First up we're back in the Floramagoria garden...
I believe the pair of little baby face shrines are new, meaning not there when I first visited this garden last summer. Or maybe I was just so overwhelmed then that I missed them.
The carnivorous plants around the base add an air of danger. Are they gonna eat the baby face if it falls from above?
I love me some crisp edges.
And this display makes me feel very much at home.
As I was taking this next group of photos a helpful lady came up behind me and said "those are agaves"...
"Yes they are"...was all I could manage as a response.
The common theme running through the gardens that day was Agave 'Blue Glow' and they were all gorgeous.
More carnivorous plants and a "to die for" restio...
Pretty much wherever you point your camera in this garden there is something amazing to see. Ricki, a fellow blogger whom I toured with, has done a great post full of beautiful images here if you're itching to see even more.
There was the slowest drip of water falling from the cast gunnera leaf, so perfect!
Nice to see another Cussonia paniculata in a small container, I've been wondering if I should pot mine up to something larger.
Now were're at the Pequeno Paraiso Garden and Heather is moving in for a close up of another Agave 'Blue Glow'...
Equally gorgeous.
I didn't show this corner of the garden in my last post because I wasn't sure what to think of it. I wanted to like it but somehow it just felt forced. Perhaps there were too many design clichés in a small space? I didn't get a good overall shot, but to the right is a covered patio space.
There's a stream running along the metal channel...
Emptying into a basin of Mexican pebbles partially surrounded by a checkerboard. You know I still don't know if I like it!
The front garden at the Plant Passion Garden was shady and lush...
Mahonia 'Soft Caress' was the star in my book.
The back garden was sunny and open.
With a very restrained use of containers.
I would have had to squeeze in another 20 or so...
A nice Tetrapanax...
And a subtle water feature...
This is the best use of a fire bowl I've seen in awhile (yes I am against making your neighbors house smell like a campsite just because you want to enjoy a fire in an urban setting) and those chairs look perfect for curling up with a good book (or your laptop).
Here I am back at this vision of loveliness...
With another Agave 'Blue Glow'...
Are you getting sick of this combination yet? I know I've shared it like 6 times now. This is it, the last time.
This is the scene behind the agave...
Oh wait, there's the agave again!
I'll end this post with a bright pop of orange...
All material © 2009-2013 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.
Agreed. The checkerboard/ponytail/steel set up is a bit overexposed/overdesigned. It could be vastly improved with a better plant palette.
ReplyDeleteYou know I didn't even think about changing out the plants (strange) but I think you're totally right.
DeleteNot only do I not like that corner garden with the stainless stream channel in the Pequeno Paraiso Garden, I don't really see why that garden was even part of the tour. It seems new, and not very special. The other two -- those were special indeed!
ReplyDeleteI do wonder how the gardens are chosen. I suppose they're submitted by the designer and then someone judges them? Could be interesting to learn the process.
DeleteVery pretty!! What is the name of the plant in the container that you can see in the picture in top of the picture with the cast gunnera leaf? I like it. I like the moss in the cast gunnera leaf too.
ReplyDeleteI think it's another Cussonia but I'm not sure which one. It is pretty gorgeous!
DeleteI love that ' Soft caress' . I asked at CIstus for one...no luck.
ReplyDeleteI saw one at Garden Fever last week and give Cornell Farms a try...
DeleteI actually like--no, love--the raised bed with the Mexican needle grass and the stainless steel channel in the Pequeño Paraíso Garden. To me, it's perfection. However, I will say that it looks out of place next to this type of house. It requires a contemporary house somewhere in the desert.
ReplyDeleteI require a contemporary house somewhere in the desert! Instead I live in a war-box in Portland. Ah well. Glad you like it Gerhard!
DeleteSo do I! We might end up being neighbors some day, someplace in Arizona or New Mexico.
DeleteLooks gorgeous. I feel somewhat sad because I once had the most beautiful agave blue glow that is no more. You're right about the fire bowl water feature... Great!
ReplyDeleteOh Louis...I'm sorry! Did it go off to the great agave nursery in the sky?
DeleteAs always, I'm totally in love with Floramaroria and am so going to make a concrete bowl like theirs to house my carnivorous plant collection! The subtle water feature was cool but I'd wreck it by wanting to throw in too many plants. Beautiful gardens!
ReplyDeleteYou need to come down to Portland when that garden is open for an HPSO tour!!! (I'll look at the book and let you know)
DeleteP.S. Those are agaves. Too funny!
ReplyDeleteI know huh?
DeleteI agree on the seating/water feature/checkerboard...just too much. It's like they had a checklist of hip garden features and were trying to squeeze them all in at once! Then again, all the gardens had their high and low points.
ReplyDeleteSo true...
DeleteGreat gardens, so many lovely plants.
ReplyDeleteIndeed!
DeleteFunny...that little seating area was the one thing I did like about that garden, though it did look like it belonged somewhere else. I'll link to this when I write about that garden, cuz it's so much fun to see different takes on the same spaces. I didn't look closely enough to see the babies in those pillars (referred to them as lanterns...oh, well).
ReplyDeleteInteresting that you liked the seating area Ricki, I wouldn't have thought it your style, then again seeing what little I've seen of the inside of your house you definitely have a modern edge.
DeleteMaybe the baby heads have light bulbs in their heads and they are lantersn?
Cool garden and full of my favorite plants. I love the carnivorous plant displays, got some ideas going now. Must look into growing Tetrapanax, although not hardy, but quite a show stopper!
ReplyDeleteYay! Ideas are the best part of visiting gardens.
Delete'Blue Glow' is utterly familiar to me, while the green, green, green, thick, thick, thick grass is so exotic I gawk. There's climate for you. Nice garden, the metal-and-grasses corner looks fine to these unfussy eyes. I'd add a garden umbrella for shelter from the endless glaring hot sun...which will appear eventually?
ReplyDeleteOh yes, in fact tomorrow! Our forecast is something like 88, 88, 92, 95, 95...and nothing but sun.
DeleteDefinitely a beautiful garden but I was thinking to myself, "What were they thinking when planted that seating area?" So much more they could have done with it. They are going to hate that grass once it gets much bigger and lets loose it's seeds.
ReplyDeleteI can see you speak from experience!
DeleteEvery time I see the "Floramagoria garden" written, I read it as the "Fibromyalgia Garden".
ReplyDeleteOh boy...that would be an entirely different thing!
DeleteGreat photos! I've been wanting to study more gardens - better in person but by photo if not :-) Spokane is sadly lacking in many great gardens to study.
ReplyDeleteDoes the Historic Preservation Society still do a mothers day garden tour? Mom and I used to go on that one and it was great fun.
DeleteYou know what I think is a little funny? Those people huddled together on the bench at the end of the..what do you call that thing? It made me wish that the raised planter were an "L" or "U" shaped bench seat--maybe incorporating planting into the back. So, I think it misses on function. I'd get rid of the grasses that are planted in the patio squares and switch-up the grasses in the planter to a mix of plants.
ReplyDeleteI do think a mix would be lovely...although they probably were aiming for a stark modern look?
DeleteI've been seeing 'Blue Glow' everywhere this summer - and this might just push me over the edge into getting one.
ReplyDeleteAh come on...what are you waiting for?
Delete'Blue Glow', 'Blue Glow', 'Blue Glow'... (sigh). You couldn't show it too many times for me. That pot of BG backed with the cotinus and the Angelina sedum was sumptuous. But was that that rapacious wirevine strangling the first pot of Blue Glow? Out with it!
ReplyDeleteNo I think that's a Muehlenbeckia astonii, much nicer!
DeleteA wonderful garden, divided into areas and plenty of interests. Love the way the Agave Blueglow is used as a linking plant
ReplyDeleteIt's my theory that every garden has an agave tucked away somewhere. Here it just always happened to be the same one!
DeleteI dream of that Restio . . . so perfect and beautiful.
ReplyDelete