Like lots of bloggers, we get some out-of-left-field emails. Many of these messages assume we sell plants — from aeoniums to elkhorns to ZZs. (We don't. But we do sell the vertical gardening gamechanger that is SkyPots.) But one email stuck with us: In June...
Happy Solstice, Earthlings! Today is the first full day of summer, and the temps in our area have gotten the memo, with La Jolla reaching the 80s and Los Angeles sizzling up to 107 degrees Fahrenheit. Blazing hot like the solstitial sun is the aptly named Solandra maxima....
Shaped like a candelabra, our Euphorbia avasmontana is in bloom. But when we talk about the spectacle, we're not talking about the flowers (which are too small to be easily seen)—we're talking about the plant's cyathia. That is, the yellow flower-like structures that add flash to a...
Sure, we can grow camellias in Southern California, but our camellias will never burst against a tangy orange bald cypress, and you won't find them lingering beneath the edges of ancient live oaks draped with Spanish moss. Our daytime visit to Airlie Gardens in coastal Wilmington, North Carolina, preceded the evening...
Not a whole lot's blooming in our garden (now that our passion flowers are giving way to passionfruit) — with one exception. The fuchsia plants are over the top right now. One of the shadiest spots in the yard is also the most colorful thanks to...
On a hot afternoon in L.A., great tufts of bougainvillea were blooming in three sorbet colors — soft pink, golden orange and screeching fuchsia. Not a lot of shade, but the effect was refreshing. We pulled over, put money in the meter, and walked. These colorblocked bougainvilleas grow on...
There are dreamy meals, and then there are dreamy meals served in a field of full of flowers. That’s the very attractive USP of the first annual American Grown “Field to Vase” Dinner Tour, nationwide events that celebrate (and raise awareness of) sustainably and locally...
Winter in our neck of the woods may be mild beyond belief, but we don’t take spring for granted. Not only is spring equinox our blog-erversary, we’re excited for warm vibes to light up the cooler areas of the country and the world, because those regions...
It’s great to be back from winter recess. We took a long one this year — saw our families in DC and New York, and today I finish my third (out of five!) residencies at Warren Wilson College, where I’m getting my MFA in fiction...