New Baby Succulents!

If you read last week's post, you probably have an idea of where I am going this week...  Succulents!  As I mentioned before, these lovely little plants are easy to grow and by extension, for me at least, the habit of buying and planting these is a bit addictive.  Discovering the ability to propagate succulents on my own just adds another dimension of interest.  

So allow me to show you this week's awesome -- new baby succulents!

At The Jungle, I bought a couple newbies:

Crassula marnieriana

A purple Echeveria

And a mystery succulent  (there were no tags on this plant and in my excitement, I forgot to ask)

You may also remember that makeshift baby succulent nursery I had going on with the products of my science experiment:

The goal for the week was to replant some of these propagated succulents and also fill a few pots that had become available -- one from an orchid that died and another pot-set that I got from my in-laws, originally for the purpose of growing herb seeds.  Here is a sample pot from the pot-set:

Sometimes these indoor pots are tricky -- if they have drainage holes on the bottom, then you need to put them on something so you don't make a puddle inside your house.  If they don't (as this pot-set doesn't), then it can be hard to know how much to water them.  As you can see, these pots have a little... I am not sure what to call it... shelf thing inside that you can either put rocks underneath or nothing (though some soil will fall through) with the idea that extra water collects there.  Regardless, whenever in need of something that will not be finicky with water... choose succulents!

The propagated succulents actually had a pretty extensive root system for how small the plants are.  I was surprised:

And I used a few small clay pots as well as recycled plastic pots to replant these little babies:

The largest of the propagated baby Echeveria I planted as a third plant in the pot-set, along with the purple Echeveria, and the mystery succulent:

And lastly, my new Crassula got a special place in a white textured pot which I think complements its colors and unique look perfectly:

Before you go, here's some UB40, because it's that kind of week.  xoxo!

Welcome to The Jungle!

Happy Valentine's/President's Day Weekend!  I hope you all had a lovely time, whether you actually had the day off or not.  I had the great fortune of going up to Mammoth with our church small group and had a fun time playing in snow and hanging out with friends.  The fresh fluffy snow was a blessing because this season has been unusually dry.  So dry in fact, that a lot of winter sports industries/resorts have suffered... including dog sledding which we were as a result unable to do this weekend.  (I was crushed not to be able to play with a herd of dogs, naturally.  Evan was relieved that he escaped having to do another of my "romantic" ventures.)  But truly though, there has been quite a drought in California.

So what to do in the garden when there's no water?  Go to The Jungle! 

Before you continue, here's some background music...

I made this discovery a few weeks ago.  Someone had suggested this as the place to go for air plants (I will be writing a whole separate post about these wonderful and increasingly popular plants later), but I hadn't actually made the trek until I needed a few succulents for a planter recently.  And oh my, do they have some succulents:

I was quite impressed.  As a regular at Armstrong Garden Center, I am used to a relatively small selection of succulents.  The Jungle, on the other hand, has innumerable species of tropical plants and specifically succulents in a variety of different sizes.  

For the uninitiated, succulents are amazing plants

1) They do not need much water (what drought?)

2) As a result, they are rather hard to kill -- if you forget to water them for a few weeks even, they will forgive you.

3) Thus, they are great for beginners or anyone else who wants to feel like a great gardener.

4) And as a bonus, they are beautiful plants.

As a result of all of these facts, if you have been keeping up with my blog, you know that I have come to love succulents more and more.  They are weird and wonderful and my garden is slowly filling up with them.

I should mention, this place did not disappoint in the air plant department either.  They had tillandsia in several varieties and sizes as well.  The prices were more than I expected -- $10 for a large tillandsia and $3 for a tiny one -- but hey, I haven't found these air plants anywhere else and they cost more than that online.  (I bought 3 little ones... how could I not?)

So I will definitely be coming back to The Jungle, which in addition to the great selection has a great laid-back vibe, down to the reggae music playing by the cash register.  

Here was my loot for the day:

$22 of happiness

Not bad, huh?  The Jungle is located at 1900 Sawtelle Blvd, Los Angeles, CA 90025.  Here is there website which has a long list of plants they carry, many with descriptions and some with pictures.  Also in the neighborhood are a couple other plant nurseries which have more flowers and what you typically expect to find at a garden center, as well as all of Little Tokyo West where you can eat a great bowl of ramen after your plant shopping.

To all my LA readers, go visit and see what your fancy leads you to!  For all my non-LA readers..... stay warm!!!

Revisiting TFS

Great news!  We are not moving!  We will get to stay in our apartment for one more year.....  which means one more year in my lovely patio, gardening!  I appreciate my garden that much more, having faced the prospect of losing the opportunity to garden!

Well, as soon as I found this out, I did not waste any time.  Last week my front stoop got a much needed makeover.  You may remember our "thriller filler spiller" pot from last June.

If you don't, here is what it started of as:

Very cute

It turned into this:

A bit overgrown

Which turned into this:

Disaster

Now there are a few things going wrong here.

1) The "thriller" fuchsia plant, instead of growing out and full, turned "leggy", growing up and up.  I tried pruning it a bit when this happened, but it was too little too late.  Furthermore, the flowers always grew at the top, and it hurt me to chop off these tiny dancers

2) The "filler" Helichysum, while a lovely color, was not a filler at all.  It too grew long and leggy.

3) Let's be honest, do you ever see the same plant outside a well-manicured building in the summer to winter?  No.  I should have replanted long ago, but I was hopeful because the fuchsia was is a perennial.

About the only thing that did not disappoint was the "spiller" Muehlenbeckia.  But even that grew a bit aggressively for my tastes, choking out the other plants a bit.

So anyway, it was time to start over.  Learning from my mistakes, I went back to Armstrong to look for a new thriller, filler, spiller.  Specifically, my wish list included a filler that I knew was going to grow into a small dense plant and a softer spiller that maybe would not be so viney.  Having loved the fuchsia's blooms, I wanted to try them again if it was possible that I could find a plant that would somehow grow into a fuller plant.  I didn't have the bug problems I was worrying about with the first one.  So here's the new front door plant family:

Fuchsia = "Thriller"

Notice that this one has more stems, 6 to be total.  According to the people at the gardening center, the pruning has to begin early -- much earlier than the stage you see the plant in now.  The downside of picking this bushier one was that I did not get the multi-colored blooming fuchsia that I preferred (those were already all tall and skinny), but I think these will be quite beautiful as well.

Beautiful Begonia = "Filler"

These popular flowers have somewhat unusual blooms with big waxy leaves that add a nice texture and contrast.  They will also always remind me of my opa who once visited us in Texas.  My dad was convinced no flower could really successfully grow in the Texas heat and our dense clay-like dirt.  And yet, Opa came to visit, planted a bunch of begonias which grew into a luscious garden.  And even came back the next year.  It was amazing.  

Dichondra, aka Silver Falls = "Spiller"

I like the delicate silvery shiny look of these leaves.  And I feel like anything called "Silver Falls" is going to be a good trailing plant.

Here is the final product!  What do you think?

Good luck pot!

Lastly, regardless of how your week is going, today is hump day, and I would like to give you two mid-week pick-me-ups.  First, a few reasons to smile!  And secondly, music from The Lego Movie, which you should definitely watch (warning: if you listen to the clip, you will probably have "Everything is Awesome!" stuck in your head for the rest of the week... is that a bad thing?)  Happy early Valentine's Day! 

Bzzzz

Check back in a few days for this week's full post... I've been working quite a bit but have also been an equally busy bee in the garden, so a few exciting things are happening...

Here's a preview of one of the new additions I'll be talking about this week:

Stay tuned and stay warm!

LA Tourist for a Day!

This week, I had the great pleasure of a visit from one of my Dutch cousins who currently lives in Switzerland.  This being his first visit to LA, naturally I had to show him the sights!

Right before eating one of LA's best burgers at Plan Check

We did quite a bit...  we hit Hollywood, Beverly Hills, Malibu, and Venice all in one day.  And along the way, I got to revisit some of my favorite places.  

His personal favorite spot from the day was the Getty Villa (good choice!).  Originally, we had intended to go to the Getty Museum, but discovered at the last minute it was closed, and being fortunate enough to get tickets (they are free) over the phone, we instead went to the Getty Villa once again which did not disappoint.

I love getting LA's best spots all to myself!

You may remember the Getty Villa from a previous post.  That visit was in July.  Coming in the winter was nice... less tourists and different flowers.  While most of the herb garden was in regeneration mode, there were quite a few bulb flowers in bloom as well as hollyhocks which normally bloom mid-summer.  I guess winter in LA is like spring everywhere else.  Given the polar vortex situation on the east coast, I am not sad about lacking seasons.

Bulbs

I think this is a multi-petaled narcissus

Daffodil enjoying the sun

Hollyhocks

The feeeeesh

And of course there was some art too.  This is one of my favorite pieces there.

It is a statue that was submerged in the ocean for many years, such that part of it had barnacles and sea creatures growing all over it while the rest of it is smooth and preserved.

After the Getty Villa, we continued up PCH to Point Dume for some pretty vistas. 

I first visited Point Dume several years ago when a few surf buddies very well-versed in the LA area surf options and I went on a hunt for waves.  We stopped at pretty much every surf spot in LA north of Santa Monica (there are a lot).  This is by far the most breathtaking.  And it is one of my favorite spots in the LA area.  We actually took some of our engagement photos here.  Later in the year, all the brush that covers this little nature preserve will burst into bloom with yellow flowers.  People tend to think of LA as gross and covered with traffic (it can be), but if you know where to look, LA is really beautiful!

I could watch surfers all day forever

Well, I don't know if you've seen the new iPad Air commercial, but it quotes Walt Whitman's poetry.  The version I have seen on TV quotes only the last portion.  I find it slightly presumptuous to suggest that the iPad Air will really change your life so dramatically, but such is advertising.  And at the end of the day, I really like the commercial because 1) it's quite beautiful and 2) the poem, with which I had not been previously familiar, is amazing.

O Me! O Life!

BY WALT WHITMAN

Oh me! Oh life! of the questions of these recurring,

Of the endless trains of the faithless, of cities fill’d with the foolish,

Of myself forever reproaching myself, (for who more foolish than I, and who more faithless?)

Of eyes that vainly crave the light, of the objects mean, of the struggle ever renew’d,

Of the poor results of all, of the plodding and sordid crowds I see around me,

Of the empty and useless years of the rest, with the rest me intertwined,

The question, O me! so sad, recurring—What good amid these, O me, O life?

                                       Answer.

That you are here—that life exists and identity,

That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.

Here is a link to the full-length commercial.  And while you're pondering that, here is one more thought:  John Wayne got to leave a permanent mark on the world (in wet concrete at Mann's Chinese theatre), and it was a fist bump.

How awesome is that?  What will your verse be, indeed.