If you have ever been up close and personal with a katsura tree (Cercidiphyllum japonicum), you’ve probably noticed that smell. Is it cotton candy (or do you call it candy floss tree?), or maybe it is the scent of brown sugar? Burnt sugar? Caramel? I’m going to call it the sweet scent of fall. As […]

I fell in love with Larix about 5 years ago when I came across a stunner of a specimen in a clients garden.  It was huge and understandably just about the only thing they wanted to keep in their garden.   I never fell particularly compelled to have one of my own (probably because I have […]

Have you ever grown the traditional ironweed? The first time that I met this plant was in 1998. I was amazed that Vernonia noveboracensis could grow to almost 10′ in height. I have since had a special place in my brain for Vernonia because it is a wonderful, native perennial that has striking, purple flowers in late […]

A quote I think about when creating a container planting or designing a flower pot garden. “You just can’t plant exotics in the countryside. They just jar. But in town, where the are no points of reference, you can get away with all sorts” – Jinny Blom, Garden Design Magazine, March 2011 The whole concept […]

I’ve been flirting with Amsonia for years. I can’t remember where we were the first time it caught my eye. It might have been a moment in a book or a magazine, but those ethereal mounds of yellow needle-like leaves with a texture like no other were definitely giving me the ‘come hither’ look.  I […]

What is the meaning of Flava? I joke… And also, I am probably giving away my age.  Botanical Latin for Yellow But seriously, now that we have done red (remember red = Coccinea) and blue (blue = Caerulea), we are rounding out the primary colors with yellow. F is for Flava  — Flava is Botanical […]

Have you ever ‘weeded’ out a plant – sure that it was a nuisance only to realize later that it was something you intended? I have.  About 5 years ago I inadvertently massacred about eight Baptisia australis that I planted the previous spring. They hadn’t bloomed (given their first year status) so a year later, […]

From this title, “Traffic Stopping Kale,” you may be imagining a major traffic incident in Los Angeles or Santa Barbara where a truck loaded with kale turned over on the interstate. Then tons of drivers hit their brakes and start grazing right off of the roadway. No, that is not what I am implying at […]

If I had know about garden-way carts when I moved into this house that has a bit of land around it, I would have forgone the wheelbarrow completely and bought one straightaway. They are better (ergonomically, capacity, function, design, ease of use, green) in every way. But I didn’t, and rather, I inherited mine (in […]