Posts Tagged ‘palms’

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.

Wild par­rots now abound in South­ern California

Oh, I love these guys! Every­time I see a flock or hear their wild screech­ing I am taken to the trop­ics. I finally decided to get some infor­ma­tion on these green aliens by search­ing the inter­net. Accord­ing to The Cal­i­for­nia Par­rot Project: “par­rots are an increas­ingly famil­iar sight in many urban areas in the south­ern United States, hav­ing become estab­lished from escaped or released birds that were imported for the pet trade.….….” They also address the fact that these par­rots are non-​native:

“We take no posi­tion on the desir­abil­ity of main­tain­ing par­rot pop­u­la­tions in the state (nor those of intro­duced euca­lyp­tus, palms, trout or turkeys). Par­rots are symp­to­matic of the expan­sion of urban habi­tats dom­i­nated by non-​native plants; they also illus­trate the capac­ity of humans to move wildlife around the planet for eco­nomic, social or aes­thetic rea­sons.” In other words, they’re here to stay, they’ve suc­cess­fully adapted and since they are endan­gered in their nat­ural habi­tats, maybe they can sur­vive among us.

For more infor­ma­tion: www​.cal​i​for​nia​parrot​pro​ject​.org/ and ama​zo​nia​.us/​h​o​m​e​.​h​tml

On the web: Sat­ur­day, ⁹⁄₁₈: Tara Kolla of Sil­ver Lake Farms leads a hands-​on work­shop on build­ing a bet­ter gar­den from the ground up. 10 a.m. to noon. Hunt­ing­ton Library, Art Col­lec­tions and Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, 1151 Oxford Road, San Marino. $40 to $50. Reg­is­tra­tion: (626) 405‑2128.

Inside Rolling Greens

Scrolling through the nurs­ery web­sites on Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com, I have come across some ter­rific con­tent in unex­pected places that I would like to share. Always remem­ber that nurs­eries often put coupons and sale notices on their web­sites. I’m divid­ing the sites into two sec­tions; the first one follows:

East Val­ley:

• www​.sgnurs​erynews​.com (San Gabriel Nurs­ery): a newslet­ter, monthly advice, pho­tos of exotic plants they carry
• www​.theodor​e​payne​.org: see the great classes they give on native gardening

West Val­ley:

• www​.papay​a​treenurs​ery​.com: videos on how to prune spe­cific fruit trees like curry leaf and che­r­i­moya; “ask Alex” fea­ture; in the news/​miracle fruit; guide for choos­ing rare fruit trees for your yard.

Los Ange­les:

• www​.arm​strong​gar​den​.com: Gar­den­ing from A to Z answers many of your ques­tions; a Save Water fea­ture; Gar­den Guides help gar­den­ers at every level; a gar­den forum.
• Mick​ey​har​gi​tay​plants​.com: a beau­ti­fully designed web­site with music that will take you to the trop­ics; check out the links, you will be surprised!
• www​.rolling​green​snurs​ery​.com/​: a gor­geous web­site with music.

Orange County:

• www​.lagu​na​nurs​ery​.net: news and events; owner Ruben Flo­res offers a free walk­ing tour in the Laguna area most Sat­ur­days at 10am.
• www​.Cal​i​for​ni​a​na​tive​plants​.com (Tree of life nurs­ery): Guest speaker series, lots of native plant information.
• Trop​i​calvibe​.com: Lots of infor­ma­tion on palms, and their selec­tion and care.

To be continued.….….

On the web: Pot­ted storewide sale; 9/​10 — 9/​19; 20% to 75% off; www​.pot​ted​store​.com

A mossy foun­tain at Laguna Nursery

This is a dif­fi­cult post to write because most nurs­eries are spe­cial in some way. Every com­mu­nity needs and deserves a gen­er­al­ized “gar­den cen­ter” for obvi­ous rea­sons (espe­cially since Tar­get has closed all of theirs — yea!). So I’m not nec­es­sar­ily talk­ing about ser­vice, selec­tion or price. With des­ti­na­tion nurs­eries some­thing more inde­fin­able is usu­ally in play, start­ing with the pas­sion of the owner. Most of the nurs­ery men and women I’ve met love what they do — which is lucky for us in this harsh eco­nomic cli­mate. But it is much harder to spe­cial­ize because it cuts down on clien­tele. So, need Aus­tralian plants? Go to Jo O’Connell’s Aus­tralian Native Plants Nurs­ery in Ojai. Jo pro­vides Aus­tralian plants to the Hunt­ing­ton Botan­i­cal Gar­dens, among many oth­ers. Want your roses grown locally and accli­ma­tized — Otto and Sons in Fill­more has an enor­mous selec­tion. How about a cus­tom top­i­ary spelling out your name? Get it at Eden Nurs­ery in Orange County. Two nurs­eries that spe­cial­ize in jaw drop­ping foun­tains, planter arrange­ments, orchids, gar­den fur­ni­ture and acces­sories: Laguna Nurs­ery in Orange County and Rolling Greens Nurs­ery in Cul­ver City. Upland Nurs­ery in Orange County has 350 vari­eties of plume­ria. Does your spouse want to see a phe­nom­e­nal car col­lec­tion while you shop for petu­nias? The only place for that is Simpson’S Gar­den Nurs­ery in San Diego County. Also in San Diego County: Botan­i­cal Part­ners with every bam­boo imag­in­able, and Jun­gle Music for collector’s palms. The own­ers of these nurs­eries (Ralph Evans and Phil Bergman, respec­tively) will give you help in decid­ing what will do best in your gar­den — they want you to suc­ceed and come back for more. Of course, that is true of all nurs­eries, large and small, gen­eral or specialized.

I have a “Des­ti­na­tion Nurs­ery” list­ing at the bot­tom of my cat­e­gories on Socal​nurs​ery​plants​.com. For more infor­ma­tion on each nurs­ery, go to the cat­e­gory for that nursery.