This past weekend I drove up to Los Angeles to visit the 31st Annual Inter-City Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale that took place at the Los Angeles Arboretum. LA traffic never makes things easy, so a 3-hour drive turned into 4 that Friday. The show was well worth the drive, however. The Inter-City Cactus and Succulent…
Do not plant Pisonia umbellifera ‘Variegata’ in your garden
There are always a few plants that get placed in my garden that I wish I hadn’t purchased. Maybe I knew they would be too cold sensitive but tried anyway. Maybe I knew they would grow too quickly for a selected spot in the garden. Perhaps some were just ugly and grew nothing like I imagined they would. However, very seldomly…
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…
Agave ‘Blue Glow’ – The perfect agave
While admiring the various agaves I have planted around my garden on a 85 degree February day, it became quit noticeable that the one I buy the most is Agave ‘Blue Glow.’ To me, it really is the perfect agave. The blue-grey foliage edged in maroon growing on a beautifully symmetrical 2′ x 3′ solitary rosette just can’t be beat. Yes, I…
Chamaedorea angustisecta – A mottled beauty from Peru.
I have been writing a lot of posts lately on the various flowering plants I have growing in the garden. Being a palm guy first, I think it is only fitting that I should do a post on that subject. It was easy to choose the palm tree to write about this week because not only…
A bird’s eye view of my boutique agaves
It is not very often that we get cloudy days like most have been this week. In fact, statistically there are 258 sunny days per year in Vista, California, where I live. Thirty-five days per year are what they call precipitation days. These infrequent cloudy days can prove beneficial, as it is the best time to photograph boutique agaves…