The desire to get rid of water-thirsty, high-maintenance lawns has led to the rise (no pun intended) of dry creek beds. After all, you have to replace all that garden space with something. Rocks and boulders are fairly inexpensive and create a natural setting. A dry stream bed can add a sense of motion (rushing water) [...]
Sunflowers and nautilus shells exhibit a geometric spiral that is found in many cacti and succulents. I thought you might enjoy some examples. Isn’t nature amazing? This is Aloe polyphylla, the spiral aloe. Next, some cacti. These are Sempervivum arachnoideum (cobweb houseleeks). This is a Medusa euphorbia. And another mammillaria. If the spiral form of [...]
My seasonal e-newsletter is different from what I post here on GGW (for the most part). I thought you might enjoy some excerpts from the latest. Spring Succulent Care Checklist Above: Aeonium cutting, showing leaf nodes that resemble potato eyes. From this meristem tissue, roots will grow. Now is when most types of succulents awaken [...]
There’s a nursery near my home aptly named Desert Theater. It’s nine acres of big, bold, dramatic, over-the-top succulents and cacti. It’s one of the nurseries I enjoy taking people to, because they’re invariably amazed. It’s a photographer’s feast any day of the year, but my favorite time to go is mid-winter when large aloes [...]
I recently travelled to the second largest flower and garden show in the US, in Seattle, to give two presentations. Here’s what I enjoyed most—a subjective collection, to be sure, and one dependent on the capabilities of my iPhone’s camera. Even so, 25 photos is more than double the number I usually show in a [...]