The bog gardens have been looking really good this spring. Plants that I got as single-growth divisions are establishing themselves, and smaller seedlings are starting to approach their awkward but exciting teen years. Compared to the rest of the garden–which… Read More »safely in pots
After posting on Nasher Sculpture Center’s Sculpture garden–very much a rarefied 1%er’s kind of garden–it’s really comforting to return to the garden I call home. It’s April 15 in this 99%er’s garden, and time for this months Garden Blogger’s Bloom… Read More »more than last month
No garden project seems to ever be complete, but we did put the finish on the bog bench we’ve spent a lot of time working on. We used this stuff, Superdeck. It took already good-looking wood and turned it into… Read More »what’s eating you
While my last post was dedicated to an easy seed propagation project, this one details a couple that were a little more labor-intensive. Still not hard, just a little bit more work to pull off. I’ve posted about my pitcher… Read More »from seed, the labor-intensive version
Today I feature some striking pitcher plant leaves to mark the occasion of April’s Foliage Follow-Up, the blog meme begun by Pam of Digging. The story goes that the early settlers mistook the carnivorous trumpet-shaped leaves for flowers. And how… Read More »leaves more amazing than flowers
I loved this banner at the Huntington. Hanging outside the instution’s conservatory building, it announces that the exhibits inside might be more oriented towards education than the gardens that make up the rest of the grounds. The conservatory also houses… Read More »“plants are up to something”
One of the carnivorous plant lists I’m on has been buzzing a bit lately about an article that appeared in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, “Murderous plants: Victorian Gothic, Darwin and modern insights into vegetable carnivory.” (See the… Read More »tomatoes are carnivorous plants?
As winter approaches many of the plants in the bog garden are starting to retreat into dormancy. Sunday I filled part of a bucket with the trimmings from the bog and two trays of potted carnivorous plants. I have mostly… Read More »my carnivores in december
So many interesting plants, so little time and space to grow them. My current plant obsession is the American pitcher plant genus, Sarracenia. I’m not alone in my obsession. Brooks Garcia even has a firm dedicated to the genus which… Read More »sarracenia: an appreciation
On our recent trip we had only one nursery on the list of must-visit locations: California Carnivores in Sebastapol. Specializing in carnivorous plants from around the world, proprietor Peter D’Amato has assembled a collection of species and hybrids that run… Read More »on the road: visiting california carnivores