SPRINGTIME TREATS

This one's always is an unexpected surprise because it comes on so quickly.

One day you think it's dead and then the next,

Boom!

Wisteria blossoms.

The leaves will follow soon.

This is it's 4th year on the tiny patio of my Home/Studio,

but actually this pix came from a year ago buried in my phone's gallery.

But the plant is still alive and it should be bursting any day. 

One of my dear mother's favorite colors and plants.

My first gardening experiments began in the early 1970's

at our local La Mirada Drive-In Theater's Saturday Swap Meet

(which is still going on to this day)

where I bought my very first cactus.

I was working at Big Tee Burgers making $1.63 an hour 

bussing tables and taking orders.

Each week I'd save most of my paycheck but some of it would go weekly 

to purchasing a new cacti from the Swap Meet.

I was also taking Ceramics at Sunny Hills High in Fullerton,

learning the art of clay and glazes,

and making my own pots to plant those cactus in.

My step-father Webb kindly nailed up 3 shelves

on the side of my doll house and there sat my expanding collection of cacti and succulents.

I was HOOKED!

But later as an adult and after hearing countless stories about my grandparents,

my mother's parents from Italy and Sicily,

I realized it was also in my blood.

And of course my mother and her sister,

 my Aunt Elena,

 inherited a love of gardening too. 

And now I've passed it on to both of my children.

My daughter has a big love of cacti and succulents,

and as I've mentioned so many times here in this blog,

my son is a Plant Scientist out of Cal Poly Pomona,

where he has passed on his passion to his wife.

Visiting my children's homes,

specially their gardens,

 is such a big treat for me.

XMAS ADVENTURES WITH MY SON

I'd mentioned in a post from a couple days ago 

that my son usually takes a week off work after Xmas.

He stays in town with us,

 and he and I go find cool stuff to do.

We both adore plants and the beach so it usually involves the two.

 I came across these pictures from Xmas 2019,

right before Covid hit and am finally sharing them.

Hope you are a succulent fan like we are.

This is the Succulent Cafe where my daughter first turned me onto in 2018.

It's a ways down south from us towards San Diego along the coast

in a quaint little beach town called Carlsbad.

I adore their clever displays, 

especially the one above with the cuppe ens.

(guessing on the spelling of my mother's Italian word for a soup ladle)

But I couldn't decide which display I liked better,

like the one below with the oil funnels.

 A close-up.

Don't you love how the tail of the funnels cross over each other

 as well as the rusty areas?

Great design!

Zach's two favorites involved driftwood pieces above ,

and this hallowed out piece that I think was made from concrete below.

On the way home we took the sceneic coast road up thru all the beach cities

and stopped in Solana Beach at Zach's favorite nursery,

Solana Succulents.

We are always able to find great deals here.

I just had to put in this picture of Zach from 2009,

the first time Zach and I found Solana Succulents.

He was such a youngster then.

So glad he doesn't keep up with my blog,

he's be so mad at me for posting this old pix.

Ha ha ha

AN UNUSUAL SURPRISE

A few months ago my children and I went on a cacti and succulent buying mission

to a grower in the Sunland-Tujunga area of the San Fernando Valley 

by the foothills of the San Gabriel Mountains.

An adventure just finding the place!

There was so much to choose from and this succulent was chosen by my daughter.

When she made the purchase it wasn't in bloom,

but this is what happened about a month after bringing it to her home.

The most remarkable flower I've ever seen on a plant.

We were all in shock over how very unusual it was.

It lasted a good week and then it disappeared.

It almost looked like it was made from a plastic material.  

I couldn't believe what I was seeing at first.

I thought 

"No way!"

But it was real.

Can't wait to see more of these in the future.

Her brother bought two other varieties and are growing a couple more from seedlings.

But so far no blooms on any of these.

But we are very patient people.

I believe these come in as many as 23 varieties.  

LOOK WHAT I FOUND

Several years ago I posted this very special cacti the first time it sent up a bloom.

Well this is what I found today.

Not only has the cacti doubled in size but it sent up four flowers at one time.

Amazing!

HAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

No surprise here.

The recycled pinch pots from years ago that I planted this last weekend,

the ones I was supposed to bring to school to share with my students that I posted about,

sat on top of my car from 7:30 this morning till 4:45 this afternoon 

when I walked out to parking lot to go home.

Of course I forgot to bring them to my classroom,

and no one stole them or knocked them off my car.

How about that for a great place to teach.

Like I've told you all before,

I'm a very lucky lady to teach at Whitney High School.

I love this place!

Okay,

let me try this one more time tomorrow

LOLOLOL

GOING BACK IN TIME

Recently I uncovered these sweet little pinch pots made nine years ago.

The kids had left them behind when they graduated,

 and I'm a big recycler,

so for several years they have been in my garden supply area waiting for me to deal with them.

Well,

this weekend it happened.

I have a lot of succulent starts in my garden.

Petals that fall off plants and land in the dirt on the ground,

or in other planters like above.

I leave them alone until they root themselves and then I replant.

I found several to use,

so here they are in their new homes.

I'll take them to school tomorrow and give them to my students who might want to adopt them.

So thanks to Hylie, Emmerline Kim, Ashley Duru, Nathan Chou, K.P. and no name 

for your sweet leftovers,

they are finding their way again into nurturing hands.

LAST STOP...

on the Grand Adventure with son Zach & girlfriend Nicole.

After the Hike and Denny's for breakfast it was off to the

California Nursery Specialties Cactus Ranch in Reseda,

a complete Cacti & Succulent Nursery.

Right up my alley  :)

Can't wait to take Lil Guy Syd here to see the rusted Dinosaurs when he gets a little older,

and make a planter for his mommy.

This place was ginormous,

and honestly a bit overwhelming.

Ha ha

There were at least 5 of these giganuaon greenhouses that went on forever.

Like I mentioned in the previous post,

it was a good 95 degrees that day,

and a real sauna in those greenhouses.

But they had rows and rows of every cacti and succulent you could ever want,

in all different sizes.

And these were only the pix of the greenhouses,

there were a couple of acres of the same outside in the sun that I didn't even take pictures of.

Thank you Zach and Nicole for a memorable, 

fun, 

and calorie burning weekend adventure.

DIGGING IN THE DIRT

One of my favorite ways to relax,

so bring on the weeds!

In a previous post from Monday,

 I talked about going up to my son's new place to help them dig up their front planter

 and try something new.

Sadly their H.O.A. has let all the front beds go bad because the sprinklers need repair,

so the plants weren't getting any water,

and weeds took over.

Weeks before I came up,

the kids dug up the weeds from this little bed and threw seed mix down,

and watered by hand.

Some great looking Cosmos came up but they still weren't satisfied with the result. 

They wanted to try a more permanent look with Cacti, Succulents and California Natives. 

My son knows I'm crazy for Cacti and Succulents and invited me up for input and help,

therefore the post from Monday,

trekking to the California Natives Foundation.

First on the agenda,

 Nicole and I transplanted all the Cosmos to another bed in front of this one,

lining them up side by side creating a soft screened-in look,

while Zach took a pick ax and tore into the hard clay soil,

then poured 3 bags of quality mulch into it and mixed by hand.

Oh boy!

My son also went to a nearby rock retailer,

and scored several great chucks for only a couple of dollars.

Before he placed them,

he mounded up the extra soil to give a more sculpted natural look,

then carefully placed his rocks.

I was dying to help direct and place all the plants,

but I wanted it to be theirs,

 so I refrained and watched while the two worked so beautifully side by side. 

Ahhh,

I'm so thrilled my son has found the perfect woman to be by his side.

Can you find the couple of California Natives they bought and put into the mix?

Far left back,

 mid left,

middle and right front.

Did I get that right Zach?

Can't wait till they send me an updated pix of how it's growing.

I Put Another Candle on My Birthday Cake

When I was in high school I used to think that anyone in their 50's was soooo old, but boy oh boy, not anymore  LOL  My husband says I'm still a "Spring Chicken!"  :)  Thanks Jimmy.  I don't know if I'd go that far though.  

My birthday fell on Easter Sunday this year, so to celebrate, my daughter Dani took me on a surprise day- trip during her Spring break, up to one of my favorite cities, Claremont, for a leisurely two hours of smelling oils and designing our own scents and having the salesperson put them into lotions and diffusers for us.  Mine was a mixture of gardenia, orange and patchouli.  Now it's making me and my home smell so good.  Then she treated me to lunch at a super upscale burger place for a delicious lunch.  Thanks Dani for such a wonderful surprise-filled day.

My husband Jim bought me a beautiful new set of golf clubs complete with bag.  I'm really enjoying the new driver, I can actually hit the ball now farther then 100 yards LOL.

And to celebrate with my son Zach, I drove up to his place in Pasadena the day before my birthday, and he drove me all over L.A. and Hollywood to visit my favorite places, with a stop at one of our favorite burger houses for a lettuce wrapped avocado burger and sweet potato fries.   And knowing how much I enjoy gardening, we puttered in his little garden area with his new greenhouse, arranging his orchids and succulents, and doing a bit of weeding.  Have I mentioned how much I love to weed?  So therapeutic!

Then we ended the day at a terrific cacti and succulent farm close to his house.  Rows and rows of plants from all over the world and good looking clay pots to house them in made by a local Pasadena potter.  Both of us came home with several new plants to love and take care of.    

I couldn't have asked for a more excellent time with all of you.  Thank you all for making my 57th a memorable one.  Love you guys.

Irina Charney at Trios Gallery - Professional Artist

Two weekends ago on a glorious spring day my son and I set off for Solana Beach down San Diego way. My mission was to met Irina Charney and to see her amazing mosaic works in person at Trios Gallery where they were being showcased. This is an example of one of the many pieces she had on display there. I understand she lives nearby to us in Irvine, Ca. so I hope to one day visit her studio.

A close-up of one of Irina's pieces. Look at her amazing craftsmanship. Everything is so precisely laid out, and she uses a variety of glasses in her works which creates a little more dimension on her surfaces.

On our way home my son spotted a cacti and succulent nursery, so all of a sudden this boring trip with his mother was starting to look up. He is a plant science major (2nd year) at Cal Poly Pomona and he collects these plants so he was very excited to find a new nursery to browse thru. This one is called Solana Succulents and it's right on the coast highway running thru town on the beach side. It was a gorgeous day, not too hot or cold and we spent a good hour there looking at all the specimens. Of course we had to buy a few to take home with us :)

Here is my son Zach amongst all the cacti and succulents. He one day hopes to open his own nursery with orchids, carnivorous plants and cacti/succulents. I would love to be able to help him to make that dream come true, and maybe work there part time in my retirement. He is already starting to propagate his own plants and he's having a lot of luck with it.