Understanding or resolve? Either way an appreciated gift...

Last week I celebrated a birthday – since it was one of those numbers with a zero after it we decided to celebrate big and flew down to Santa Barbara, California. Why Santa Barbara? We could only be gone a couple days, so it needed to be somewhere we could get in and out of quickly. Plus there needed to be an attraction and Lotusland (over the top garden fun!) seemed like a suitable place to commemorate the event. Of course there will be photo-filled posts on that garden visit soon, but today I'm sharing a gift Andrew gave me before we left. A seriously amazing haul of rootcups...


As fun as these were to receive, I was more thrilled by the fact he seems to have come to terms with my need to bring home strays when we travel. And I quote: "I wanted to give these to you before we left to encourage you to steal plants while we're in Santa Barbara...."

Oh now just calm down! He wasn't really giving his blessing for theft, and I would never EVER steal a plant. However if there's an Agave bloomspike dripping bulbils on the ground I am going to stop and pick up a couple. If I see a broken piece of a pretty sedum on the sidewalk I am going to bring it home...you get the picture. Still, he's not been a fan of this behavior over the years...this was a new chapter in our relationship!

And of course most of the things I'd be adopting wouldn't need to root in water anyway – but that's a mere technicality.

So what did I pick up? We passed this terribly sad Aloe clump on our way down to the beach...

Parts of it were still green! And it just so happened there was a broken bit laying on the sidewalk.

I brought it home and just for fun tried it in the rootcup, The base was so thick though that it didn't really work well...

...however I am excited to try the rootcups with basil cuttings soon. I'm always pinching my plants back and sticking the cut pieces in water where they quickly root to make new plants. If you're curious about the design (and the man behind it) there's an interview with him over on treehugger. I remember seeing these in a kickstarter campaign way back and read a lot of criticism (why waste your money on something you can do in a glass jar!?) but what the heck, they're fun!

As further proof that I know where to draw the line I didn't pick up any of these Aeonium pieces seemingly discarded at Alice Keck Park. Had there been a "free"sign I would have been all over them, but there was not.

Perhaps a worker had recently cut them from this mass and had plans to plant them elsewhere in the garden? Or perhaps they were destined for the compost pile? I'll never know...

So what's your level of comfort when it comes to this sort of thing? I remember a friend of my mom's who regularly took cuttings of plants in restaurants, I think that's theft...plain and simple. What about you? What's okay and what's not?

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

Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate' – observations

My bargain Albizia julibrissin 'Summer Chocolate'  is really stretching out and achieving some size. I love it.

Bought for the foliage I've been dreading the day it finally blooms – but that day is here.

And surprisingly I think the flower is actually quite attractive.

Truth be told I hadn't noticed the flowers until a couple fell onto our new chairs. Looking up at the tree I still couldn't find any signs of them. Thank goodness eagle-eye-Hogan (aka Sean) was over for a visit and spotted another flower and a few buds.

For such a lacy foliage it casts a fine shadow.

The flowers are less pink than I expected them to be, maybe that's why they're getting a pass.

A couple days later I spotted this odd specimen at Portland Nursery.

Both chocolate and green foliage, on the same plant!

It was being sold as chocolate. I wonder how common it is for leaves to revert to green? And isn't it interesting the photo on the tag appears to have both colors? (and ye gads...check out that price!)...

Curious George, very curious...

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

OYGBV – at Dancing Oaks

Orange, yellow, green, blue and violet that is – my apologies to red and indigo.

During the Salem Study Weekend (which I've only written one post about) we were treated to an evening at Dancing Oaks Nursery: food, drink, music, and plant vendors. Not necessarily appreciated in that order. I shopped from Far Reaches Farm and Windcliff Plants (Dan Hinkley) and then wandered through the Dancing Oaks greenhouses*. I was about to start touring the display gardens when word came the caterers were packing up...oh no! After a day of garden touring I was quite hungry. Garden wandering would have to wait.

As it turns out that may have been a blessing in disguise. As I ate, and chatted with fellow attendees, the sun fell lower in the sky and a magic light spread across the garden. Orange first...

Colutea x media was in blooming and podding (?) perfection.

And I discovered a never seen before (I've toured these gardens many times) planting of Opuntia.

With multi-colored blooms!

And double danger! If the spikes don't get you the wasps might.

Yellow or blue? I chose to concentrate on the yellow.

And now green...

Just a touch of blue.

(blue, in the lower right hand corner)

And violet...

There were several plantings of Dierama pulcherrimum in the garden.

So dramatic. So difficult to photograph well...

Until suddenly they're not.

*if you're wondering what I bought just one plant! Sinofranchetia chinensis from Dan Hinkley: "An uncommon Akebia relative with handsome white stems and axillary flowers followed by long chains of purple fruit." Yes sir, looking forward to those long chains of purple fruit...

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

Wednesday Vignette, bondage

I noticed this little vignette in the garden of Bob Hyland (full post over there). When I asked about it he explained a desire for the conifer to sort of lay over the rock wall, dramatically. Well it wasn't cooperating so he thought maybe a couple of rocks would assist in the training, and at the very least it would be a conversation starter. Except all open garden long nobody asked about it, until I came along...

Wednesday Vignettes are hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum. All material © 2009-2016 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.

Aeoniums, what ya'll did with them...

When it was all said and done I received eleven entries for the Aeonium Challenge...yay for that! Although I have to say I think this was a hard one for many. Unlike the other "Challenges," where we took a maligned plant and tried to look at it through fresh, new, "hipster" glasses, Aeoniums are already cool.

I appreciate the time you all took to send in your entries, here they are in the order that I received them. First from Cherry Ong – love the contrasts...

Nancy Shiffman – I think it's an old fan? Lush...

Gayle Fraser – Gayle sent me numerous images of HUGE Aeoniums in her garden. I was jealous.

Angela Loftin – looks to be quite a large specimen?

Stacey Stewart – and she claims she can't keep an Aeonium alive? Great photo.

Eric Peterson – another sizeable specimen, and I love the detail on the container.

Poor Jim – The colors shocked me at first, but the longer I looked at the photo I started to really love them.

Tim Vojt – okay I have to admit the seafoam Artemisia distracted me...and look at that cute little Agave...

Molly Malecki – dark and dramatic...

Peter Herpst – he calls this one 'Lust'...

Kris Peterson – Kris put together a few entries and used crowd sourcing to decide which to send in. Then went with her own choice (which I love)...

So those are our entries...and the winner is!..
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But wait, there were a couple of "just for fun" entries. This one from Hoover/Piece of Eden. She took this shot when visiting the Huntington Gardens. Isn't it fabulous? All those Aeoniums planted en masse, burning color flowing across the ground...***swoon***...

And this fabulous headpiece was created by Susan Soto, our winner for the last two challenges (OC&K and Poinsettia). Susan sent in a post-deadline photo, knowing she was too late to enter but still wanting to have fun. Can you even imagine how special you'd feel with that on your head?

Okay now for real: our esteemed judging panel chose 'Lust' as The Aeonium Challenge winner!!!

Peter sent a description with his image, which I feel needs to be shared: "The eyes of the skull are Aeonium 'Zwartkop' and the potted plant, pruned by Morticia Addams, is Aeonium 'Kiwi.' That's the thing about plant nerds, sometimes they see things in a plant that may or may not be there. Maybe it's about humankind's lust to own or control natural beauty and in the possessing, they rob the original object of it's beauty and end up looking a bit silly themselves. Maybe one thinks the other has a great body but is a bit lacking in the brain department. On the other hand, maybe the guy's a boob man and after a few drinks, he's seeing more there than there is."

So fun and creative...big congrats to Peter – I'll be in touch about your fabulous winnings generously donated by Cistus Nursery!

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