Garden-tour fluffing and fall Foliage Follow-Up
October 16, 2015 A new yellow Hesperaloe parviflora peeks around a Yucca rostrata in the lower garden. I’ve attended many a garden tour, but I had no idea how much work prepping for one requires. Not because anyone tells you to, but because your own sense of perfectionism kicks in ...
Garden decor lust sparks desperate question: where is Austin’s Potted?
October 11, 2015 I first visited Potted, the stylishly playful Los Angeles garden shop co-owned by Mary Gray and Annette Gutierrez, two years ago, while passing through town on the way to Santa Barbara and Lotusland. Since that first visit, I’ve ordered from their online store and received gifts from ...
Visit to Big Red Sun garden shop in Venice
October 09, 2015 Named after a Lucinda Williams song (so of course I like it), Big Red Sun shuttered its cool boutique nursery in East Austin years ago. After briefly reopening in a new location, under new management, it closed again, and now Big Red Sun in Austin is strictly ...
Falling for the Folly Bowl, a garden amphitheater
October 07, 2015 Twelve years ago, Los Angeles garden designer Susanna Dadd and her husband, artist James Griffith, built a back-yard amphitheater in a ravine alongside their Altadena home. Dubbing it The Folly Bowl, they’ve been hosting free, or nearly free, public concerts each summer, choosing unique performers that will ...
Colorful LA garden of Potted maven Annette Gutierrez
September 25, 2015 I was in Los Angeles/Pasadena last weekend for the annual Garden Writers Association symposium, and boy oh boy, do I have some cool gardens to show you! Not all were on the GWA tours, which were limited to 3 private gardens and one public garden (the fabulous ...
Rain lilies abloom high and low
August 04, 2015 No rain for a month, but my rain lilies (Zephryanthes ‘Labuffarosea’) have decided enough is enough, and they’re blooming anyway. After weeks of hunkering down inside with the A/C, I spent the last two days outdoors, in 100-degree heat, cutting back tired or overgrown perennials, trimming plants ...
It’s not hard to enjoy the Big Easy
July 29, 2015 If you want to feel that you’ve traveled to a foreign city without leaving the country, visit New Orleans and stay in the historic French Quarter. We made the 8-hour drive from Austin a couple of weeks ago — our first stop on a family road trip ...
Twilight garden on Bloom Day
April 15, 2015 I was putting together my Foliage Follow-Up post for tomorrow when I realized that I had pictures for a Bloom Day post too. The flowers of spring can be fleeting, and I want to give them their due, starting with a velvety, wine-colored pond iris that Rock ...
Debuting the painted stucco walls
April 10, 2015 Damn the live oak pollen, full speed ahead…with the reveal of the painted stucco walls. (Really, though, the live oak pollen is out of control. I took this picture about 4 hours after completely blowing clean the patios.) After weeks of construction last fall, sampling a fiery ...
Keeping Houston weird at Joshua’s Native Plants
March 04, 2015 Shoehorned into a corner lot in the historic Heights neighborhood of Houston, Joshua’s Native Plants and Garden Antiques is a treasure trove of interesting plants and unusual garden art that you won’t find at every other nursery you visit. Despite a downpour that had me huddled under ...
Drive-By Gardens: South Congress Avenue in Austin
November 24, 2014 This drive-by is really a walk-by. I was on South Congress Avenue on Sunday afternoon, the center of the funky-hip Austin universe, enjoying a blue-sky, 80-degree day with my family. Fall, winter, and spring days like this are what sustain me through Austin’s broiling summers. When my ...
Chinese New Year? Remembering my Beijing visit, April 2005
January 04, 2014 While the garden sleeps I thought I’d start off the New Year with a post about the most foreign place I’ve ever visited: China. (Tanzania in Africa might have won that distinction but for the fact that I was on a guided tour and mostly in national ...
Naples Botanical Garden: Gardens with Latitude
March 22, 2010 Over spring break we drove 3,200 miles (5,149 km) round-trip to Florida, with stops in Orlando, Miami, Everglades National Park, the Keys (all the way to Key West), and finally Naples to see the brand-new botanical garden there. Planted last August and opened to the public in ...
Agave love at Austin's Wildflower Center
February 05, 2010 The rain stopped, so after meeting a client this morning I grabbed my camera and drove to the inspirational native-plant gardens of the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center for a leisurely stroll and photography exercise. I’m still sorting through all my photos, but I had to put ...
Gardens on Tour 2009: Academy Drive garden
May 10, 2009 On Saturday I joined Diana of Sharing Nature’s Garden, Lori of The Gardener of Good and Evil, and a friend of Lori’s from Arizona to visit four private gardens on the Wildflower Center-sponsored Gardens on Tour, an annual tour of gardens that predominantly feature native Texas plants ...
Buzzing over to a new garden
September 24, 2008 Like this bee on blue mistflower (Conoclinium coelestinum ), I’ve been buzzing around the garden, dividing a few plants and taking down garden decor, all while keeping the garden looking good for prospective buyers. (Hello? Are you out there? The stock market may be scary, but it’s ...
