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Sidewalks of San Francisco

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For a person visiting San Francisco from "The Great White North", one is struck not only the weather but also by the plant life that flourishes in this ideal mediterranean climate. I've just returned from a week in this lovely city, and again I was impressed by the quality, variety and creativity of gardening that I found there. In this post I am paying particular attention to the gardens I found in the front gardens which often  overflowed onto the sidewalks and boulevards. Many of the plants that I saw there are the same that I grow outdoors and have to move indoors from November to April. And since the San Francisco plants are grown in the ground they are huge compared to my container grown collection.
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Rescue Plants

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It is so satisfying to liberate plants from the imprisonment of an uncaring Big Box store. This I did last Fall when I found three Agave desmettiana, a mature plant with two large offsets crammed into a two gallon pot. I managed to winter them over under lights in my basement and was further satisfied last week when on a mild day I was able to take them out onto the balcony where, with a little surgery, I was able to separate them and give them their own root space in new pots. I can't wait for the warmer weather when I can get them out of doors.  Agave desmettiana 'Variegata' and two offspring, crammed into a 2 gallon pot. Divided and repotted.
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South African Annuals.

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This time last year I was a in the throes of moving house and home from Toronto to Montréal and had no time for my usual late winter activity of planting seed. This year I'm making an attempt to get back into the habit and have uncovered some seed of some of the many annuals that were such a delight on my trip to South Africa in 2013. They include Nemesia cheiranthus, Nemesia barbata, Felicia australis, and Dorotheanthus bellidiformis. Packages from Silverhill Seed in Cape Town. Nemesia cheiranthus with complex structure and lovely colour. Felicia australis, a simple flower but en masse is a sheet of vivid blue Dorotheanthus bellidiformus, a seed mix endless variety of colours. Nemesia barbata has flowers with intense colour from magenta to dark purple to black.
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