By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

As surely as the gardener's focus shifts from fall to winter, it shifts from outdoors to indoors. One of my favorite-ever ornamental pot plants is Begonia 'Escargot', which grows as easily for me indoors as (in summer shade) out. The one pictured has been perfectly happy in a corner of our kitchen. Try it, gift it—and keep it away from its namesake.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

 I caught up with fellow garden blogger, Cindy McNatt (Dirt Du Jour), last week at her own garden in Tustin.  I found much to like there, but this quiet spot may have been my favorite.

An inviting bench under the shade of an apricot tree with this object in dappled shade to hold my attention and encourage me to linger.

Just a large fish bowl filled with clear water with a few water lettuce floating on top. 

What could be easier?  Or more pleasing.

What to copy the idea?  Cindy makes it easy.  You can buy water lettuce plants from the retail section of her blog, Dirt Couture.  The plants are harvested from her own garden.

Cindy also likes to use water lettuce as a houseplant. Sometimes she places several plants in a large glass salad bowl.  Other times just one in a tall glass cylinder. 

"Water lettuce is an entertaining houseplant," says Cindy.  "The roots look beautiful when the lights hit them."  Indeed.  Below photos are Cindy's.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I thought I was over living walls.  I guess not.  I had dinner recently at True Food Kitchen in Newport Beach and chose a seat facing this beautiful new installation by Scott Hutcheon of Seasons Landscaping.  (Usually my husband and I fight over who has to face the wall.)  This time I was perfectly content to take that position.  I loved looking at the variety of textures and colors achieved using heucheras, ajuga, prathia, spider plant, and black mondo grass.

Here's a closer look.

Here's the layout if you want to know what is what.  (Click on the image to open a larger screen)

The wall and the restaurant's healthy eating theme seem like an excellent match.  Staring at this mesmerizing living mandala all evening while dining on something virtuous like Cucumber Refresher (cucumber and honey lemonade), farmers market salad (fresh peas, artichokes, mint, and manchego) and corn and ricotta ravioli makes for a very pleasant evening.  I left as blissed out as a well-petted cat.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

I sowed twice as much Gilia tricolor (bird's eyes) this year as I did last, and I'll add even more next year.  This California annual has totally won my heart.

The germination rate has been excellent for one thing with hardly any effort on my part. I just scratched the seeds in before it rained. Easy is good.

And the flowers are just plain sweet.  Simple in shape but nice details close up--yellow throat with a dark purple ring at the top plus powder-blue stamens.  I especially like the way Gilia tricolor looks when it pops up between clumps of purple needle grass (Nassella pulchra).  Makes my very suburban garden feel a little like a wild grassland.

I can see it looking just as at home in an old-fashioned cottage garden, though.  Or adding a touch of softness to a cactus and succulent garden.

Now here's the final selling point.  Though its stems aren't particularly long--10 to 20 inches, typically--Gilia tricolor is a great cutflower.  Hard to believe looking at those wispy stems, but it's true.  They last a week or longer.

Larner Seeds is a good source for seeds.  So is the Theodore Payne Foundation.

a closer look at those cute faces

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Start with The Photography of Imogene Cunningham show at the Oceanside Museum of Art.  It opened January 8 and runs through May 22.

Press Two Callas by Imogene Cunningham, circa 1929

Fill in the rest of the day with nursery hopping--there are a bunch in the area.   For recommendations--dining ideas, too--see this post on the Southern California Nursery Plants blog.   That's where I found this suggestion.

***

Other fun things found on Susan's blog recently.

Tillandsia lamp.   More about it here.

Most artful disguise of an electrical junction box.  Details here.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

After 30 years in the indoor plant business, Judy Feldstein knows enough to fill a book—or a database. That's what she's done with Houseplants 411, which you can access online or in a new app written for iPhone and iPod Touch (it also runs nicely on an iPad, but at iPhone screen size).

Houseplants 411 covers about 90 indoor plants in all categories. These are the basics—the plants you're most likely to have already or find in a garden store. They include everything from vines to small trees, palms to Christmas cactus.

When you select a plant from Judy's list, you get a picture, description, background, and extensive care notes. She tells you not only whether a plant is toxic, but, on a scale of four, how toxic. Care info covers pot size, soil, insects and diseases, humidity, temperature, fertilizer, water, light, propagation details, and even recommended pot size and shape. This is clearly the database's strong suit, and it's worth having for these care notes alone.

Some plant groups—most cactus and orchids, for example—are covered in only general terms. But most listings are quite specific. The pest pictures (scale insects, for example) are excellent, and really help identify critters that would be much harder to describe in words alone.

You can also search plants by trait—low-light plants for the office, for example—and you can flag favorites with a star. Use the glossary if you run into an unfamiliar word or product. And if you have a house-plant maintenance tip to share, you can post it here.

Everything is indexed by common name, and cross-referenced to botanical names, which are a bit sketchy in terms of accuracy and spelling. But even as I write this, she's cleaning up some of these problems.

But maybe the best thing you get with this software is Judy herself. If you come up with a question Houseplants 411 doesn't already answer, you can contact Judy directly for an answer.

Once word is out about this, I suspect Judy will have the world at her doorstep. Until then, sign up for premium online service ($9.99 one-time fee) or buy the app ($3.99) to get access to some of the best indoor plant resources around.

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

I'm totally in love with these stunning succulent orbs from DIG Gardens—I've never seen anything like them! You can buy the unplanted orb ($35 for the 1-foot size) and plant it with your own cuttings or, if you don't have succulents, you can buy cuttings ($60 for a pack of 100 cuttings) too.

I'm also crazy about these very cool box terrariums (from $37) that are perfect for small plants, or even tillandsias nestled in moss ($35).

By Julie Chai, Sunset associate garden editor

Photo by Caitlin Atkinson

Like framing a photo, there's something about placing plants in glass that makes them look even more beautiful. Which is why we're completely enchanted by these cube terrariums from Flora Grubb. Each one is custom made, and filled with a selection of tillandsias, moss, and twiglets. They're nearly care-free (the tillandsias just need occasional misting)—and starting at $20, they make a perfect hostess gift or stocking stuffer.

By Jim McCausland, Sunset Magazine

As Thanksgiving cactus and Christmas cactus start flowering, you may see one you want. They couldn't be easier to propagate. But first make note of the difference between the two, both of which have flat, jointed branches.

Thanksgiving cactus (Schlumbergera truncata). Branches have teeth at the joints and two large teeth at the ends of the last joints (that's why it is also called crab cactus). This one starts flowering in October, then has a second bloom in March; colors include orange, salmon-pink, rose-and-white, white, and violet. Blooms are strangely bird-like.

Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera x buckleyi). Also sold as Schlumbergera bridgesii). Branches arch, spread, and are markedly drooping, eventually making a very large container plant. Leaf segments are rounded and have scalloped edges, not pointed teeth like S. truncata (right). In time, these grow easily three feet across. Flowers are usually purplish-red, appear around Christmas.

[There is also a similar Easter cactus, Hatiora gaertneri (Rhipsalidopsis gaertneri), which produces star-like flowers in spring. It is propagated in the same way.]

To make more plants, break off a one- to three-segment piece and set it in a warm place out of direct sunlight to callus. After a week, stick the callused end into a pot of fast-draining potting soil—orchid mix is good—and support it with a plant tag or a piece of bent wire (above); the wire helps hold it upright. Water, cover the pot with a gallon freezer bag to increase humidity, and the cutting will root and give you a new plant just like its parent.

By Sharon Cohoon, Sunset senior garden writer

Photo by Suthi Picotte