Favorite Red Flowers
Red is the most powerful color. If you put it near your front door, you will quickly tire of it. A red hedge of roses or poinsettias looks good when you are moving, whether down a path or down a r...
Category Archives: Special Plants
Irises, Lemon Fragrances, and Strawberry Trees
“The sages taught: whenever you see a beautiful tree (or animal, or human being), you should bless God for having created it.” This instruction was recorded nearly 2000 years ago in the Babylonian Ta...
Small is Beautiful in the Garden, too
“Small is Beautful” was a best-selling collection of essays on economics written in 1973. The lifestyle encourage by the author, E.F. Schumacher, would lead to “the maximum amount of well being with ...
7 Botanical Wonders of Los Angeles (1,2,3 &4)
7 Botanical Wonders of Los Angeles (1,2,3 &4) If you are considering sights to see during the holidays, I have some suggestions for you. Call them the seven wonders of our local botanical...
Jurassic Garden of Cycads
It was in 1989 that Maurice Levin, who was visiting Caneel Bay in the Virgin Islands, noticed the uniqueness of cycads for the first time. He asked his guide about them and learned that these 100-mil...
Spring Is Sooner Recognized by Plants Than People
Spring is sooner recognized by plants than by people, the Chinese proverb goes. Unless, you could add, those people live in Southern California. By February, if not sooner, gardeners already are digg...
Oleanders and Their Replacements
Q. I have oleanders that are dead or dying. I am told this is due to the sharpshooter insect and that there is nothing that can be done to get rid of this pest. The plants are about 6-feet-high and a...
Growing Fruits and Vegetables from Their Seeds
I went to visit my family in Iran after an absence of 18 years and brought back pomegranate seeds from my mom’s garden. I dried them in the sun and left some in the freezer and some in the refr...
Silverberrry: Abe Lincoln of Plants
Imagine a plant that produces fragrant flowers and edible fruit, grows in sun or shade, tolerates heat, wind and ocean spray, requires a scant amount of water and never needs to be fertilized. As if ...
Bonsai for Spiritual Enrichment
For the longest time I’ve had a vision when stopped at the corner of De Soto Avenue and Oxnard Street, along that vast stretch of magnificently sloping land called Warner Ridge. I see a Valley ...
