They popped up out of nowhere. Our grape hyacinth flowers (Muscari armeniacum) have begun to rear their heads — or rather, skinny green arms. Last night we spotted their stiff, simple leaves sprouting from our flower bed, in spite of our being California bulb-planting procrastinators and...
Scent-wise, white flowers are like the older, more, um, experienced sisters of the floral world. Their fragrance is sweet but with an extra fleshy note, evident in the sultry auras of tuberose, gardenia and jasmine. The scent just feels extra…familiar. This quality comes from indole, an...
A quick follow-up to our outdoor theater/rosemary trimming story. Right around sunset here on the West Coast, we pulled down the screen, fired up the HD projector, and watched the Oscars in our yard. Our propane-fueled Robot Heater kept us warm, as did Adele's world-wise...
A rosemary hedge says you've planned your garden for years. Besides freshening up the pasta sauce to turn around an afterthought dinner, your hedge will fend off insects and make the breeze smell like bread. Our Tuscan blue rosemary is surviving well in our lime-rich...
Simultaneously anarchic and deadpan, Zach Galifianakis's hilarious Funny or Die web series Between Two Ferns has resumed with a two-part special. The "Oscar Buzz" edition features Jessica Chastain, Bradley Cooper, Amy Adams, Emmanuel Lewis (yes, that Emmanuel Lewis) and Jennifer Lawrence, who sit down to talk...
We usually ascribe human features to our succulents — e.g. the textured fleshiness of our “mama jade,” the zombie pallor of the echeveria — but our newest crop is made of stonier stuff. The stubby, cleaved Lithops marmorata is one of our favorites. “Lithops” comes from the...
Amid the stark sobriety of the Fall 2013 collections shown at New York Fashion Week — which concluded last Thursday — there were some blooming bright spots. (Not that straight lines and disciplined palettes can’t have vitality or tenderness: see Proenza Schouler, "quiet giant" Narciso Rodriguez,...
As my on-again-off-again Tumblr page will attest, we’re big into the Victorian language of flowers. Especially when it’s applied to modern living; who can resist a tussie-mussie (i.e. small bouquet) of rue, campion, Provence rose, strawflower and buckbean that essentially says, “Chill out, you ambassador...
It's easy to take defoliated trees for granted when you're surrounded by them — as we did when we were growing up back East. But out here, winter-stripped deciduous trees feel like a novelty. Actually, there are plenty of them, and they stand out brilliantly against...
Hue arbiter Pantone has decreed its color of 2013, and it’s emerald. Lush, energetic, gemmy emerald, Pantone Color #17-5641. Even though I'm a gardener, I gotta say: I was torn at first. We don’t really go out of our way to acquire emerald pieces for our...
