Posts Tagged ‘succulents’

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)

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.

The pump­kins every­one is gaga for!

These are THE pump­kins every­one is gaga for! Cre­ated by Laura Eubanks of San Diego, they are the per­fect com­bi­na­tion for a South­west­ern Thanks­giv­ing. I took Laura’s class at Green Gar­dens Nurs­ery in San Diego last Sat­ur­day, and now I’m going to share what I learned. First of all, it’s easy to get ter­rific results! Assem­ble the fol­low­ing: clear gel craft glue (Laura uses Aleene’s brand), a glue gun, spray glue, a pump­kin with a bowl shaped top, moss, small and mini suc­cu­lents, seeds, pods and dried buds (can be col­lected under trees).

Glu­ing on the moss

As you can see, the moss is ordi­nary — spray the top of the pump­kin well with the spray glue. You don’t want to glue any­thing on the sides as they won’t stick: con­fine the moss to the top. The moss should be ¹⁄₂ ” thick, pat­ted down.

A sam­pling of the materials

Now you are ready to start glu­ing on the larger suc­cu­lents and buds with the clear gel glue. The larger pieces should be glued first, towards the cen­ter. It’s best to have no stems or cut them very short and to have a vari­ety of col­ors if possible.

Next glue in the smaller suc­cu­lents, buds, pods, etc. with the same gel glue. Tuck lit­tle pieces in all over, mix­ing up the col­ors. You can see the first photo for guid­ance. It’s best to have a lot of stuff as that makes the pump­kins inter­est­ing. Seeds and pods around the perime­ter should be attached with a glue gun.

The pump­kin should dry for about 12 hours. Laura rec­om­mends the fol­low­ing care: keep out of direct sun­light, Mist with tap water once a week, keep indoors for up to one week at a time, best out­doors in a semi-​shady loca­tion. Laura had a pump­kin last for almost 9 months, although there are no guarantees!

Laura is sell­ing these along with Christ­mas pump­kins on her web­site, www​.design4seren​ity​.com. There is a lim­ited deliv­ery area as they are too heavy and frag­ile to ship. Laura and hus­band Greg Eubanks are both Mas­ter Gar­den­ers, and they offer “design and imple­men­ta­tion of inti­mate gar­den set­tings.” In addi­tion, Laura is a Mas­ter Com­poster (!), gar­den lec­turer, and con­ducts work­shops. Thank you, Laura, for your gen­eros­ity in shar­ing your pump­kins with my readers!

Green Gar­dens Nurs­ery is a won­der­ful neigh­bor­hood busi­ness in Pacific Beach, a sub­urb of San Diego. They are get­ting geared up for the hol­i­days with exten­sive offer­ings. Their web­site is www​.sdgreen​gar​dens​.com. They have a ter­rific suc­cu­lent col­lec­tion for sale, as well as some of Laura’s pumpkins.

On the web:

Fri­day, 11/​4 — Sun­day ¹¹⁄₆ Green Gar­dens Nurs­ery (see above) will be hav­ing their Annual Hol­i­day Open House with refresh­ments and a 15% dis­count on gift shop items. Fri­day 4 — 7pm, Sat­ur­day and Sun­day 8am — 5pm. (858) 483‑7846

And fewer calo­ries! Who would have thought that suc­cu­lents and pump­kins could mix! Mas­ter gar­dener Laura Eubanks did. She will be giv­ing a sem­i­nar at Green Gar­dens Nurs­ery in Pacific Beach on Sat­ur­day Octo­ber 22 at 2 pm on the cre­ation of these beau­ties. Laura was kind enough to give the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion for those of us who can­not attend: “We won’t have need to cut into the pump­kins as all of the suc­cu­lents are glued to a thin layer of sphag­num moss which, in turn is glued to the top of the gourd! With a lit­tle TLC, the suc­cu­lents will root right through the glue and into the moss. I have suc­cu­lent topped pump­kins from last year!” Inge­nious! Green Gar­dens will also be sell­ing some of the suc­cu­lent pump­kin cen­ter­pieces at the nurs­ery. (www​.sdgreen​gar​dens​.com) If you are not famil­iar with Green Gar­dens, take a trip to check it out! It’s a gem of a nurs­ery that offers espe­cially cre­ative shop­ping dur­ing the holidays.

HOLD THE PRESSES: 10/​16/​2011 — I will be able to attend the pumpkin/​succulent class on Sat­ur­day. I’ll take pho­tos and sup­ply instruc­tions so you can make these at home!