Of the dozen or so botanical gardens I’ve visited, San Diego’s singularly lacks conservatories. It doesn’t need them. Its coastal location has an ideal temperature range for plants as well as people, seldom going below 40 or above 90 F. I live half an hour’s drive from the San Diego Botanic Garden, so I [...]
Wildfires making national news are a wake-up call for us Southern Californians who live near canyons and wilderness areas. Hot Santa Ana winds blow from the desert, desiccating already stressed plants and threatening to push backcountry brush fires all the way to the sea. We’ve had no rain for months and everything is tinder-dry. My husband and I were evacuated from our [...]
Do you like my shot of dew on a puya? This is a flower worth seeking at Quail Botanical Gardens and at the Huntington. It’s hard to resist touching the sapphire-blue petals to make sure they’re not plastic. Tall (4-ft) bloom spikes emerge from a clump of leaf clusters that resemble spiny starfish. Each leaf [...]