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Who can pass up turquoise flowers?
I planted a Puya berteroniana in 2014. It's a bromeliad that produces dramatic turquoise flowers but, thus far, I haven't seen a single sign of one. When the local botanic garden announced they had...
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In a Vase on Monday: Sweet peas
I considered pulling out my sweet pea vines when I cleared most of my cutting garden of the rest of the cool season annuals. As the result of our cooler temperatures, they'd gotten a slow start and...
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Managing ornamental grasses
Last week, as I walked through my neighborhood, I snapped a couple photos of a front garden up the street. The garden, installed last summer, has a simple palette, dominated by Nassella tenuissima...
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Summer ready
I rehabbed my cutting garden to prepare for summer - or most of it in any case. The sweet peas are still in place but they're on borrowed time. Most of the other cool season flowers in the cutting...
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In a Vase on Monday: Tropical punch
The title of this post came to me as I was cutting flowers for the arrangement shown below. My climate can't really be considered "tropical" but the lilies I fixated on have that vibe, as did the...
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Wild & Weedy Wednesday: Tolerable weeds
I'm joining Cathy of Words and Herbs this week for her "Wild and Weedy Wednesday" meme. I've got a multitude of true weeds in my garden this year. If there's a positive side to a prolonged drought,...
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The sweet peas get booted
The mildew on my sweet pea vines had gotten worse. Flowers were fewer and had shorter stems. So I bit the bullet and pulled down the vines late Wednesday morning while the marine layer kept the...
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In a Vase on Monday: Red, white - and blue
In honor of Independence Day tomorrow, I'd intended to create a red, white and blue arrangement but the reds I have on hand are limited and they didn't mix well with the blues I'd selected so instead I...
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Succulents appreciate rain too
One of my pandemic projects was a wholesale renovation of the planting scheme on the moderate front slope in the southwest corner of my front garden. I started it in early November 2020 and continued...
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Wide Shots - July 2023
I posted a detailed review of the southwest corner of my garden earlier this week but it's also time to share my quarterly wide shots of the rest of the garden. While the marine layer and cooler...
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In a Vase on Monday: Lilies & Thistles
This week, my arrangements differ in texture as much as color. The lilies in my garden have been appearing one after another and, as heat is in the forecast, I thought it best to use at least some of...
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Wild & Weedy Wednesday: Not quite weeds
I'm joining Cathy of Words and Herbs once again this week to share four plants that aren't classified as weeds (at least in California) but behave a bit like them. I've found the first three of the...
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Bloom Day - July 2023
Garden Bloggers' Bloom Day officially falls on Saturday but I'm once again operating on my own schedule and posting a day early. Our morning marine layer seems to have finally deserted us and our...
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In a Vase on Monday: Fireworks of a different kind
Even though the US celebrated Independence Day nearly two weeks ago, we're still hearing fireworks almost nightly. And those fireworks are just as illegal in our area as they were two weeks ago. What...
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Flora Grubb Gardens
I finally made it to Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey after meeting a friend for lunch last week. As the restaurant placed me less than thirty minutes from the nursery I decided the time was...
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Dithering in the heat
It's been too hot to do much of anything in the garden this week, admittedly not as hot as many areas of the country but uncomfortable nevertheless. My gardening activities are mostly confined to the...
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In a Vase on Monday: Bits of this and that
We had a lovely - and unexpected - change in our weather on Friday. Just after noon, as temperatures appeared to be heading back into the low 90sF (33C) where they'd been stuck for more than a week,...
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July's hot color palette
Do the dominant colors in your garden change with the seasons? Mine seem to. Even though I have a wide range of foliage and flowering plants in my garden and just about every color of the rainbow can...
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New Pollinator Garden
South Coast Botanic Garden, roughly five miles from my home, opened its new "Pollination Garden" on July 1st and I popped in to check it out earlier this week. It occupies the space that housed the...
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In a Vase on Monday: Making the most of what I have
My garden has slid into the summer doldrums and the pickings for IAVOM are currently slim. The dahlias have been slow to bloom. Only two of mine have well-developed buds. Five or six others appear...
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