A few good links...

My blog reader used to be filled with new posts from blogs I follow, at least 20 + when I checked it in the morning, and another 10 or so at night, as I read on my iPad before falling asleep. Those numbers have been steadily dwindling for the last few years. The offerings are getting quite thin. Thank god there are still people like my friend Gerhard who are writing and sharing interesting things.

He recently visited Mountain Crest Gardens, a nursery in Northern California, just 40 miles from the Oregon border in Fort Jones. He wrote about it here, "Fort Jones is in USDA hardiness zone 7b, i.e. its average annual extreme minimum temperature is between 5° and 10°F. According to BestPlaces.net, “there are 136.7 days annually when the nighttime low temperature falls below freezing.”...yikes! That's a lot of cold, but look...

These plants are all growing outdoors, in the nursery's display garden. The big attraction for me is their amazing collection of labeled sempervivum...

Check out Gerhard's blog post. He has dozens of  fabulous photos from this visit, so many gorgeous sempervivum! (and thanks Gerhard for letting me steal a few of your photos as teasers)

The next link I want to share is to an column Mike Darcy wrote in the Oregon Association of Nurseries magazine. Sometimes I wrestle with just how honest to be in a blog post. Writing something negative that serves no purpose other than to offend or hurt someone's feelings is to be avoided at all cost. But constructive criticism like Mike wrote is valuable. Read his story: "Where gardeners turn for answers" here.

This next link may have a limited appeal, but I'm thrilled to jump in. Someone named Rebecca Alexander shared a link to archived Pacific Northwest Plant and Garden Society Publications (from Northwest Horticulture Society, Hardy Fern Foundation, U of W Arboretum Bulletin and more) on our PNW Plant Geeks Facebook group. Check it out here.

The last link for this post is to the German edition of Architectural Digest and a story they ran on the Ruth Bancroft Garden. Since I don't know German it's a fun read via Google Translate. A few lines are oddly repeated and some things are definitely lost in translation, like this quote from Brian Kemble (curator at the garden) that I've heard many times. The German AD version: "Once I wanted to get Ruth a blindfold after her agave bloodied her arm "However, she just said, 'If I had stopped working with any scratches, I would never have done anything." Ha! A blindfold. So she could hurt herself some more? He really wanted to offer her a band-aid. Read the story here, there are several beautiful photos from Marion Brenner.

Weather Diary, Aug 12: Hi 83, Low 59/ Precip 0

All words © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

danger garden on PlantPop

On June 4th Haydn Cieri set up a video camera in my garden. He was here to film for PlantPop—a horticultural film studio; "We tell stories about people and plants. We are artists. We pursue beauty and understanding. We believe philosophy was born in the garden. Culture starts with cultivation. And growing is the highest art."...

Yes, people and plants. I didn't get away with just having the garden filmed, he turned the camera on me too, and I had to talk...

And talk I did (You guys! It's hard to watch yourself on video!). The PlantPop people wanted me to talk about blogging and being a garden communicator. I tried to stick to script.

Should you want to watch, the film is here. It's just over 6 minutes, so once you're done, click back to the PlantPop home page and watch another couple films, they're very addicting.


Weather Diary, Aug 1: Hi 90, Low 61/ Precip 0

Words © 2009-2019 by Loree Bohl for danger garden, screen shots of video by Haydn Cieri for PlantPop. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Change is good, right?

After paying for a custom domain for more years than I'd like to admit (5!) I'm finally using it. What do you care? Will depending on how you get to my blog you might see this warning message as Google redirects: "You're about to be redirected. The blog that used to be here is now at http://www.thedangergarden.com/. Do you wish to be redirected? This blog is not hosted by Blogger and has not been checked for spam, viruses and other forms of malware."

Sounds kind of scary right? Well I just wanted you to know it's all legit. Please do be redirected. Also please do change whatever link you're using to get here to this: thedangergarden.com. I'm not a fan of the "the" but oh well (somebody else owns the domain without the "the" I suspect it might be the band, danger garden).

Also - word is even though we think of the internet as being immediate it's not. So you might see an under construction page for a bit, until all the stars align and my world is once again a happy place. If that happens to you then you're hopefully still finding me at dangergarden.blogspot.com. (do you get the feeling I want to shout I'M STILL HERE!...I do, I really do).

Here's a pretty picture from my trip to the Huntington Gardens last December. It's my way of saying I'm sorry for all the confusion!

A few things that have caught my eye on the interwebs:

Lotusland, the Blue Garden. Photo Gerhard Bock, used with permission.

It’s rare that I post on Saturday, even rarer that I post just a list of links, but sometimes a girl’s gotta share. And besides couldn't we all use a little distraction from the horrible events of the week?

...First up, I don’t know how many of you follow Gerhard Bock’s blog Bamboo, Succulents and More if you don’t then you’ve been missing out on an incredible series about one of my favorite gardens EVER…Lotusland in Santa Barbara, California. Gerhard’s eye and skill behind the camera lens combines with his thirst for knowledge on the subject to create a can’t be missed 5-part photo smorgasbord. These posts are almost as good as visiting yourself! Almost.

Lotusland, the Aloe Garden. Photo Gerhard Bock, used with permission.

Part 1 - features the Visitor Center and Australian Garden, the Tropical Garden and the Japanese Garden.
Part 2 - is about the Blue Garden, the Cycad Garden, the Fern Garden and the Bromeliad Garden.
Part 3 - takes you to the Aloe Garden.
Part 4 - covers the Water Garden, the cacti and euphorbia plantings along the road to the main house and the main house itself.
Part 5 - wraps things up with a tour of the Cactus Garden.

Lotusland, the Water Garden. Photo Gerhard Bock, used with permission.

...Next up, did you know that Moby (yes that Moby) has an architecture blog? I visit for a bit of L.A. mid-century architecture porn, but recently he linked to a video for The Lonely Night. Perhaps you’ve already seen it but if not it’s worth a look (and listen)…there are absolutely gorgeous desert shots!

...Finally do you know the Cactguy? He’s on Tumbler and is co-hosting the “First Annual Tumblr Spring Botanical Art Show” he asked me to help get the word out so here’s a link to his post with the details. I’ll cut right to the important part… “The winners will receive botanical swag from the four (hosts) including cacti, succulents, and bromeliads cleaned, labeled, and ready to go with instructions, cacti seed, botanical prints, and photographic prints.” Nice!