James Andrew Gould's garden, last September

Here's another garden visit from late last summer that I'm finally writing about. James Andrew Gould is a serious plant geek (in the best possible way), this is the second time I've been to his place and the changes were staggering. Things have grown and filled in and he's been busy with projects. Let's have a look...

Go big or go home, it's not a bad garden philosophy and James seems to be embrace the idea, especially when it comes to Sinopanax formosanus, he has several.

During my visit they were starting to throw up their blooms, ones that confirm they're in the Aralia family.

There were also several Echium, E. pininana...

Same

And Echium wildpretii.

Another view up the front sidewalk, this one a little closer and a little wider.

The Yucca rostrata claims this shot, with a Eucalyptus on the left and a Lyonothamnus floribundus peeking in on the right.

Phlomis ‘Sunningdale Gold’, I believe.

Agave 'Mateo' (with pups! rather unusual).

James has the happiest Grevillea x gaudichaudii I have ever seen.

Insane (and be warned, there is another!)...

Hmmm, what is this? I should know. A myrtle of some sort I think...

Hi spiky beautiful!

A happy restio, in what is a fairly small garden. James is brave gardener.

Damn fine spines.

Sedum confusum, I believe.

I think (gawd I'm stupid when it comes to Eucalyptus) this tree is getting it's mature foliage?

Meanwhile there were fabulous blooms to appreciate at eye-level (from another).

Here's the second off-the-charts amazing Grevillea x gaudichaudii.

And a peek at one of the carnivorous plant bogs.

Berkheya purpurea

Fatsia polycarpa, maybe 'Needham's Lace'

Yucca schottii, I think?

Another Sinopanax formosanus.

Thinner leaves point to this yucca as Y. linearifolia.

Drimys winteri

Wollemia nobilis

Perhaps another Yucca schottii? But the main reason I included this image, is that I failed to get a shot of the almost finished sunken patio area. It was pretty fantastic, but you'll have to be content with a view through the yucca leaves.

Walking back to my car now I had to get a shot of the expired Berkheya purpurea blooms...

And a spiky yucca (maybe Y. aloifolia). So many cool plants!!!

The Bit at the End

Here's a long post over on Garden Rant that I had to read through a couple times to really make sense of: In Defense of The Gardener’s Voice (on the natives or nothing movement). Gardeners like James, and myself, are plant lovers who fill our gardens with things that bring us joy, pique our curiosity, and that we just want to watch grow. Even things that are not native to our part of the world. Does that make us bad gardeners? Some would say so.

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Aliens in the garden

Mid-November I visited the Los Angeles County Arboretum. The garden was set-up for a light show and closing came early, visitors needed to leave so reticketed folks could enter for the show. I see this as an ongoing conflict. Botanical gardens need people to pay their admission fees and die-hard garden-lovers only do so much, the general public needs to be tempted into the garden. That's where the "art in the garden" and "garden light show" ideas come from. Put on a show and they will come. God forbid you just happen to be a regular old plant-lover who finally made it to your bucket-list destination garden while one of their "shows" is happening.

Okay, that's my rant, now back to my Arboretum visit. I mostly managed to ignore all the cords, spotlights, reflectors and other assorted paraphernalia for the show. That light-filled lawn above is the only altered image I captured, well, nearly. 

I'd almost walked out thru the gates when I realized I still had a half hour before I was going to be tossed out of the garden, just enough time to walk over and explore the pre-historic forest...with aliens and disco balls!?

Aliens had invaded the pre-historic forest!

Naked aliens with mirror-ball heads...

I have to admit, I loved this. It was so unexpected and, well, shiny!

As I snapped these photos I wondered what it would all look like after dark. Was I missing out on some serious light-magic? Nope.

As a plant-lover I happened upon this alien-invasion at just the right time. A Google image search for "after dark" photos proved the plants definitely added to the feel of the installation. 

I'll never look at silly botanic garden shows the same way again!

A couple weeks later, back at home and cleaning up the garden, I thought of those aliens again when I pulled back this Woodwardia unigemmata frond...

...and discovered this! Alien goo!

My glove for scale, it was so shiny and gelatinous! 

The white bits are from the Fatsia japonia blooms above.

I shot off a photo to Tiffany, cause she knows fungus, and her best guess was (get this name!) "Crystal Brain Fungus" aka Exidia nucleata. Yep, read all about that business here. The photos in that link definitely look right, even if it says the fungus is found on dead and decaying hardwood and mine was on gravel under a Fatsia japonica. 

To add to my alien feeling about the whole thing, last weekend I found a little more "jelly" in an entirely different part of the garden—although it was still near a fatsia. This time the alien goo was on a Fatsia polycarpa bloom stem. However I have not seen any shiny aliens or disco balls in my garden. Yet.

All material © 2009-2021 by Loree Bohl for danger garden. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited and just plain rude.