Tell me I’m not alone. Now that it’s all moist and mossy out there, I frequently see moss that stops me in my tracks. There are just so many strange-good variations. I’m pretty sure people think I’m nuts, stooped and closely examining a rock or a spot of bark dust in a parking lot. “But this moss is different from the other moss, and I need to see what it feels like” I want to explain. But either I still look crazy, or I’m talking to a fellow crazy plant person, in which case they already understand. (more…)
I’m a one-of-everything type of gardener, but I love obsessive collectors. People who can spend their lives completely fascinated with a specific genus or color or family. That’s dedication. I never like to count a plant out, even if I don’t get it, because somebody out there loves that plant for some compelling reason.
I read an article eons ago about a garden designer whose client’s plants kept mysteriously disappearing. The designer was puzzled, there were theories of rogue raccoons. Later the client confessed, they tossed anything that wasn’t perfectly spherical. See? A gardener obsessed with spheres. Every plant deserves its obsessive fans, and every gardener gets to love what they love. No judgment. But maybe don’t drive some poor garden designer crazy by being sneaky about it.
With pink greeting card and awkward dinner date season upon us (I’m such a romantic), I couldn’t help but notice the plants that could easily be a valentine. It got me wondering, does anyone have a heart shaped leaf fetish? If they did, they could easily make a whole garden out of nothing but hearts.
How could you grow a heart themed garden? Let me count the ways… (more…)
There is a folder on my computer, that holds my hopes and dreams. This folder is called Other People’s Plants.
Is there any plant you want more than the one you can’t have? There are far too many reasons you can’t have a plant, but my favorite is the I-don’t-even-know-what-it-is category, that’s the category where hope lives. In this category it’s Schrödinger’s plant, simultaneously alive and dead in your very own soil. Who knows, maybe it’s perfect for the weird spot by the driveway. Or it can quickly fill in the place where that inherited hedge came out. You just have to figure out the name.
Every couple months I peruse this folder and get to move something out of the what-the-heck-is-it folder and into the must-have folder, or on very lucky days, into the mine-mine-mine folder.
These are the plants currently on the list.
1. The most vivid Eryngium I’ve ever seen, spotted at an HPSO open garden. Anyone else see this one and catch the name? (more…)
I’m sure we’ve all seen certain plants get overused as carpets in parking lot beds and in front of new homes as builders’ favorites, and those plants get crossed right off our lists. Lucky for us there is no end to new and unusual plants, which is why we garden, isn’t it?
For groundcovers to make the cut on this particular list, they had to meet some basic criteria:
I am a gardener on a mission. This year my garden is in rehab following some bad decisions and bad luck that left it roughed up last year, and I’m feeling like a gardener impostor, moving among all these great gardeners while my yard is a big ol’ weedy dust bowl. But planting season is coming up. I need to pull things together in a hurry, because I don’t plan on spending another year being bummed out at the lushness that seemed to vanish overnight. I’ve been studying inspiration photos, and I realize there’s totally a trick to looking more pulled together.
Try this at home. Look at a garden you like that looks polished. Then look at a garden that has some cool plants but looks nekkid. Now tell me, was the difference groundcover vs no groundcover?
Let me show you an example. Check this out. The Desert Garden at the Huntington Gardens is pretty much one of the most beautiful places on earth.
But, if we look at this stretch, we still have Joshua trees, yuccas, and aloes, but the ground along the path? Looks kinda nekkid, right?
Here’s a plant we should see a lot more of: Datisca cannabina, or false hemp. What’s so great about it? For one thing, it quickly shoots up to 10 feet tall in spring, covered in soft, feathery serrated leaves. Then in summer it dangles its elegant chains of chartreuse flowers, which age gracefully and stick around for the rest of the year, transitioning through various stages of beautiful, until you cut the leafless stems back in winter when the new growth begins to emerge. For all that drama, you only need a small footprint, where it takes up about a foot of space on the garden floor, making it one of those great mingling plants that can slink right up against its neighbors.
A recent neighborhood walk led me to this fabulous garden in the making. I love it when a garden matches its building. It’s an excellent sign of things to come that the garden looks this good during the winter while the plants are young. This is going to be a year round garden, all evergreens and succulents. I’m looking forward to watching this one grow.
I came upon a wishing tree in the neighborhood this weekend. The wishes were all over the spectrum from deeply personal life situations to lighthearted and probably quickly forgotten.
I also turned forty this weekend. I had such an amazing day with friends and family that wishing for anything more makes me feel Steve Martin making his Christmas Wish.
If I had one wish that I could wish this holiday season, it would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing together in the spirit of harmony and peace.
If I had two wishes that I could wish for this holiday season, the first would be for all the children of the world to join hands and sing in the spirit of harmony and peace.. and the second would be for $30 million a month to be given to me, tax-free in a Swiss bank account.
You know, if I had three wishes that I could make this holiday season, first, of course, would be for all the children to get together and sing.. the second would be for the $30 million every month to me.. and the third would be for all encompassing power over every living being thing in the entire universe.
And if I had four wishes that I could make this holiday season, first would be the crap about the kids…
-Steve Martin
Is everyone familiar with this performance? It’s always top of mind for me when it comes to wishes. (more…)
It is my understanding, Santa, that there is no limit to what your sleigh can carry. While I don’t claim to understand the underlying physics, I shall be delighted to receive your bountiful offerings of my most coveted plants on Christmas morning, nonetheless. With your kind contributions, my currently sparse garden will be lush and inviting by the time you visit again next year. (more…)
‘Tis the season for year end countdowns, and so we look at our top ten most searched plants this year, the ones that were requested more often than the other 27,000 in our library. I would not have expected such a well coordinated collection to emerge from random searches. Year-round interest with varied shapes and textures in a restrained palette of greens, golds, and a touch of red. A good mix of foliage and flowers. The wisdom of crowds is at play here. I think 2014 had excellent taste in plants. (more…)
