The trip to Rancho la Puerta begins and ends at the San Diego airport. This was my first time to Southern California, and since it turned out to be cheaper (due to the New Year travel rush) to stay a few days in San Diego than fly home straight away, we took advantage to enjoy a bonus day and a half in the city.

Having now had a chance to see first hand what gardening is like in Southern California, I can say with authority that I would move there in a heartbeat to enjoy that luscious, long-season growing. I spent the last few minutes before we had to head to the airport running from one neglected front yard citrus tree to the next screaming (mostly on the inside), “Dear god, look at all of these oranges!”

If it were not for the state of traffic and poor public transportation options, I would be cranking up the Zeppelin and packing my bags right now. I can’t live in a car dependent city, never mind the fact that my stomach was in my throat every time we got on the road. Since I’m being honest, the earthquakes freak me out a bit, too.

This garden was the first I saw when we arrived at our hotel. You’ll recognize the large clumps of blooming bird of paradise (Strelitzia). It seems to grow like a weed here and I noticed that it was a public garden planting favourite. But the real show-stopper, the plant that I could almost leave my bike-riding, public transportation utopia for is the giant Dr. Suess-like Fox Tail Agave (Agave attenuata).

My god, that is the most phenomenal agave I have ever seen in my life! Alas, I try my best to keep my little collection of potted agaves healthy, but what I wouldn’t give to grow a massive cluster like this.

There are several benefits to living and gardening in a southern climate, but it’s the promise of a killer agave garden that gets to me most.

I need some colour today and came upon this image when randomly perusing my photo archives. Doesn’t it look like fallen Autumn leaves?

I took this photo in Thailand, at the Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhon Herbal Garden in Rayong. Tropical trees are not my strong suit; however, I am pretty sure that what you are looking at are the discarded stamens of a Royal Poinciana (Delonix regia) tree. I suppose they could also be fallen Red Powder Puff flowers (Calliandra haematocephala), but the close up photos I took indicate otherwise.

Looking back at the photos I took during our short visit to the garden, nearly all of them are of strange and unidentifiable oddities that were either up in the trees or fallen on the ground.

Later, at the gift shop, I bought some corn milk (one of several interesting beverages that I sampled on the trip) and was gifted a tomato face mask by a fellow garden writer also on the tour.

I’ve just added several photos of things I bought in Thailand to the You Grow Girl Flickr stream.

This cluster of hanging baskets photographed in the Tropical High Elevation House at the Atlanta Botanical Gardens harbours a secret. It took three trips to the room before we spotted them.

Once we saw them, we started to see the teeniest orchid flowers all around us, blooming from plants living in baskets and attached to trees. Makes me wonder what else I have missed in the past.

I can not claim responsibility for this brilliant zoom-in idea. It is the brainchild of my friend Barry Parker.

This year I decided to try two new radishes in my newly built raised beds and have had equal success with both.

The first is ‘Zlata’ a small radish from Poland that is generously described as soft yellow (and often Photoshopped that way in online seed catalogues), but in my opinion turned out something much closer to beige. I didn’t pull any Photoshop trickery with the above image; that’s the colour they’ve been consistently coming up as. The interior is white. Regardless of colour, it is a good mild and crisp radish. It’s doing great with recent heatwaves and drought. My ‘Sparkler’ and ‘French Breakfast’ radishes have run out of steam, but the ‘Zlatas’ seem to be pulling through. I bought mine from Solana Seeds but they seem to be fairly widely available now.

Equally crisp and mild are ‘Pink Punch’ a variety I ordered from Renee’s Garden. Some seeds were sent to me by Renee’s for trial while others were purchased and I can’t recall which category these seeds fall under so I’m making that disclosure in case they weren’t a purchase. ‘Pink Punch’ is a very apt name for this variety as they remind me of my homemade Pink Lemonade. I will definitely grow these again next spring, but for now it is onto ‘Rattail’ radishes as the heat is too high for the regular root kind.

More can be found here about growing radishes as well as growing in containers.

Stemless Thistle (Onopordum acaulon), hands down the most memorable plant of our trip to Denver.

I REALLY want to grow this one in my own garden and am now looking for some seeds to purchase.* I have a soft spot for thistles, so much so that I won’t pull the wild growing ones when they are seedlings, only to suffer the consequences later.

* Some places have declared this plant an invasive pest. Worth looking into before adding it to your garden.

Davin and I were taken with this flowering cactus (Echinocereus viridiflorus)
in the Alpine Garden at the Denver Botanic Gardens.

Here’s an in context shot so that you can see how the plant was growing in a stone trough.

I looked the genus up on the United States Department of Agriculture Plants Database and was shocked to find that some species of Echinocereus are distributed around parts of Colorado and the surrounding states.

I can’t believe how much unexpected plant knowledge was picked up on our short trip. I really want to go back to this part of the United States again. There was so much to see that interested me. I can’t wait to show you more.

Another corner of my garden. This is fuzzy ‘Pineapple’ mint growing in a pot. I’ve resolved to grow all of my mint in pots this year. Contrary to reputation, mints behave rather well over at my community garden. The trick to keeping them under control seems to be growing them in less than ideal conditions. Plus, over there they have to fight against the wild and alpine strawberries for supreme dominance and guess who’s winning that war?

Here though, I expect mint to flourish and then some so I’m playing it safe for now. Everyone in pots!

The pretty floral design seen in the shot (above) is the top of a foot stool I found in the garbage the other night. Going out on garbage night around here is like going shopping! We’ve done well outfitting the garden with our neighbours’ discards.

The stool is red and the top is covered in this amazingly vibrant plastic mac-tac. I LOVE it! If the previous owner comes across this photo and realizes their mistake: I’m sorry but you can’t have it back.

This pretty blue flower is shoofly aka Apple of Peru (Nicandra physalodes), a strange solanum that I am growing for the first time this year.

I purchased the seeds last year at the Montreal Seedy Saturday but was unable to grow them as I quickly ran out of space. I’m STILL trying to find space for some of the seed I bought at that event. This year I wanted to make it a priority and sowed the seeds indoors quite early to ensure they would be a nice size by late spring. As you can see, they are already flowering.

Homegrown Mosquito Repellent?

Besides the beautiful blue flowers and Chinese Lantern-like seed pods, Nicandra is often grown for its insect repellent properties. Apparently people rub the dried seed pods, seeds, and chafe on their skin to ward off biting mosquitos. If this really works it could be a bit of revelation for me as I do not like using Deet and I am the first person to get bit (and viciously) no matter the size of the group I am with. Despite the fact that it is natural, I think I will do some more research into the plant’s chemical components before I go rubbing it into my skin or on my hands and face. If you’ve had any experience using this plant as a repellent please weigh in through the comments. I’d love to hear of your experiences.

Until I’ve done my homework and am thoroughly satisfied of its safety, I’m resigned to happily appreciate the look of the plant in the garden. As an added bonus (and despite its reputation) the flowers are attracting pollinators like this wee hoverfly. And I am in favour of anything that will bring in pollinators to our previously barren backyard.

Warning: Nicandra is a self-seeding menace and extremely invasive. I plan to keep on top of deadheading as I do not need the added hassle of weeding hundreds of seedlings next spring.

Furthermore, despite its resemblance to edible solanums such as ground cherry, Nicandra is NOT EDIBLE. The fact that it is considered a poison is one reason why I am not jumping to rub it all over myself until I learn more.

This unknown red variety bloomed a few weeks ago. I bought it at a garden shop in early spring, but it did not come with an accurate tag. I almost didn’t buy it as I was saving space for ‘Black Barlow’ a variety I had been coveting for ages. But wouldn’t you know it, I finally came upon the variety in bloom a few weeks ago and it was too purple for my taste. The photos lied!

A gift from my friend Barry, these white flowers have little green spots on some of the tips that make it just a little bit extra special.

In addition to transplants (there are more that haven’t yet bloomed), I also grew a few aquilegia varieties from seed. They are tiny little things right now and it will be another year before they bloom.

How is it that spring isn’t technically through, and I am already anticipating next year?

I’ve decided to take another shot at Wordless Wednesdays, and have failed. How can I leave it without words?

I saw these orchids several times through our Thailand trip, and naturally referred to them as “Fried Egg Orchids.” I think the reason is fairly obvious.

Before posting here I did a quick search for “Fried Egg Orchid” and wouldn’t you know it, that’s what other people call them, too! Dendrobium thyrsiflorum if you’re being botanically correct.