Posts Tagged ‘garden’

An entry from last year

First of all, thank you to my friend Alice for point­ing out that the Rose Parade is never on a Sun­day; there­fore it will be held Mon­day, Jan­u­ary 2nd. For those of us who like to see sparkling fresh flower cov­ered floats, I rec­om­mend going out to Pasadena Sun­day night some­time after about 9pm. All the floats are pulled up on Orange Grove Avenue in front of the Wrigley Man­sion wait­ing for the parade to start the next day. (What did you think, they wait until the last minute?) They are spotlit and it is a fes­tive scene…and you can get really close and see the detail. I took these pho­tos last year between about 10:00pm and 1:00 am. I can only tell you my expe­ri­ence, and hope that noth­ing has changed. I drove north on South Arroyo Park­way and parked as close as pos­si­ble to Orange Grove Blvd. between East Col­orado Blvd. on the north and East Del Mar Blvd. on the south. The streets are closed off to the east so you will have to walk up a hill but you will see some great old homes. Take some hot choco­late, have an adven­ture and let me know how it goes! Happy New Year to us all!!!

Another 2011 float

On the Web:

• Thurs­day, 1/​5, Los Ange­les Cac­tus and Suc­cu­lent Soci­ety talk on “Places you’ve never heard of, plants you’ve never seen” 7pm @ Sepul­veda Gar­den Cen­ter, Encino (www​.lacss​.com)

Sat­ur­day, ¹⁄₇:

- Rose prun­ing work­shop @ Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum, Arca­dia (www​.arbore​tum​.org)

- Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens sem­i­nar held in Pomona on Sam Mal­oof exhibit and sea­sonal gar­den­ing (www​.hunt​ing​ton​.org)

Prop­erty on The Gar­den Con­ser­vancy tour, 2009

I con­sider myself so very, very lucky to belong to the Pacific Pal­isades Gar­den Club. Many larger com­mu­ni­ties don’t have one. PPGC is very active. They put together a great gar­den tour and plant mar­ket once a year, tak­ing place next Sat­ur­day, April 17. The tour high­lights 4 gar­dens in Pacific Pal­isades and 2 in Santa Mon­ica. I have been going on this tour and oth­ers for years and never fail to be inspired. It will be held from noon to 4pm, rain or shine. The cost is $25.00 in advance or $30.00 the day of the event (go to 13545 D’Este, Pacific Pal­isades, 90272). For more infor­ma­tion: (310) 459‑4084 or (310)472‑3374; www​.pac​pal​gar​den​club​.org. PS: you don’t have to live in Pacific Pal­isades to belong to PPGC!

More events:

• April 10: Fuller­ton Beau­ti­ful Open Gar­dens, www​.fuller​ton​beau​ti​ful​.org
• April 16 – 17: Flo­ral Park in Santa Ana Home and Gar­den Tour, www​.flo​ral​park​.com
• April 16 – 17: Ante­lope Val­ley Cal­i­for­nia Poppy Fes­ti­val, www​.pop​pyfes​ti​val​.com

My favorite Authen­tic Provence cat­e­gory is “pavil­ions and tents”

Just dis­cov­ered the most heart­break­ingly gor­geous web­site for all things proven­cal in the gar­den: Authen­tic Provence (www​.authen​ticprovence​.com). Espe­cially heart­break­ing if you are sit­ting in the freez­ing snow instead of the sun. How­ever we can all dream…You will be so inspired by this website.

The brick and mor­tar store is located in Palm Beach, Florida. How­ever the vir­tual store offers 14 exten­sive cat­e­gories, such as gar­den antiques, foun­tains, planters, antique tile, lighting.….My favorite is the Pavil­ion and Tent cat­e­gory, espe­cially the umbrello octag­o­nale and mer­cato delle erbe. The “spout” sec­tion alone sends me into ecstasy. And don’t get me started on the antique doors. Check it out at www​.authen​ticprovence​.com.

On the web:

Thurs­day, March 31: “Land­scape Scenog­ra­phy: Set­ting the stage for gar­den mys­tery” with speak­ers Chip Sul­li­van and Eliz­a­beth Boults fol­lowed by a sign­ing of their book An Illus­trated His­tory of Land­scape Design @ the Los Ange­les Arbore­tum: jill.​berry@​arboretum.​org or 626−821−4623

A mag­nif­i­cent grove of Dra­caena Cinnabari

I have a soft heart for pointy plants. Espe­cially suc­cu­lents in all their fleshy some­times spiny glory. As I flipped thru a Conde Nast Trav­eler mag­a­zine recently, an arti­cle came to my atten­tion on the island of Soco­tra and Dra­caena Cinnabari, or the Dragon’s Blood Tree. To my way of think­ing this is a gor­geous tree, with its twisty sculp­tural trunks and spikey canopy. Unfor­tu­nately it is endan­gered in its habi­tat by the grad­ual warm­ing and dry­ing of Soca­tra, a United Nations World Her­itage Site located near the Horn of Africa and Yemen. In ancient times the deep red resin derived from the tree was used as a dye, tooth­paste, astrin­gent and rheuma­tism med­i­cine — this is a plant that could earn its keep. It still pro­vides var­nish for vio­lins, among other uses. It would be per­fectly suited to our SoCal cli­mate but seems to be very hard to find. Wish I had known about this trees 3 months ago when I was in Egypt — that is prob­a­bly as close as I’ll ever get to Soco­tra and its Dra­caene Cinnabari.

For the arti­cle on Soco­tra: www​.concierge​.com/​c​n​t​r​a​v​e​l​e​r​/​a​r​t​i​c​l​e​s​/​5​0​3​111

On the web:

Sat­ur­day, Feb­ru­ary 26:

• Bonsai-​a-​thon @ Hunt­ing­ton Gar­dens, 2/​26 — 2/​27, 10:30 — 4:30, Bon­sai mas­ters share their pas­sion, live auc­tion at 3 pm, included in admis­sion; www​.Hunt​ing​ton​.org, (626) 405‑2100
• Theodore Payne Foun­da­tion: Relief Print­ing Work­shop, 10am — noon, $25/​35 non­mem­bers, $15 for mate­ri­als, and Let It Drip (drip irri­ga­tion sem­i­nar) 1:30 – 3:30, $20/​30 non­mem­bers, theodor​e​payne​.org/​818 – 768-​1802
• Edi­ble Natives for the Local Eater with Hank Kraus of Moosa Creek Nurs­ery, 1:30, free @ City Farm­ers Nurs­ery, San Diego, city​farm​er​snurs​ery​.com
• Com­post­ing 101/​11 am and Her­itage Oak Walk/​11 am — Des­canso Gar­dens, both free with admis­sion, Des­canso Gar­dens, (818) 949‑7980
• From Seed to Skil­let: A Gar­den Con­ser­vancy Talk with Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, Los Ange­les Arbore­tum, 11:30 – 1:30 The Gar­den Con­ser­vancy and the Los Ange­les County Arbore­tum and Botanic Gar­den are pleased to present Jimmy Williams and Susan Heeger, authors of the new book From Seed to Skil­let: A Guide to Grow­ing, Tend­ing, Har­vest­ing, and Cook­ing Up Fresh Healthy Food to Share with Peo­ple You Love. Jimmy learned all about veg­etable gar­den­ing at the knee of his grand­mother, a South Car­olina native from a tra­di­tional Gul­lah com­mu­nity. Susan, a gar­den writer and edi­tor, has been grow­ing veg­eta­bles at home for more than ten years. The two have cre­ated a per­sonal, beau­ti­fully illus­trated gar­den man­ual aimed at help­ing all gar­den­ers, from begin­ners to experts, grow edi­bles more suc­cess­fully. They will share some of the secrets to gar­den plan­ning, cre­at­ing healthy soil, rais­ing strong, pro­duc­tive plants, sav­ing seeds, and enjoy­ing the har­vest with fam­ily and friends. $20/​25 non mem­bers incl. admis­sion /​optional lunch/​jill.​berry@​arboretum.​com /