Friends, plants, and lunch

Is there a better way to spend several hours than meeting up with friends while wandering among plants on a sunny day, then tying things up with lunch?  Denise of A Growing Obsession proposed the get-together with HB of Piece of Eden and myself, the first time we've had an opportunity to see one another since the Puget Sound Garden Fling last July.  We met up at Roger's Garden, a destination garden center in Orange County.  I hadn't been there since September 2024 so the venue was a plus.

We spent a lot of time talking so my photo-taking was relatively haphazard.  I focused on the demonstration garden beds scattered throughout the nursery's grounds.

The large garden bed near the entrance had been decked out with a variety of pink flowers, presumably with Valentine's Day in mind

The nearby triangular beds were planted with spring bloomers

The Bird and Butterfly Garden had been fluffed up for the warmer season to come too

Shrubs in the sloped bed adjacent to Roger's Farmhouse restaurant were accented by masses of Geranium 'Rozanne' in full bloom.  While I grew that geranium in my former garden, it didn't survive long in my current garden; however, after seeing this display, I was ready to try it again.  Unfortunately, the plants weren't currently available for sale.

The California-Friendly Garden was heavy on rosemary (now classified as Salvia rosmarinus).  That plant is indestructible in my garden but I have all too much of it.

This foliage mix caught my notice

This Small Space Garden, combining succulents and Westringia among other things, was my favorite on this occasion.  We noted that some of the Mangaves, including 'Lavander Lady', were producing masses of pups.  The gray sculpture is one of Dustin Gimbel's pieces.

The garden was well stocked and geared up for the spring season.

A LOT of bedding plants were available

The shade plant selection was also extensive

The succulent plants had been moved to the upper level of the nursery since my last visit but the selection was extensive

Aeoniums and a wide variety of small succulents were available

There were a lot of agaves too.  We immediately noticed one-gallon containers of Agave 'Snow Glow'.  We spent time talking about the agave next to it too.  It was simply labeled Agave 'Choice' but we couldn't immediately find a description under that name online.  Based on a later search, I'm guessing it may have been Agave macroacantha 'Pablo's Choice'.  That plant's proclivity for pupping to form sizable clumps matches the concerns HB raised about the tiny pups already developing in those pots.

Mangaves were also prominently displayed.  The large pot containing a Mangave 'Lavender Lady' (right) was packed with pups.  I have 3 of those plants, just one of which was an offset of a larger plant.  I was surprised that 'Lavender Lady' could pup like that, even after seeing evidence of similar behavior in the Small Space Garden bed.

Rain chains planted with tiny succulents

Miscellaneous plant sightings included a Silver Bismarck Palm (Bismarkia nobilis), marked 50% off (which still meant $350), and a beautiful staghorn fern (noID)

I didn't walk away without plants either.  Here's my haul:

On the left, 3 carmine Lisianthus (Eustoma grandiflora), 2 Osteospermum 'Violet Ice', 2 O. 'Berry White', and one O. 'Lemon Ice'.  On the right, 3 Echeveria mexicano, 3 E. 'Atomic', and another Agave 'Snow Glow'.  I also' picked up 4 sweet pea seedlings as those I sowed from seed back in November aren't looking good at the moment.

Now I just need to get everything planted.  Luckily, we're looking forward to a mostly sunny weekend with temperatures in the upper-60s to the low-70sF (20-21C).  Hopefully, I'll have time to tackle the weeds mentioned in my prior post too.

All material © 2012-2025 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

An unplanned nursery stop

Although, like Alice in Wonderland's white rabbit,  I seem to be running late for everything recently, I took off on a whim on Monday morning for Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey in response to notice of a flash twenty percent off sale.  Halfway there, after getting a late start, then getting caught up in traffic delays related to construction projects I encountered everywhere, I decided to stop in at Deep Roots Garden Center in Manhattan Beach instead.  I'm currently focused on finding multi-petaled Osteospermums to fill in empty spots in my back garden and I thought Deep Roots was more likely to have those than Flora Grubb anyway.  As it turns out, I didn't sacrifice on a sale offer either.

Here's the sign I saw as soon as I stepped into the garden center:

The garden center is scheduled to move early next year.  It'll reopen in the new location nominally closer to my home on a date TBD in March or April.

Deep Roots is small but generally well-stocked (except during the lead up to the year-end holidays starting in mid-November).  And, like Floral Grubb Gardens, it emphasizes waterwise plants.

Despite their ongoing sale, most areas were still relatively well-stocked.

The bedding plants on display included some Osteospermums but not the multi-petaled varieties I was looking for

A wide selection of succulents in both small and big sizes was available

There were plenty of shade plants too.  I've been on the look-out for more coleus and they had a couple of varieties that are hard to find.

The forty percent off sale on all plants was compelling but I still talked myself out of several plants.

Clockwise from the upper left these included: Aeonium 'Pink Witch' (hard to find but priced at $40 before the discount for plants in 4-inch pots), a Lophospermum (not well suited to the conditions in my garden), Veltheimia (I already have 3 bulbs that haven't proven themselves), and Cereus forbesii ($48 even after the sale discount)

as well as a mature Beschorneria in bloom (I couldn't find a price tag and decided not to bother asking)

However, I didn't walk out empty-handed.

I brought home a Cordyline 'Can Can', 2 Plectranthus scutellarioides 'Lime Shrimp' (coleus in the 'Under the Sea' series) shown with 3 Gazania 'White Flame', and 3 Crassula 'Sea Urchin'

It's been a remarkably cool and dreary week and I haven't touched most of the items on my ridiculously long to-do list but the sun came out mid-day yesterday and the weekend should be beautiful so I'm hoping to get back to work.  The biggest issue currently distracting me are some behavioral problems with Meeko.  Other than her continued insistence on using furniture to sharpen her claws, she seemed to be adapting well, until she suddenly went on the attack this past week, turning on me a few times, as well as my husband.  I think this is attributable to stress related to a few random incidents involving stray dogs in our unfenced garden and also scent sprayed by skunks near her catio.  She actually scared me on two of these occasions, as well as leaving me bloodied.

Meeko was peaceful and relatively laid back yesterday afternoon.  I lined up an appointment with my vet next week to discuss both additional methods to manage the furniture scratching (already covered with two-sided tape and other deterrents) and the sudden aggressive behavior.  In the meantime, I've started giving her Zylkene, a hydrolyzed milk supplement designed to help cats relax in stressful situations.  I've also picked up a chewable vitamin-based treat intended to make cats feel more comfortable.

Hopefully, we can resolve the issues soon.  My husband is already in favor of taking her back to the shelter, something I can't even imagine.  I've never given up on an animal, even when vets on two separate occasions encouraged me to take cats I'd adopted back to the place I got them.  The prospect of doing so this time is heartbreaking. 

All material © 2012-2024 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

I bought a few Christmas presents for myself

Shopping for Christmas presents can lead one astray.  When considering gift prospects for a friend, I decided to visit Flora Grubb Gardens in Marina Del Rey following a pre-Christmas lunch with other friends at a nearby restaurant.  I initially focused on a Protea, as my friend was impressed by one we saw in bloom during our trip to Seaside Gardens in late October.  However, when making my selection, I started to worry about whether it would be a good fit as she hasn't grown anything in the Protea family and the conditions in her garden, nearly fifty miles north of mine, are very different.  I decided to buy one Protea and one tropical Rhododendron and offer her a choice, as I've considered getting both plants for myself and wouldn't mind keeping whichever one she rejected.  She chose the Protea and took it home last weekend.  Meanwhile, I'd convinced myself I had just the right spot for another Protea, so I decided to make another trip to Marina Del Rey this week to pick one up for myself.

Flora Grubb Gardens is about a fifty mile round trip for me so of course I had to make another round of the nursery once I arrived.  By comparison to the other local garden centers I frequent, the plants at this one are always exuberantly healthy.  In all three trips I've made there, I've yet to see a plant that wasn't in pristine condition.

Assorted Leucadendrons and what looks like Agave vilmoriniana (I didn't check)

Cordylines, Grevilleas, and Opuntias

These sculptures reminded me of Dustin Gimbel's creations but I didn't see a label

Euphorbia tirucalli 'Sticks on Fire' looks its best at this time of year but I'll never need to buy any as I have an endless supply

Various other displays, including one featuring Proteas currently in bloom (upper left)

I was briefly entranced with this Stenocarpus sinuatus (aka firewheel tree).  It was tempting but it could get bigger than the space I have available for another tree.  The one I've seen at South Coast Botanic Garden always looks a little sickly but this one looked exceptionally healthy.

Even after checking other options, I decided to stick with with the same Protea I gave my friend.

Here's my own Protea 'Claire', slated to be planted in a bed at the front of the house.  I have another Protea, P. neriifolia 'Pink Ice', planted in a sunny spot in my north side garden.  It's yet to bloom but it's getting closer.

This is a Vireya Rhododendron, labeled 'Mitch Mitchell', which is the name of a prominent breeder of the tropical varieties.   I can't grow the Rhododendrons common in the Pacific Northwest but long ago another blogger suggested that I might be able to grow the Vireya types.  This will be an experiment and I plan to plant it in a large terracotta container. 

I made a couple other unexpected purchases for myself this week as well when I discovered that a very ambitious gopher has moved into my garden.  I had a gopher problem several years ago but it moved on after a little encouragement.  These critters are rampant in my area so it was just a matter of time before they returned.  My husband read that they're mostly solitary creatures, occupying territories of approximately one acre but, given the amount of movement this one has made recently, it's hard to believe he doesn't have an entire platoon accompanying him.

The mounds provide solid evidence of the sandy condition of my soil

I bought more solar-powered sonic gopher repellents.  I've tried the ones with replaceable batteries but they don't seem to last any longer than those with batteries that can't be replaced.  I bought 2 new sets, all of which have on-off buttons so, if and when they do their jobs, I can turn them off and store them away to be brought out as needed.  Hopefully, that'll give them a longer life span and reduce my use of disposable plastic items.

In addition to the 12 new sonic stakes, I've got 3 remaining stakes with replaceable batteries for a total of 15 in my back garden.  Three of the new stakes are shown here.  The 4th location shown above (lower left) is a new mound discovered the day after I installed the stakes, demonstrating that sonic irritation by itself won't immediately get rid of the annoying creature.

To further bolster my effort, I also bought a bag of a granular gopher deterrent, scattering it throughout the back garden beds.  The granules must be watered into the soil to have an effect.  I was counting on rain to hasten the gopher's departure but we didn't receive any measurable precipitation until last night and even that was light.  The forecasters are now projecting that first of two "real" rainstorms will arrive late Wednesday or early Thursday.  I'm dreaming of a wet Christmas.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

Nursery trip (part 2) and new plants

Our second nursery stop last Saturday was Terra Sol Garden Center in Santa Barbara County.  It's much smaller than Seaside Gardens and doesn't have any display gardens but I've always found it to be a great resource for new plants.  I don't think I've ever left that garden center empty-handed, often spending more there than I do at Seaside.  (You can view my earlier post on Seaside here.)

Views of plants for sale

I was surprised at how much this plant looked like the Acacia 'Cousin Itt' I grow in my garden.  It's 'Itts' bigger brother, Acacia cognata, aka river wattle.  The flowers are just like those currently peppering my "little river wattle".

Plants I noticed but didn't purchase included, clockwise from the upper left, Pilea peperomioides in flower, Pyrrosia (?) in a hanging basket, and Veltheimia.  I came very close to buying a Veltheimia as I've admired the flowering bulbs a neighbor has scattered through her street-side succulent bed but I planted 2 of these bulbs years ago and, even given this year's rain, they haven't bloomed in recent memory.

Terra Sol offers a lot of garden decor items and a many pots outfitted to serve as fountains

Statues, especially Buddhas, are plentiful, if pricey

 

The garden center has a well-rounded selection of small-to-large succulents, and it frequently has succulents you don't commonly see elsewhere.

This Hildewintera colademononis, aka monkey tail cactus, was one of the rarer specimens on display on this visit.  (You can see it in flower here.)

While Terra Sol doesn't have landscape displays, it has a lot of containers planted with succulents.  Some of these were for sale but the larger ones are provided as inspiration.  The bottom photos are 2 sides of the same fountain-style planter.

 

So what did I bring home from this trip?

This was my haul from Terra Sol, shown below in my garden

My biggest investment was the 2-gallon Leucosperum cordifolium 'California Sunshine' shown in the upper left, which currently looks very small in the spot I selected for it (formerly occupied by an 8-foot tall Duranta).  Clockwise from the top right are: Carex 'Feather Falls', Anemone coronaria 'Mistral Bordeaux', Gasteria morombe, and Sedum 'Cape Blanco'.

 

And, for the record, here's what I took home from Seaside Gardens.

Prior to planting

Top row: Lophomyrtus x ralphii 'Little Star', including foliage closeup
Bottom row: Leucadendron laxum (still unplanted), Cuphea 'Starlight' (also sold as 'Starfire Pink'), and Coprosma 'Evening Glow'

As it turned out, we timed our trip well.  The skies opened up once more on Wednesday and again on Thursday.  It was dry and sunny all afternoon yesterday even though gray storm clouds hovered in the background.  There's a slight chance of rain again on Monday but at present it looks like it'll pass us by.  Another forecasting agency suggests that there's currently a 58 percent chance of yet another storm a week from today but I'm not convinced of that prospect at present.

Yesterday morning's view of Angel's Gate, the entrance to the Port of Los Angeles, from my back garden

  

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend, in the garden or not.  I stopped by my local garden center Thursday afternoon to pick up things to fill in around recent plantings and serve as groundcovers in bare spots so I'll be busy for awhile at least.

All material © 2012-2023 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party

When Christmas takes over garden centers

In coastal Southern California, our cool season is the optimal time to plant.  But when summer hangs on well into autumn as it usually does here, I often delay the plant shopping trips intended to fill the empty spots in my garden.  The fatal flaw with such delays is that, when I finally get out there, I run head-on into the all-consuming rush toward Christmas that consumes most garden centers.  I don't blame them - they need income to stay afloat and selling Christmas trees and other holiday paraphernalia is a big moneymaker.  It's entirely my fault when I fail to recognize that the holiday take-over is already underway.

A friend and I made a trip south to Orange County earlier this week to visit two garden centers.  Although the trees hadn't yet arrived at Roger's Gardens in Corona Del Mar, space had already been cleared to make way for them, which means there were fewer garden plants to peruse.

Overview of the garden center's front area from the upper level.  The large area already cleared for Christmas trees was in the back (not shown).

This demonstration bed near the front entrance is changed out several times a year.  The small red and green electric trains always featured during the holidays were already running but the area was otherwise devoid of holiday references.

That was not the case in the interior areas

Our other stop was OC Succulents in Irvine.   The year-end holidays weren't an obvious issue there but the prices were.  Since the pandemic, prices at this wholesale nursery (and its smaller outlet in Torrance) have soared.  Maybe customers with wholesale licenses get much better deals but I didn't see any of the bargains we found years ago when shopping the nursery.

This area used to feature current "deals" on mid-sized succulents.  I didn't see any of those.

However, there was a large variety of succulents in a range of sizes to be found.  A sampling included, clockwise from the upper left: Aeonium 'Sunburst', Agave attenuata 'Ray of Light', Agave 'Blue Glow', Echeveria 'Blue Atoll', assorted cactus, succulents in 2-6 inch sizes, and Sedum dasyphyllum 'Minor'.  An Agave 'Blue Glow' I recently purchased in a 1-gallon container at my local garden center was priced at half what OCS was charging for a specimen of similar size.  The Agave parryi I bought for a steal on my prior shopping trip to Carpineria for $12 was priced at nearly $40.

The outlet also offers a massive number of decorative plants like orchids and bromeliads, houseplants, and Tillandsias.  If you need a significant number of particular plants, this is the place to go but it might be a good idea to look into a wholesale license first.

Given the circumstances, my purchases were relatively modest.

At OC Succulents, I picked up 2 Tillandsia harrisii.  One is now attached to the chiminea adjacent to the bromeliad-succulent bed in my front garden and the other has been added to the collection in my lath house.

At Roger's Gardens I found the Lomandra 'Arctic Frost' I was looking for during my trip north 2 weeks ago, as well as flowers to fill one of the barrels in my front garden (Argyranthemum 'Aramis Bicolor Rose' and a mix of Calibrachoa), and the first Osteospermum '4D White' I've seen anywhere

I managed to polish off planting the barrels that were left empty when I dug up the dahlia tubers and stored them away for the winter.

Most of the plants in this barrel in my cutting garden were purchased during my earlier trip up north but I picked up the last orange Calibrachoa at Roger's Gardens

I also finally addressed the area around our backyard fountain.  I'd decided months ago to replace the mess that was there with a variegated Lomandra and purchased a 'Platinum Beauty' for that purpose but I held off because I was afraid that it would quickly get too large for the space and I'd be back to square one.  Finding a dwarf Lomandra 'Arctic Frost' was the ticket.

This is a "before" shot of the area.  The seashells were here when we arrived.  I've moved them around many times, trying to disguise the ugly electrical outlet that controls the fountain.  I wanted a plant that would hide the outlet without making it impossible to access if necessary.

Lomandra 'Arctic Frost' should cover up the electrical outlet when it reaches 2-3 feet tall and wide.  In the meantime, I've moved many of the shells back in place, principally to stop the raccoons from tearing up the drip lines.  In the past, they've been known to fight the drip lines as though they were snakes.

Dwarf Lomandra 'Arctic Frost' echoes the 3 Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty' planted nearby last year.  The latter will grow 3-4 feet tall and 3-5 feet wide but, at least at present, the plants look nearly identical.

The Lomandra 'Platinum Beauty' I've had on hold since mid-summer ended up in another area of the same bed on the other side of Echium webbii, where its mature size won't be a problem

 

Yesterday afternoon, in an effort to find a few small plants to fit into the empty spots in the pink-themed barrel planter, I made a brief stop by Armstrong, my local garden center, after a Friendsgiving lunch.  Just three days after my prior plant shopping trip, the holiday influence was even more pervasive there.

The first Christmas trees had already arrived!  From the looks of things, they are going to be even more expensive than last year.

Christmas decor was all over but no holiday music was playing (yet)

For lack of many options, I picked up plugs of English primrose to fill in the empty spaces in this front garden barrel.  Hopefully, it's full enough to keep the raccoons away but I think it might be a good idea to stick in some sweet alyssum (Lobularia maritima) too.

I've absolutely no issues with the holiday themes that take over garden centers, although I do wish they'd hold off until after Thanksgiving.  However, as that's not the trend, I need to factor the ever-advancing creep of holiday preparations into my fall season plant shopping schedule.

Best wishes for a pleasant weekend.

All material © 2012-2022 by Kris Peterson for Late to the Garden Party