Awesome Eucalyptus Purchase

There are these 2 Eucalyptus macrocarpa that I visit at The Huntington Library that are amazing!  They are each about 6 feet wide but only about 4 feet tall because they are sprawling.  The leaves are HUGE, about 8 inches across and their impressive red flowers are about 3-5 inches in size.


But I really love the caps that fall off the buds before the flowers open. They look like elf hats, pointy and round, soft when fresh but harden later.   Don't tell anyone but I like to scoop them up when I'm there to take home. They are so cool!  I'm going to make something with them some day.  For now they are in a glass bowl.

I have never seen this plant for sale anywhere until yesterday. I was poking around La Crescenta Nursery(if you haven't been there- go, it's fabulous!) and they had one 5 gallon plant. I tried to talk myself out of it as it was $35.00.  But when you see something rare, you've got to buy it! So, I did!

I'm not sure where to plant it yet and my yard isn't quite ready.  But here's my newest addition to the Buntopia jungle!  

Pink roots!

I planted a little job for a client today. One of the plants is Loropetalum. It has burgundy leaves. Anybody who knows me knows I love plants that are something other than green. When I lifted it out of the pot I saw that it has PINK ROOTS! How pretty! What a plant geek I am!

My Planted Urn

My first post here showed an urn planted at The Haunted Mansion at Disneyland that I wanted to replicate. Urns are usually hefty in weight(cement or iron) and price(hundreds of $$). I found this fiberglass one at Home Goods for $35.00. It was tan and I spray painted it black. I finally found the curly Epiphyllum at Home Depot in Duarte(they didn't have it at several SF Valley HDs) and bought 2. I chose the Coprosma 'Rainbow Surprise' that I already had for the center instead of the burgundy grass that DL had in theirs(and they have since replanted). It was really always about that curly Epi and the urn anyways. I can't wait for the Epi to cascade as it grows. Yay!

Easy Care

What could be easier than a Daylily? Hemerocallis hybrids - Daylilies come in many colors. Yellow, orange and red are the easiest to find. Pinks and purples are available. Catalogs sell white with purple edges, peach, dark throated varieties and other fancy colors. Dayliles grow best in full sun with average water. They do need regular(once a month or so) cleaning, that is pulling off the brown leaves from underneath that let go so easily. One of my favorite things about Daylilies is that after a year or so the plant is easily divided to make more! Yay! Propagation is awesome!

Red Foliage

I adore colored foliage because most plants are green. Red foliage really stands out and compliments things around it. One of the best is Iresine herbstii. The common name I'm told is "Beefsteak plant". But nobody calls it that. I've hardly heard Iresine either because nobody talks about this plant. I think it's an old fashioned plant that should be more popular. Iresine grows to about 4 feet tall if you let it. I like to pinch it to make it bushier or it will get floppy. It does sometimes produce tan/greenish flowers that are better cut off! It will take some sun but does best in partial shade. It looks spectacular when the sun shines through it. It is usually only found in specialty nurseries. I wonder why it's not more easily available because it's so easy to propagate from cuttings. How fabulous is red foliage with pink veins!

#1 Landscape Rose

Iceberg roses are everywhere in SoCal. Why? Because they are easy to grow and are almost always in constant bloom. Most roses repeat in 6 weeks from being pruned or deadheaded. Iceberg only goes 4 weeks from cut to flowering. Feed them once a month(Mar-Oct) and prune like other roses in January. I like Iceberg not only for the afore mentioned qualities but because it looks like a flowering shrub and not like a rose. Grow it amongst perennials and shrubs and they will compliment each other in your garden.

Roses Finally!

I know all my rose friends have been waiting for me to put a rose on my blog. Well, it's finally here! In SoCal one of my favorite roses for the landscape is a Floribunda called Trumpeter! It has disease resistant glossy foliage and is almost self cleaning(easy to deadhead). The red orange color is so bright that you could see it from a few houses away. It is compact, only grows to about 3 feet and is almost always in bloom from April to Nov. Enjoy.