Thursday, March 24, 2016

Blue Agaves, Pink Flamingos

This stately tower-o-possible pain was spotted just off Sunset Blvd in Los Angeles. Sure it's missing those long beautiful spikes, but there are still glochids. Don't let anyone tell you those aren't painful.

The Heineken 6-pack holder adds a little "Je ne sais quoi"...non?

Just next door I spotted this bunch of Agave goodness.

At home this would mean certain rot, we must keep mulch and leaf litter away from our succulents.

They've repeated the same plants enough to avoid the dreaded collectors look of onesies.

But yikes! Hopefully there was only one of these.

There has been a little Agave hacking going on, but since it's only on the sidewalk side I assume it's to keep passers-by safe?

At first I thought "how rare to see this Euphorbia planted out" (E. trigona f. rubra) then I realized, what do I know?

Wait what's that? Flamingos! The sign, if you're wondering, asks you to "please be respectful" and includes helpful drawings to let you know dogs are not welcome. So let's get this straight...flamingos are okay, dogs are not. Hardly seems fair.

The much seems to be swallowing a few of these lovely plants, like the baby barrel cactus on the right.

But the big picture is just so...wow!

So many Agaves...

And other good things...

Looks like some ivy creeping in though.

There were pieces of it growing up those trees on the far side.

I didn't let myself climb those stairs, although I was tempted.

This area seems to be an older planting.

I let myself climb the stairs on the left (above), they went up to an apartment building, it seemed less like trespassing.

Agaves and flamingos, who knew?

All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

29 comments:

  1. You need a few pink flamingos in your garden now, right? It's always so cool to see how big those Sticks on Fire Euphorbia can get in the ground in California.

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    1. I do love the flamingos Alison! Back when I lived in the dorms at Eastern Wa Univ my room faced campus and was in the tallest building around for miles and miles. I had two pink flamingos int the window that became something of a landmark. I wonder what ever happened to them???

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  2. I'm a sucker for pink flamingos. We had some, too, a long time ago. But they were the cheap plastic kind, and they never last in our heat.

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    1. Is there another kind? I thought cheap plastic was it.

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  3. I love those huge, stately agaves. At least flamingos scoop their own poop, which is more than I can say for a few of the dogs around Longview Ranch...;-)

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    1. I'm not sure I want to know more but...flamingos scoop there own poop? What dies that mean???

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  4. Any dog lifting his leg there would soon wish he had read the sign.

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    1. The odd thing is if you take a look at the 3rd photo from the top you can see this garden is fronted by a wall. How exactly is the dog going to get up there?

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  5. Well...maybe if it was a plastic dog. Drool-worthy post.

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    1. Ha! If I lived nearby I think I might have to place a few plastic dogs!!!

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  6. Pink flamingoes go with everything. Or at least that's the philosophy here in Wisconsin — though not in my garden.

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    1. Ya I don't really see them working in your garden.

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  7. Such great plantings! Can you imagine being able to grow those in the ground? The syringe is proof that the Californians get their agaves to grow so huge by injecting them with steroids.

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    1. Aha! I bet you're right. And no, no I cannot.

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  8. So we know it was a stretch of difficult-to-eliminate ivy before the succulents. It could take over again eventually, if the Agaves don't offset themselves everywhere first. Agaves look great on slopes, don't they?

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  9. How fun... Although the bark mulch seems out of place (as does the needle!)

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  10. Flamingos and agaves go together like peas and carrots. What a fun garden.

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  11. I used to work on Sunset many (many, many) years ago. It's always been a mix of interesting contrasts, like beautiful agaves and abandoned syringes.

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    1. Ya it definitely has that feel to it. Like it's a place that wants to clean up it's image but just can't help but hang out with the troubled kids.

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  12. Nice. I think I see some Ice Plants in there, too? You've shared some great combos--especially the groupings lining the stairs. These look very familiar to the plants I saw in San Diego a couple of weeks ago. The native plant garden at Balboa Park was really nifty!

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    1. Boy if there are (ice plants) I completely missed them! I've been watching for posts on your SD trip on your blog but haven't caught any. Are you going to post about it?

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  13. Well, they use Opuntia as a street tree here in Phoenix too, but generally in much wider strips ;-) I do wish my Firesticks Euphorbia looked that good - it has areas of die-back, and I'm not quite sure what's wrong... though it did get a bit cold back in January! Love those big, silver agaves...

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    1. Opuntia sightings in Phoenix are one of my favorite things to do. I love it when they get a woody trunk.

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  14. All I could think was "so many cool houseplants". My little Sticks of Fire is puny compared to that.

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    1. Funny...I have a post coming up next week where I say just that! (houseplants)

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  15. After seeing that needle, I will not complain so much about the empty wine bottles and used condoms I occasionally have thrown in my garden.

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