Friday Garden F*ck Ups: Pocket Gophers & Pest Talk

Last week, I posed proudly with my mail order invasive grass. This week I look very proud of my dumb gopher catch in this questionable picture collage I made back in 2009. Gophers and pests in general can make any gardener or even houseplant parent crazy. I’ve relaxed quite a bit over the years about most pest issues, especially outside. Sluggo and Dr. Bronners soap are all I use, along with diluted rubbing alcohol for the houseplant issues. Sometimes you just have to throw indoor stuff out to avoid infecting the whole crew. I’d almost think something was wrong with certain plants if they weren’t covered in aphids or that maybe the figs were gross if even the rats weren’t taking big bites out of them. I’ve never even thought about releasing ladybugs as they always find their way to my bug buffet for free. I don’t like that they’re scooped out of the wild to be packaged and sold either. I’ll venture to guess that a bunch die in the process. I’m so happy to never had to deal with deer. Bunnies will be my new problem in Wisconsin and apparently possible frost at the end of May.

In the picture above I’m holding a scared little baby gopher. It was traumatized by my rage watering the hole it was living in with mom and it’s cute little brothers and sisters. Rage watering is when an adorable little gopher peeks out of it’s hole and taunts you after chewing the roots off of a newly planted thing you loved right in front of your very eyes. You get so angry you shoot wasteful amounts of water in to the hole until the yard feels like a waterbed, even though you know it’s the wrong thing to do. It’s usually accompanied by a lot of swearing. It does nothing except in this rare case force a little guy to climb out leaving the rest of his family to continue eating whatever they want. We relocated him to a field in Golden Gate Park where I’m hoping a bird ate it.

As you can see we had mostly succulents, since the gophers went after a lot of things I tried. They never did noticeable damage to the succulents, but I’ve heard they’ll take out tree aloes and other big succulents. They mostly went after the grass, which we didn’t care about so much since it’s grass, and it would die in the summer whether the gophers killed it or not. Though the dogs going crazy trying to get them while digging even bigger holes in the back was pretty irritating. Heck, how many folks have twisted their ankles running around gopher heaven AKA Golden Gate Park? If you live in gopher country you can plant stuff in little underground gopher cages, but it sounds like they don’t always work if you live in an area with extra ruthless gophers. It also sounds like a huge pain in the ass. I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a bunch of really big, mostly turquoise containers I put directly in the garden, so I could plant things without worrying about them getting eaten from below. I also happen to really like Euphorbias, which gophers won’t touch.

Breaking Lawn

I did some really stupid stuff in the pest department, especially early on. Professionally, I’ve been asked to illegally use some sketchy stuff. I’m talking Safari level toxic chemicals going in to local water supplies in the name of eco-friendly living walls, but that’s a story for a different time. I even remember spraying nasty Sevin all over stuff in Wisconsin with no gloves on in the early 2000’s. I don’t even know what I was trying to kill (big problem there), but I thought what I was doing was fine not realizing that what I was spraying killed everything. Why would a store sell me poison? My parents in Wisconsin hired people to spray scary crap on our lawn to make it pretty in the 1990’s via copious chemicals. The company was literally called Chemlawn. I’m going to guess that they’ve since changed their scary name. These are the same parents who also volunteered to help restore the native oak savannah surrounding the lake at the bottom of the hill that said chemicals washed in to every time it rained. Above is hilarious lawn video Breaking Lawn by Manitowoc Minute’s Charlie Berens, a Wisconsin treasure.

The rage spraying stopped and I finally told Matti to start killing the furballs the old fashioned way with Macabee traps. I freak out at the sight of any dead animal, but Matti does not. They worked almost immediately. We’d see a cute little face poking out of a hole taunting Max (the dog) and within a half an hour of setting up the trap it would be dead thanks to 100 year old killing technology. It’s always good to monitor the trap closely as Matti had to finish one off. Below are good videos from The University of California Statewide IPM Program about setting and placing traps. It’s also an all around good site for integrated pest management options and information about pests in California. Please google IPM if you are unfamiliar with this ecosystem-based strategy. The first step is asking if you can live with the pest, which often times the answer is yes. If you live elsewhere most state universities have extensions with the best information about pests and dealing or not sometimes not dealing with them where you live. Wisconsin folks go to UW-Madison, Division of Extension, Horticulture Program. It’s an amazing site and I’m overwhelmed by all the trustworthy information there. Please, don’t trust the chemical aisle at your local big box store.

Setting the trap

Placing the trap

Striking Succulent Gardens By Gabriel

Mangave and *Kalanchoe orgyalis* April 30, 2012

It’s hard to believe we first moved back to Wisconsin over nine years ago and are doing it again pretty soon. One of the stops we made on our trip back to Madison was Cambria and Morro Bay on California’s central coast where we met up with Gabriel Frank and Kaveh McGuire of Gardens By Gabriel. They took us on a fabulous tour of crazy succulent gardens on the coast that I think we had an old blog post about, but I didn’t include Nick Wilkinson owner of Botanica Nova and Grow Nursery. It’s a super double succulent post about both succulent garden masters day!

Man, my memory is not great. I think this was in Cambria, but I’m not sure and it was taken with an old school camera with no GPS. For some reason the baby Agaves in this picture look sweet and innocent, I think this may have been Nick’s garden, but I don’t remember.

The final stop on the tour was a relatively new garden designed by Kaveh and installed by Gabriel in Morro Bay that was already looking pretty amazing despite its youth. You gotta love the non-spikey clumpers that are always easy to move around or split up for more plants down the road if needed. Keep in mind they’re gardening in sand next to the Pacific Ocean and not some concrete, trowel breaking, clay hell that many plants hate. Especially the really cool ones.

Some of the most successful succulent gardens have a nice balance of non-succulents as well. Let’s face it all succulents all the time can get boring and it’s fun to mix it up with one of those plants I mentioned that likes perfect drainage. Not all Grevilleas are fussy, but many of the cool Australian and South African natives like really good drainage. The perfect, mild, year-round temperatures help to make the central coast pretty much a plant heaven on earth.

This giant clump of Dudleya is so damn happy. Only a select group of folks living really close to the Pacific Ocean in California can grow these native succulents. We had giant, happy ones when we lived by the beach. Sadly people are terrible and have been poaching them from nature by the truck load. If you ever see any shady plant gathering activity on the coast report it. Seriously, watch the video below, it’s messed up.

Senecio serpens and Grevillea ‘Austraflora Fanfare’ (I think)

How can you not love all the great colors and textures happening, so many good things are going on here. If you are fortunate enough to live in coastal California where the succulents grow like weeds and you want to learn how to create your own crazy succulent garden you are in luck!

Order up the book Striking Succulent Gardens directly from Gabriel and while you’re there click over to his portfolio for even more drool inducing garden pictures. Here are some more gorgeous book preview pics I stole from Amazon:

Look at all those sexy Aloe flowers! It really is one of the best succulents there is.

Me, Kaveh, Gabriel & Matti April 30, 2012

Look at how young we all were here!

Botanica Nova and Grow Nursery

Aloe polyphylla, Aloe vanbalenii and friends April 30th, 2012

Way back in late April of 2012 we were on our way back to Wisconsin pregnant with Zoe and made a pilgrimage to a few of our favorite spots on our way home including California’s central coast. Since I’ve been uploading a lot of pictures recently I started to get interested in our photo stats for a hot moment. People actively search the word “naked” as the “naked manihot” image received a larger than normal amount of views for a picture of a deciduous tree. Turns out the picture above is our most viewed at 135,170 times and is still going strong. I had originally thought it was designed by Gardens By Gabriel but it turns out he installed it and Nick Wilkinson owner of Botanica Nova and Grow Nursery designed it. It’s a super double succulent post day of both succulent garden masters!

DUDE that’s a giant *Deuterocohnia brevifolia* at Grow Nursery Cambria, CA

Whenever we pass through Cambria we always stop at Grow Nursery (check out their website for cool stuff to buy online). I’m not sure if the massive Deuterocohnia brevifolia is still there since this was taken in 2017, but it was an amazing specimen. There’s fun stuff for everyone here.

That big clump of variegated Aloe arborescens next to the fat tree aloe is just crazy town. Grow has perfected the art of using rusty old junk to creatively merchandise plants.

Grow shares the space with a couple of other cool shops including The Garden Shed that always has fun stuff for the more traditional shopper. Some of the smaller stores have changed over the years, but they’re always interesting. I’m not much of a shopper these days, more of an admirer of cool merchandising.

Garden Shed Winter Welcome December 27, 2017

Another fun spot to check out Nick’s amazing work not far from the nursery is Cambria Shores Inn. It’s so good I’m sure they get tons of plant dorks wandering around taking pictures of all the giant succulents. These pictures just don’t do it justice.

If you find yourself cruising up or down the California coast definitely stop at Grow Nursery and swing by Cambria Shores Inn to check out the plant party where succulents have room to get huge. The picture above is from a quick stop on our way to Pismo Beach. Heck, stay there if you can it’s dog friendly!

Magical Moorten Botanical Garden and Cactarium

We’ve been to the wonderful Moorten Botanical Garden twice. Our first visit to Moorten was on our wildflowerpalooza trip. We left Lake Elsinore headed to Palm Springs for lunch, a picture with the Sonny Bono statue and a quick visit to see the cacti on our way to Borrego Springs. We had heard from other parents in SF that Palm Springs was trashy and dangerous. I’m not sure what planet they lived on because we LOVE Palm Springs. So much we went back for Zoe’s winter break for five nights. We stayed at Caliente Tropics literally .2 miles from Moorten, it was cheap, clean, had a great heated pool and excellent happy hour appetizer deals we called dinner a couple of nights at the on site tiki bar. Our motel neighbors looked like they walked off The Big Lebowski set. They smoked on the balcony overlooking the pool in their bathrobes and appeared to be The Dude’s long lost cousins. If you want to feel fancy and hip Ace is only .2 miles from Caliente. I think you can even pay a day fee to hang out by their pool, but I felt like a big dork just checking out the lobby and looking at the pool through the fence.

I have no idea what most of these cacti are thanks to my subpar picture management over the past eight years. I used to be so good about taking pictures of every plant label. I dutifully edited and uploaded them right away with nice labels and tags that I would double check on google for spelling. We only had so many SD cards back then instead of the infinite cloud they magically go to now, so it forced you to go through stuff. I’m hoping to start that insanity back up in Wisconsin, because it’s how I learned quite a few plant names.

Anyways Moorten is so damn cool. Here’s a little information about the history from their about page:

“Clark Moorten, the rugged, engaging second-generation host, oversees the garden and greets, at times, more than 200 guests per day. He explains his passion for cactus plants with an amused grin. “I was born with stickers in my butt,” he says. “My parents needed workers and I’m an only child. I must’ve been a good worker.”

Moorten Botanical Garden possesses an equally colorful history. It was created by Clark’s parents, Chester “Cactus Slim” Moorten and his wife, Patricia. Cactus Slim was an original Keystone Cop and a stand-in for Howard Hughes. He developed tuberculosis on a film set and recovered in Cottonwood Springs, near Joshua Tree, where he panned for gold and collected beautiful cactuses. He learned mining was hard work and selling prickly plants paid better.”

Totem pole cactus *Lophocereus schottii var. monstrose*

“In search of more customers, Chester came to Palm Springs in 1938, met Patricia, who also had an interest in succulents, and they bought the property, which became Moorten Botanical Garden, from renowned nature and desert photographer Stephen Willard.

Together the couple expanded Chester’s business to include landscape design and were soon hired by such luminaries as Walt Disney, Red Skelton, Jimmy Van Heusen, Frank Sinatra, and Bing Crosby to create backyards at their desert homes. Walt even tapped the duo to curate the foliage for Frontierland at his soon-to-be-built Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, CA.”

Chester was the OG when it comes to drought tolerant plant design way back before Disneyland was even built. It’s hotter than hell during summer being in a desert and all, so cactus and succulents were really the way to go. I’ve always admired Southern California for hopping on the drought tolerant plant wagon faster than up north. It’s hotter down there, but it doesn’t rain in the summer time anywhere in California which is great for picnic plans, but not so much for water loving landscape plants. Most everything you see growing in California yards is only doing so because of an irrigation system or dedicated hand-waterer. The fog drip on the coast can sustain quite a bit of life including pampas grass, but several miles inland and it’s a different story. I just read an interesting article about farmers in California switching to less thirsty crops today.

It’s not all cacti here, there’s a wonderful path that leads you around the wide world of plants.

“Spend an hour exploring over a dozen arid biomes, such as the Baja California Peninsula, the South African-Succulent Karoo, the Mojave Desert and Mexico-Gran Desierto de Altar. Not limited to cacti, the gardens also display agave, bombax, and South African aloe plants. An interesting collection of rocks, crystals, fossils and gold-mining relics break up the flora and enhance the desert themes.”

*Stenocereus (Rathbunia) alamosensis* ‘Shooting Star Cactus’

Hooray for one dollar cacti at the great little nursery connected to the gardens! They even have tweezers to pull them out, so you can make your own variety packs without getting stabbed. Tons of succulents to choose from as well. If you’re ever in Palm Springs make sure you visit this affordable, cool little piece of cacti history.

Friday Garden F*ck Ups: Pampas Grass

FOR SHAME!!!! What the living f*ck was I thinking? I look so proud in front of it with those terrible sunglasses on. This was way back before we took plant ID classes at City College and one of our worst f*ck ups ever. Back then we thought all the plants growing along the highways in coastal California were beautiful natives. Turns out most of them are not including pampas grass. What’s even worse is that I ordered the pampas grass online when there were plenty of good nurseries that didn’t sell invasive weeds I could have gone to in person. I could have even searched for them online when I was searching for this terrible grass, but I didn’t. At least we eventually learned. It may also be why I developed a decorative grass phobia.

Here is the history of this choker outer of native plants from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife:

Invasive to Avoid: Pampas Grass

(Cortaderia selloana or Cortaderia jubata)

“Pampas grass is a quickly growing grass that forms massive clumps along roadsides, steep cliffs, river banks, and open areas that have been disturbed by human activities or natural disturbances. Introduced to Santa Barbara, California in 1848 by nursery operators, pampas grass has spread all over the state, threatening native plants and the animals that rely on them.

An individual pampas grass stand can produce millions of seeds annually that travel several miles, and because these grasses are very tolerant of intense sunlight, drought, and frost, they are very efficient at establishing in many habitat types. Due to the fact that pampas grass can live over a decade, it has become a favorable plant for people to grow in their gardens.

Invasive plants such as pampas grass displace native plants and create habitats that are lower in biodiversity. Furthermore, pampas grass has leaf blades that are highly undesirable as food or shelter to birds and other wildlife, and can actually cause physical harm to those animals, including humans, because the leaves are extremely sharp. Therefore, it is important that we do our part by not planting pampas grass in our gardens, but instead plant native plants that are comparably beautiful and provide the same utility.”

Man there are a bunch of bad choices in this picture Matti pieced together from old pictures. You can click on it to go to the bigger version and see all our poor choices up close and personal. It’s so embarrassing. That spiney bro was free and terrible. Look at the baby tears. I’d be pulling that crap out for years. The Fuchsia thymifolia on the far right was the only thing that didn’t get yanked along with the California pipevine behind it. Ripping out the pampas was a bitch as it’s Latin name Cortaderia (cut-the-crap-out-of-your-hands) implies. Our shame spiral was too deep to even think about taking pictures of digging the beast out.

At least it improved a little the next year. My fuchsia obsession started early on in California, I don’t even remember growing that little ballerina one tucked in. It’s weird to have grown so much stuff in so many different places you actually forget you grew it until you see pictures again. Gophers were regularly taking stuff out at the beach garden.

*Aristolochia californica* March 12, 2011

This is two years later on the same side of the yard. I loved that California pipevine in the fuchsia sandwich so much. It took a couple years for it to get going, but it was so much fun.

If you live in California and are worried about planting noxious weeds or unknowingly harboring plants from the dark side there’s a great website that tells you what to look out for called Plant Right. They’re down to only seven plants you may still see in nurseries and pampas grass is still one of them. That nasty ass myoporum tree I complained about in last week’s f*ck up dropping leaves in the Agave is on the retired list of gross things you should rip out if you have them. The watch list is also something you may want to take a look at, as many of those plants are still found in nurseries, but you’ll also see them partying like rock stars on the sides of the roads. There’s no need to plant invaders when there are so many amazing natives and respectful visitor plants to choose from here. California Native Plant Society has this amazing directory of native plant nurseries all over the state, too.

Pt. Richmond Fairy Home and Garden Tour

We left Davis for the first time in forever to go visit friends Pat and Bob in Point Richmond before we head back to Wisconsin. Pat and my mom met about 44 years ago in Madison when they were both pregnant (my mom with me). Whenever we visit I always want to check out the Wave Garden which I’ll post more about later, but now there are adorable tiny little fairy houses on Washington Street. Created by comic book artist Jimmie Robinson, each tiny house is made to match the the people who live on the block. For tons more info about Little Point Richmond and Jimmie visit Jennifer Rhode’s post. I’m a huge fan of tiny things and cooking on TikTok and included a few of my favorites at the bottom, along with pics of my dorky digital dollhouse creations.

My new camera AKA phone took smaller vertical pictures than I thought it would, or maybe I messed up something when I pulled them off the cloud. I’m not sure what happened, so I put them in the artful gallery below.

So many fun plants and fairy houses to see walking up and down the hills. We learned that deer and gophers run rampant in these parts. I can’t even imagine the frustration of that combo.

Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblonga ‘Flavida’ in Pat’s garden

I LOVE the grown up dollhouses and miniature makers on TikTok, among many things. The tiny food preparers are fascinating, too. It’s nice to experience the hobby vicariously through their videos and if I’m looking for something to do when it’s 2 degrees outside next winter in Wisconsin miniatures could be my new thing. I’m joking, I’ve been playing the digital dollhouse game Sims for 20 years. I’m so nerdy I recently modded my digital rubber tree from plain green to the ones below. My Sims can even choose from a selection of Sansevierias I made using Sim 4 Studio and pictures of real ones. I’ve created digital wallpaper, Talaveras tiles, rugs, couches, fancy photographs by famous photographers, vintage posters, updated bedding. It’s fun and free. Thanks to mods other people created my Sims can also trip on ayahuasca from a Shaman and have indoor grow houses among many other questionable things the regular game does not endorse.

I have Dracaenas, too… Here are a few of my favorite tiny thing accounts on TikTok:

@tinykitchentm
Reply to @j3thrx We hope you ❤️ this tiny #Lasagna 🥺✨ • Help is win a Webby Award! Link in bio to vote for Tiny Talk: Tiny Sushi’ •
♬ Her movie soundtrack cover by Armin Mehdiz – arminmehdiz

@littlehouseoflights
Still a work in progress, but here’s a quick look at the whole house! #dollhouseminiatures #dollhousetherapy #dollhousemakeover #dollhousechallenge
♬ Somewhere Only We Know – Lily Allen

@miniaturemodelmaking
How to make a Miniature Playable Connect 4 game!! #fyp #stepbystep #arttutorials #artlesson #miniaturetiktok
♬ Steven Universe – L.Dre

Rad Allen Centennial Rock Garden

Orostachys spinosa at the Allen Centennial Garden Madison, WI July 2017

I’ve been thinking about rock gardens lately, specifically The Allen Centennial Garden on UW-Madison’s campus. It’s pretty amazing in general, but their rock garden is so good that NARGS (North American Rock Garden Society) even had a meeting in Madison. In 2019 it even won the Frank Cabot Public Rock Garden Award. I’d never seen an Orostachys spinosa before. The Flower Factory had an amazing rock garden plant selection including that cool Orostachys above, but they had to up and retire. WAIT!!!! I just looked they’re selling online (update it’s not available anymore) for pick up! I’m back after creating a crazy long google doc with pictures of my favorites they have available. I didn’t use my own pictures, so I can’t be posting it here, but I’d email you link if you’re interested. Just comment below. They seriously have the best perennials at the best prices in Wisconsin. Don’t let all the botanical Latin and lack of pictures scare you. My 170 page google doc will show you the way.

Saxifraga longifolia and friends at Allen Centennial Garden Madison, WI

Saxifrags have to be one of the cutest little groups of plants. I want them all. Flower Factory has four different ones available including one that looks like it has warts Saxifraga paniculata ‘Cockscomb’. (Flower Factory, I’d add all your pictures to your square site for a few Saxifrags and maybe an Orostachys or two, I’m totally serious).

Look at all those cuties in the crevices

Sempervivums are the best, they come in so many fun colors and sizes. When they bloom they look like weird little aliens. There could also be Jovibaras in here, I have a hard time telling the difference. They’re both adorable little rosettey things.

Mystery saxifrag and friend that may or may not be a saxifrag

I’m not sure what this guy is either, but it’s so darn cute I can hardly stand it. Another fun website to spend hours and hours looking at adorable plants is Arrowhead Alpines in Michigan. They do mail order and have a crazy selection of alpine plants plus tons more. I could see driving to Michigan from Wisconsin just to check out their display gardens in our future. If you’re in Madison, head over to Allen Centennial and check out all their rock garden fun plants. I’m sure I’ll be hanging out there quite a bit once we’re back. It’s also just happens to be super close to Babcock, so you can get ice cream and cheese while you’re there!

Friday Garden F*ck Ups: The Agave

Can you guess what the f*ck up was? May 28, 2008

Avert your eyes Danger Garden I’m about to talk smack about an Agave. It’s not a bad Agave, just poorly placed. Did we bother to google Agave americana or even “blue agave” before getting one off of craigslist for free? Nope. We may not have had iphones back then, but we did have wifi and a laptop and eyes that could see the big spines on it and babies growing all over the place. Matti was stabbed pretty bad just prying it out of the free spot. The previous agave owners had a baby that just started to walk and they were worried the kid would fall on it. If we were wise we would have planted it and it’s babies against the back fence as far away from humans as possible. It could have even acted like security fence back there with plenty of room to grow and multiply, but nope I thought this corner next to the patio with a ton of other plants jammed around it would be great. It was also under the white fly infested, nasty ass myoporum tree that dropped leaves and crappy little flowers YEAR ROUND in to the spikey center.

They grew up quick. Do you know how many times I was stabbed? Enough times to make Matti dig out the smaller guy. By then big momma started sending it’s spikey spawn out ten feet away in spots I didn’t want more agaves. I’d even get poked as I ripped the evil babies out buy their long roots. Those solar lights are also very embarrassing. What was I thinking?

We would post our extra succulents for free on craigslist and dump them out front. Eventually we had enough people who often checked for our abandoned succulents that we didn’t even need to post on craigslist anymore.

Was it smart to put a sweet pea here behind a big pokey agave? No. Notice how there aren’t any weeds in this picture? I got stabbed so many times. The leaves and tiny flowers of the Myoporum accumulating in the center and all over the succulents made me crazy. Our neighbor would let us borrow his leaf blower to blow them out every now and then. It was a mess despite the pretty picture above. If I could choose what I’d plant there now it would be a Salvia clevelandii. It smells great and doesn’t hurt.

Invasion of the spikes. That one big momma sent her babies all over the place and at first we let them grow and thought it was all cute. That one behind Max was probably even planted on purpose.

We did this frequently since I’m known to cram as many plants as humanly possible in to tiny places and then they grow. I got sick of the blue chalksticks pretty fast. They grew fast and got all gangly. It’s the succulent to plant if you don’t want people stealing it. Succulent theft in San Francisco is a whole different story, but you’d be surprised at how terrible people are or maybe not. Sketchy landscapers even steal big plants and resell them to clients. Did anyone think the variegated Aeoniums on Sunset Ave. (in the Sunset) would last in those median plantings? I haven’t driven down it for quite some time, but it looked like everything except for the chalksticks was stolen. There is a shorty version I like way more Senecio serpens that stays all cute and little.

We didn’t learn our lesson October 10, 2010

So we gave some away, but thought it was a good idea to move some to the MIDDLE of the yard where succulents we got bored of were sent to multiply with wild abandon. That sedum on the left got peed on by Max almost every day and thrived. Oh god the Sedum album in front of the questionable rusty dragon, I was ripping that out constantly. Another hideous solar light tucked in there, too. Zoe and I peeked over the back fence from 48th Ave. a couple years ago and it was an empty sand pit, but I do have a picture of it in 2015 looking sad down the page.

We finally got really serious about getting them gone and ripped out the one we put in the middle. By this time we had access to free/cheap cool plants from work and this state-of-the-art Agave removing hoodie.

Remember those babies I was bitching about earlier?

Our giveaway piles got bigger, October 9, 2011

We just dumped this in front of our place and it would be gone in a day. We probably could have sold it, but that was too much work. I always hoped it would give us good garden karma.

I was looking through old pictures and found this one I took when Zoe and I were being nosey a few years after we moved. It’s since been ripped out completely or eaten by gophers. I’m guessing people took succulents with them. We sold a bunch when we moved but, I just cut them. They would have all grown back with pretty much no effort. Check out that terrible tree I was walking about.

My favorite Agave in SF December 17, 2011

This is where you should plant Agaves that get giant. I was in love with this giant variegated guy across the road from the dahlia garden, next to the Conservatory of Flowers. It was a sad day when I saw the flower spike of death starting. It bloomed a couple years ago.

King Of Containers: Pot Incorporated

Way back when we lived by the beach in San Francisco Todd Holloway, owner of Pot Incorporated stopped by for a visit while on a road trip down the coast with his dog Carl. Dude is so good at not only designing containers, but choosing plant combos to die for. I’ve been thinking about containers lately and Todd really is the master. His photography is so good, too. These are all pictures from Pot Inc’s website. Be sure to click on the pictures for links to see even more amazing shots of different plant combos. I’ve never even grown Calibrachoa before, but just look at it with the Coleus. Love the Euphorbia poking out, too.

I can’t even deal with how good this is. The houseplant party with Croton, Dracaena, Begonia and club moss is just so darn good.

The cheap ass that I am made a crappy version of this out of ten dollar gutters and succulents laying around before these amazing ones came out. I still remember the first time I saw pictures of Leo on Instagram. Drool. Look at all that room to plant stuff! If you’re going to go vertical this is the way to do it.

There he goes using Coleus again and next to the Cannas. I love the Begonias poking out with the silvery spill, too.

Todd’s always been so good with succulent containers. Hell, is there a style he can’t do well? His hanging dishes were made for shoving a bunch of succulents in.

Even houseplants can have fun in his containers.

As a former interiorscaper (person who takes care of commercial houseplants) I approve this planting. Lots of rotating, but you wouldn’t need to go and water more than once every 2 weeks or so. I really like that the ZZ’s are up off the ground. They can get a little wild as they get bigger, so having them higher up where they can let their freak fronds fly is smart. ZZ’s on the ground always irked me since I often had to amputate beat up arms.

Interior diameter of pot: 27 inches Photo/Illustration: Todd Holloway

I dug up this old Fine Gardening article with a couple recipes for planting amazing containers by Todd. Go check it out for tons more info about how he designs these beautiful beasts and makes sure they stay happy. Pot size matters. All the plant links below go back to Fine Gardening’s site. I used to use their plant pronunciation feature all the time when I was a plant newbie trying to be cool. You can click on all the Latin names and a nice lady says them for you, so you can practice Nicotiana, Aquilegia, Agastache and Kalanchoe in the comfort of your own home.

1. Tropicanna^® canna (Canna inidca ‘Phasion’, USDA Hardiness Zones 8-11)

2. ‘Slyfire’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellarioides ‘Skyfire’, Zone 11)

3. ‘Sweetheart Purple’ sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Sweetheart Purple’, Zone 11)

4. ‘Goldsturm’ black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’, Zones 4–9)

5. ‘Zwartkop’ aeonium (Aeonium ‘Zwartkop’, Zones 9–11)

6. ‘Black Magic’ elephant’s ears (Colocasia esculenta ‘Black Magic’, Zones 8–11)

7. Lion’s ear (Leonotis leonurus, Zones 10–11)

8. ‘Green on Green’ plectranthus (Plectranthus forsteri ‘Green on Green’, annual)

9. Callie^® Orange calibrachoa (Calibrachoa ‘Callie Orange’, annual)

Interior diameter of pot: 19 inches Photo/Illustration: Todd Holloway

1. ‘Morning Light’ miscanthus (Miscanthus sinensis ‘Morning Light’, Zones 4–9)

2. ‘Goldsturm’ black-eyed Susan (Rudbeckia fulgida var. sullivantii ‘Goldsturm’, Zones 4–9)

3. ‘Blackie’ sweet potato vine (Ipomoea batatas ‘Blackie’, Zone 11)

4. Cigar flower (Cuphea ignea, Zones 10–11)

5. Golden creeping Jenny (Lysimachia nummularia ‘Aurea’, Zones 4–8)

6. Madness™ Red petunia (Petunia Madness™ Red, annual)

7. Purple heart (Tradescantia pallida ‘Purpurea’, Zones 8–11)

8. ‘Tilt a Whirl’ coleus (Solenostemon scutellaroides ‘Tilt a Whirl’, Zone 11)

Crazy Coleus Lady

Where is the cheapest place in Dane County to get multi-packs of coleus? I’m serious, guard your coleus if I’m around. I’m going to be travelling with little baggies of sphagnum moss for taking cuttings where ever I go. It’s really the only plant you need for pretty much everything and so easy to propagate via cuttings. Especially if you’re in to crazy containers like the one pictured above in the Dells. They went nuts and I love it.

The same coleus artist created this other Dells container masterpiece with more of a color scheme going on and some sweet potato vine mixers. Coleus being used with wild abandon is something I’m looking forward to back in Wisconsin. It’s kind of a water lover or at least liker, definitely not drought tolerant.

It’s interesting to look back on the coleus extravaganza at Olbrich Gardens back in 2012 compared to 2017.

Someone posted this old coleus pic from our flickr account to Pinterest months ago and it receives a freakish amount of views everyday. It’s okay, but it does not deserve the views it receives. Sorry coleus picture.

Look at the deeper colors five years later in the same spot. Love the spider plants tucked in. I can’t wait to see what kind of of coleus fun they have here this year. I haven’t even bothered with learning names, but Olbrich does a wonderful job here with signage. I mostly care if it’s a “thrill” (tall) “fill” medium or “spill” type.

Look how they just tucked a few red burgundy and limey green guys in among a bunch of my favorite annuals to break up all the green foliage. Olbrich Garden’s plant palettes are always amazing.

Check out the super tall red guy on the left!!! Love the hot pink and orange with big tropical foliage in the back. Seriously Olbrich, you guys do such an amazing job.

Back when we were in Madison to have Zoe I picked up some multipack coleus along with some fun Begonias. I’m always amazed to see what sells as annuals in the Midwest. I can still get my fuchsia fix just not all year long. Every fall do people just chop up their plants and propagate more for next spring? One coleus plant could easily turn in to twelve. Lots of stuff is relatively easy to start including fuchsias, and I’m going to need something to do when it’s freezing. I just may be that weirdo knocking on your door asking if I can take cuttings.

I bought coleus for the SF garden sometimes and have no idea where I got this guy, but I’m going to guess the Half Moon Bay Nursery. Sometimes you have to treat yourself. You can see his little Plectranthus argentatus cousin peeking out from underneath. .

I always admired the plants at the Embarcadero buildings across from the Ferry Building including this all coleus container. If you’re looking for more coleus inspiration, Pam Baggett at Fine Gardening is also a big coleus fan and has excellent details about growing these cool plants along with more amazing coleus container pics at Fine Gardening’s All About Growing Coleus.