Reply to David F. (edited)

Dear David,

    Again I had such pleasure in reading a description of your newly
designed garden!  I live in Palos Verdes with very similar temperatures and
lots of fog and cool west winds.  Unfortunately I don't have a glass fence.

Is the deck made of wood or concrete?  I had wooden planter boxes along a
very long north-facing wooden deck.  They soon rotted out their own bottoms
as well as the underlying deck.  I gave them all to a friend who set them on
concrete where they are still going strong after 15 years.  I now have a
collection of pots that provide air circulation or sit in impervious
saucers.  I assume you knew how to deal with this problem.

The draping plants sound beautiful.  I planted Plectranthus neochilus by my
front gate but couldn't stand the smell.  Its flowers are enticing in their
subtle coloring, and I like the leaves as well, so I have moved it to a
slope farther from my nose.

Someone gave me cuttings of Calandrinia grandiflora a year ago.  I put them
in the ground thinking they would root easily, but they kept rotting off and
getting shorter and shorter as I moved them around trying to find the right
spot.  In desperation I put them in a pot in almost pure perlite where they
finally rooted and are now in flamboyant bloom.  Do you think I dare try
again in my heavy clay?

I gave my son in San Francisco some tillandsias to grow on his palm trunks
but I don't really like the look of the gray leaves.  How about T. secunda
with is quite large, clustering, and has green leaves which would harmonize
better with the palm.  I grow Laelias on the multiple trunks of Fuchsia
paniculata (most people call it F. arborescens), and I think they would be
good on the palms also.

Thank you for your inspiring description.

Cathy
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