meet philly

common name: tree philodendron, big leaf philodendron, split-leaf philodendron
scientific name: philodendron selloum
family: araceae
type: shrub
exposure: part shade
height: 8-9'
width: 8-10'
spacing: 8-10'
water use: regular water as needed to keep soil moist
zone(s): 9-11 or indoors (if you have a really large space)
cold hardiness: 40 degrees
WARNING: poisonous if ingested, sap may irritate skin

philodendron selloum is one of my go-to plants for creating an instantly lush, tropical feel, and i love the way large specimen plantings add intimacy to a small space. it worked especially well in my former coastal san francisco garden where it never got a lick of frost and looked very wild and cool through the fog.

though technically this lovely is outside my zone (i'm an 8), because my patio and garden are well sheltered with a wall to the west and a balcony above he should do just fine. i hope to get him into the ground this weekend. and i will definitely be wearing gloves for the project, because i am one of those sensitive-skinned people whose skin is easily irritated by potentially caustic sap.

across a crowded warehouse...

the truth is, i should have spent my weekend unpacking. the "dining" room (which will contain a bookcase, a chair and my vintage singer sewing machine) is still stacked high with boxes and most of the apartments surfaces are covered in an odd assortment of homeless items longing for a little shelf, drawer or cupboard space to call their own. but when a friend asked for a second opinion on pavers for a new patio, i just couldn't refuse. especially since it meant visiting two places i have been dying to check out: building REsources and lyngso garden materials.

building REsources is one of those cool yards that carries all sorts of reclaimed building materials, fixtures, findings and fun. among my favorites were a green and pink marble counter top that could've been transformed into a really interesting coffee table, a brand new bay window for a fraction of it's original price, the head of a queen-sized brass bed which would have made the coolest trellis ever if it hadn't already been sold and, of course, their specialty: buckets and buckets of tumbled glass, tile, terra cotta and even mirrors in a variety of sizes and colors. i bought small bags of several types to use as decorative accents in my indoor plant pots, but some day would love to create a whole river of tumbled tempered glass flowing through my flower garden beds.

lyngso carries all kinds of fantastic landscaping materials from crushed granite to five foot high basalt towers and all kinds of other nifty things (soils, mulches, rocks, decorative garden ornaments...). i could've stayed there all day, especially when i found, tucked back in a corner, a wire cage full of black lava rocks about the size of bowling balls. these will be perfect decorative accents for my tropical garden (assuming they have any left by the time i get back next weekend).

of course it was at home depot, the most mundane of the many stores and yards i visited where my eyes drifted across the crowded warehouse to meet the perfect green ceramic planter to someday house my black bamboo. i of course snapped it right up. and later, at the next home depot, i made my very first plant purchase for the new garden. but that introduction will have to wait until tomorrow...

the first sign of spring

yesterday i received in the mail the one thing that helps get me through the long, cold winter: my seed savers exchange catalog. every year it spends the winter months on my nightstand, promising dreams of ripe, red tomatoes, deep purple pole beans, and fragrant anise to name just a few.

i love this catalog, not just for the organic, heirloom promises it makes but for the amazing work the company does preserving our planet's rich botanical heritage. seed savers exchange preserves more than 25,000 endangered heritage plants at their farm, 650 of which are available for purchase through their catalog and online. becoming a member not only supports this important work, it also gets you a 10% discount on purchases.

as for me, i will definitely be renewing my membership this holiday and putting it straight to work on an order of heirloom tomato transplants that will ship come spring. my varieties of choice: amish paste, cherokee purple and stupice (a.k.a. the apocalypse tomato). i may even throw in a ground cherry for good measure, just because it sounds like fun.

community garden update

it's been exactly 8 months since i first proposed a corporate community garden at our workplace. though initially excited about the idea, our facilities team has been dealing with other fires and it has been relegated to the back burner. the good news is after last week's nudging, it has now been assigned to someone who may actually have the time to bring it to fruition. so i will say to all of you what our facilities manager said to me: stay tuned!

here is where the fun begins

ignore the mess for now. instead imagine this:

in this corner will be the planters. the lemon tree with trailing rosemary dripping over the edges of the pot. an assortment of vegetables. possibly the coveted artichoke.

the planting area will be edged in large black lava rocks and the fence and open spaces will be screened with reed fencing. the back-left corner could use some height to block the building across the way, perhaps one of the banana plants i have at my sisters, with some sort of climber to cover the walls. in front of that a tree fern would do nicely. behind that something big and leafy -- a split-leaf philodendron if i can find one. if not, a monstera or acanthus would do the trick. i'd also like to add a croton or two for color some calas and of course, my little japanese maple in its red ceramic pot as the center-piece.

and back there is where the black bamboo will go, definitley in a pot, partly to make it taller and partly to keep it from taking over the apartment complex. in front of that a small homemade compost bin screen by a much larger lava rock and more leafy plants.


once the boxes are out of the way, i'll center the bench under the window flanked by potted plants -- the pygmy date palm in the picture for one, and possibly my peace tree rose or the blood orange that my sister has also been babysitting. on rollers, of course so i can still get into my storage closet.

its all coming together in my head. now i just need to put it together out there. stay tuned...

cold snap

it's near freezing here in my corner of sunny california. last night i pulled my pygmy date palm and sad, skinny banana plant up against the walls of the house to help keep them warm. luckily my porch is covered and sheltered by a low wall all around, but it's hard to look out at that empty patch of dirt knowing now is not the time to fill it with green. even against the warm, western wall it would be tough for a young tree fern in that cold and i so want every little plant to have a strong start.

they say it's supposed to start raining again this weekend. maybe it's the universe's way of keeping me inside. after all, there is unpacking to be done.

regional focus: waikoloa, hi

the first time i went to hawaii last october i visited the big island. when i got off the plane in kona and looked around at the miles of bleak, arid lava-dessert all i could think was "this is not the tropical paradise i was promised."

going to the dry side of that island is like visiting the moon. or mars. most of the plants that grow there are dry and scrubby.

but during the time i was there i realized how absolutely stunning it was, the contrast of black lava with white coral.

with the scrubby, tiny-leaved plants sending out brightly glowing flowers against that deceptively stark land against all odds.

love

hotcakes jewelry: gorgeous, carved resin necklaces, rings and bracelets, many with vintage botanical prints (my favorite is the graphic plants)

prettylittlependant on etsy: tiny collages chock-full of words and plants (home is the one)

juiceglass on etsy: handblown glass beads and jewelry to die for, especially her stunning focal beads

fresh start

i am finally moved. it took an entire trip just to move the house plants which are still sitting in boxes on counters and tabletops. the outdoor-turned indoor plants, a banana and a pygmy date palm, as well as a japanese maple i'd been keeping on my tiny balcony are out on the patio, drinking real rain.

on saturday, i took a look at the dirt, noticed paint chips and chunks of wood, obviously scraped down from some upstairs rennovation. they were scattered among the cheap wood chips -- the kind corporate buildings use as mulch to keep down the weeds, but the weeds grow up and through just the same.

when the rain stops i will scrape up the paint and the mulch and the weeds and replace them with organic compost and organic mulch. and then i will find plants that can survive while the soil recovers and plant them. and they will heal the soil. and they will heal me.


and if i can make it look like this, all the better.

substitutions

the first thing on my to do list for kauai was to visit limahuli garden, the smallest of three national tropical botanical gardens on the island. while i'm sure the others are quite impressive, what drew me to this particular garden were two things, first, the taro fields, and second, the archeaological significance of the site.

limahuli isn't really just one garden. it's a series of gardens, starting with the taro fields (nearly all of the taro grown comes from this region of this island). from there it meanders through a plantation era garden, an ancient archaeological site, a native forest, an invasive plant forest and an endangered plant preserve.


one of my favorite endangered plants, alula, looks like lettuce on a stick (or as the guidebook says, cabbage on a baseball bat). it's actually thought to be extinct in the wild but the botanists at limahuli are working to propagate it in the preserve for eventual re-introduction into the wild.

i'm not sure whether it's its comical appearance or it's tenacity in the face of destruction that makes me love it so much, but either way, it's unlikely i'll be finding it in a nursery near me. which brings me to an interesting conversation i had with an older couple who were also visiting the gardens. when i remarked how beautiful the grounds were, the man replied "yes they are, the problems arise when people get back from vacation and try to recreate them at home." which is, of course, what i wanted to do.

but there is one big difference between me and his fellow mid-western weekend gardeners. okay two. the first is that i live in california which has a climate that often works well for tropicals, so yes, i start with a leg up. but that's not the big one. the big one is this. despite my love for the little alula (and the taro, and the stunning hot pink ti plants, etc., etc.) i know that you can't just put any old plant in any old place and have it grow. i also know that there are a whole mess of plants that look a lot like other plants. can't have a ti plant? try a more temperate-friendly type of cordyline. can't manage the size and invasiveness of bamboo? how about nandina?

as for my new little buddy, there's even a pinch-hitter for him. sure, it's not quite the same, but it's close enough to remind me, and best of all, i have pots of them sitting in my mother's yard just waiting to go in the ground.

two things

- the lusher the plants, the more prevalent the mosquitoes
- if you can manage to get out past the break, the water is way calmer