I love plants.

That is such a cool flower! I bought something at Roger's Garden's today that might be Hoodia. I have to bring it up to the computer and compare it to photos.

Roger's Gardens is legendary and I can now see why. Quite an interesting selection of plants and the the whole place is nicely laid out. They had some Gasteraloe's I hadn't seen so I bought the most prolific-looking specimens of three to propagate for next year. Oh but it will be dull this winter if growth rates slow.

I also got a very fragrant pink carnation for my collection of very fragrant carnations. They are going to look great all humped together in a bed some day.

Rob and Marcella made terrariums last night. M filled a large footed jar with sand and planted a 6" high baby Saguaro in it. She poked down against the glass to draw sand from higher layers down through a few lower layers. The effect is like chocolate frosting dripping off a cake. I have forgotten what Rob did; something with an egg cup. Oh yes, he took some Conos with my approval, although my approval was reluctant to say the least. I put 3 small plants and a plastic pit bull in a square pot. The pot's surface was divided in a 2x2 grid; each item got one square. The dog's entire square was covered with a layer of beige sand that conceals the dark soil.

I also got a nice small columnar cactus at Roger's that was $12.99 and had a few spires in one pot. I hope it stays this cute. Finding out what it is is going to take a while. All the Cereus-type cacti are pretty similar.

Something interesting another day, I promise.

Octember

Well, I thought it was still October. I'm not wrapping my head around this whole November thing. That's partly because I do not feel as bombarded as usual by holiday themed advertising this year. I suppose advertisers have scaled back like the rest of us have.

What's that got to do with my garden? Bloody nothing, as I am sure you'd noticed.

All right then. What is going on?

The lawn is all green and ready for a trim. I must take pictures to send to the city to get into the lawn removal rebate program. For every sf I get rid of and replace with mulch or something else, I shall receive one dollar. Open to lawns in the City of Los Angeles.

The Gasteraloes are blooming again, some with a fury. By that I mean that some have two flower stalks. The new ones, which lack the pink decorations, are not blooming. I got those at Descanso this fall.

I guess I haven't mentioned what else I got there. I got a Saguaro for mom for Christmas, a Bismarckia (blue fan leaves; different from the Brahea), a blue med fan palm. Something glauca of course. This was bought from a retiring Mt Sac Hort prof. In my next life I will study hort in school. Home study is darned good also, but the more people to talk about plants with, the better.

One of Jero's Streilitzia nicholii (sp?) offsets has rooted. It's the larger of the two I checked. The other one had not rooted but is alive. The big Philodendron seems to have rooted. I got tired of all my indoor attempts and finally just shoved it in the barrel of calla persistence (BCP) and put a pot on it (Solandra grandiflora) to hold it down. I took the pot off and gave the Phil a good tug...nothing doing, it seems to have rooted. We shall see. I wonder if it will wait until spring to do anything. It's a climber with three-lobed leaves.

Well, to be frank I am more interested in soil content that what's above it these days. I wonder if there's any gold on my property :)