Home and Garden Roundup for Week of 6/30/2008 - Garden Plants and Gardening Forum

lspichkin · 06-30-2008, 11:18 AM

A weekly roundup of the top stories from the Home & Garden sections of leading newspapers around the country.

The Los Angeles Times Home & Garden: Santa Monica garden mixes hardy succulents, bright flowers

Quote:

"WHITNEY GREEN'S backyard is a series of colorful and playful vignettes that artfully mix low-water cactuses and succulents with fruit trees and roses. The Santa Monica garden, designed by Stephen Gabor of Gabor + Allen Inc., offers ideas for using desert plants for accents and drama without the backyard looking like the Mojave.

"We wanted drought-tolerant without creating a cactus garden and still have flowers for cutting," Gabor says, adding that function remained paramount. Every tableau reflects Green's love of color, succulents, hummingbird plants and flea market finds. The back staircase is decorated with pots of succulents and cactus. The kitchen opens onto the patio, where a mix of urns and smaller pots brim with the dramatic and powerful structure of kentia palms and a huge flax, which add a warm beauty to the outdoor living space.

Annie Wells/Los Angeles Times

Take a look at a photo gallery of Whitney Green's garden in Santa Monica designed by Stephen Gabor of Gabor + Allen Inc.

The Miami Herald Gardening: Flowering tree turns heads for its perfume

Quote:

Sometimes called the perfume tree, ylang-ylang produces a volatile oil in the flowers that is distilled and used in Chanel No. 5 and other perfumes throughout the world.

Georgia Tasker/Miami Herald Staff

The Seattle Post Intelligencer NW Gardens The Grounded Gardener: There's room for beauty under the trees

Quote:

In an ideal world, you would plant the understory at the same time you plant the tree. All holes would be dug at the same time in good, friable soil, and there would be no worry about selective watering, because everything would need water to get established.

But when you're dealing with things that grow, even in an ideal world not everything is perfect. For example, you most likely will start with a young tree that casts little shade. So what will be shade after the tree grows begins as open ground.

Tambako the Jaguar/Flickr

The Austin American-Statesman: Natural Gardener offers remedies for what ails plants

Quote:

John Dromgoole's 10 low-cost home remedies:

1. Homemade compost
Nothing better builds healthy soil. Use organic waste from around the house such as grass clippings, leaves, food scraps (everything except meat), hair from a hairbrush, house dust, and if you have access to animal manure, make sure it's not from a meat eater. Search the Internet for homemade compost instructions.

2. Vinegar
Strong vinegar (10 percent or higher) blended with orange oil makes a great herbicide. Mix 1 gallon of vinegar with 2 ounces of orange oil and apply to weed foliage. Do not dilute.

Larry Kolvoord/American-Statesman

The New York Times: Hidden Gardens of Paris

Quote:

The Swiss Valley is one of the most unusual of Paris’s more than 400 gardens and parks, woods and squares. Much grander showcases include wooded spaces like the Bois de Vincennes on the east of the city and the Bois de Boulogne on the west, and celebrations of symmetry in the heart of Paris like the Tuileries and the Luxembourg.

But I prefer the squares and parks in quiet corners and out-of-the-way neighborhoods. Many are the legacy of former President Jacques Chirac. In the 18 years he served as mayor of Paris, he put his personal stamp on his city by painting its hidden corners green.

David Brabyn/The New York Times

smgardener · 06-30-2008, 09:11 PM

Any idea what this plant is?

Very pretty.

hartless · 07-06-2008, 08:56 PM

I'm guessing your mystery plant is abutilon magapotamicum, a tropical climber. Abutilon megapotamicum
Living in zone 3, the only place I'll see this beauty climbing is the internet. LOL.

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06-30-2008, 09:11 PM	#2
smgardener Grounds Keeper Join Date: Sep 2007 Posts: 129 Blog Entries: 9 Images: 10	Any idea what this plant is? Very pretty.

07-06-2008, 08:56 PM	#3
hartless Green Gardener Join Date: Jun 2008 Posts: 2 Blog Entries: 1	I'm guessing your mystery plant is abutilon magapotamicum, a tropical climber. Abutilon megapotamicum Living in zone 3, the only place I'll see this beauty climbing is the internet. LOL.