Evan's favorite

I am not sure which one I would have expected to be my husband's favorite plant in my somewhat broad indoor/outdoor collection of flowers, but it is definitely not this one:

Evan's favorite plant, also known more formally as Kalenchoe blossfeldiana, is a type of succulent, of a larger family of Kalenchoe plants.  In fact, if you have a good memory, you might recall that I actually have another type of Kalenchoe plant, of the magical notoriety.

And just in case you don't believe me, here is another picture of it as a baby.  See, it's written right there on the pot.  

Anyhow, these are actually quite popular as gifts, so you have probably seen them at your local Whole Foods.  In the past, I had actually always seen them in their single petalled version, like so (sources here and here):

I did not actually become aware that they existed in this other multiple petalled type until we went to the Keukenhof where in addition to tons of tulips outside, they were also having a flower show.  One of the flowers featured was the Kalenchoe blossfeldiana.  And it was here that Evan decided he liked them.

Wow! And in Dutch orange!

In the interest of keeping things short and sweet, I will not say too much about them.  I'm feeling bullet points today...  blooming Kalenchoe care:

• They're easy to grow with long-lasting flowers--  a great starter plant
• Plant in well-drained soil (preferably cactus mix)
• Lots of sunshine (they're succulents, remember)
• Not too much water, especially if they're not flowering (they're a succulents!)
• When the blooms turn brown, cut them off so that they will re-flower
• They generally rebloom in the spring, but there are ways to "force" reblooming by altering how much light/dark they are exposed to.  (That's Kalenchoe advanced, so we'll save it for another time.)

And that's all you really need to know to keep your Kalenchoe alive!  After all of the flowers turned brown, Evan insisted that it had died and we should throw it away.  Fortunately, however, I trimmed the dead blooms, and sure enough, it rebloomed (and I didn't even have to wait until spring!).  So it's still his favorite.

Look how much it's grown!

Finally, here's the track of the day, both because it is also Evan's current favorite (he has good taste-- this woman can sing) and because my brother-in-law and very soon to be sister-in-law are getting married this weekend.  Congrats Cal and Rachel!

Great Gardens: Getty Villa!

Well, my vacation has finally come to an end.  I'm not too sad about it since I was turning into a useless lump (let's be clear... a useless happy lump) and it is, oddly enough, kind of nice to be back in the hospital seeing patients again.  That's not to say that I didn't have the greatest time with my sister while she was here with the big added bonus of finally meeting her new boyfriend who is a born and bred New Yorker.  Visitors from other great cities (NYC is great) have a tendency to be somewhat biased against LA for some reason.  Is the smog? the traffic? the gang violence? Skid Row?  Um, maybe...  So how to go about showing someone from another great city that LA is quite great too?  

The New Yorkers in question: Andrea (converted NY-er) & Will.  And their horrified new friend...

Take them to places like the Getty Villa!  (Among other things like eating lots of delicious burgers).

View of the Villa from the Outer Peristyle

For those of you new to this Getty business, J. Paul Getty was a very rich man who built two namesake museums in LA.  One of them ("The Getty Center"), off the 405 near Westwood, is a famous architectural structure with a wide range of art, mostly European and rotating special exhibits.  It also has a lovely garden in the back and because it sits way up on a hill, has a great view of Los Angeles and, on a clear day, the ocean.  This one is fairly well known, and I personally have been there lots of times.

The Getty Villa is less well known and frequented, mostly I think because they require tickets.  These tickets are free and easy to obtain online (click and print, basically), but they require advanced planning since there are a set number and Angelenos are non-commital and all.  The Getty Villa is in Malibu (actually, technically the Palisades), off PCH just north of Sunset, that wonderful little beginners' surf spot.  It is built to resemble an ancient Roman villa, and in keeping with the theme, the art is all ancient Greek, Roman, and Etruscan.  Even after being in LA for 12 years now, this past week was my first time visiting -- I never had tickets!

Naked baby vintners on a sarcophagus

Let me tell you, it was amazing!  I loved it!  Awesome ancient Greek/Roman art aside -- which let's be honest is pretty fascinating even to the fairly history-indifferent folks -- the gardens themselves are such a calming place to be.  The exact type of place that makes you forget all the smog, highways, and other LA downers, whether you live here or not.

So without further ado...  more pictures!

Happy New Yorkers in the herb garden

Well-manicured edges

That is a terribly cute deer

Inner Peristyle... look at that great use of foliage!

Nice shoes, Hermes!

My favorite touchable plant: Lambs Ear

Is this not relaxing???!

My recommendation is that you spend at least a solid half day there, especially if you like art.  Despite the apparent small size of the museum, there is a lot of art packed in there and after visiting the gardens, we did not even make it through the whole museum.  

As mentioned before, tickets are free.  Parking is $15 and they have a nice little cafe with decent reasonably priced food.  I think you will like it!

While I'm still dreaming of my vacation, here's the track of the day, by the lovely Rodrigo y Gabriela.  I have mini-crushes on them both and their mad guitar skills.  I saw them last year at the Bowl and again this year with my sister...  we love them!

Roots + New Kids on the Block

And we're back!  Wow, I wish I was more computer savvy...

Anyway... summer!  Even though I don't always get breaks in the summer like I used to, I always think of them as being so much fun.  Fortunately, this summer I have quite a bit of free time, and better yet, I have my sister to come visit me!  Just in the last couple days, we've done some Santa Barbara, some spa, lots of shopping, and gotten sunburnt on the beach (much to my doctorly chagrin).  This past weekend, we saw an outdoor concert at the Hollywood Bowl -- if you've never been, my LA folks, go!  So with summertime concerts on my mind...

 

Roots:

I thought I would be really sad to pull out my tomato plant  which I had put so much blood, sweat, and tears into.  But it was actually a huge relief.  That tomato plant was stressing me out.

Anyway, once I pulled it, here's what I found -- a big ball of roots.  In the second photo, you can actually see how dense the roots got around the plant nanny that was stuck in the dirt there.  One of the primary issues with the plant was that I mistakenly put it in a too-small pot.  Here's what happens when you do that.  

 

Another interesting find whilst uprooting all the dead things was the dahlia tuber.  They are indeed tuberous.  If they had been healthy plants, I could've saved the tubers in a cool, dry place until next year and planted it indoors several weeks before planting it outside to regrow the same plant.  Here's what a dahlia's tuber looks like.  

 

New Kids on the Block:

Out with the old and in with the new.  As I mentioned in my last post, I've started getting more into cooking, in part with the help of a book called "Cooking for Geeks" (I've already learned a lot!).  One thing it mentions in the introduction is that the best and perhaps only way to learn to cook without burning out and quitting is to redefine success.  Instead of a perfect meal, success is having learned something, meaning that failure in the kitchen is a true success in the sense that it offers the most opportunity for learning.  I'm going to go ahead and say that applies to gardening as well.  And there is some joy to being able to pick out new and interesting plants.

So here's the newbies, good luck to you all.

Ptilotus "Joey"

 

An Australian native that I planted as a replacement for the tomato, this specific type of Ptilotus is an annual (meaning it will die at the end of the season), though perennials do exist.  It is touted as being very drought and heat resistant.  That's great!

It also has interesting cone shaped grey-pink flowers.

 

Yes, I instagram'd that.

Portulaca "Cupcake"

 

I picked this lovely plant because I loved the color with my tall yellow pot.  They will also theoretically slowly trail down the sides as they grow.

 

 

These plants are fleshy sun-lovers whose blooms open for a day in the sunlight and close forever at night.  Fortunately, there are a continuous crop of buds waiting to bloom each following day.  

Vinca

 

Also, known as the periwinkle, now's the time for these cute little flowers, often with differently colored centers.  I got them in an array of pink which I am partial to, and if all goes well, they will bloom through early fall.

 

These are also hardy plants with good heat and drought tolerances.

Maidenhair fern

One of my two hydrangeas died (the other one is doing great!).  So I replaced it by the relatively shady area next to the front door with this lovely fern, in part because my neighbor has a huge version of this plant and its leaves are just so delicate looking.

 

Ferns vary, but they generally lovely shady, moist areas (like forests).  They do not grow flowers but are grown for the fronds and reproduce by spores.  

 

How wonderful it is to have a whole new crop of plants growing rather than a bunch of dead plants judging me from outside...  I'm feeling optimistic!  

I leave you with a track that I dedicate to the scores of my LA friends who paid to see New Kids on the Block a week or two ago, you know who you are.  Here's the link.  (Yes, they are not only still around, but making new music...

An aside...

Having technical difficulties this week... <imagine some jeopardy-style music playing>

In the meantime, please enjoy this lovely flower I discovered at one of the Sawtelle nurseries: Passiflora, also known as Passion Flower...

Back soon!

Hot updates

Wow, it is HOT outside!  

True confessions:  when it gets really hot, my plants start looking like this:

...which makes me depressed to look at them, which makes me not go out there as much, which results in me neglecting my plants somewhat, which just worsens the whole situation.  It's a vicious cycle.

I've told you before about my habit of rapidly cycling through hobbies.  My husband who likes to make overly confident statements predicting my actions has said both that my garden "looks like it's in its dying cycle again" and that he thinks I will likely be "moving on soon from gardening."  ...thanks for the vote of confidence.

While I admit that my garden has looked somewhat ragged recently and I have eyed other interests I am planning on getting into with my new-found free time (namely cooking: I just bought "Cooking for Geeks" and am very excited about it as it approaches cooking from a scientific point of view), I am not intending on neglecting my garden, it's in my blood, people!  I've got a little bit longer, I've got a ways to go! (what a great song!)  So yes, here's some updates...

1. I am pronouncing the heirloom tomato project over, with an overall grade of D (not F because at least it did not die immediately). This is what the tomato looks like today:

*sigh*

I plan to pull it down later this afternoon (when it cools down a bit, my goodness!).  I really wanted to hold out hope.  My parents were here last weekend and helped me prune it and taught me about tapping on the stems with flowers to help stimulate pollination.  But this problem child has looked persistently out of control, Evan has complained persistently about what an eyesore it is, and despite being over 6 feet tall with many chances to have grown tomatoes by now, it has remained barren.  

Today, Evan also received a big bag of home grown tomatoes from someone lovely at work (thanks, Janice!). 

Upon seeing how prolific other people's tomatoes are, I'm saying, better luck next time and fare thee well in tomato heaven, Great White.

2. Not all things are terrible.  Here is a photo from today of the thriller filler spiller pot that I talked about in a recent post.  It looks great!  I will say the filler and spiller look somewhat more distinguishable in real life, but next time I may choose slightly more obviously different plants.  The Muehlenbeckia in particular has grown into a spectacular tangle of delicate little round leaves and the Fuchia has a number of beautiful flowers blooming constantly.

3. Our succulent science experiment is growing well.  Even the Crassula stem that I just tossed in there has sprouted roots and curved upward at the tip.  For comparison, here is the link to that first post.

4.  Actually, all my succulents are growing well.  I love succulents.  Pictured below is my gift succulent I've talked about before.  It's grown!

Also from Janice...  thank you!

5.  And lastly, to overcome this mid-summer gardening death depression, I went shopping today and-- surprise, surprise-- bought a number of new plants which I intend to plant tomorrow.  My sister is also coming to visit the day after tomorrow and her new man is joining next week, and naturally, I want to look like the green-thumbed gardener that I sometimes think that I am. So, lots of new and interesting plants (all heat and drought resistant!).  More later, but here's a preview of an exciting plant I had never seen before:

Ptilotus Joey (with Maidenhair Fern behind it)

And that is all for today.  Stay tuned and stay cool!

Hey Dahlia!

This week, I am dedicating my blog post to the wonderful, beautiful dahlia, since my planter of figaro dahlias has officially <cue music> bit the dust.  Of 6 total dahlias planted in various parts of my patios in various formats, only one remains semi-healthily alive (on the vertical planter) though flowerless.  Of the ones that did bloom, there was a hot pink, yellow, and peachy pink variety, all of which I've posted photos of before, and in honor of my poor dead dahlias, I will post again:

This was really my first foray into dahlia planting.  I personally like dahlias because not only are they beautiful, they also remind me of my opa who at one point behind his house in his hobby garden (as he also had greenhouses full of plants to sell in his working days) had a whole yard 10x12' plot of tall healthy vibrant dahlias.  I don't have a photo of his dahlias, so here's an old photo of me and Opa and Oma who are awesome:

yes, it's a photo of a photo... what?

I'm not the only one who loves dahlias though.  They are really popular!  If you venture over to www.dahlia.org, you will notice that there is a whole American Dahlia Society "Promoting and Supporting the Growing, Showing, and Enjoyment of Dahlias in North America".  It's a little nerdy and a lot awesome at the same time.  These people aren't messing around!

A Dahlia Society photo contest winner

But back to the popularity of the dahlia, similar to roses, there is a huge amount of variety.  Dahlias originated in Latin American and since then have been hybridized into an enormously diverse group of flowers "in all colors but true blue" (says the Sunset Western Garden Book).  Big, small, lots of petals, just a few petals, round, spiky, tall, bushy... you name it, you got a dahlia of your choosing.  Unless you're really into blue flowers.

Technically, they are perennials that grow from tubers that you can dig up at the end of the year and keep for the following year.  (If you're me, you buy them as a baby plant and then they die and you never see the tuber...)  Plant them in full sun unless you live in the Valley where it is hot as death in which case part shade is better and water regularly.  Different sources say different things, but regular fertilizing while blooming is probably good practice.  And bloom they will, from mid-summer to first frost.  To show off your hard work indoors, pick nearly mature flowers in the morning and stand them in a few inches of warm to hot water for several hours after which point they should be good to go for display.

As for the demise of the dahlia, there are the usual issues (over or under-watering, root rot, too hot/cold, and general neglect) and there are one or two others.  I have noticed that tall dahlias tend to fall down a lot without support, much like my problem child heirloom tomato.  But my dahlias are not tall.  Nope, the death of my dahlias was, I suspect, the dahlia mosaic virus.  Yes!  Can you believe there is a specific virus that infects dahlias?  (There are actually around 12 such viruses).  The virus spreads slowly via their vector, the aphid (again with the aphids!).  The result is weird patterns, yellow spots, stunting, and distorted leaves.  Other viruses can cause leaf necrosis (ie, leaf death).  And another common problem that looks the same is the red spider mite, difficult to see without magnification.  I am not entirely sure what killed my dahlias, but here is what happened, and it slowly spread from one plant to another like a virus...  

Early effects

Later... still blooming, but yikes

So that's that.  Dahlias, it's been lovely.  I leave you with some floral eye candy of the darling dahlia.













Yes, they are all dahlias!  And lest I break some copyright law (seriously someone tell me if I'm breaking the law... I am but a newbie blogger!), the source links are here, here, here, here, and here, respectively.  Happy gardening!