Far Out Flora

Monstera Monday

Zoe and the Monstera back in November 2020

Monsteras and Mondays. Their images have been smacked on everything for some years now and for one am happy that people (cool young people) have gone coo coo for houseplants in recent years. Unlike the finnicky ass fiddle leaf fig that was and maybe still is crazy popular, monsteras are so much more fun to grow. I found this guy as a super big one-gallon for under twenty bucks at the Half Moon Bay Nursery a couple years ago. The child was not included. Her Idaho shirt was originally mine back in the 80’s.

Check it out back in San Francisco all happy and hanging out in the alley with our giant Philodendron selloum we gave to our neighbors before we moved to Davis. It always had a weird fungus-like spotting on the leaves I never bothered to look up when it lived there and now it’s gone.

A wall with Monsteras and lots of other happy houseplants

So I’ve been an “interiorscaper” “plant tech” or my personal self named favorite, “plant janitor” taking care of fancy ass tech office houseplants and “living walls” and didn’t say much about it online. This my favorite interior office wall I took care of. I never worked for the folks who designed and installed it, and am not sure who they were, but they did good!

The simplicity of the tray/wick system is wonderful and makes it easy to rearrange the plants. I’ve seen pretty much every terrible thing that can happen with a living wall and trust me, there are lots of terrible things that can happen and they usually involve water going places it shouldn’t. In almost all cases I would tell people to steer clear of living walls, but if you really have to use this. My favorite wall was in an office on the 30 something floor in SF’s financial district that overlooked the entire bay and had no additional overhead light. I only had to go water and trim out the dead stuff every two weeks to keep it looking great.

I don’t remember where we bought it or where the pot came from, but I tortured this poor thing on the top of our Outer Sunset fridge for quite some time with way less water than it wanted. I was still figuring stuff out back then… and monsteras aren’t water hogs or anything, but I was pretty lazy in the watering department and still am, but most folks kill their houseplants with too much water rather than not enough. You’ll find that most of the houseplants I advocate for can deal with and often enjoy prolonged periods of drought without throwing a tantrum.

We just moved this guy back outside to it’s happy place yesterday, and it’s looking a little awkward after I tied it up to a new stake. I’ll update with more houseplant posts since we have a lot of them and I have a sweet spot for quite a few.

North Table Mountain Madness

Hey there! It’s been a long time since we last blogged and as you can see much of our old blog is gone and replaced with only our most popular posts and weird t-shirts for sale. Well, I’ve had it with Facebook and Instagram, so we’re bringing it back to our own web page. After uploading 1000’s of pictures trapped in the cloud to our Flickr account, while trapped inside I realized how many more blog posts we still have in us. I’m starting with a bunch of new California native wildflowers posts to add to what we’ve already got up. We’ll still use social media to tell you about new posts. I’ve turned in to a Twitter and TikTok fan since ditching Mark Zuckerberg’s platforms.

Rusty haired popcorn flower, *Plagiobothrys nothofulvus* and Sky Lupine, *Lupinus nanus*

We finally left the house for the first time in months to go check out the wildflowers near Oroville at North Table Mountain. It was a Wednesday morning the first week of April and I was not prepared for the large numbers of maskless and incredibly proud about it folks. It was really weird to be ridiculed for wearing masks by strangers. Luckily it’s a big place, so you can get away from the assholes fairly easy. Anyways… the sheer numbers of sky lupine were crazy town. I’ve never seen anything like it and I think we were there towards the end of the bloom. I’ve known about this pretty consistent wildflower bloom spot for years, but never made the trip until this year.

Check out this crazy “mock stonecrop” growing in the basalt. I’m a little confused though. It’s in the crassula family, so it technically IS a stonecrop. What’s up with the “mock” part in the common name? Look at it literally growing in rocks in the picture.

This all white Limnanthes was a cool surprise. I’m better than the average person you’d find walking down the street when it comes to identifying California natives, but I rely heavily on my phone for figuring out what stuff is for sure. We’ve grown meadowfoam (Limnanthes douglasii) before and have a cool picture of the golden ssp. sulphurea version en masse at Tilden, but I’d never seen the white version before.

Sky Lupine, *Lupinus nanus* and Oak trees

So many lupines.

We showed up around 9am, so the poppies were still sleeping, but as we hiked around they started to open up. As I was uploading my pictures thinking these were all plain old California poppies or Eschscholzia californica, just super short ones, I did a little more research and they’re really frying pan poppies or Eschscholzia lobbii that are only found inland as opposed to the common California poppy found all over California including the coast.

Frying Pan Poppies or *Eschscholzia lobbi*

I only freaked out at yelled at one lady picking poppies next to her friend who was literally laying on a pile of flowers. The amount of Instagram bouquets tossed on the ground was gross. We saw all kinds of flower smashing shenanigans at Lake Elsinore, so it wasn’t a big surprise.

I think that’s Gilia tricolor all bright and bushy in the upper left hand corner. These are all pretty easy to grow from seed. I’ve always had issues with snails eating my lupines, but with some Sluggo foresight you should be good. Pest wise, it’s the only thing I’ve used for killing things in my garden for years. A little goes a long way, especially if you think like a snail and sprinkle it near the prime hiding spots when it starts to rain.

Purple owl’s clover, *Castilleja exserta*

As a long time lover of the red “paintbrushes” we often spotted on the coast, it was fun to see some decent sized clusters of their close relatives, owl’s clover shooting up. Apparently they’re both part of the unfortunately named Orobanchaceae (broomrape) family.

More broomrapes… what a terrible common name.

I’m a little mad at myself for not getting better pictures of all the Gilia tricolor growing everywhere. I’ve been growing it from seed for years and LOVE it. Heck, Select Seeds has a crazy super purple version of it I’ve posted tons of pictures of on Instagram, but to see it growing in nature is so much fun.

On our way back to the parking lot I spotted a bunch of pink blooms. We were all pretty crabby at this point, but I still ran up and took pictures of my first endemic lewisia spotting ever! I’ve grown them a bunch of times, but to see them all growing in nature was pretty amazing.

The entire time you wander this vast wildflower sweet spot, there are cows all over the place, mostly congregating peacefully under the oak trees keeping cool.

Quilts and Flowery Fabric

Last weekend I traveled to Winterset, IA (birthplace of John Wayne and the to the gateway to the Bridges of Madison County) to visit my mom’s (Doreen Speckmann) quilts at the Iowa Quilt Museum. Cross Street Pasture above is one of my favorites. Growing up on Cross Street in Madison, Wisconsin on a corner lot with terraces full of flowers my dad built. My mom always made sure I was sent on the annual, annual plant buying trip to make sure my dad wouldn’t come home with flats full of hot pink petunias that clashed with our red roofed house. Within the terraces we had a small herd of Woody Jackson (think Ben & Jerry’s) wooden cows tucked in to the terraces hence the quilt above. Below are more pics from the wonderful show.

Driftwood Succulent Centerpieces

Back February 2016 I experimented with chunks of driftwood, succulent cuttings from around the yard and sphagnum moss. Our friends Neal and Tina were going to be getting married that May and we volunteered to do flowers and decorations for their rustic redwoods wedding in Felton.

Matti did the tricky work of screwing the driftwood together based on my rubberbanded combos and I shoved them full of cuttings from the garden.

Worried I wouldn’t have enough stuff for the tables, I brought lots of airplants, moss and foraged greens.

Lake Elsinore Wildflower Fun

Last March we hopped in the car and headed south in search of California wildflowers during Zoe’s Spring Break, and we’ve never seen anything like it. Our first stop was Lake Elsinore where we stayed at the second sketchiest motel we’ve ever stayed in (ask Matti about my 35th birthday in middle of nowhere Utah for more info on the first). Our sulphur spring fed tub made the entire room smell like rotten eggs and every surface was sticky. It was only for one night and put us in a good spot to get to the “Super Bloom” early the next morning.

We were travelling with the dog Max, so we couldn’t leave him in the car and take the shuttle bus to the main Walker Canyon trail where all the crazy pictures were taken. We were able to drive and park nearby at a less crowded trail that was still beautiful thanks to the advice from a nice local.

There have been lots of stories about poppy trampling in the news. It’s true. We witnessed a professional photo shoot and all kinds of bad behavior. You could see where people destroyed patches of flowers, too. Back in the olden days you had to look up the most recent Flickr pictures of popular wildflower places to see what was happening.

Zoe is a flower fan! She was a little freaked out climbing up the mountain, but was soon having fun.

Phacelia campanularia freak out! It wasn’t all orange, there were bursts of blue and yellow.

More yellow flowered fun with Encelia farinosa. Unfortunately our stop at the Lancaster poppy fields was overcast, so they weren’t open. It was still pretty cool. We already have a loose plan for this years Spring Break wildflower bloom quest with a long stop in the desert.

Best Indoor Succulents

I’m not one to usually post other people’s stuff, but when Uncommon Goods asked me if I’d post their indoor succulent infographic I checked it out and it’s legit. I’ve also been a huge fan of Uncommon Goods and their cool stuff for many years. Above is a little view of my strange indoor collection that sits on our sunny kitchen windowsill. The Adromischus in middle has been with us since we lived in Outer Sunset.

I’m usually the first one to tell people to not grow succulents inside unless you have rock star lighting. We live in zone 10 where they’re much easier to grow outside than in, so it’s hard to see the point. We have sunny spots in front of our west facing kitchen windows and the bathroom window. I’ve been doing the cactus thing since a trip to Palm Springs. It works with my lazy watering schedule. We have a lot of sansevierias and just hopped on the hoya train. The true rockstar of indoor succulent gardening is Marah who has a fantastic collection under lights in our hometown of Madison, Wisconsin.

Our bathroom Rhipsalis in its drainage free torture chamber. It got a little fried with the super hot temps about a month ago, but is recovering nicely.

The Euphorbia in the chicken has been with us since our Sunset days. We smuggled a few small houseplants in and out of the California when we moved back to Wisconsin. This guy survived in an unopened box for a month.

I’ve since updated the hanging plants as the spiders started to get in the way when they started having babies. They also grew out of those tiny pots pretty fast. Ripping them out of those hanging pots sucked and involved knives.

A closer look at our vintage containers and cacti. That cholla on the far right was laying on the ground at our hotel in Borrego Springs, so I brought it home along with a ton of inexpensive baby cacti from Moorten Botanical Garden in Palm Springs.

A freaky little stapeliad from a friend in a classy toilet ashtray we repurposed as a planter. We let the Verbena bonariense go wild out back. I love it when they poke up past the windows in the kitchen.

Succulents in the Gutter

Originally posted: October 20, 2016
Update: the gutters now have carnivores, begonias, oxalis and bromeliads. It’s still a spider web party back there.

A few months back I begged Matti to build me gutter gardens, so I could produce mass quantities of strawberries, lettuce and other edibles. As soon as summer (the rain free time here SF) arrived I got sick of watering it, ripped everything out and planted succulents. I could have set up irrigation… we have a line near the gutters, but I had recently ripped apart a couple of containers and had a bunch of homeless succulents laying around.

It’s going to be interesting to see how they all do as the back fence doesn’t get much sun in the winter. I think most everything should be fine.

We picked up the stainless steel gutters for $6 a piece at Home Depot. I prefer the Lowes less than a mile from our house, but they only had vinyl gutters. I probably would have spaced them a little closer together to squeeze one more in if succulents were the original plan and not lettuce.

Matti punched holes in the bottoms every 18 inches or so. We used a succulent mix to aid in good drainage, too. It probably won’t need watering again until spring, but I always check the bottom gutter to make sure it’s dry before watering it all.

Here’s another view with the succulent table and Zoe’s playhouse. I have big plans to transform the playhouse roof in to a succulent driftwood heaven.

Here’s another view with the succulent table and Zoe’s playhouse. I have big plans to transform the playhouse roof in to a succulent driftwood heaven.

We now have succulents planted in the railing gutter instead.

Timtastic’s Fantastic Butterflies

It’s been forever since we blogged, but we’re going to take a stab at doing it again on a somewhat regular basis. I still have plenty to say about plants. Last April we had the honor of visiting our friend Tim’s magical butterfly world. Tim has since become butterfly internet famous, and we’re so proud. Right before we moved back to Wisconsin over 4 years ago, Tim (a total stranger at the time) contacted us via Flickr to see if we had any extra Aristolochia californica (California pipevine) we could spare to feed his California pipevine swallowtail caterpillars after seeing pics of our big vine. In a time of great stress and crazy pregnancy hormones) it was one of the happiest things that ever happened to me. Here’s my post from when we first met before moving with pics of my old vine.

Tim has all the blooms and host plants a butterfly or caterpillar needs going on here in the screen house. This was mid-April, so I’m sure it went even more cray-cray as the days got longer.

Zoe brought out some ready-to-release butterflies, because there’s nothing more fun than releasing butterflies.

Check out this velvety California pipevine swallowtail caterpillar looking for some tasty treats on the Aristolochia.

Make sure you follow Tim on Instagram. Stay tuned for more soon!

Tim’s Tillandsias and Lithops

Yesterday I blogged about Tim’s rad butterfly world, but check out his sweet deck greenhouse of Tillandsia insanity!

Not sure what this guy is, but it’s popping a massive flower.

The butt cheeks of the plant world: Lithops. They’re fun, but don’t water them until they really look like they need it.

Lithops are relatively easy to start from seed. There’s some good info here about going about it along with cool pics of all kinds of crazy succulents in baby stages if you click around.

Mesa Garden in Arizona can hook you up with all the succulent seeds you’ve been wanting, including Lithops. They also have live plants that I never knew existed.

Super Sage: Salvia iodantha

Originally posted November 2016. We sadly lost this poor guy this past summer during one of the heatwaves. My new favorite winter blooming Salvia is S. wagneriana.

When we moved back to California after a year in Wisconsin, I added Salvias to the list of plants I collect. Pelargoniums, Euphorbias, Fuchsias and Sansevierias are all on the list. If you want hummingbirds to fight over your garden all winter long Salvia iodantha is it. It’s also on my top 5 favorite plants growing in the backyard right now list.

It’s hard to believe this little strip of dirt was completely empty a little over two years ago. I planted the now ginormous S. iodantha from a wee 4″ pot.

All winter long it pops out these awesome hot pink blooms. The hummingbird loves it so much, he doesn’t even care when I walk up to him.

It’s a sprawler, but our neighbor’s fig tree has gotten big enough to act as a support for it. I’ve been able to easily root it by cuttings if anyone nearby wants some.