Euphorbia x martinii – I don’t know what this is a cross between, so let me look it up. As it is there are dozens of cultivars of this hybrid. I’ll bet it’s one of the German hybrids. Well, the answer is as simple as it appears: E. amygdaloides x E. characias. Now you know.

Science!

Euphorbia Characias ssp. wulfenii

Now that’s a showy spurge, but quite restrained in it’s mature size of only around 2 to 3 feet tall.

All the euph’s are blooming, so I was thinking maybe this could be spurge week. What do you think?

Ceanothus “Blue Jeans” has whorls of deep lavender flowers. Does deep lavender mean it’s purple? I wonder about these things. Anyway, this is one of the deer-resistant holly-leaf ceanothuses. Forms a dense shrub that is just coming into a full flush of bloom.

BuckSnort Lodge B132 Designer Knobs

He has a number of excellent succulent choices, including the ever fascinating Pedilanthus, and some other houseplant thingys too. I think he should also add astelia to his list. And you? What are you doing to prepare for the zombies?

Arctostaphylos densiflora “Howard McMinn” is a really nice, deeply-red-barked, twisted-branched medium-height California-native manzanita that has a large showing of pink-tinged bell-shaped blooms this time of year.

They are not to be used as a border plant, as they are only to be used as a centerpiece for a small garden. OK, you can also use them as a feature plant in a larger garden. And they can occasionally be brought indoors in colder areas to be a houseplant sitting in a very bright window, but never in a green pot. Mustard and Burnt Umber are the preferred pot colors.

They can also be bonsai’ed, but that will take a lot of work to reestablish and maintain.

It’s called biosolids compost and its being given away by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for use in school and community gardens, and homes. But… that material is actually treated sewage sludge….

The problem is what often comes with it: toxins, from businesses, hospitals, heavy industry.

“Flame retardants, heavy metals, pharmaceuticals, steroids, hormones, PCB’s, all kinds of nasty stuff,” said Paige Tomaselli with the Center for Food Safety….

(T)he position of one of the Environmental Protection Agency’s own experts: “This material should be kept away from the public,” said Hugh Kaufman, a senior policy analyst at the EPA. “The EPA did a study a year ago of sewage sludge from all over the country and found large amounts of hazardous material in all of the sludges,” he said.

via La Vida Locavore.

Anigozanthos viridis “Phar Lap” has the most sparkling aqua buds, that open into these deep rich green blooms. Tantalizing…

“Extinct” yellow-spotted bell frog found after 30 years

OK, so if you read the article, they’re not making a comeback so much as hiding out and doing their best to avoid people.

Sometimes a day is a little brighter than the rainclouded overcast sky would allow; in the simple pleasures like this fat, long-leafed succulent.

Pachyphytum longifolium

Photo of a mature specimen in habitat.

She wonders what to do with all the plantlets that will result. Any ideas of how she can share them, maybe while on her book tour?

I bet they’ll be up on etsy soon.

And up comes this interesting thing. Apparently it’s a type of musical instrument, and they’re available for purchase from the Lizard King.

Rainsticks: These beautiful & high quality natural rain sticks are made in South America from dried cactus. They have a natural tan color with yarn trim. We carry several sizes of these wonderfully soothing instruments at fair prices. The longer the rain stick, the longer the duration of sound.

Atrazine, a weed killer widely used in the Midwestern United States and other agricultural areas of the world, can chemically “castrate” male frogs…

Farmers in the United States continue to use atrazine on crops The herbicide has been a long-standing favorite among corn, sorghum and sugarcane farmers because t is affordable and can eliminate the need for tilling it is affordable and can eliminate the need for tilling the soil. Tens of millions of pounds of atrazine are used each year in the United States.