By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! March 2024. With over 130 acres, sixteen themed gardens and 83,000 living plants there are many...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2024. In December, Scott Borden, eight friends and I visited Patagonia on a Natural Habitat...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! November 2023. Since my column is called "My Life with Plants," it seems only fitting that I have...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! September 2023. Northern England Gardens I'm not exactly sure when Scott or I last toured English...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! July 2023. I'm not exactly sure when I first became aware of Calochortus. Calochortus weedii - July...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! May 2023. Edited by Scott Borden. We were originally scheduled to visit the California Channel...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! March 2023. Closeup of Sand Verbena, Abronia villosa. Visit to June Wash After hearing and seeing...

By Jim Bishop for Let's Talk Plants! January 2023. Getting There This past October, on our return from a bicycling trip in Carolinas'...

By Jim Bishop for Let's Talk Plants! November 2022. This past October, Scott and I headed to the Carolinas' Blue Ridge Mountains to see...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! September 2022. This past August (2022) we had the opportunity to borrow a home belonging to a...

By Jim Bishop, for Let’s Talk Plants! July 2022. This spring Scott and I visited gardens near Philadelphia in Pennsylvania, New Jersey...

By Jim Bishop, for Let’s Talk Plants! May 2022. In mid-April, Scott and I traveled to Portugal for a bike tour. Getting older, we opted...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! March 2022. Back in February 2018 and April 2018 I wrote two articles for the newsletter about...

By Jim Bishop, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2022. Oahu A Variegated Pandanus utilis, AKA Screw pine, overlooking Turtle Bay on the...

By Jim Bishop for Let's Talk Plants! November 2021. In a previous article in 2018, Road to Marrakech, I told the story of how dates are...

By Jim Bishop for Let's Talk Plants! September 2021. This past April, I was fortunate to do a long-awaited return visit to the UC Santa...

California Adventure Part Five - I can hear you say, "What happened to parts one through four?" Well, I'll tell you what happened ... In...

By Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of our trip to Costa Rica in November 2019. Read about the beginning of the trip here. Read about...

One good thing that happened in 2020 was that I turned 65, which qualified me for the vaccine when it became available. I’m happy to report

After several days in around San José we boarded small planes and flew to the Pacific side of Costa Rica to Golfito, near the Panama border.

Our trip started in the capital city, San José. From there we did several day long trips. On a walking tour of San José we found that unlike

Well, I’ve made it to 65. The original plan was to be at Kings Canyon National Park in the Sierras and sit atop the rock where the famous ph

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the 2020 Chelsea Garden Show has been cancelled. How tired we all are of reading those words about our favori

As I mentioned in my January article, this past September I joined a plant expedition tour to Peru. It was a different type of tour for me.

This past September I joined a plant expedition tour to Peru. It was a different type of tour for me. The focus was mostly on seeing cacti

This past May I attended the Pacific Horticulture tour of Wales. It featured many gardens, towns, historical sites and two garden shows tha

My Life with Plants This is part five of a series about a Sept 2016 trip to view the wildflowers and scenery of Australia. From Stirling...

By Jim Bishop. This May, Scott and I finally decided it was time to visit the tulip fields at Keukenhof in the Netherlands – described as...

By Jim Bishop. We made a visit to Borrego in February and another in March to check out this year’s super-bloom. Part I, which appeared...

By Jim Bishop. As I’m sure you’ve heard this year’s bloom in the Anza Borrego Desert is spectacular. Who knew after the ‘super bloom’ in...

By Jim Bishop. In my previous article I wrote about the agriculture in Morocco as we had observed it on a trip there last November....

By Jim Bishop. Last month we traveled with a group of friends to tour Morocco. It had been on our travel wish list for a while. Morocco...

By Jim Bishop. In July, Scott and I visited western South Dakota and Wyoming. We were in search of alpine wildflowers in the mountains to...

By Jim Bishop. This is the second of a series about Jim's three-week wildflower tour of Greece and Crete. You can read the first article...

This is the first of a series about Jim's three-week tour of Greece and Crete. By Jim Bishop. This past March, I was able to join a tour...

By Jim Bishop. This is the second of a two-part series about Jim's evolving interest and skills in making garden mosaic pavings. Part I...

By Jim Bishop. This is the first of a two-part series about Jim's evolving interest and skills in making garden mosaic pavings. I’m not...

By Jim Bishop. I first became aware of the Jardin Exotique from the 1990s TV show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, hosted by Robin...

By Jim Bishop. In May of this year, I was fortunate to be able to attend the Pacific Horticulture Society tour of the gardens in the...

By Jim Bishop. This is the second of two articles about the recovery and revival of plant life at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park following...

By: Jim Bishop. This is the first of two articles about the recovery and revival of plant life at Cuyamaca Rancho State Park following...

Trek through the Tingle Trees By Jim Bishop. This is part four of a series about a Sept 2016 trip to view the wildflowers and scenery of...

Fabulous Fitzgerald, Heavenly Hakea, and the Best Banksia By Jim Bishop. This is part three of a series about a Sept 2016 trip to view...

By Jim Bishop. This is part two of a series about a September 2016 trip to view the wildflowers and scenery of Southwestern Australia....

By Jim Bishop. This is part one of series about a September 2016 trip to view the wildflowers and scenery of Southwestern Australia. At...

By: Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of last month’s article “The Adoration”, Part 1 about growing agaves. Agaves are great garden...

By Jim Bishop. We have a lot of agaves in our garden. However, it took me a while to warm up to agaves. One of the first ones I grew was...

By Jim Bishop. This is a continuation of columns from May and July 2016 about planting the casita gardens back in 2003. You may recall...

By Jim Bishop. I wrote in my November 2013 column that a 1984 family trip to several gardens in British Columbia, Canada, was the...

By Jim Bishop. The second year at my garden in Encinitas, I continued to remove grass and iceplant and expand the flower beds. I added a...