Plants Archives - The Six Fifty

‘Pure flower power’: Getting nosy with Pacifica’s Shen Aroma Farm

Mary Pancoast of Shen Aroma Farm’s blooming brand is based on her creekside patch of land in Pacifica. From those idyllic headquarters she grows flowers, keeps thriving hives of honeybees and offers a variety of handmade products, all infused with scintillating scents from essential oils and produced with an environmentally friendly ethos.

A growing trend: The Peninsula eateries filled with lush floral decor

You don't need to be outdoors to enjoy nature: Peninsula eateries are displaying their green ideals and aesthetics with floral decor.

Seven secret gardens of the 650

The Peninsula is flush with large-scale gardens like Gamble Garden, Filoli and Montalvo, but there are many gardens hidden in plain sight that are there for you when you need them.

Growing up: How vertical plantscapes are bringing the outdoors inside

Vertical gardens, essentially landscapes installed on walls with watering systems built in, were once rarely found outside of larger corporate and public building spaces like Google, Symantec or Stanford's Graduate School of Business. Over the past few years, that's changed as more and more residents have started installing "living walls" in their homes.

Silicon Valley stinks: The science and mystery behind the rare corpse flower bloom

This week marked the first time a corpse flower has ever bloomed in San Jose and may be a first for Silicon Valley as a whole. The Six Fifty got a whiff of the excitement behind the rare event.

How to celebrate Earth Day around the 650

Earth Day offers the chance for the community to gather for the first time in two years to raise awareness about climate change and promote sustainability measures.

Blooms, birds and bees: 10 gardens to visit on the 20th annual Growing Natives Garden Tour

Gardeners and plant lovers alike are abuzz over the return of the Growing Natives Garden Tour, which went virtual the last two years due to the pandemic.

Take a break from the Corona-verse via a tour of HMB’s carnivorous plant emporium

Some Venus flytraps wait patiently for a tasty fly lunch. (Image via Johanna Hickle) Take a break from the Corona-verse via a tour of Half Moon Bay’s best (& only) carnivorous plant emporium Josh Brown’s plants have needles, teeth and tentacles, and he loves them all (except the Venus fly trap) As an underclassman at Stanford University, Josh Brown cultivated a thriving terrarium with LED lights under his dorm room bed. “People thought I was growing ...