One of the benefits of being a rare plant collector is that you usually have some really valuable trade bait sitting around somewhere. After a fruitful trip to Florida in the spring of 2008, I had just that. I came home with a bunch of rare palms that people wanted and would be willing to trade…
One of the pleasures I get when touring a well thought-out garden is all the various fragrances you smell from a multitude of plantings. Many times gardeners overlook this in their landscape planning and focus on the two senses of sight and taste as their main effort. Their yards will have a lot of color with many fruit trees and vegetables planted,…
One of my goals with the blog is to provide some insight into new plants that you might not know about or didn’t think would grow in our Mediterranean climate. Today’s post is on Galphimia gracilis. The common name is Spray-of-Gold or Golden Thryallis. This eastern Mexico native is a popular plant in warmer parts of the US, particularly Florida,…
I first happened upon Dyschoriste hygrophyloides (Bridal Flower) during a visit to a friend’s house in Florida in the spring of 2007. He took me to a somewhat famous tropical plant hotspot called Jesse Durko’s Nursery in Davie. It was there that Dyschoriste hygrophyloides and many, many other tropical plants were for sale. Unfortunately for me it was a little like being…