Far Out Flora

Gardening in the Outerlands of San Francisco

Monthly Archives: September 2011

CornerStone Chic

September 10, 2011 by Matti | 7 Comments

Mark Rios, Cornerstone Sonoma, CA

Mark Rios, Cornerstone Sonoma, CA

Everybody has their special spot to wet their creative juices.  CornerStone is one of our Go To places that always pulls us out of a garden rut…and a great stop while heading up to Sonoma CA for a little wine tasting.  CornerStone attracts designers from around the world to install Avant-garde styles into the landscape.  Sitting on 9 acres, their 27 garden plots has something for all.  Oh Bonus! it’s free to visit.

Blue Tree by Claude Cormier

Claude Cormier - Blue Tree

Probably one of most iconic sites at CornerStone has been this large tree covered with blue balls.  Canadian landscape architect, Claude Cormier, installed Blue Tree back in 2004.  The tree was diseased and slated for removal.  Instead of chopping it down, it was covered with 75,000 sky blue balls.  However during our last visit, we couldn’t help notice that the tree has been heavily pruned and basically just a very tall stump at the moment.  We did find some amazing pics of Blue Tree on Claude Cormier’s site if you want to get a taste of how it looked back in the heyday.

CornerStone - Sonoma CA

Topher Delaney - Garden Play

San Francisco artist, Topher Delaney, is behind Garden Play.  This minimalist space plays with shape and scale.  There are a handful of over-sized rope balls sitting amongst a small stand of birch trees.  Great garden to view especially if you can find a moment to have it all to yourself.

Artichoke - Cynara

Artichoke - Cynara

When we were there in June (man…where is summer going?) the Artichokes were going crazy.

Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers by Mario Schjetnan - Cornerstone Sonoma, CA

Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers by Mario Schjetnan - Cornerstone Sonoma, CA

Tucked within Mario Schjetnan’s garden design called Small Tribute to Immigrant Workers, this space was one of our fave artichoke patches.

Artichoke flower - Cynara

Artichoke flower - Cynara

Frankly, I never saw one in flower until seeing them here.  Who knew that artichoke blooms were immense…were talking as big as your head huge.

Smoke Bush - Cotinus species

Smoke Bush - Cotinus species

Here’s a gorgeous ornamental that is an eye catcher, Cotinus…aka the Smoke Bush.  I’m not sure how well it would do in our foggy garden.  I seem to only recall them going in a little more heated areas.  I see that Rancho Reubidoux has a great photo of Cotinus.  Anybody have one growing in your garden?

Daisy Border by Ken Smith

Daisy Border by Ken Smith

As Blue Tree is coming to the end of its life, this garden installation is rising on our charts.  Daisy Border is the conception of Ken Smith.  Filled with a ton of daisy like windmills, it creates a fun play on wind and light bouncing off the blades.  Want some more CornerStone Garden action?  My Back 40 (Feet) has some amazing pics of the installations and some of the shops there too.

– Far Out Flora

September Strybing

September 7, 2011 by Megan | 7 Comments

Bomarea caldasii

It’s been over a month since we were last at the SF Botanical Garden, so we headed up last Sunday afternoon in the fog. I was hoping to see some nice Meso-American Cloud Forest action, and was sweetly rewarded. I have no idea why we don’t have a Bomarea planted out back. I think I’m secretly afraid they’re finicky, but in reality they don’t seem that tough to keep alive. One would be right at home in Fuchsialand out back. There’s a trellis with a half-dead sweet pea and sad looking, heat/sun deprived pitiful Mina lobata that could use a new plant.

Foxy Fuchsia boliviana

The Fuchsia bolivianas were going nuts. Huge trees are covered in blooms which means I’ll most likely be hanging out near these fabulous plants next Saturday from 1:30-3:30 at my Interpretive Station as a docent. Wanna be a docent? Get more info and sign up for the upcoming fall training class here.  It’s a fun way to learn more about plants.

Deppea splendens

Just a short stroll down from Fuchsiaville is a Deppea splendens getting ready to bloom like crazy. It’s covered with buds. Anyone know if there’s another Deppea besides this guy? I’ll most likely be setting up my Interpretive Station very near this plant on September 24th from 11:30-1:30 for the show.

Geranium 'Rozanne'

I have to admit, I didn’t understand what the all the fuss about this plant was for earlier this spring at Annie’s (there are a bunch available right now). Customers were getting into fist fights for the few we had available. Well, maybe not that extreme. I get it now. I’ve been watching a mass that’s been blooming its head off for months now. It’s impressive.

Haemanthus coccineus

At first I thought someone had thrown some trash in this bed, but it was really full of fiery little red flowers. They’re cute little South African natives related to the Naked Lady pictured below.

Amaryllis belladonna

Eucomis bicolor

Eriogonum giganteum

We took a little stroll through the California native section where we caught this ginormous Erigonum giganteum going crazy.

Eriogonum grande var. rubescens

The little native/dry section in front of the County Fair Building is starting to fill in. To check out baby pictures of this garden check out our post from last October when it was first installed. All our pics from Strybing are right here on flickr.

 

 

 

 

Saturday Succulent Rearranging

September 4, 2011 by Megan | 13 Comments

Before the mass rip out

Yesterday I decided to go nuts on our Cotyledon orbiculata var. oblonga (I think that’s what it is). In the shot above I’d already cut out as much plant as you see remaining. I’ve always liked it, but we needed to make room for some cool new plants so I ripped the entire plant out. That whole region was getting a bit funkified anyways.

Here I am looking like a big dork

For the relatively small space I re-did it took me forever. I do not recommend squatting in a hunched down position like that for hours if you want to wake up the next day without some serious leg/back soreness.

Ready to get put back together

We had a big chunk of driftwood hanging around not doing anything, so I decided to use it as a little edger in the front.

Voila!

Six hours later it’ was done (I took a lot of breaks). I still have no idea what that other slightly bluer Cotyledon is hanging out behind the Coreopsis gigantea is. Behind and slightly to the left of the bowling pin is our brand new Aeonium nobile from Jenn at Dirty Girl Gardening. Matti brought home a couple freaky crested things including the Aeonium ‘Sunburst’ and Echeveria ‘Doris Taylor’ that are jammed in there as well. Click on the pic for a closer look.

The Driftwood King

September 2, 2011 by Megan | 7 Comments

The King of Driftwood

Mendocino rocks in so many ways, but its creative uses of driftwood push it over the edge to being super awesome. We love driftwood. When you live next to the beach you can get away with any sort of driftwood sculpture. Does anyone else see two scantily clad dancers frolicking on the right hand side of this picture?

Driftwood Horse

It’s a super cool gigantoid driftwood horse in front of the Mendocino Art Center! There were lots of cool, reasonably priced sculptures everywhere in the cute garden.

Driftwood Flower Arch

A flowery arch of driftwood goodness!

Driftwood Doorway

This is the charming backside of the amazing Mendocino garden we posted about a couple weeks ago. When you live next to the ocean why not go crazy with driftwood? I’ve always wondered about the legalities of taking driftwood from California beaches, and after doing a wee bit of googling it looks like each place is unique. Quite a few places seem to encourage it. I even saw a post about getting a permit for carrying away as much as possible from a state park. Anyone have any other info about it?