After saying goodbye to all who attended the International Palm Society’s annual board meeting, it was time to get on a plane and fly back to Antananarivo and start my journey south. Ten days in the rainforest and it was time for a drastic change of scenery. My destination? Mount Ibity—just outside the second largest…
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…
Cycads are what I consider to be one of the most underused plant groups in people’s landscapes. Sure, some can be spiny and expensive, but the tradeoff certainly outweighs these possible negatives. For example, how many other plants can you grow in your garden that actually increase in value with each flush of new leaves? Cycads…
A few years ago I started looking around for a WiFi-based irrigation system. At the time only a few existed and none of them had all the features I needed or any quality reviews to back it. A few months deeper into my search I stumbled upon a company that had an encouraging solution that promised to be “Coming Soon.” Their website…
My wife wanted to do something different from our yearly routine this 4th of July weekend. I told her that if she wanted to plan something, I would temporarily relinquish my role as the Family Event Coordinator. So what does she plan for her first family trip with the new title? Palm Desert. In the middle of July! Not sure…
The top of my outside fireplace has been bare for way too many years. It was time to put the effort into correcting that. It was time to create mirroring planters to give the fireplace greater appeal. Due to the fact I am terrible about remembering to water my planters, I almost always use succulents…
Just last week I wrote a blog post on my visit to the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society Summer Show and Sale. In that post I showed a box full of plants I had purchased while there. One of those plants was an Ariocarpus agavoides, commonly known as the Tamaulipas Living Rock Cactus. I didn’t waste anytime planting…
This past weekend the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society (SDCSS) had their annual Summer Show and Sale at the Casa Del Prado in Balboa Park. A year and a half ago I went to the Winter Show and Sale and really enjoyed myself. One of the highlights of that first meeting was that I was introduced to so many…