Flower show season is in full swing, and we are here for it. Ryan and I recently attended the Santa Barbara International Orchid Show like we did last year, but this time as invited guests and guided by the show's plant registrar Heidi Kirkpatrick. [caption id="attachment_23294" align="alignnone"...
Who has experience growing primroses? We're new to the primrose party, but here's an early observation: They are thirsty beauties. Housed in the Primula genus, the primrose is a perennial semi-evergreen native to northern Africa and southwestern Asia. You'll also see them growing wild throughout Europe, from the...
Happy summer, everyone! We spent the solstice hanging out with the peacocks and torch lilies at the LA Arboretum — tour to come. Here in our yard, things are getting interesting in these last days of June Gloom. All three species of our Passiflora in bloom: P....
Blossoms alone are a good enough reason to dance. When blossoms interpret, in their blossomy way, great works of art? Forget about it. Petals on the dancefloor. Bougainvillea boogie-woogie. Kick your stems up high. We recently attended Art Alive at the San Diego Museum of Art, the...
Sultry and complicated and scandalously expressive, the orchid has a way of bringing out bee-like behavior in even the most sensible of people. (And on the flip side, making bees act a bit like delusion-prone human beings.) And friends, did we ever swarm swarm swarm...
For the weekend we headed east — traded our cushy garden sofa and aloe hammock for a campsite in Joshua Tree National Park. Objective: to see clear skies, to clear our minds and to bond with friends we barely ever get to see. And to check out the...
You might remember the interview we did two summers ago with a design hero of ours, the luminous Jennifer Gilbert Asher. She's the artist and co-owner of TerraSculpture studio; she creates modern abstract sculpture and also designs functional sculpture for studio offshoot TerraTrellis. We love Jennifer's work because...
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...
At some point in recent years, the wreath took a leap. It jumped from boilerplate purchase of holiday decor to an ecstatic swirl of seasonal plants. Wreaths became something to make yourself and admire year-round. Local doors have never looked so good. If you’re as excited...
In terms of landscape juju, the iconic California canyon home occupies a wavelength all its own. Its mystique is tied to the idea of backyard as wildlife theater, and to the feeling you get there — a gravity-defying feeling that is, somehow, also very down-to-earth....
