Summer's End .. Gorgeous Grasses

Delicate plumes brush against the face along the entry path to Alice's Garden.

Photo © ALICE JOYCE

The showy display of Stipa - a welcome element in September.

Photos © ALICE JOYCE

And on the road... where late-summer gardens are buzzing with the effects of ornamental and native grasses! 

Texture .. Architecture - Plants as Ornament

Living Green Wall ..Hotel Modera in downtown Portland.   

An element of the hotel building's mid-century modern design: 

The courtyard landscape features soft pillows of golden Scotch Moss - Sagina subulata 'Aurea' ...set into the pavement.

Silky ... The inspiration for Bay Area Tendrils:

Clematis tibetana seedheads in Autumn - Alice's Garden.

Formidable architecture of an Aloe in bloom - Getty Center, Los Angeles.

Bedazzling ... Vertical structure of Himalayan blue bamboo:

Entry Garden Borders - San Francisco Botanical Garden

Pendulant, Promiscuous Cerinthe!

Cerinthe major purpurescens

Although slow to colonize here in Alice's Garden, the richly graduated shades of blue, purple and green of Cerinthe are now rampant, bolstering the planting in the garden's central bed. I extended an invitation to this self-sowing annual years ago, but its promiscuous nature has only recently taken hold in the loamy soil. I find the flower color to be reminiscent of Han Purple, an ancient pigment found in the decoration of China's terra cotta army figures. Oe perhaps the color is more akin to the Royal Purple associated with Medieval Europe. In general, I am put off by the color purple for clothing or decor. But in the garden, I revel in the contrast between the bracts' blue-purple hues and the rounded, pale blue-green leaves.

Garden Fever .... An Agreeable Condition

In a reflective mood since receiving the award yesterday on Blotanical,

for Best California Blog.

Although a few have been deleted, 

the tally shows 130 features on Bay Area Tendrils since January 13th, 2009.

One problem is not yet solved: 

I've yet to convert my library of thousands of slides from garden visits.

 Only a very few have been scanned, like a vignette from

Le Jardin de l'Alchimiste in Provence.

I can never convey the sensory euphoria of fragrance and texture, the light and atmosphere

experienced while alone in the White Garden; totally immersed in its beauty. 

One of my first features included a scanned photograph of the doyen of English gardening shortly before his death: Christopher Lloyd, unphased by the rain, leads us from one garden room to the next on a tour of Great Dixter.

When I registered on Blotanical, I listed Great Dixter as the garden I wished most to see, 

and that I had, in fact seen it.

Actually, not true. 

Garden Fever is an agreeable condition, but forceful in its way. 

There are innumerable gardens I hope to visit, despite fond memories of 

Great Dixter's perfect presentation of Arts & Crafts structure with contemporary panache.

A garden writer can't go wrong when featuring a major historic site of exquisite resonance:

Spain's Alhambra & gardens of El Generalife.

However...

when Bay Area Tendrils Garden Travel

 features a stunning Modernist landscape, 

such as the expansive

 Parc André Citroën

 in Paris, the response is generally less enthusiastic.

I love every type of garden, perhaps in equal measure.

I'll have to think about it, but this may be the case.

Events such as The Late Show Gardens

.... inaugurated this September in California Wine Country, 

give me reason to ponder and write about important issues such as climate change,

while soaking up ideas, innovative designs, 

and the opportunity to peruse the best of the best new plants.

The photo above - a detail - is from opening day of The Late Show Gardens,

the day after I first photographed 

 The Grow Melt Project 

during the Preview Party. 

Roasting temperatures in Sonoma caused the wall of ice to melt rapidly.

Today in my garden, Scrophularia 'Lemon and Lime' ...

I'm a plant geek, what can I say.

- Congrats to all the Blotanical finalists and winners -

It's a great group, good wishes to my California cohorts!

Town Mouse and Country Mouse

Daffodil Planter

Tulips in the Woods

Cindees Garden

A Bias for Blue! Drought-tolerant Perennial with Panache

Take a gander at 'Blue Throatwort' - Trachelium caeruleum! 

Native to the Mediterranean region, this clump-former is perennial in USDA Zones 7-11, growing with vigor as an annual in colder climates.

Some 3 to 4 feet tall, blue throatwort boasts large, dome-shaped umbels composed of countless miniature individual blue-violet flowers. 

They're said to be lightly scented, but I haven't noticed any fragrance. 

The botanical name, Trachelium is a reference to the neck: it was once thought to cure throat maladies.

Blue throatwort is not a fusspot! 

Rather, it's adaptable and drought tolerant, growing in my garden in both rich soil and lean, performing most vigorously in sun, although it has emerged and bloomed in a shadier spot, too. 

Staking is often necessary. I stake loosely, and the tallest stems take on an interesting curvature. 

Expect plants to die back after a couple years, but look for new, self-sown specimens that may appear close by. Deadheading results in second flush of blooms, although flower heads are smaller and not as impressive.  Old-fashioned throatwort makes a lovely dried flower if you cut the long, strong stems as they reach full bloom.  Strip away the leaves and arrange them in a tall vase, where they will dry naturally over time.  In a year-round garden border, the blooms of throatwort complement the deeply toothed, silvery foliage of honey bush (Melianthus major), and the felted gray leaves of Plectranthus argentatus.

A Bloomsbury Bouquet - Inspired by Vanessa Bell

Interior with Table by Vanessa Bell

January 16, 2012 How time flies.... When I began blogging in 2009, the Sussex homes of the Bloomsbury Group were high on the list of places I yearned to visit. Monk's House and Charleston Farmhouse did not disappoint when at last I toured the buildings and the gardens.

 You can link to features from my first visit in 2010 on Alice's Garden Travel Buzz.

In 2011 I returned once again to Sussex! There's so much to see, and such an atmosphere to soak up that I wish it were possible to visit yearly. The original blog appears below...

Spring by Vanessa Bell

Roses and Tile by Vanessa Bell

Virginia and Vanessa Stephens

Whether designing our gardens, or creating art in other media, 

inspiration can arrive unexpectedly. 

I've been savoring the new novel by Susan Sellers, Vanessa & Virginia, a fictional rendering of the relationship between the brilliant writer, Virginia Woolf, and her sister, Vanessa Bell.

One day I'm hoping to visit Lewes in East Sussex, where the Stephens sisters lived with their husbands: Virginia and Leonard Woolf at Monk's House (now a National Trust property), and Vanessa and Clive Bell at their country place, Charleston House. 

I must be satisfied for now with the lush imagery of Seller's prose, which has me enthralled.

 My mind's eye... awash with floral bouquets in color harmonies I imagine Vanessa might have painted. 

Link to Charleston - An Artists Home and Garden

http://www.charleston.org.uk/

Ricinus 'Carmencita' - Plants with Panache

Plants with Panache  -  Ricinus communis 'Carmencita' ((under construction))

Plant Family: Euphorbiaceae (spurge)

The tender, shrubby castor bean is a half-hardy annual that often performs like a short-lived evergreen perennial in my Northern California garden, growing from 3 to 15 feet tall and 3 feet wide with broad, deeply divided palmate leaves that can reach 12 to 18 inches across. The only species in the genus, R. communis has foliage and stems that are generally green or an undistinguished gray-green. The choice variety, 'Carmencita,' is strikingly colored, with ornamental foliage a mahogany to red to purple hue. Look for the eye-popping inflorescence, with insignificant flowers that form as summer draws to a close, followed into the fall by brilliantly red spiny seedpods held aloft on long stalks (peduncles). Especially on older plants, main stems become woody and the upper growth noticeably softer.

The profile of the seed is the basis for the botanical name, which means common tick!

Note: All plant parts are poisonous, particularly the seeds, so you won't want to grow castor bean around children.

In a hot, sunny location, castor bean flourishes in humus-rich, well-drained, moisture-retentive soil. Under these conditions, plants may grow treelike in two months' time. Plant seeds directly in the ground when all chance of frost is past. In late spring, before the ground warms, you can grow seeds indoors in peat pots for four to six weeks, then settle the potted seedling in a spot where the showy plant architecture is meant to be a focal point. Young, self-sown plants do not fare well when pulled up and relocated. In general, castor bean roots should not be disturbed.

Listed as an invasive plant in Florida and Hawaii, I find that in my Marin county garden, with frosty nights and soggy winter soil, almost every self-sown seedling is killed off.

If you're going for a tropical look, castor bean is an unbeatable specimen for containers or in the ground. Still, in the first growing year, gardeners should monitor plants to be certain that not too many plants survive the winter and that none escape from the garden. 

If a problem is identified, it's good practice to clip off the entire flowering stalk as soon as the seedpods begin to fade, so there's no possibility of plants overwhelming an area. Or focus on the dramatic foliage and immediately remove any flowering racemes as soon as they emerge.

If you do clip the stalk after seed capsules form, you can harvest the beans to propagate more plants. Once the capsules mature, they begin to split, making it easy to collect the seeds. Store in a clean, dry container and label it clearly.

For a handsome plant marriage, combine castor bean, with its oddly thorny seedpods, and clary sage (Salvia sclarea), a floriferous biennial herb boasting terminal spikes & showy bracts.

I've witnessed surprising differences in the size and longevity of plants in my garden. One towering plant developed a central treelike stem and a sprawling branching habit, living for three years. Another remained compact and never thrived.

Provide good air circulation and a consistent temperature of 60 degrees or warmer to avoid seedling blight when propagating. Plants in the garden are generally trouble free.

Plant society seed exchanges can be a source for castor bean seeds.

Thompson & Morgan at times offers seeds of Ricinus communis 'Carmencita' online at www.seeds.thompson-morgan.com.