Gerhard Bock

It’s been a year and a half since I blogged about my favorite agaves. All of the varieties I described then are still among my favorites (some are included in this post as well) and many others have joined the collection. While I didn’t set out to...

I still remember the first time I saw a porcupine tomato (Solanum pyracanthon or Solanum pyracanthum). The vivid orange spines looked so vicious but at the same time irresistible. I simply had to touch them and when I did, I was surprised. As lethal as...

Worth’s Paradise is the third garden I visited a few weeks ago as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. It was actually the first garden I toured but since I took more photos there than at any of the others, it took me a while to go t...

Last year I became interested in caudiciforms and pachycauls, plants with swollen stems or trunks that serve as water-storage organs. Just take a quick look at these Google image search results to get an idea of the variety of plants that fall into the...

Every now and then I look at a specific plant in my garden and I say, you’ve got to go. I’ve reached that point with my Manfreda ‘Spot’.   What’s a manfreda, you might ask, and why is it getting kicked out? The 20+ species of manfredas...

Last weekend I visited three outstanding gardens in Marin County. I’ve already blogged about Under the Sea, High in the Hills. Today I’m showing you Mediterranean Marin, a garden located in Mill Valley. In the Garden Conservancy program it ...

This past Saturday I toured three gardens in Marin County, just north of the Golden Gate Bridge, as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. Each garden was unique and warrants its own post. I took plenty of photos and though I tried to ed...

Today I went on a tour of three gardens in Marin County as part of the Garden Conservancy’s Open Days Program. My expectations were very high since Marin County has some of the most spectacular real estate in Northern California and I knew that garde...

Just the other day I mentioned that cannas are the official harbingers of summer for me. Hot on their heels are echinaceas. ‘Tiki Torch’ (left), ‘Hot Papaya’ (right) My love affair with echinaceas began about four years ago when I saw a p...

Like so many tropical plants, cannas love the heat. They take their sweet time during the cooler weather of spring, but as the thermometer starts to climb in May and June, they kick into high gear.   I’ve been keeping a close eye on this c...