How to Make Your Own Wine
Winemaking in Woodland Hills? Why not? Grapevines can be grown almost anywhere, including Woodland Hills, which has the highest recorded temperatures in the summers and lowest in the winters in Los A...
Category Archives: Special Plants
Sorrel: Romantic Interlude
Around a corner it suddenly will surprise you. You didn’t plant it, though it seems to have found its way into every part of your garden. It must have been popular at one time, because you see ...
Water-thrifty plants to grow in your parkway
I am forever on the lookout for successful parkway plants. Here, parkways refer to those narrow strips of ground in residential neighborhoods between sidewalk and street. Traditionally, parkways have...
Agave, asparagus botanically related
Have you ever noticed how the emerging flower stalk of an agave resembles an asparagus spear? It turns out that both agave and asparagus are in the same botanical family (Asparagaceae). Agave, howeve...
Sensible choices for growing trees in limited spaces
Just the other day, in North Hollywood on Sylvan Street, I bumped into two of my favorite trees. One was a pineapple guava (Acca or Feijoa sellowiana) and the other was a mayten (Maytenus boaria). Fo...
The cactus with the most beautiful flowers
Nowadays, it is rare to receive a letter by snail mail. You know, the old-fashioned way that mail was sent, before the advent of personal computers and e-mail. Surely you remember. Not too long ago, ...
Heat-loving ground cover provides beauty, saves water
No doubt you have seen a “Baby on Board” sign in the rear window of a car at one time or another. This sign, it would appear, is meant to alert other drivers to the possibility of unpredi...
How to get ‘Mystery’ gardenias to flourish
I am infatuated with my ‘Mystery’ gardenias. Flowers are large, snowy white, and powerfully fragrant and foliage is a lush dark green. Watering is done by hose once a week. Where plants a...
Captivating manzanita is botanical perfection
There are some plants that you only need to encounter once and, instantly, you feel a connection to them that goes straight into your soul. They are like those rare people whom you meet by chance and...
How plants can grow in the least hospitable places
Plants can grow just about anywhere, including on steep embankments and precipitous slopes. I have even seen them growing out of cracks in walls, whether naturally rocky cliffsides or man-made fortre...
