas orna­ment from Laura Eubanks

On the Web:

Aus­tralian Native Plants Nurs­ery (Ojai) is fea­tur­ing a very beau­ti­ful plant this week called Euca­lyp­tus “Moon Lagoon”. Owner Jo O’Connell also has a new ship­ment of books for hol­i­day gift­ing. Check out her web­site by click­ing on the but­ton to the right.

Atten­tion: Palm and Cycad lovers: Owner Phil Bergman of Jun­gle Music (Encini­tas) is offer­ing a very desir­able selec­tion of palms and cycads, many of them new to his nurs­ery. Some are col­lec­table; there are cold tol­er­ant plants on offer. Phil is very help­ful to begin­ners and will make sure you get the right plant for your needs. He is also well known to col­lec­tors, and car­ries spec­i­mens from all over the world. Go to www​.jun​gle​mu​sic​.net (619−291−4605) for pho­tos and info.