May is a big month for activities outside. Here are 9 things plant lovers can actually go out and do this month, including moon bathing at the L.A. Arboretum.
Owner David Bernstein says he uses an “adding machine” to tally up invoices that he has written by hand. The calculator is one of his few nods to technology. He’s never loud, even when telling a joke or calling to an employee to help a customer, or when his conversation is repeatedly interrupted by his phone. Because Bernstein answers all his calls. Years ago, his mother came in and answered the phones, but since she died he does it himself, his one concession to modern technology — a flip phone he carries in his pocket, near the ring of keys dangling from his belt.
From a practical standpoint, succulents are just easier to grow than houseplants. “Foliage plants are a lot of trouble to grow,” he said. “It requires constant vigilance, with spraying all the time with fungicides and chemicals — I hate spraying chemicals or being exposed to them — and you have to stay on top of the watering to the nth degree....”
. “Every year since I started has been a good year, better than the last,” he said, “except in 1994 after the Northridge earthquake. The epicenter was about a mile east of us, and there was a lot of damage. Nobody wanted to mess around with a garden until they had fixed up their house.”
I will have to go. Love cactuses.
Lovely story!
That place is full of pricks.
In a shack outside La Grange?
Be careful where you sit.