Euphorbia Trees and Growing Cherimoyas
At one time or another, most of us have probably seen one of those television shows that highlight valuable works of art, antiques, or odd ball memorabilia that were found quite by chance in someone’...
Category Archives: Succulents
Dragon Fruit Experiences and Smoke Trees
Imagine a cactus that grows rapidly in ordinary garden soil and whose luscious fruit are on sale at the supermarket for $4.99 per pound. Would you want to try to grow that cactus? I recently wrote ab...
Dragon Fruit
It’s about time you considered growing dragon fruit, also known as pitaya. Although dragon fruit is native to the Central American and South American tropics, I have seen it growing in the San Fernan...
Tequila Farmers
“Is the life of an Agave lengthened if its flower stalk is cut off early? I noticed that the blue tequila agave farmers in Mexico keep them trimmed off.” Tom Gearhart, Valley Village That’s an excel...
Bower Vine, Grevillea, Queen Victoria Agave
Every now and then I see a plant that I must photograph right then and there, come what may. It might mean climbing a tree and precariously straddling a branch, or parking on the shoulder of a freew...
Kalanchoe, ka-lan-KO-ee, ka-lan-CHO-ee
The name Kalanchoe — pronounce it either ka-lan-KO-ee or ka-lan-CHO-ee and you’ll be just fine — may sound strange and foreboding and, if truth be told, some of the plants included in thi...
7 Botanical Wonders of Los Angeles (5,6 & 7)
In last week’s column, I mentioned four horticultural marvels: a magnificent Torrey pine in the Mildred Mathias Garden at UCLA, a 700 year old coast live oak at Orcutt Ranch in West Hills, a grove o...
Goodbye Stocks, Hello Exotics
If you visit Worldwide Exotics Nursery in Lakeview Terrace, I promise that you will encounter numerous plants that you have never seen before and will probably never see again, unless you take...
Don’t Forget to Notice the Natives
You know you’re getting old when time worn clichés begin to ring true. One of those clichés admonishes us: “don’t forget to stop and smell the roses,” to which I would add, “and don’t forget to stop...
Perennial Succulent Color
The gardener’s call for vivid color may be answered not only by water-needy annual flowers but by perennial, drought tolerant succulents as well. Anyone who doubts the veracity of this claim need on...
