I have been holding on to this post for over a year now. Figured it was about time that I showed readers the most impressive Encephalartos cycad collection I have seen in a private garden. Of course it had to be in South Africa, the land of Encephalartos. This garden I am about to show is only…
Last month I was invited to attend a small, local plant group’s monthly meeting in the Los Angeles area. My wife and son were out of town that weekend, so what a great opportunity to stay at Disneyland with my 8-year-old daughter and the next morning attend the meeting and tour a “must-see collection of plants.” So…
I have written a few blog post over the last two years showing off some of the amazing gardens that members of the Southern California Palm Society (PSSC) have created. Recently I had the opportunity to tour what is most likely the nicest of all of them in Southern California: the beautiful “Cuesta Linda” garden estate…
As part of the second leg of the International Palm Society’s biennial group trip, Singapore was the next stop after Sarawak, Borneo. The IPS had planned three palmy locations to visit while we were in Singapore. Gardens by the Bay, Singapore Botanic Garden (topic of next week’s post) and McRitchie Reservoir. Gardens by the Bay was first up. Before…
Gardeners know how easy it is to add color to their landscape. The choices nowadays are truly endless and the list expands daily. What a great time to be a gardener. Red, orange, yellow, green, white, brown, purple, pink. All easy. Getting black and blue in the garden, however, can be a different story. So why is blue…
This last Saturday I had the pleasure of visiting a garden that I have had on my “to see” list for some time now. Thanks to the efforts of the Palm Society of Southern California (PSSC), the garden of Jason and Virginia Dunn in Fallbrook was open to all members of the PSSC this past weekend….
Aloe hybrids certainly are not a new phenomenon. Aloes have been successfully hybridized for decades. Recently, a trip to a friend’s garden just reconfirmed my belief that many true species won’t have a place in nurseries much longer. Frankly, many of the new hybrids that are coming out at an alarming rate are big improvements over the…
Thanks to the creative requirements that using airline points can produce, my trip to Madagascar involved flying Delta there and Air France back. This gave me the opportunity to spend two full days in Johannesburg, South Arica, as I waited for my connecting flight to Madagascar. The first day would be spent visiting the Apartheid Museum, the Mandela House…