Hello Friends –

When I say agave, don’t think of the desert. Free yourself from all of your associations. Look at these pictures of agaves. They are bold and soft, like a rose or a hosta. If you forget for a moment that these plants require hardly any water, you might just call them…lush.

Pots near the front door (but far from the hose)? A sun-drenched hillside? A pot on your windy deck? Agave country! Surprisingly adaptable, some agaves will thrive in the shade and even inside your house.

Free workshop series: every third Sunday in 2009

Plant Stunning Agaves Sunday, September 20, 2009, 10:30am Come hear our own Sydney Nahay talk about these versatile, unthirsty beauties. There are so many ways to use agave in your garden. The tiny miniatures are perfectly collectable even in a small garden, and the grandest of the agave are bold enough to bring focus to a wild hillside planting. There have been too many amazing new introductions in the past few years to name here, and being San Franciscans we are particularly fond of all of the new miniatures. And naturally, we love the variegated ones.

Three stunning agaves

Agave quadricolor
Here's a cute little agave, reaching only one-foot across. The leaves are dark green, yellow, and pale green striped. Each leaf is lined with tiny red teeth. Happy in full sun to bright filtered light, this one would be a great candidate to try in a bright indoor spot.

Agave parryi var. truncata
I am struck by the beauty of this plant every single time I see it. Each powdery blue leaf is shaped like an ogee arch, and each is topped with a crimson-black thorn with a sexy little curve.

Agave 'Mediopicta Alba'
A dwarf variegated agave has a really cute recurved leaf. It looks smashing in a pot and grows to only about three feet overall.

Fun Sunday Event

The Tiny Shed Challenge with Boor/Bridges
Sun September 27, 2009 11:00 am
$15 AIA Members | $25 Nonmembers

My buddies at Boor/Bridges have put together a program for the Architecture and the City Festival about sheds that we will be hosting here at Flora Grubb Gardens. Seth Boor has become fixated on designing perfect, tiny, sustainable, off-the-grid buildings that are sized to fall under the SF Building department’s definition of small sheds that do not require a permit.

If you are getting a vision of really cute little reading rooms or potting sheds, I must tell you that Seth has let me see designs for some of his still-top-secret sheds and they are way beyond what you might imagine. Please consider joining us if you have a dream of adding a little bit of living space by building in your back yard, and be prepared to be amazed by the possibilities.

Please come and see us while the weather is so great.

– Flora and everyone at Flora Grubb Gardens

Flora Grubb Gardens
1634 Jerrold Ave. at 3rd Street
San Francisco, CA 94124
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