Earlier today I drove up to Costa Mesa to finally visit the Southern California Spring Garden Show “At Home in The Garden.” I have heard mixed reviews over the years about the show with some years being great and others a waste of time. The biggest complaint I hear from people now is that the larger…
Society Garlic ‘Purpleicious’ – REVIEW
Two years ago I bought a plant at Home Depot that I had not seen for sale before. It was a new cultivar of Society Garlic (Tulbaghia violacea) called ‘Purpleicious.’ At first it looked to be one of those plants that would be too good to be true. Society Garlic with purple leaves? No way. So I decided to purchase one…
Palm Society of Southern California May garden tour
This past Saturday the Palm Society of Southern California (PSSC) held their quarterly meeting . This May meeting included two wonderful gardens tours in the Mission Viejo area. While I have been a member of the PSSC for many years now, I am usually unable to attend these meetings, as something kid-related always seems to take up my calendar. Lucky…
Hippeastrum ‘Baby Star’ and ‘Apple Blossom’ surprise
I am no fan of bulbs. They just don’t make much sense to me in a Southern California garden. I did have a bed of various Iris once. One winter a guy touring my yard noticed this large bare spot and asked what I was going to plant there. What? I had like 20 Iris planted there. Then it dawned on me. I…
San Diego Zoo Safari Park Butterfly Jungle
Last week spring break was in full effect, and with that came the challenge of keeping the kids busy. But let’s be honest, I live in San Diego, so it really isn’t that much of a challenge. Plus our yearly memberships to Legoland, Sea World and the San Diego Zoo certainly come in handy here….
The amazing plants of Nong Nooch Gardens
This post is a continuation of last week’s Nong Nooch Tropical Botanical Garden tour. As promised, I will now focus on the amazing plants of Nong Nooch. I mentioned last week that I had taken over 400 photos during my visit. With great effort I was able to filer that amount down to 40 for this post….
Small aloes in winter bloom
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post showing off a bunch of my larger aloes that were in bloom. I mostly included the stem-forming varieties along with a few larger, non-stem-forming types. This week I will show some of my small aloes that were in flower around the same time. When growing dwarf or…
The Stainton backyard landscape and plant consultation
One of the things that I really enjoying doing is helping people with their landscape planning or updating. While I have neither the time nor interest to manage full landscape projects past my own yard, I do offer help with landscape and plant consultation. The overwhelming majority of new landscapes that are put in on a new Southern Californian tract…