Plants that look good now.

I need a reminder now and then to take off my “I want to live in Zone 9 or 10” glasses and see just how good things look here in Zone 8 in December. Here’s a mini tour of some of the plants looking good right now. These hardy characters haven’t batted an eye (or a stoma?) as the weather has varied from 18 to 59 in the last few weeks and we’ve had dry sunny days, to days with over 1.5” of rain, and a few with a strong, bitterly cold, dry wind. Above is one of my favorite combos… Liriope and Ophiopogon planiscapus nigrescens (Black Mondo Grass). You can also see a bit of the mess that accumulates on our patio in the winter.

Euphorbia amygdaloides var. robbiae

Our unknown Camellia that was inherited with the house.

Helleborus foetidus, just beginning to hint at blooms forming, but the foliage puts on a fine show.

Yucca recurvifolia, and honestly all the Yuccas throughout the garden are looking good. Their year 'round good looks are part of the appeal.

Sempervivum, again they all look good right now...and I have so many of them!

Sasa palmate

Arrow bamboo (Pseudosasa japonica), the bamboo is at it's best in the rainy season.

Hakonechloa looses none of it's charm when it looses it's color. I enjoy it for most of the winter but I am careful to cut it back before it gets to dry and brittle, lest I be picking up pieces that have blown all over the garden.

Maidenhair Fern also looses it's vibrant color as the winter progresses, I still love the texture it provides.

Yucca aloifolia 'Purpurea’

Euphorbia myrsinites

Hesperaloe parviflora

Aspidistra elatior, The Cast Iron Plant

Acanthus mollis

And lastly the Clematis armandii 'Snowdrift', weaving it's way through the browned and droopy Hydrangea.

I'll have to make this a goal for the ugly and boring month of January...I vow to get out and appreciate the beauty of the garden in the greyest month of all.

Merry Christmas!

I thought about saying “Happy Holidays” but since it is Christmas I celebrate, it is Christmas I went with, no offense intended to those of you who have other beliefs. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend with your family and friends.

One of my favorite Christmas recordings is Louis Armstrong reciting ‘The Night Before Christmas’ I have a tender spot for Louis, always have. If you have a moment please give a listen: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27jV1iqXYRc I think you’ll enjoy it.

Winter White

What you were expecting snow?

No…none to be found in Portland this Christmas, which is fine with me.

Instead peeling bark, seed pods, and expired fruit and blooms are setting the winter scene.

It’s danger garden post #500, and just three days before Christmas! What does this mean for you?

Back on my 100th post I waxed a little sentimental. On my 1yr blogoversary I gave away a few small succulents. And now it’s post #500 and some of you are still reading! Well, you deserve a gift don’t you think? A small token of my appreciation? And what better than a book?

Let me explain…I was very excited to receive The Kew Plant Glossary: An Illustrated Dictionary of Plant Identification Terms as a Christmas gift from my in-laws. So excited that I showed it to my husband as soon as he got home from work. He wasn’t so excited…turns out he had bought it for me too. His disappointment turned to my enthusiasm when I realized this meant I had an extra copy to give away!

So if you are interested in receiving a copy of the Kew Plant Glossary leave a comment on this post...however in order to be considered your comment needs to include your favorite fancy, hard to pronounce, or just plain crazy botanical term. It can be the name of a plant, a condition, a feature…whatever. A random winner will be chosen on December 29th from those who play by the rule (rule doesn’t sound right, I wanted to say rules but there is only one so I guess it’s the rule). And sad to say but you’ve got to be a plain old continental U.S. resident to enter, or have a continental U.S. shipping address.

I’ll get things started: do you know what a ‘spiricle’ is? Spiricle = minute coiled threads in some seed coats that uncoil when moistened. No I didn’t know that before I owned the Kew Plant Glossary. (see what fantabulous knowledge awaits the winner!)

Spiky links worth sharing: a cactus hater spouts off and a Christmas classic is restyled.

I generally shy away from recycling content from other blogs; there are already several that do just that, some great ones and some not so good ones. However I recently ran across two different online bits of spiky fun that I have to share.
The first I discovered via a retweet from the Cactus Jungle in Berkeley. By the way if you’ve not yet visited the Cactus Jungle Blog you really should do so. They are knowledgeable and informative with a wry sense of humor, and they post daily, wait scratch that…multiple times a day. They have a keen ability to locate offbeat stories in small town press that focus on local cactus and agave growers, and I particularly enjoy these features.

But what I‘m posting about today is a tidbit they shared last Sunday concerning a Yelp review of the California Cactus Center in Pasadena. If you would enjoy reading a "gangsta" review of a nursery click through and read this, it’s pretty hilarious (if a little “off-color” in places); here is a small snippet to tempt you: “in general, cactus is something you keep to yourself. it isnt a gift... its barely even a plant” ah yes…barely even a plant…the Cactus Jungle guys said it best: “people are odd.”

If you’ve never been to the California Cactus Center it is a wonderful place that (unlike Brandon) I highly recommend visiting. The pictures throughout this post are from my visit in October of 2009, here is the post on my visit and one from Denise, of A Growing Obsession.

The other link I want to share is from Debra Lee Baldwin and the blog Gardening Gone Wild. This blog is written by several different contributors and creators who always have something interesting to share. Yesterday Debra (of Succulent Container Gardens and Designing with Succulents fame) posted her spiky version of the Twelve Days of Christmas; no actually make that the Twelve Days of Cactus. Great fun and fabulous pictures to go with! Please click on through and I hope you enjoy…

Where am I #1, the desert version…

This is a place that figures enourmously into the garden I desire today, one of those magical places that you visit and even if you don’t realize it at the time it’s changing you. Sometime later it all clicks into place.

So…where am I? (Furcraea foetida mediopicta pictured, below)

Any guesses? (Agave tequilana, 'Blue Agave' pictured, below).

I am in Seattle, WA. What? This doesn’t look like Seattle? Exactly, that's the magic! (Agave lophantha pictured, below).

Aloe vera

Assorted succulents

Aeonium schwarzkopf

Small cacti that I didn’t get the name of…

Pachycereus marginatus, Mexican Fence Post Cactus

Pachycereus marginatus with an exposed cut, interesting pattern no?

Agave americana and Barrel cactus

Gasteria armstrongii bloom

Gasteria armstrongii

Aloe ibitiensis

Ferocactus cylindraceus, 'Compass Barrel Cactus'

Dasylirion longissimum, 'Mexican Grass Tree'

Agave victoriae-reginae

Agave victoriae-reginae variegata div> Agave parryi v. truncata (sexy!)

Agave toumeyana 'Miniature Century Plant'

Agave attenuata

Aloe capitata v. quartziticola

Fan Aloe, Aloe plicatilis

Beaucarnia recurvata, 'Ponytail Palm'

Beaucarnia recurvata, the base...

All of these treasures are squeezed into just one wing of the Volunteer Park Conservatory in Seattle. This is such a magical place. For years I lived just blocks away and would visit frequently. The cost of admission? Zero. It’s free, and priceless to a young apartment dweller that has caught the desert bug.