by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 15, 2005 | Uncategorized
View from the rental house every night…
Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden shop… and the only kind of bears I ever want to see up close… wooden ones.
Plants for sale at the Mendocino Bot. Gardens Nursery
The Perennial Garden near the entrance
I photographed plant tags of things I knew I probably wouldn’t remember later… actual plant to follow.
See previous tag
See next pic for I.D.
See previous pic for more armeria alliacea. 😉
Another view of perennial garden… See if you can see find the nursery employee in the photo. I’ll call her “Waldo.”
But of course, it’s Monopsis lutea.
Picture does not do justice… that’s the downfall of visiting the garden at mid-day (i.e. sleeping in).
Yellow flax(phormium).
Succulents growing on old dead log (driftwood?). Looks super cool.
I have one fairy wand (dierama). The garden has many. Life is not fair.
They’re super tall (around 7 feet)!
Uh oh, can you read that? I’ll try to zoom in on it when I have a chance.
How much more pink can a flower get?!
A really large, vivid Montbretia/Crocosmia (no tag).
Metal arch with what looks like a newly planted groundcover bench.
Close-up of the bench.
Dwarf conifers and colorful lobelia, etc.
Colors remain really vivid in Mendo.
bench
pink filipendula… looks like cotton candy.
chartreusy yellow against reddish purple… great color combo.
lots of contrasts in texture
burgundy foliage
ice cream sculpture outside Cowlick’s homemade ice cream parlor at the garden. The taste is out of this world. I had a scoop of blueberry chip and vanilla. oh… ma… god.
a really pretty purple astilbe
another view of the garden
see next pic
It’s pretty dwarf and the florets are huge.
see next pic
oops, rotate counterclockwise in your mind. 😉
to the ocean
fuchsias
fern forest… my friend’s little boy asked if we were in the tropical rainforest. awww…
the Pacific Ocean!
whale bone
are you packing your bags for Mendo yet?
dahlia
near the vegetable garden, almost back to the entrance
wow.
outside the veggie garden
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 13, 2005 | Uncategorized
Happiness is… being at the Mendocino Coast Botanical Garden when the Dahlia Garden is in full bloom. Had a great trip (though not without drama) and gorgeous, sunny, mild weather. I’d love to spend a whole summer in Mendo sometime. Note to self: Win lottery.
I’ll try to post some pics soon.
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Is it just me, or has the GardenWeb site been down for over a week? I can get to the main page, but none of the forums. I e-mailed them (haven’t heard back), and was curious if anyone else has been able to get on lately.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jul 2, 2005 | Uncategorized
The trip to P.O.W. was… HOT!!! I mean that in the so-hot-I-may-pass-out-at-any-moment sense and in the Paris Hilton ooh-this-is-so-fun-and-what-a-bargain sense. Not that Paris cares about bargains.
For the problem area behind my pool, I ended up choosing some really nice 1-gallons of Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’. I placed them, but haven’t planted them yet, and they look great. Amazing how a few plants can really transform a space. I don’t look forward to dividing them someday, but boy they’re pretty.
Got a bunch of other things too. I’ll try to post pics soon.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 29, 2005 | Uncategorized
I need a nursery fix. My garden beds have some nagging gaps and one whole section of the yard (behind the pool) is just… yuck. I plan to hit P.O.W. this week, then other (pricier) nurseries. P.O.W has some really fun stuff and great bargains. All the plants I bought there last summer/fall (lavender, daylilies, penstemon, ‘Moonbeam’ coreopsis, a really pretty pink sedum, etc.) are looking great and blooming very nicely. Ok, so the lavender was mislabled and isn’t compact, but I like it nonetheless. As long as it’s English and relatively dark blue/purple, I’m happy. Nothing against the Spanish and French and their squatty little lavenders… kidding! And I’m 3/4 Irish, so it’s not a solidarity thing. I just prefer lavandula of the English heritage. Can’t we still all be brothers?
Yes, it’s hot and I really shouldn’t be planting in hot weather, but I just gots to fill in those gaps. Knowmsayin? In the yuck area behind the pool, I plan to add a mass of grasses… something arching and fountain-like and classy (like me). I’m thinking miscanthus or calamagrostis. Or if I see something fabulous at a nursery– it doesn’t have to be a grass– I’ll go for that. I don’t like to plan ahead too much because I relish the thrill of finding something new and wonderful and unexpected when I’m out nursery hopping. Blueprints schmooprints, I say.
In a week, I’m escaping to beautiful Mendocino for a few days to celebrate the big 4-0. I won’t be going alone. Two of my dearest friends who are “crossing over” at about the same time are coming with me… to Mendo and into old age. We’ll kick back, enjoy the coastal views, wander the botanical gardens, check e-mail at the local internet cafe, eat decadent dinners, relax in the hot tub, toast to a few lovely local vintages… and complain to anyone who’ll listen about our bursitis. Then we’ll tell ’em again about it. Slowly. Isn’t that what you’re supposed to when you’re our age? 😉
by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 22, 2005 | Uncategorized
Had a great time. Snapped a few pics on the drive (yes, the car was moving, and no, I was not driving), from the 17th floor of the Doubletree Hotel on Wilshire, and at the Hotel Bel Air for my cousin’s graduation dinner and reception. That place is, well, wow.
Jacaranda trees were in bloom but it wasn’t in the cards for me to snap a pic. Everything was moving too fast, literally and figuratively.
I plan to!
Haystacks are so cool!
I’d forgotten how bare these hills were. They’re still interesting in their own way.
On a Starbucks pit stop, I spotted this dinosaur sculpture. There is a bird’s nest in its mouth!
Good advice in general.
A view from the 17th floor of the Doubletree in Westwood.
Another view of a building across the street.
A view of the neighborhood abutting the hotels and apartments on Wilshire Blvd.
The Hotel Bel Air. Oh. My. God.
Care for a swim?
Would you care to sit down?
Contemporary sculpture fountains like this one are scattered around the hotel grounds. They provide an interesting contrast to the older, Mediterranean-style hotel and lush landscaping.
A pretty place to sit and chat.
Lush… lush… lush.
Expansive lawn out front. There was a wedding nearby.
The bougainvillea grows waaaaay up into the trees. Very pretty.
The walk to a guest entrance. You don’t want to know how much a room costs.
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
… for my cousin’s graduation. Won’t have time to check out any major public gardens (dang!), but will bring my digi cam to check out the overall green scene in L.A.
Back in a flash.
by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
Yep, they’re just plain ol’ petunias but I love ’em.
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
This pic shows three different colors of salpiglossis, which I have growing in a pot. It’s another one of my favorites. Germination rate in the greenhouse wasn’t great, but I’m happy with even just these few plants. It definitely seems to do better in a nice, fluffy potting mix than in the ground in clayey soil. This one gets bright filtered light most of the day.
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by angela@diggingbliss | Jun 14, 2005 | Uncategorized
Cerinthe major purpurescens is blooming right now in the garden. I really love this plant. First spied and bought it in a 4″ pot at Annie’s Annuals, but now grow it from seed. Seems to tolerate full sun to dappled shade.
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