Will you be at the Succulent Celebration and book launch June 7-8 near San Diego? I’d love to see you there! To entice you, here are a few glimpses of the nursery that’s hosting it, Waterwise Botanicals. Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’, in pots and on the hillside, is one of the succulents that the nursery sells a lot [...]
When in Orange County recently, I stopped by a nursery I’d heard about—the Dana Point Nursery on Pacific Coast Highway in Dana Point. I experienced it through my camera, and lost track of time. I shot a lot of cool plants and container combos, but the aeoniums were my favorites. Aeoniums are native to the [...]
Of the dozen or so botanical gardens I’ve visited, San Diego’s singularly lacks conservatories. It doesn’t need them. Its coastal location has an ideal temperature range for plants as well as people, seldom going below 40 or above 90 F. I live half an hour’s drive from the San Diego Botanic Garden, so I [...]
One of the challenges of being a professional writer is to think metaphorically—to describe an item in terms of something else, so that readers make an association that clarifies, enlightens and perhaps also entertains. Metaphorical thinking can be learned and is a great memory aid. Food metaphors often occur to me when describing plants. For example, matilija poppies, which have white, crepe-paper petals surrounding yellow centers, [...]