Succulents and More

Cactus flowers I missed while I was in Germany

Wed, 31 May 2023 20:13:59 +0200

While I was in Germany, a lot was happening in the garden. The weeds were growing like, well, weeds, but far more exciting was the first wave of cactus flowers. Fortunately, my wife kept a close eye on the goings-on and captured the flowers in the photos you see below. All credit goes to her.

Echinopsis ‘First Light’

‘First Light’ is always one of the first echinopsis hybrids to bloom in our garden. The flowers are show-stoppingly beautiful. See for yourself.

First one flower...

...then a whole bouquet of flowers

On the downside, the flowers are fully open for just one day. They begin to wilt the next day.

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’

There’s only one echinopsis that rivals ‘First Light’ in terms of sheer beauty, and that is ‘Flying Saucer’. If anything, it might even be more spectacular, mainly because the flowers are quite a bit larger, up to 8" in diameter. But like ‘First Light’, they’re short-lived.

My wife’s hand for scale

Echinopsis ‘Salmon Queen’

‘First Light’ and ‘Flying Saucer’ are columnar cacti up to 3 ft. in height. Strictly speaking, they’re Trichocereus hybrids rather than Echinopsis, although Trichocereus was lumped into Echinopsis in 1974. In 2012, genetic analysis found that the two genera have divergent lineages, meaning they’re not as closely related as once thought. As a result, Trichocereus was restored as a genus, and it would be more correct taxonomically to refer to ‘First Light’ and ‘Flying Saucer’ as Trichocereus. But most people really don’t care—the plants definitely don’t.

In contrast to Trichocereus hybrids, which are columnar, true Echinopsis hybrids are much smaller and globe-shaped. There are hundreds of Echinopsis hybrids with flower colors ranging from pure white to magenta-purple. I planted about a dozen in the ground last year, and two of them flowered while I was away.

The first one was ‘Salmon Queen’. As you might have guessed, it has salmon-colored flowers:

Echinopsis ‘Ishtar’
The second Echinopsis hybrid to flower was ‘Ishtar’. It has a different genetic makeup, but the flower color is quite similar to ‘Salmon Queen’. The Huntington describes it as “ashen pink to orangish-pink, with purer pink midrib and cream-colored basal stripe.”

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’

‘June Noon’ is a taller columnar Trichocereus type. Its flowers have a “candid white petal with a canary yellow midrib” [1]. While maybe not quite as attention-grabbing as ‘First Light’ or ‘Flying Saucer’, it’s still a beautiful presence in our garden.

Echinopsis ‘Vanilla Ice’

‘Vanilla Ice’ is a hybrid made by Brent Wigand. He’s a prolific grower based in Riverside County, California. Check out his website Torchcactus.com to see a full range of hybrids.

‘Vanilla Ice’ has pure white flowers and is a more calming presence than attention getters like ‘Flying Saucer’.

NOID Epiphyllum

Echinopsis/Trichocereus weren’t the only cacti that bloomed during my absence. Here’s a no-name Epiphyllum aka orchid cactus in the backyard. It produced a jaw-droppingly large flower:

Acanthocalycium spiniflorum f. violaceum

Its name is a mouthful, but this smallish round cactus from Argentina has delicate flowers with a metallic sheen:

Ferocactus glaucescens

I planted three blue barrels (Ferocactus glaucescens) on Bamboo Hill last fall. Two of them are now in bloom. The flowers are quite small in relation to the size of the body.

Echinocereus dasyacanthus

I’ve been waiting for my Echinocereus dasyacanthus (aka Texas rainbow cactus) to bloom and I’m not disappointed. There was only one flower, but it stayed open for over a week. That’s an Echinocereus for you! It don’t think there’s another cactus genus with more long-lived flowers.

Echinocereus reichenbachii var. alberti

This one isn’t mine (I picked it up for a friend at the recent Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society sale), but after seeing the flowers, I wish I’d bought one for myself. Maybe the new owner will give me a small pup in a year or two...

Parodia mammulosa

This cactus was a gift from my friend Justin who found it at his local Ace Hardware Store. There was no ID, but based on the flowers, we think it’s Parodia mammulosa. Whatever it may be, it’s been pumping out flowers like there’s no tomorrow. And what flowers!

Parodia mammulosa is planted in a Corten planter inside the front yard fence

Mammillaria perbella hybrid

The last cactus I want to show you isn’t in flower, but it has brilliant red fruits, something mammillarias are known for:

Stay tuned for more cactus flowers in the weeks and months to come!

Snapshots from Nuremberg, Germany, May 2023

Fri, 26 May 2023 20:12:34 +0200

Nürnberg, or Nuremberg in English, is the closest “big city” to my hometown of Hersbruck (see this post). Downtown Nuremberg is just 20 miles away, a 30-40-minute drive depending on traffic. The smarter choice is to hop on a train, which takes just 15 minutes. And unlike elsewhere (here’s looking at you, Amtrak), trains are plentiful and generally on time.

Along the River Pegnitz

Nuremberg has a rich history that stretches back over a thousand years. The city’s story began in the Middle Ages when it emerged as a major center of trade and commerce in the Holy Roman Empire.

In the 11th century, Nuremberg became an imperial city, granting it a considerable degree of autonomy and self-governance. The city flourished as a hub for manufacturing and craftsmanship, particularly in metalworking, textiles, and printing. It also became renowned for its annual trade fairs, attracting merchants from across Europe.

During the Renaissance, Nuremberg was home to artists such as Albrecht Dürer, a prominent painter and printmaker. Dürer’s works made a significant impact on German art and contributed to Nuremberg’s reputation as a center of artistic excellence.

Several historic foot bridges cross the River Pegnitz

In the 16th century, Nuremberg played a crucial role in the Protestant Reformation. The city embraced the teachings of Martin Luther, and its citizens converted to Protestantism, leading to tensions with the Catholic Church. Nuremberg became a stronghold for the Protestant movement, hosting religious debates and attracting notable reformers.

Nuremberg’s history took a dark turn during the 20th century. It became a prominent site for Nazi propaganda and a symbol of the Nazi Party’s power. Adolf Hitler chose Nuremberg as the location for the annual Nazi Party Rallies, where massive displays of military might and propaganda took place. The infamous Nuremberg Laws, which stripped German Jews of their rights and led to widespread persecution, were announced in the city in 1935.

After World War II, Nuremberg gained international attention as the site of the Nuremberg Trials, held by the Allies in 1945-1946 to bring Nazi war criminals to justice. The trials marked a significant milestone in the development of international law and human rights.

In the post-war era, Nuremberg underwent extensive reconstruction and revitalization efforts. The city transformed into a vibrant industrial and economic center, particularly in sectors such as electronics and engineering. Nuremberg also became known for its numerous cultural and historical attractions, including the reconstructed medieval old town which had sustained significant damage during WWII, the Imperial Castle, and the Nuremberg Toy Museum.

Today, Nuremberg is a thriving city of 520,000 that serves as the region’s economic and cultural center. A major rail hub and an international airport connect it to the rest of Germany and to Europe at large.

Weinstadel, a former wine warehouse, and Henkerturm (Hangman’s Tower), part of the medieval city wall

Henkersteg (Hangman’s Bridge) terminating at the Henkerturm (Hangman’s Tower) on the right. The city’s hangman lived in the tower from the 16th to the 19th century.

Half-timbered houses...

...in a variety of colors

↴ (In)famous hare sculpture by Jürgen Goertz, described thusly by Atlas Obscura: “A sculpture of a gigantic goggle-eyed hare is portrayed as having fallen hard upon and smashed open a wooden box from which spills a horde of numerous tiny and demonic-looking rabbits. Look closely and you will see that crushed beneath this heavyweight hare lies a person, whose lifeless hand can be seen outstretched from beneath the animal’s colossal bulk.”

This sculpture has been called one of the world’s ugliest pieces of art. I love it.

↴ The next set of photos were taken at or near the Imperial Castle, Nuremberg’s most prominent landmark. Located on a sandstone ridge above the city center, this group of fortified buildings dates back to the High Middle Ages and represented the power of the Holy Roman Empire and Nuremberg’s significance within it.

Blooming lilac everywhere...

...even in the Imperial Castle

View from the Imperial Castle

Luginsland Tower

↴ Walking down Castle Hill towards the city center:

St. Sebaldus Church

The Hauptmarkt is the best place to buy regional produce. In December, it’s the site of the world-famous Nuremberg Christmas Market, the Christkindlesmarkt.

Built between 1352 and 1362, the Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady in English) is a stunning example of Gothic architecture

Frauenkirche

Mobile planters...

...add a welcome touch of green...

...to the cobble-stoned square

White asparagus and strawberries

Germans love their white asparagus. Personally, I much prefer the green variety.

Fresh strawberries grown right outside of Nuremberg

↴ The pedestrian zone in the center of Nuremberg is one of the largest of its kind in Europe. It’s truly wonderful being able to explore without having to worry about vehicle traffic.

St. Lorenz Church (and yes, there are three Starbucks in the pedestrian zone)

Built in 1339, the Heilig-Geist-Spital was the largest hospital in the imperial city. Today, it’s a retirement home.

Easily the most original window display I saw during my visit: Good Hair Day Pasta by German company Greenomic Delicatessen

Blankets for cafe customers to use. Do they do that in the US?

There are quite a few plant sellers in the pedestrian area. Most of them carry the expected assortment of cut flowers and potted plants like petunias, marigolds, etc. This protea, probably Protea cynaroides ‘Mini King’, made me do a double-take. Expensive at €36.99 (about $40) and most decidedly not hardy in Germany, but a wonderful exotic accent during the warmer months.

↴ The man-crushing hare I showed you earlier isn’t the only piece of public art in Nuremberg that people love to hate. Probably the most beloved and behated example is the Ehekarusell, or Marriage Merry-Go-Round. Installed in the early 1980s, it’s based on the poem “Das bittersüße ehlich’ Leben” (“Bitter-Sweet Married Life”) by 16th-century Nuremberg poet Hans Sachs and vividly depicts the various phases of marriage—from courtship and passion to strife and death. I love it and make a point of visiting it every time I’m in Nuremberg.

I’m back home now and have a lot of catching up to do...

Snapshots from Bavaria, May 2023

Tue, 23 May 2023 08:36:35 +0200

I’m in southern Germany for a few weeks to visit family. I don’t have any plans to travel within Germany, instead sticking close to the Nuremberg area. The weather has been a mix of overcast skies, rain, and brief interludes of sunshine. I haven’t done any “real” photography with my big DSLR, but I carry my phone everywhere I go so I can grab quick snapshots of whatever catches my eye.

There’s no theme to the photos below, but you may notice one thing: It’s so green here! California has been plenty green this winter because of all the rain, but not like this.

But I want to start off with another color. The countryside around Nuremberg is dotted with expanses of yellow. These are field of rapeseed, grown on a commercial scale for the production of oil (canola oil is a food-grade version of rapeseed oil originally developed in Canada).

Rapeseed field

Blaze of yellow through the trees

Now for a blast of green:

Not that I’ve ever been wanted to be a cow, but if I did, I think I’d like to live here

Lilac everywhere—white, light purple, and dark purple

I’d never seen this lilac variety before, but the FB hive mind told me it’s an old cultivar called ‘Sensation’

‘Sensation’ lilac (Syringa vulgaris ‘Sensation’)

Even dandelions look pretty

Yet another squall moving in

European horse chestnut (Aesculus hippocastanum)

Horse chestnut inflorescences are strikingly intricate, each flower resembling a miniature orchid

I’ve been photographing the old farmhouse across the street from my mother’s house at different times of day:

Facebook friends were wondering if it’s an apartment or office building. Far from it, it’s a single-family home. The three-story attic was used to dry and store hops when this area was still a prime hop-growing region (into the 1970s).

In the photos above, see the platform on top of the house? That’s a nesting platform for storks. And for the first time, there actually is a pair of storks nesting. I’ve been watching them for days:

More picturesque houses and barns in villages nearby:

The village church up the street from my mother’s house:

It was originally built in the 14th century from limestone rubble and baroqueized in 1776/77. The church tower and nave were renovated in 2009-2013.

Some photos of Hersbruck, the town where my family still lives:

View of Hersbruck

City Hall and Upper Market Square

In the Middle Ages and beyond, a fortified wall surrounded the entire town center. Today, only a small section is left.

Spitaltor, originally built in 1425. It’s one of three towers in the fortified wall. The only way to get into town was through the gates in these three towers. Today, only fragments of the wall remain, but the three towers are still standing.

Looking through the Spitaltor gate

The Spitalkirche, originally a small chapel built in 1406 for the adjacent hospital. It was recently renovated, replastered, and repainted. Personally, I think Barbie pink is a terrible color for a church. Apparently the church was that color in the mid-1500s. How anybody would know that escapes me, considering paintings from that time would have been a rough approximation at best. The worst thing, however, are the painted white lines that mimic the mortar between the original sandstone blocks. The paint job is a massive fail; everybody I talked to hates it.

Built in 1444, the Nürnberger Tor is the second-oldest tower in the medieval wall

The third tower is the Wassertor, built in 1602. Notice the stork nesting platform on the roof.

Wassertor

Located next to the Wassertor, this small house was built in 1690. This is where out-of-towners wanting to enter the town center through the fortified wall had to pay a toll. The money was used to maintain the cobblestone streets.

Traditional half-timbered houses

Wassertor and half-timbered houses along the River Pegnitz

Massive weeping willow touching the water

Typical houses near the city center

One of the most striking building in the town center; there's a pharmacy at ground level and apartments above

Street in the town center

I doubt acid green is a “historical” color, but I could be dead wrong. The peaks that stick out from the roof were for rope-and-pulley systems used to haul grain up to the attic for storage.

Schloss Hersbruck, built in 1557 on the foundations of a fortified castle. It served as the seat of the burgrave, the local representative of the emperor. Today, it houses the district court.

Wider view of Schloss Hersbruck

Seeing how a map is worth 1000 words, here's one of Germany to show you where Hersbruck is located:

Map for orientation

Living Annie's Annuals catalog + sidewalk veggie beds

Sat, 20 May 2023 09:30:00 +0200

Another garden I enjoyed on the 2023 Ruth Bancroft Waterwise Garden Tour was what I mentally dubbed the Living Annie’s Annuals catalog. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the homeowner, Melissa, actually is the marketing director of Annie’s Annuals (and the former marketing director of the Ruth Bancroft Garden). No wonder her garden reminded me of the display beds at Annie’s!

In the official garden tour blurb, the style of this garden is described as “RBG-inspired with CA native & edible landscaping (with no cacti!).” Melissa isn’t fond of spiky succulents like aloes and agaves, but she does like Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’ because it reminds her of the RBG. As you’ll see further down, she has a couple of beautiful specimens in her front yard.

Another focus of this garden, in addition to all kinds of flowering annuals and perennials, are vegetables. As Melissa says in her garden statement, “"[I wanted to] help the environment, save water and money and have a relatively low maintenance garden. I also wanted to demonstrate the diversity of plants, including edibles that are drought tolerant (that may not look like it)!”

The planter boxes in the sunniest spots along the sidewalk are reserved for vegetables. They hadn’t been planted yet when I was there, but I suspect they might be now.

A sea of California poppies in white, pink, and orange

Sweet peas (Lathyrus odoratus)

Leucospermum ‘Blanche Ito’ next to a ‘Carciofo Romanesco’ artichoke (Cynara cardunculus var. scolymus ‘Carciofo Romanesco’)

Planters for edibles waiting to be put to use

I’d love to see this garden later in the season when all the vegetable boxes have been planted

So much floriferousness

Sphaeralcea incana ‘Kathy Echols’ and Lavandula × allardii ‘Meerlo’

Here’s the first Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’

Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’

Another Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’

White California poppy (Eschscholzia californica ‘Alba’). The moss-like groundcover is an Australian native called two-flowered knawel (Scleranthus biflorus). Annie’s Annuals calls it Australian Astroturf.

‘Purple Gleam’ California poppies (Eschscholzia californica ‘Purple Gleam’) and Salvia nemorosa ‘Rose Marvel’

Horehound (Marrubium supinum) and Lewisia sp. on the right

Leucospermum ‘Blanche Ito’ from the other side

Leucospermum ‘Blanche Ito’, with ‘Carciofo Romanesco’ artichoke behind it

This garden is a prime example of how to create a space that combines beauty with purpose—and gives neighbors a visual feast they can enjoy as they walk or drive past.

Cricket Riley's garden: my new garden crush

Wed, 17 May 2023 09:28:00 +0200

As I mentioned in this post, Cricket Riley’s garden was my personal favorite on the 2023 Ruth Bancroft Garden Waterwise Garden Tour. The obvious question, of course, is why. The answer is simple: As I walked into Cricket’s backyard, I felt at home. I’d never been there before and wasn’t familiar with her garden beyond the photos on Cricket’s Instagram account, but the plant palette she selected and the design decisions she made felt right—as if they had been my choices. To put it in the most basic terms: Cricket and I like many of the same things, although she has a far more refined aesthetic.

Cricket Riley is a professional landscape designer and Director of Design Services at the Ruth Bancroft Garden (RBG). She teaches classes for the RBG’s Dry Garden Design Certificate Program and answers quick design questions from garden visitors on Wednesdays from 9:30 to 12:30 as part of the RBG’s Designer in the Nursery program.

Cricket lives in Walnut Creek’s Rancho San Miguel neighborhood where developer Joseph Eichler built 300 tract homes in the mid-1950s. Like all Eichler homes, they are much sought after today. Cricket has a large lot, almost ½ acre; I assume there originally were two lots that were merged. In addition to the original home built in 1955, there’s a separate guest cottage and another small building used as an exercise room. And there’s a spectacular raised-rim pool built just last year. It’s pretty darn amazing, all of it.

In her blurb for the 2023 Ruth Bancroft Garden Waterwise Garden Tour, Cricket described her garden style as “Wild Modern,” stating, “I wanted to install a climate-appropriate garden where I could experiment with a wide variety of species. I love the beauty of this space and how it provides a place of refuge.”

“Wild” and “experiment,” these are concepts I can relate to!

Cricket’s garden was originally installed in 2012 and has reached a level of maturity where the plants have moved past the gangly and awkward phase and appear comfortably settled. This was a marked contrast from most of the other gardens on the tour where the plants looked like they had just been pulled out of their nursery pots.

Cricket’s front yard is small, but it packs a punch. It’s dominated by a gaggle of agaves—always a plus.

Agave ovatifolia and Agave weberi

Agave ovatifolia

Agave ovatifolia and Lavandula × allardii ‘Meerlo’

The Agave ovatifolia at the far end of the front yard bed was surrounded by a sea of white-flowering California poppies, a cultivar called ‘Buttermilk’.

Eschscholzia californica ‘Buttermilk’ and Agave ovatifolia

Cricket told me she removes all the poppies that revert back to orange

Enclosed entry courtyard

Agaves, yuccas, dyckias, and cacti

Pilosocereus azureus and Eschscholzia californica ‘Buttermilk’

The front yard is pretty great, but it didn’t prepare me for the wonderland waiting in the backyard. On her Instagram account, Cricket said, “When we talk about gardens we often talk about creating habitat for wildlife but just as important is creating habitat for people. We need plants too: flowers, shade, protection.” In my book, that’s a hugely significant aspect of garden design, but it often doesn’t receive the attention it should.

I’ll always have a soft spot for a good clump of bamboo

Sitting area outside what I imagine is the living room

Same scene from the opposite direction

Path leading into the garden

There are some flowering plants in the backyard, but not many. “Flowers are great,“ Cricket says, “but clearly not necessary.”

Path branching off toward the guest cottage (I’ll call it that for convenience sake; I don’t know what it’s actually used for)

Orange-flowering kangaroo paws (Anigozanthos hybrid) and foxtail fern (Asparagus densiflorus ‘Myers’), an unexpected but totally kick-ass combination

Wider view

Pride of Madeira (Echium candicans)

Large patio in front of the guest cottage

Elkhorn fern (Platycerium sp.)

Agave weberi and Aloidendron ‘Hercules’

Agave ovatifolia in front of a juvenile clump of bamboo

Yet another Agave ovatifolia. I think there are seven in the front and back.

Concrete planter with Agave ‘Blue Flame’ and Eucalyptus macrocarpa, one of many plants from down under

Different angle

Yet another seating area, with agaves and bamboo. This was one of my favorite spots in the garden.

Agave ‘Blue Flame’

This looks like a magazine photo come to life

Another seating area and another small building, this one used as an exercise room

The raised-edge pool, and the row of palm trees behind it, were installed less than a year ago

Pool and palm trees

According to Cricket’s Instagram account, they installed these varieties of palm trees last year:

Brahea armata
Brahea clara
Brahea edulis
Chamaerops humilis
Chamaerops humilis var. cerifera
Livistona decora
Sabal ‘Riverside’

They were sourced from Grubb & Nadler, Flora Grubb‘s wholesale operation in Southern California.

If I had seen this photo without context, I would thought this was somewhere in the tropics

As we make our way back towards the front, a word about the paths: They are covered with black-and-white gravel. Until experiencing Cricket’s paths up close, I had been fairly ambivalent about the use of gravel as a surface material. But it looks so good in Cricket’s garden that I can’t imagine it with anything else. Cricket’s crew must have compacted the heck out of the gravel and/or used a binder or stabilizer, because walking on the gravel was smooth and easy. It didn’t shift under my feet like it sometimes does.

Cricket (right) talking to visitors

Decorative wooden panel on the outside wall of the house

Now that you’ve seen my photos, watch this video walkthrough of Cricket’s garden on her Instagram account.

Sidewalk cactus flowers at Ruth Bancroft Garden

Mon, 15 May 2023 09:30:00 +0200

When I was in the East Bay a few weekends ago for the 2023 Waterwise Garden Tour sponsored by the Ruth Bancroft Garden and two regional municipal utilities, I made a quick stop at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. I didn’t have time to walk through the garden itself, but I did take photos of the flowering cacti in the sidewalk beds. And they were spectacular, as you can see below.

Bancroft Road is a busy street, and I imagine that quite a few drivers get distracted by the brilliantly colored Echinopsis flowers:

Entry planting along Bancroft Road

Agave parrasana ‘Fireball’

Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’, with a flowering Aloe buhrii on the left and Echinopsis ‘Giant Yellow’ on the right. Behind it is a clump of Parodia magnifica, not yet in bloom.

Echinopsis ‘Giant Yellow’, Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ (pink), Aloe buhrii (yellow)

Echinopsis ‘Giant Yellow’

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’, Aloe buhrii, Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ has been around for a long time, but it’s still one of the most beautiful cactus hybrids in existence. Its brightly colored flowers are massive, up to 10 inches in diameter, and never fail to stop people in their tracks.

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ is a hybrid between an unidentified Soehrensia species and Trichocereus schickendantzii. It was created by legendary plantsman Hans Britsch at his nursery, Western Cactus Growers, in Vista, California. Originally from Switzerland, Hans started Western Cactus Growers in 1966 and was actively involved in the nursery until his death on February 25, 2022. “As with every other day,” his obituary states, “Hans was first to arrive at 6:30 A.M. to work; that night, he was taken to the hospital by ambulance.” The cactus world owes Hans a huge debt of gratitude for giving us ‘Flying Saucer’.

To see more of what’s in bloom at the Ruth Bancroft Garden this month, check out curator Brian Kemble’s May 2023 video tour on the RBG’s YouTube channel.

2023 Ruth Bancroft Garden water-wise garden tour

Fri, 12 May 2023 09:30:00 +0200

A few weekends ago, I attended the 2023 Waterwise Garden Tour hosted by the Ruth Bancroft Garden, the Contra Costa Water District, and the East Bay Municipal Utility District. The tour included 18 gardens in the East Bay cities of Pleasant Hill, Walnut Creek, Lafayette, and Moraga featuring water-conscious landscaping. Many were examples of lawn conversions eligible for rebates from the two participating utilities.

To avoid congestion, the gardens were grouped by city into three circuits. Each circuit started and ended in a different city. When buying a ticket, people had to chose which circuit they wanted. This worked well, because no garden I stopped at was so crowded that I wasn’t able to enjoy it.

The tour ran from 9 am to 4pm, with a one-hour break for lunch. I visited about half of the gardens, and I feel like I saw a good cross-section of the types of landscapes resource-conscious homeowners opt for these days. The plant palette ranged from California and Southwestern natives to Mediterranean plants to succulents, often in combination. I spotted very few cacti; that’s too bad, but it’s in line with the public’s general aversion to prickly plants.

Agaves were reasonably well represented, although there was little variety: Virtually all the agaves I saw were either Agave ovatifolia, Agave parryi, or Agave ‘Blue Glow’.

The photos below are from the gardens I found most interesting. I didn’t take photos at a couple of gardens; they were newly installed, and the plants were small and immature.

The two gardens in the first set below are next to each other. One is described as “Modern experimental,” the other as “Contemporary California native.” I’ve seen very few 100% California native gardens that wow me, so I was happy to see that the latter also included plants from South Africa and Australia. They greatly enhanced what might otherwise have been an aesthetically limited palette.

Contemporary California native garden

Size: 1,200 sq. ft. (front yard only)

Top priorities: have a garden featuring California natives

Two different colors of desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)

Dudleya brittonii and Achillea ‘Little Moonshine’

White-flowering Sphaeralcea ambigua, Achillea ‘Little Moonshine’, and Arctostaphylos ‘Emerald Carpet’

Sphaeralcea ambigua and Achillea ‘Little Moonshine’,

Modern experimental garden

Size: 2,000 sq. ft. (front yard only)

Top priorities: save water, create habitat for birds and pollinators as well as a space for the homeowner, a landscape designer, to test plants.

Honeybush (Melianthos major) in flower

Melianthos major, Senecio ficoides ‘Skyscraper’, Lomandra ‘Platinum Beauty’

Grevillea ‘Moonlight’

White-flowering California poppies (Eschscholzia californica)

Various aeoniums and Mahonia ‘Soft Caress’

Waterwise California native garden

Size: 3,000 sq. ft. (front and backyard)

Top priorities: save water, attract wildlife, add beauty.

This garden isn’t 100% California native either, but the plants are certainly climate-appropriate.

Wild modern garden

Size: approx. 20,000 sq. ft. (front and backyard)

This is the personal garden of designer Cricket Riley, who heads the Ruth Bancroft Garden’s landscape design program. I was very curious to see what kind of garden she had created for herself and her family, but I was not prepared to fall in love so completely and utterly. Everything about Cricket’s garden resonated with me—from the eclectic plant palette (Australian shrubs and trees, a variety of palms, six Agave ovatifolia and various other species, aloes, etc.) to the hardscape. The garden complements the mid-century modern house perfectly. If I magically found myself living there, I’d see no reason to change anything. It doesn’t happen often that I find myself so in tune with somebody else’s vision.

I took so many photos of Cricket’s garden that I’ll do a dedicated post in a few or two.

Cricket’s front garden is small, but it packs a punch with half a dozen agaves and, at this time of year, a sea of white-flowering California poppies

Agave ovatifolia in a sea of white-flowering California poppies (Eschscholzia californica)

Entry garden featuring agaves, yuccas, and cacti (yes, cacti!)

Patio in the back

One of the most amazing private pools I’ve ever seen

The property is ½ acre and features a number of distinct areas

In addition to the main house, there is a guest house (above) and two other structures

RBG-inspired with California native & edible landscaping

Size: approx. 1,500 sq. ft. (front yard only)

Priorities: help the environment, save water and money, have a relatively low-maintenance garden, demonstrate the diversity of plants, including edibles that are drought tolerant (although they may not look like it)

The first thing I noticed when I drove up were the raised vegetable beds along the sidewalk. I’ve seen clunky iterations elsewhere, but here they are beautifully integrated. As I was walking around examining the plants up close, I was thinking to myself, this looks like a living Annie’s Annuals catalog. A few minutes later, Alice Kitajima, the Ruth Bancroft Garden’s program director who had organized this garden tour, introduced me to the homeowner, Melissa. Melissa had been the marketing director of the Ruth Bancroft Garden and is now—get this—the marketing director of Annie’s Annuals! I had to laugh when I found out.

I’ll have more photos of Melissa’s floriferous front yard in a separate post.

Homeowner Melissa isn’t a big fan of succulents per se, but she loves Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’. To her, it embodies the Ruth Bancroft Garden.

This has been the first garden tour I’ve been on since before Covid. I hadn’t quite realized how much I’d missed them. On every tour, there are gardens that don’t resonate with me, but even those are an opportunity to learn (why don’t I like them, what would I change, etc.).

Two agaves come down

Wed, 10 May 2023 12:02:02 +0200

One of the downsides of a small garden is that it sometimes becomes necessary to remove mature plants because they’ve grown too big for their space or are simply out of proportion. The two agaves featured in this post are good examples. Both still had years left on their natural clock, but they had to go, each one for a different reason. The fact that May 1 was the last curbside yard waste pickup until November precipitated my decision. (I didn’t relish the idea of having to chop these large agaves into pieces small enough to fit in our green waste bin.)

Agave #1 was Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’. It looks decent enough next to our Yucca queretaroensis, but to my eyes, there’s something unbalanced about it. Plus, its leaf tips tend to dry up, which drives me crazy.

My trusty reciprocating saw made short work of it, slicing through the leaves and core like a hot knife through butter.

Here is the chopped up pile at the curb, looking surprisingly small:

Agave #2 was Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba’ at the base of a Yucca rostrata. This has been one of my favorite combinations for many years, but the agave had gotten so large that it was sticking out into the sidewalk. Even though my wife periodically clipped the terminal spines, it was a hazard—and a liability I felt more and more uncomfortable about.

As with Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’, it took less than 15 minutes to remove Agave americana ‘Mediopicta Alba’. I found a handful of pups behind the mother plant and saved the three largest ones.

I’m in no hurry to plant anything new. I want to get it right so I’ll take my time to play with different scenarios. I have no shortage of replacement plants waiting in the wings so I won’t even have to go shopping.

Day 2: 2023 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale

Sun, 07 May 2023 19:54:53 +0200

Day 2 of the 2023 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale (Saturday, May 6, 2023) started out gray and drizzly. It had rained overnight, and quite a bit of rainwater had collected in the canopies protecting the outside tables. When we raised the canopies, the water sloshed out, and several of us helpers and some of the vendors got a good soaking. One vendor had wet socks well into the afternoon!

Temperatures in the 90s are not uncommon on show weekends (always the first weekend in May). Rain this late in spring, however, is very rare.

Day 2 started slow because of the dark clouds and the occasional drizzle, but foot traffic picked up noticeably by mid-morning. Personally, I’d rather walk around looking at plants when it’s 65°F rather than 85°F.

Below is a random collection of photos I took on day 2. I tried to include a variety of vendor plants as well as some of the plants SCSS members had brought for the non-judged exhibition.

It’s rare to see landscape-sized succulents. San Diego County vendor Peter Walkowiak brought these exceptional pony tail palms (Beaucarnea recurvata). $350 is a fair price for these 4-5 ft. plants.

This Beaucarnea recurvata had a particularly striking pattern on its caudex

A few more Medusa head euphorbias...

...from Peter Walkowiak

Specimen-sized Echeveria agavoides ‘Ebony’

Variegated cacti were everywhere. Striking—and pricey. This is a variegated Obregonia denegrii.

Variegated crested Trichocereus pachanoi

Another crested Trichocereus pachanoi

The ever popular Eulychnia castanea ‘Spiralis’. Even small plants (6" or so) are in the vicinity of $50. This specimen was north of $200.

Another crested oddity

Every cactus vendor had the rainbow hedgehog cactus (Echinocereus rigidissimus var. rubrispinus) or its white-spined sibling (forma albispinus). This cactus has spectacular flowers (see here in my friend Justin’s garden).

Ferocactus emoryi with variegated spines. I probably should have grabbed it...

Haemanthus difformis, an amaryllis relative from South Africa

Grow Nursery from Cambria had a nice selection of oddball crassulas:

Crassula alstonii

Crassula barklyi

Crassula hemisphaerica

Crassula plegmatoides

I don’t know the first thing about Lithops, or living stones, but I feel the pull...

Some exhibition plants by members of the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society:

Aeonium ‘Kiwi’ looking like a bouquet of flowers

Melocactus azureus with the most amazing cephalium

Haworthia collection

Variegated Haworthia truncata

Same plant from a different angle

Dudleya pachyphytum grown hard

Spectacular multiheaded bonsaied Aloe ferox

Día de los Muertos themed dish garden

Offerings from pottery vendors Mark Muradian...

...and Keith ‘Kitoi’ Taylor:

My haul from day 2:

Plant haul, day 2:

Cochemiea (Mammillaria) thornberi
Dracaena cinnabari (2x)
Dudleya traskiae
Echinocereus rayonesensis
Lobivia acanthoplegma var. roseiflora
Parodia rudibuenekeri

Parodia rudibuenekeri (for my friend Justin)

Official T-shirt of this year’s Show & Sale

The Show & Sale is continuing today, Sunday, May 7, until 3 pm at the Shepard Garden & Arts Center, 3330 McKinley Blvd. Sacramento, CA 95816. Stop by if you’re in the area!

2023 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale, day 1

Sat, 06 May 2023 03:31:23 +0200

Today was the opening day of the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society’s 2023 Show & Sale. I volunteered in the morning, setting up tables and helping vendors haul in plants from the parking lot. This gave me plenty of opportunity to check out the goods as they were arriving and grab the plants I wanted. Volunteering helps the organizers, and it gives you first dibs at plants.

Club members who weren’t working as volunteers had an exclusive one-hour window for shopping (12 am to 1 pm) before the Shepard Garden & Art Center opened to the public.

Here’s a collection of snaps I took while wandering around. Most photos were taken outside because the old-fashioned fluorescent lighting inside the Center makes photography challenging. I’ll volunteer again tomorrow (Saturday) and will take more photos.

The Show & Sale runs until Sunday, May 7. Saturday hours are 9 am to 4 pm, Sunday hours 9 am to 3 pm. It’s being held at the Shepard Garden & Art Center right next to McKinley Park, 3330 McKinley Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95816.

Planta Seca has a lot of flowering cacti, mostly rebutias and sulcurebutias

Planta Seca table

Desert Creations table

Haworthias by Jim Smith

Public Land is a first time vendor and they brought looks of cool cacti and other succulents

More cacti from Public Land

Medusa head euphorbia seen on Peter Walkowiak’s table

My favorite plant of the day, Mangave ‘Porcupine’, a hybrid between Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ and Agave toumeyana ssp. bella. $25 at Desert Creations.

Agave oteroi ‘Solar Eclipse’, $28 at Grow Nursery

Agave utahensis var. nevadensis at Grow Nursery, awesome plants but a bit too steep for me at $45

Agave victoriae-reginae ‘White Rhino’, at $500 the second most expensive plant I saw

Agave albopilosa is still spendy, $150 for this larger specimen, $40 for 4" pots

My second most favorite plant of the day, Yucca endlichiana in full flower. $250 at Desert Creations. That seems like a lot, but I think it’s a fair price, considering this plant is decades old.

Yucca endlichiana flowers up close

Variegated Haworthia truncata, at $225 one of the more expensive plants. (Sorry for the bad photos, but the lighting inside the Shepard Garden & Art Center is always tricky for photography.)

Gianluca Bacci specializes in rare South African plants, especially geophytes like this Drimiopsis dolomiticus

Brightly variegated Astrophytum myriostigma

Ariocarpus are consistently among the most expensive cacti, like this Ariocarpus retusus

At $600, this Ariocarpus lloydii was the most expensive plant I saw all day

Cool three-ribbed Astrophytum myriostigma

Very cool Astrophytum asterias. The dots are so three-dimensional, they look like somebody glued them on.

Flowering Astrophytum capricorne

Turbinicarpus ysabelae

Sulcorebutia bicolor

Sulcorebutia canigueralii

Sulcorebutia sp.

Rebutia sp.

Thelocactus hexaedrophorus ssp. lloydii

Gymnocalycium with crazy variegation

This Scleranthus biflorus had me do a double-take. What the heck is it? Turns out its a moss-like groundcover from Australia and New Zealand where it’s called cushion-bush or knawel.

I have a Cussonia paniculata a.k.a. mountain cabbage tree in the ground; it’s 10 feet tall now. This is a bonsaied version with a raised caudex. I’ve never seen this kind of presentation before.

Aeonium tabuliforme. Not rare, but I’m always drawn to it. I just wish it wouldn’t flower (and then die) so quickly.

Variegated Gasteria armstrongii with rigid leaves and warty bumps

This is the only photo I took of the display plants. I love the use of Crassula ovata ‘Gollum’ as a stand-in for a desert tree (it reminds me of a Joshua tree). The winged fairy isn’t my style, but overall this dish garden shows great creativity.

And here is my haul. Mind you, this was day 1, and I’ll be back tomorrow to volunteer...

Three cool mangaves (one is for a friend), an agave, an echeveria, a geophyte, and a dragon blood tree seedling

Agave oterori ‘Solar Eclipse’

Mangave ‘Porcupine’ (Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ × Agave toumeyana ssp. bella)

Simply labeled Mangave hybrid. I don’t see any Manfreda influence; it reminds me more of Agave × romanii, a hybrid between Agave filifera and Agave mitis var. albidior.

My plant haul:

Agave oteroi ‘Solar Eclipse’
Dracaena cinnabari
Echeveria agavoides ‘Ebony’
Haemanthus pauciflorus
Mangave ‘Porcupine’
Mangave hybrid
Yucca endlichiana

I’ll have more photos tomorrow.

2023 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society Show & Sale, May 5–7, 2023

Wed, 03 May 2023 10:30:00 +0200

This weekend, May 5–7, 2023, the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society (SCSS) will hold its annual Show & Sale at Shepard Garden and Arts Center in Sacramento’s McKinley Park. This is the 63rd Annual Show & Sale; I believe the only year to be skipped was 2020.

In the past, the show was judged by experts in the field. This year, there will be a non-judged exhibition showcasing the immense variety of cacti and succulents. Club members at all levels are encouraged to enter their best plants. The organizers are hoping for a great show with hundreds of immaculately grown succulents.

The biggest draw will be the sales area. Since the show is on a smaller scale this year, there will be extra room for sale tables. 21 vendors will be selling plants and pottery—a new record. Many are familiar faces, but there will also be several vendors who are making their Sacramento debut. Here’s the complete list:

Jim Smith
Austin and Mel, Public Land Store
Stan Verkler
Nick Wilkinson, Grow Nursery
Annie Wolf, Desert Wonders
Bill Munkacsy, Planta Seca
Cassidy Roberts-Yee, Radiant Cactus
David Calibo, Gardener’s Home
J.D. Wikert
John and Naomi Bloss, California Succulents
Kal Kaminer, LA Succulents
Lesley Shores & Jerry Slater, L & J Plants & Things
Oahn Vu, Green Gemini Cactuz
Peter Beiersdorfer & Jaan Lepson, P. B. & J. Cacti and Succulents
Peter Walkowiak, PW Plants
Gianluca Bacci & Shawn Shumaker
Richard & Emily Withers, Dry Creek Cactus & Pottery and Ekishi Pottery
Keith Taylor (pottery)
Mike Cone (pottery)
Mark Muradian (pottery)
Martin Gil (pottery)

With so many vendors, visitors are sure to find something new and exciting to buy, whether they’re into cacti, succulents, caudiciforms, or carnivorous plants.

Five pottery vendors, a new record, will bring a large variety of pots in all price ranges.

Mark Muradian’s table at a previous show

The event will be held at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center at 3330 McKinley Blvd., Sacramento, at the north end of McKinley Park.

Hours:

Friday, May 5: 1 to 5 p.m.

Saturday, May 6: 9 a.m. to 4 p.m

Sunday, May 7: 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Admission and parking are free. Be sure to follow the parking restrictions to avoid getting a ticket.

Spring in our garden: late, but great

Mon, 01 May 2023 19:01:35 +0200

This year, winter lasted much longer than it usually does, and spring arrived a good month late. Over the last ten days or so, a mini heatwave finally kicked things into a high gear. The generous amount of rain a seemingly neverending series of atmospheric rivers dumped on us from January through March definitely helped trigger a vigorous growth spurt.

In spite of all the trials and tribulations this crazy year has subjected us to, things are looking pretty darn good in the garden right now, late April 2023. Let’s take a look.

⤵ Front yard, inside the fence

Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’ is a bright beacon in the front yard. Since it’s sterile, it doesn’t put energy into making seeds. As a result, it blooms for months on end—far longer than any other geum I’ve tried.

Geum ‘Totally Tangerine’

Major changes coming to this mound

Arctotis ‘Ultraviolet’

Volunteer California poppy (Eschscholzia californica) at the base of Aloidendron ramosissimum

Calliandra ‘Sierra Star’, a hybrid between C. californica and C. eriophylla

One of several Thymophylla pentachaeta I now have in the front yard. They’re very easy to grow from seed.

Thymophylla pentachaeta

Hechtia ‘Silver Star’, Agave nickelsiae, and a small Aloidendron dichotomum

Ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) fully leaved out. Will it finally flower?

Dudleya brittonii hybrid

Another Dudleya brittonii hybrid, this one from Stephen McCabe

Echinopsis ‘June Noon’ will flower in a few weeks (last year, it had its first flush of flowers on April 12)

⤵ Front yard, L-shaped bed along the sidewalk

Closeup of the new Succulent Hill, valuable real estate reclaimed last fall by removing the massive clump of Bambusa oldhamii. The bicolor California poppies are a cultivar called ‘Strawberry Fields’.

Aloe schoelleri about to flower

Aloe schoelleri

The globemallow was supposed to be a white-flowering Sphaeralcea ambigua. It's definitely not white, and it looks more like Sphaeralcea munroana to me. On the right, Salvia ‘Marine Blue’.

Bulbine alooides on left, desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) on the right. The stems are so heavy with flowers that they have flopped over.

~~Cephalophyllum stayneri~~ Malephora crocea, Calylophus serratus ‘Southern Belle’, solar fire (Ursinia anthemoides)

I bought this as Cephalophyllum stayneri, but it doesn’t really look like it and it flowers virtually year round (C. stayneri blooms winter through spring with reddish flowers). I’m fairly certain now that it’s Malephora crocea, aka coppery ice plant.

Calylophus serratus ‘Southern Belle’, solar fire (Ursinia anthemoides), assorted cacti

Solar fire (Ursinia anthemoides) is an annual from South Africa. It flowers quickly in spring and goes to seed just as quickly. I’ve had it in various places over the years, but it never reseeded. I’m hoping it might this time.

Wider look at the corner of the L-shaped sidewalk bed

Orange-flowering form of the yellow horned poppy (Glaucium flavum)

Helichrysum thianschanicum ‘Icicles’

The large agave on the left is Agave gentryi ‘Jaws’

Baja fairy duster (Calliandra californica)

Aloe marlothii × globuligemma (allegedly, hopefully), Teucrium fruticans ‘Cal Flora Form’

Aloe ‘Erik the Red’

Sulphur buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum var. aureum ‘Kannah Creek’)

Alyogyne ‘Ruth Bancroft’, a spontaneous hybrid between A. huegelii and A. hakeifolia originally found at the Ruth Bancroft Garden

Alyogyne ‘Ruth Bancroft’

⤵ Backyard

Aloe ‘Erik the Red’ peeking over the fence

Fern-leaf lavender (Lavandula multifida) starts flowering in late winter. It’s my wife’s favorite lavender.

Billbergia ‘Fantasia’ (red clone), one of several billbergias now blooming

Billbergia ‘Fantasia’

Some cacti have started to flower as well. I'll have a separate post soon.

Waltzing Matilija, Troy McGregor's nursery, now open to the public

Fri, 28 Apr 2023 19:33:55 +0200

I’ve known Australian-born plantsman extraordinaire Troy McGregor ever since he managed the nursery at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in the mid-2010s. He was instrumental in transforming what used to be a small plant sale area into a specialty nursery known all over Northern California for its excellent selection of succulents and water-wise plants, including a large variety from the southern hemisphere.

After his stint at the RBG, Troy started Gondwana Flora, a design-build landscaping company specializing in frontyard lawn to garden transformations. Waltzing Matilija Nursery began in 2018 as an extension of Gondwana Flora. “I was unable to find many of the plants I love to landscape (and garden) with,” Troy says, “so I started to grow my own. One thing leads to another and now here we are.”

Display garden at Waltzing Matilija Nursery

In 2021, Troy moved Waltzing Matilija to its current location, a ½ acre lot in Pittsburg, about 15 miles from Walnut Creek. Nursery visits were by appointment only, but that is about to change. Beginning on May 12, 2023, Waltzing Matilija will be open to the public every Friday and Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm in the spring and fall, and by appointment in the summer and winter.

Troy is an expert grower of southern hemisphere plants, including Australian natives like banksias, hakeas, proteas, grevilleas, acacias, and eucalyptus as well as South African shrubs like leucadendrons and leucospermums. In fact, he’s the only source in California for many rare proteaceae. In addition, he carries a large variety of succulents, including landscape-size specimens of aloes and agaves, all at great prices. All plants are grown out in the open so they’re acclimatized to the growing conditions of the East Bay.

Check out the Waltzing Matilija website to get an idea of what kinds of plants you can expect to find. To see what’s in stock, take a look at the current availability list.

Troy has been the (not so) secret source of many plants in my garden, and I’m excited that all of you will now be able to shop at Waltzing Matilija.

Waltzing Matilija Nursery is located at 375 Central Avenue in Pittsburg, CA. Here’s a handy Google map.

⸻⸻⸻⸻⸻

I’ve blogged about Troy’s personal garden several times: April 2018 | September 2018 | October 2018 | September 2020. In fact, it’s time for another visit soon to see how his garden has evolved!

Cactus flower extravaganza at Poot's Cactus Nursery

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 20:56:42 +0200

In what has become an annual tradition, the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society (SCCS) went on a field trip to Poot’s Cactus Nursery in Ripon, down in the Central Valley. Poot’s is located on Highway 120; if you’ve ever taken route to or from Yosemite National Park, you’ve driven right by (here’s a Google map for orientation).

Poot’s Cactus Nursery was started 35 years ago by Bill Poot (now 83) and his wife Roelyn Poot (now 74). It’s still in the same location, and Bill and Roelyn still live in the house on the 1-acre property. Their son, Brian, is managing the day-to-day operations, with 10 part-time employees helping out in propagation, sales, and online marketing.

I haven’t been on every single SCSS outing to Poot’s, but I’ve been on a few: 2022 | 2018 | 2017 | 2011. The first thing you see as you pull into the small parking lot is the display garden aka the “Poot’s Desert.” It’s filled with a variety of mature succulents, including many Echinopsis hybrids. These hybrids have large showy flowers—some of them are downright massive—but they’re typically open only for one day. On previous trips, we were either too late or too early to catch a wave of flowers, but this time we were spot on.

Here are some of the cactus flowers in the display garden and in the raised bed outside the retail greenhouse:

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’, one of the most stunning echinopsis hybrids of them all. We saw another one with even larger flowers in the propagation area.

Another massive Echinopsis flower poking through the fence

But echinopsis weren’t the only cacti in flower:

Ferocactus pilosus

Ferocactus glaucescens

Rare pink-flowering claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus)

Echinocereus coccineus

This claret cup (Echinocereus coccineus) had so many flowers, you couldn’t see the stems at all. Unlike most other cacti flowers, claret cup flowers often last for a week.

Echinocereus coccineus

Soehrensia formosa

This massive Oreocereus celsianus doesn’t need flowers to stand out

I was too busy taking pictures of the sales area, but I couldn’t walk by this trio Pachypodium geyai without snapping a quick photo. It’s not a bargain, but at a good 8 ft. in height, these are impressive specimens!

As I mentioned at the top of this post, we saw a second specimen of Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ that had even larger flowers than the one outside the nursery. This plant had been dug up in order to remove the offsets, but it didn’t seem to mind the fact that it was just lying there on a bench, with no soil.

Photo by Kyle Johnson

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’

My friend Kyle’s hand for comparison. This flower was easily 9 inches in diameter.

Echinopsis ‘Flying Saucer’ waiting to have its offsets removed

A couple of other interesting sights that caught my attention in the propagation area:

I 🧡 opuntias

In early April, Poot’s lost two of their tallest cacti in the display garden because of high winds and completely saturated soil: Neobuxbaumia polylopha and Trichocereus terscheckii. These are cuttings hardening off.

The black gunk on these Trichocereus terscheckii cuttings is tar applied to seal the cut surfaces

Check out this video on the Poot’s YouTube channel (starting at the 6:30 mark). It shows the Poot’s crew cutting up the Neobuxbaumia polylopha. The specimen was 30 years old.

Bill and Roelyn Poot gave our group a tour of the greenhouse with Bill’s collection, one of the finest private cactus collections in the country. I don’t think anybody really knows how many plants there are—many thousands. A good half of them are cacti, the rest euphorbias, caudiciforms, and miscellaneous other succulents. The variety is mind-boggling, and I could easily have spent a few hours taking photos.

Kyle (who is 6 ft. 2) for height comparison

One of many weird-but-wonderful Astrophytum myriostigma cultivars sought after by collectors

One of dozens of Tephrocactus geometricus in the greenhouse. Online marketplaces charge upwards of $30 for one small ball.

Uebelmannia pectinifera

Astrophytum ornatum

Astrophytum ornatum (different specimen)

Copiapoa krainziana

Monstrose form of Copiapoa tenuissima

Sulcorebutia arenacea

Aztekium ritteri

Oroya peruviana

×Ferobergia, a hybrid between a ferocactus and Leuchtenbergia principis

Variegated ×Ferobergia

Hundreds of tiny Ariocarpus fissuratus seedlings

Copiapoa coquimbana var. imbricata f. rubriflora

Astrophytum myriostigma

Dozens of Melocactus with their funny-looking cephalium

Melocactus sp.

A few non-cactus succulents:

Dudleya pachyphytum

Dudleya brittonii

Euphorbia cylindrifolia ssp. tuberifera

Unidentified Sansevieria

Insane mature specimen of Euphorbia obesa

I did take one photo in the retail greenhouse:

Mammillaria spinosissima growing upside down. Yep, that’s a thing!

After we finished up at Poot’s, we dropped in on Elton Roberts who lives nearby. Elton is a legend in cactus circles: He’s been growing cacti for 70 years and has been sharing his wealth of knowledge in countless articles in succulent journals. Here are some photos I took of echinocereus flowering in Elton’s greenhouses:

Echinocereus triglochidiatus

Decades-old specimen of Echinocereus schmollii, the lamb’s tail cactus

I bought a small Echinocereus schmollii and will put it in a hanging basket on our front porch

Echinocereus adustus ssp. schwarzii

Unidentified Echinocereus species or hybrid

The variety of cacti we saw at Poot’s and Elton Roberts was mind-boggling. The more I learn about cacti, the more I realize how much I don’t know. No wonder so many people become obsessed!

Boom × 4

Wed, 19 Apr 2023 00:43:46 +0200

The large cow horn agave (Agave bovicornuta) in the front yard started to push a flower stalk last fall, but it took a long break over the winter, seemingly in suspended animation. Now that daytime temperatures have warmed up, the flowers are finally continuing their development. It won’t be long before the first flowers open up—maybe another week or ten days.

Agave bovicornuta

Flower stalk

Developing flowers

By the time an agave starts to flower in our garden, I’m usually ready to try something new—a different agave species or something else entirely. This time it’s a little different, because Agave bovicornuta really is one of my favorite species. Look at it: the apple green leaves with cinnamon-colored hooked spines, and the pronounced bud imprints!

Leaf detail

Agave bovicornuta is a solitary species so there won’t be offsets; propagation by seed or tissue culture is the only way to get more. But I do have a variegated form of Agave bovicornuta that’s been waiting in the wings for a few years. I’ll plant it in the same spot as soon as this one is done blooming.

Until last week, Agave bovicornuta was the only agave in our garden getting ready to flower. Last Friday, I noticed that another stalwart in the front yard, a cross between Agave shrevei var. matapensis and Agave guadalajarana originally made by Brian Kemble at the Ruth Bancroft Garden, had decided to join in the fun. In the four days since I first photographed it, the inflorescence has doubled in height. At this rate, I expect flowers in a month.

Agave shrevei var. matapensis × Agave guadalajarana
April 14, 2023 (left), April 18, 2023 (right)

Agave shrevei var. matapensis × Agave guadalajarana flower stalk detail

In addition to the two agaves above, we have two mangaves that are getting ready to flower. The first one is Mangave ‘Black Magic’. It’s one the darkest varieties yet; even the flowers stalk and the emerging flowers are dark purple.

Mangave ‘Black Magic’

The other one is Mangave ‘Espresso’, a white-margined sport of ‘Macho Mocha’. I noticed the inflorescence just the other day, and it seems to be making fast progress.

Mangave ‘Espresso’

The two agaves are approaching the end of their lives. They’re putting literally all of their energy into their massive flower stalks and will then wither away. Talk about going out in a blaze of glory!

With mangaves, it’s less clear whether they will die after flowering or not. Some people say yes, others say no. My own experience is a bit muddled because I typically remove the flowering rosette instead of waiting to see whether it will live or not. My hunch is that the rosette that flowers does die, but fast-growing offsets “absorb” the desiccating carcass so within a few months, it looks like it was never even there. This time I will leave the flowering mangaves in place and observe what happens.

Having two agaves and two closely-related mangaves in flower at the same time is a great opportunity to make some hybrids of my own. I have visions of a cross between Agave bovicornuta and Mangave ‘Black Magic’ that has the general look of Agave bovicornuta, but smaller and with purplish leaves. How likely is that to happen? Probably not very, but I want to give it a shot.

Quick trip to see the Arizona superbloom

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 21:03:29 +0200

My friend Justin and I just got back from a crazy, wonderful whirlwind trip to Arizona. Our goal was to see as many plants in flower as we could, and we lucked out: Arizona is definitely having a superbloom this year. We were amazed by the sheer number of wildflowers on hillsides, in the flats, and right along the road: brittlebush, poppies, lupine, desert marigold, owl’s clover, phacelia, fiddleneck, desert chicory, bluedicks, and especially globemallow in all shades from white to purple. It was a feast for the eyes the likes of which I hadn’t seen before.

While my typical instinct is to take as many photos as I can, I gave myself permission to relax and focus on enjoying the moment instead of trying to frantically document it. This resulted in far fewer photos to share than usual, but in a higher level of personal satisfaction. I can tell you this: It’s an extraordinary experience feeling the desert wind in your hair while you look out over a seemingly endless expanse of wildflowers.

Here’s a first batch of photos from our trip. I’ll have a few more drops next week.

Saguaro Lake east of Phoenix

We must have seen tens of thousands of desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua) in peak bloom, not just the typical orange form above...

...but white, pink, salmon, all the way to lavender-purple

Justin and I also saw some very special cacti in habitat:

Echinomastus erectocentrus var. acunensis is very rare and critically endangered. Seeing it in flower was beyond special.

Echinocactus horizonthalonius var. nicholii (bottom center) is only known from four locations. It grows in a harsh environment, as you can see here.

Justin and I did a lot of poking around on dirt roads and trails and found ourselves in some pretty spectacular places—often without anyone else around:

Old mining road in the Waterman Mountains, slowly crumbling away

This road/trail gave me quite a cardio workout

Agave simplex

Echinocereus nicholii

View from the top

Sometimes you find marvelous sights when you least expect it:

Desert marigold (Baileya multiradiata)

Desert globemallow (Sphaeralcea ambigua)

Brittlebush (Encelia farinosa) and Coulter’s lupine (Lupinus sparsiflorus)

Agave chrysantha

Some cacti grow exposed on rocks, others prefer open grasslands, others don’t care

The most spectacular display of wildflowers we saw was at Peridot Mesa on the San Carlos Apache Indian Reservation, about 110 miles east of Phoenix. We stopped at the Recreation & Wildlife Office in Peridot to buy our $10.40 recreation pass and were given a map of where to go. Without it, we would have missed the right turnoff.

The slopes of the collapsed caldera were painted orange from zillions of golden poppies (Eschscholzia californica).

Another prominent addition to the mix was purple owl’s clover (Castilleja exserta), a hemiparasite that taps into the roots of other plants for nutrients.

Of course there was lupine as well (Lupinus sparsiflorus). It seems to grow just about anywhere.

Saguaros were few and far between on Peridot Mesa, but I came across a fully leafed-out ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) in a sea of wildflowers:

A few more curious sights:

Desert spoon (Dasylirion wheeleri) emerging from a patch of manzanita (Arctostaphylos pringlei) in the chapparal east of Superior, AZ. This is a combination I’d never seen before.

This saguaro has 78 arms and has been dubbed Shiva, after the many-armed Hindu god. Somehow its hormonal balance causes it to branch at an abnormal rate, but it’s healthy otherwise.

Saguaro going for a ride on a truck: a very Arizona thing

While shopping was not a focus of this trip, we did stop for a visit with Jeff Moore and might have walked away with some cacti.

Jeff Moore unpotting an Echinocereus × neomexicanus

Anticipating just such scenario, I’d brought a mostly empty suitcase and some packing materials so our purchases could fly home with us safely:

For those of you who like maps as much as I do, here’s our rough itinerary:

More photos from Arizona coming soon.

Danny Aloehill’s Los Angeles garden

Fri, 07 Apr 2023 10:30:00 +0200

My friend Danny goes by “Danny Aloehill” on social media. That’s a very a convenient handle because nobody needs to ask him what his favorite plants are (hint: not geraniums). Danny has one of the most comprehensive private aloe collections I know of, and I was finally able to see his garden when I drove to San Diego in February. Because of an unavoidable last-minute change of plans, Danny couldn’t be there, but he gave me permission to poke around as much as I wanted.

Danny lives on a small urban lot, not even 5000 sq.ft., but he has managed to squeeze an astounding variety of aloes into the front and the backyard. He’s been growing succulents and aloes for more than 15 years, but his collection really took off about 10 years ago when he moved into his current house and started this garden. A stint at the Huntington, where he worked in the Desert Garden, helped Danny expand his expertise.

Bungalow built in 1910

Currently, Danny has about 150 different aloe species. “My heart really lies with Mozambique endemics,” he said when I asked him which aloes he’s most interested in. “I do have a fascination with winter growing species that are most appropriate for coastal California’s Mediterranean climate.”

Fences are the norm in this neighborhood

Another focus of Danny’s collection is the Aloe mawii complex: “It stole my heart 10 years ago and it’s still at the top of my list today—Aloe decurva, ribauensis, argentifolia, and mawii.”

The fence provides security but allows light into the garden

Aloe thraskii

Front: Aloe lukeana. Back (left to right): Aloe ferox, Aloe africana × excelsa, Aloe excelsa.

Aloidendron ‘Hercules’

Crevice garden with mostly winter growers

Aloe alooides (right)

Aloidendron pillansii surrounded by many equally rare species

Hand-pollinated Aloe swynnertonii

Aloe candelabrum light pink × A. candelabrum dark pink, a hybrid made by Nick Deinhart

The recessive white-flower gene really pulls through in this clone

Aloidendron sabaeum (aka Aloe sabaea)

Aloe broomii

Aloe rivierei

Aloe greatheadii var. davyana (aka Aloe verdoorniae)

Cactus collection

Cacti, agaves, and other small succulents

While aloes make up the majority of the plants in Danny’s garden, he’s also fascinated with many California natives, in particular dudleyas. “It’s hard driving down our highways, hiking through our canyons, or even walking around neighborhoods and not noticing the iconic blue chalky plants,” he said.

Dudleya brittonii

Aloe ankoberensis

Walking around the side of the house towards the backyard:

Aloe volkensii ssp. multicaulis

Aloe helenae, Aloe decurva

Aloe angelica

Aloe candelabrum, considered by many to be just a form of Aloe ferox

Caesalpinia cacalaco (tall shrub in the back), Aloe powysiorum (front)

Wider view of the back of the house

Separate cottage (formerly a garage) in the backyard. The tall aloe in front is Aloidendron barberae.

Aloe broomii × africana

Front (left to right): Aloe tomentosa and Aloe speciosa × plicatilis. Back: Aloe africana × vanbalenii

Aloe ferox × speciosa

Aloe rupestris

Aloidendron sabaeum

Front: Aloe chabaudii (orange flowering form). Back: Aloe comosa

Left to right: Aloe aculeata (in half barrel), Aloe (mawii × munchii) × capitata cv. ‘Blood Moon’ (hybrid by Nick Deinhart), Aloe decurva, Aloe suzannae

Front left to right: Aloe tauri, Aloe betsileensis hybrid, Aloe purpurea

And finally a look at some of the aloes planted in the hell strip between the sidewalk and the street:

Aloe ferox hybrid

Aloe littoralis

Yellow-flowering Aloe candelabrum

The plants along the sidewalk beautify the neighborhood, but they’re not protected against theft or vandalism. This is something I’m all to familiar with, since the sidewalk bed in our garden is just as exposed. Like me, Danny’s had plants stolen, and like me, he tries to rise above it: “I enjoy growing and sharing my garden with others so I wont let it discourage me.”

Another thing Danny and I have in common: We’re constantly bumping against the space limitations of our respective properties. Asked if he ever worries about running out of room, he quipped, “That thought haunts me every night.”

Other gardeners may worry about weeds and pests—and Danny and I do, too. But our main worry really is that we will never be able to have all the plants we love in our (current) gardens because there simply isn't enough space.

Not pretty: winter 2023 damage report

Wed, 05 Apr 2023 01:11:31 +0200

I’ve been putting this off long enough, but now it’s time to face the music. I need to preface this post with a warning: Viewing these photos might be detrimental to your mental health.

In California, this winter has been one for the record books, both in terms of snowfall in the mountains and rain elsewhere. Since the beginning of the 2023 water year on October 1, 2022, Davis has had 32 inches of rain. That’s almost twice of what we had in 2022, and three times the amount of 2021. In January and even in February, it was still easy to cling to the mantra “rainisgoodrainsigoodrainisgood,” but that became harder to do as one atmospheric river after another barreled through. (According to the National Weather Service, California was hit by 14 atmospheric rivers this winter, although two were fairly weak).

Needless to say, this much precipitation did significant damage to many succulents in our garden; they’re simply not equipped to handle extended periods of cold and wet. While some—the majority even—came through relatively unscathed, others succumbed to the inevitable rot.

I wish I could draw any meaningful lessons from this, but as you can see below, there’s no clear pattern to what did poorly and what did well. Since it’s hard to learn from randomness, I’m focusing on the overall picture, which is actually pretty decent. (See, I’m trying to be optimistic!)

With that in mind, let’s dive in. For each plant, I’ll indicate whether I kept it in hopes of it making a comeback or whether I removed it.

Mangave ‘Bad Hair Day’ is having a permanently bad hair day [REMOVED]

I lost quite a few mangaves. They appeared to hold up for a while, but eventually they turned to mush.

Mangave ‘Bloodlines’ on March 17. I still had some hope it might pull through (I’d repeatedly drenched the center with fungicide).

But on March 25, it became clear it was a goner. When I removed it, I found two tiny offsets; with any luck, one of them will survive. [REMOVED]

Mangave ‘Lavender Lady’ did remarkably well until last week when I noticed this. I’m not liking the way these leaves are folding down. [KEPT]

Mangave ‘Red Wing’ rotting in the center [KEPT]

I’ve decided to leave it in place for now—maybe it will heal itself—but I’m keeping a close eye on it [KEPT]

Clockwise starting at the bottom left: Aloe lavranosii [REMOVED and replanted elsewhere], Mangave ‘Blazing Saddles’ [REMOVED], Agave ovatifolia ‘Killer’ [REMOVED], Agave × leopoldii [KEPT]

Mangave ‘Blazing Saddles’ [REMOVED]

Mangave ‘Blazing Saddles’[REMOVED], Agave ovatifolia ‘Killer’ [REMOVED]

Losing Agave ovatifolia ‘Killer’ was the biggest blow. It was 3 ft. wide and had started to come into its own. Variegated ovatifolias are expensive and hard to come by.

Agave ‘Chisum’ (top) with fungal spots on the leaves and a largish patch of rot near the center [REMOVED], Mangave ‘Iron Man’ (bottom) with center rot [REMOVED]

Agave ‘Chisum’ (A. colorata × pablocarrilloi) would have outgrown its damage, but I couldn’t stomach the thought of looking at these unsightly leaves for months and months to come [REMOVED]

Another hybrid with wimpy Agave pablocarrilloi [REMOVED]

Hechtia sp. is perfectly fine [KEPT], Cereus forbesii ‘Monstrose’ [REMOVED] and Agave ‘Royal Spine’ rotted [REMOVED]

Agave ‘Royal Spine’ [REMOVED]

Agave nickelsiae [REMOVED], this one hurt because it had been a beautiful specimen

Agave pintilla [REMOVED]

Agave desmetiana ‘Joe Hoak’ with the kind of damage it gets every winter. Every year I vow to toss it, but invariably, by the end of the summer, it’s back to looking good again. Not sure what I’ll do [KEPT]

I can’t even remember what cactus this is. Since it’s a goner, I’m not going to bother looking for a tag. [REMOVED]

Grevillea ‘King’s Celebration’ had grown to 7 ft. and was covered with buds. But it got so battered in the many wind storms we had that I decided to remove it. It was getting too large for this tight spot anyway. [REMOVED]

Grevillea ‘King’s Celebration’ gone

Acacia cognata ‘Cousin Itt’ didn’t have any winter damage per se, but keeping it looking neat in this spot next to the sidewalk was getting difficult, so I made the difficult decision to remove it. [REMOVED]

In the spot where ‘Cousin Itt’ had been, I created a small cactus mound with three Echinocereus rigidissimus var. rubrispinus and several other tiny cacti. It isn’t quite finished yet (top dressing still to come), but I think it’s a more appropriate choice of plants.

Last weekend, I replanted the area where I’d removed Aloe lavranosii, Mangave ‘Blazing Saddles’, Agave ovatifolia ‘Killer’, and Agave ‘Chisum’. There are three new agaves (Agave potatorum ‘Spawn’ × A. isthmensis, Agave shawii × isthmensis, Agave margaretae), a new Dudleya traskiae, and several new cacti (Mammillaria wrightii, Mammillaria gracilis, two Coryphantha retusa, two white-spined Echinocereus rigidissimus and another Echinocereus rigidissimus var. rubrispinus. There’s still room for smaller plants to be tucked in here and there—and the top dressing is still missing.

Since I’m making so many major changes, I’m also considering removing our Agave vilmoriniana ‘Stained Glass’:

It looked far more graceful when it was young. Now it’s just a tangle of leaves, with the tips permanently shriveled up. I think it’s time to give it the chop and plant something else. Change is good, right?

Early spring in Patricia Carpenter's garden

Wed, 29 Mar 2023 17:06:32 +0200

Patricia Carpenter is one of the busiest and most dedicated gardeners I know. In addition to sharing her knowledge with the local community as a docent at the UC Davis Arboretum, Patricia used to be a UC Master Gardener, volunteered as a coordinator for school gardens, worked as a garden coach, and led countless workshops. She has written about the native plant gardens under her stewardship in a 5-part series for Pacific Horticulture. I first featured her garden on the outskirts of Davis in this October 2022 post,

Patricia is also a Garden Ambassador with the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and opens her garden to CNPS members and the public five times a year: in winter, early spring, late spring, summer, and fall. These “seasonal rambles,” as Patricia calls them, are a great opportunity to see the changes happening both in the California native garden Patricia takes care of and in her own garden, which features plants from around the world.

This year’s early spring ramble was last Sunday. It was a picture-perfect day, quite a contrast to the many gray and rainy days we’ve had in recent months. For the first time this year, I truly felt like spring to me.

Patricia’s rambles are informal events: Visitors are free to explore the gardens on their own or join her for a brief orientation. Patricia clearly has a loyal following, with people returning season after season. Last Sunday, Patricia told me, “We had locals and also people from the Bay area, Chico, and the eastern Sierra Foothills. At least 200 people. Humbling!”

Lemon tree still heavy with fruit and Chasmanthe in full flower

Below is a map of Patricia’s 1-acre non-native garden. As you can see, it’s divided into multiple areas, each featuring different plants or serving a different purpose. Patricia and her husband have lived here for 40+ years, so the garden is fully mature. For me, as somebody whose garden in a perpetual state of flux, it was wonderfully relaxing to see something so established.

Having such a large canvas to work with, I assumed that Patricia has all the space she needs, but when I asked her, she said that even she is running out room. “Yes, my garden is mature, but constantly in flux as well. Sometimes due to nature—plants dying and spreading seed, and plants or bulbs growing out of their allotted space—and sometimes me editing and planting, i.e. stuffing more in.”

This post doesn’t cover Patricia’s garden in any kind of systematic fashion. Instead, it’s simply a collection of photos capturing things that caught my eye. There is so much to see, I could walk through Patricia’s garden multiple times and come away with different images—especially at this time of year with so many changes happening so quickly.

Aeoniums and echeverias holding their own against a sea of Spanish bluebells (Hyacinthoides hispanica)

Bouquet of Mexican bush sedum (Sedum praealtum). Patricia says these pieces broke off during the recent storms. She simply stuck them in a metal vase with no water.

Assorted succulents and white-flowering rain lilies (Zephyranthes candida)

Back of main house

Fountain planted with succulents

Daffodils ‘Camelot’ and narcissus ‘Geranium’, the epitome of spring. Patricia has narcissus for about two months each year, February and March. These are two of the last blooming cultivars.

Daffodils ‘Camelot’

Barbary ragwort (Hertia cheirifolia) and grape hyacinths (Muscari armeniacum)

The white flowers are candytuft (Iberis sempervirens). The lighter green leaves are feverfew (Tanacetum parthenium).

Miniature train with miniature plants

Succulent bed...

....from different...

...angles

Mediterranean spurge (Euphorbia characias)

Solar oven, one of three; they actually get used regularly

More Chasmanthe behind the gazebo

Four of 13 GEOBIN composters. All the green waste produced in the garden stays in the garden. (Note: This style of GEOBIN is no longer available; the current models are much bigger and therefore do a better job of decomposition.)

Plant tags for staples in Patricia’s edibles garden

Fruit trees, with a pollinator garden below

The fruit tree with red flowers is a yellow freestone peach called ‘Red Baron’. The plum on the right flowered a while ago and now has leaves. The fence line is covered by boysenberries.

In addition to her non-native garden, Patricia also maintains a 1-acre California native garden along both sides of the slough bordering her property. The land the native garden is on is owned by a very cooperative neighbor. A foot bridge crosses the slough, which was almost full after months of rain. Apparently in January it was so flooded that it couldn’t be crossed at all.

A short distance from the bridge is a deck jutting out into the slough. It’s a great spot for the neighbors to socialize and enjoy the flora and fauna—as you can imagine, the garden attracts a variety of wildlife. “Sunsets with a glass of wine are common,” quipped Patricia.

Deck seen from the bridge

Deck on March 26, 2023

For comparison, this was the deck on March 21, the day we had almost two inches of rain (photo by Patricia)

Below is a map to help you visualize the layout of the native garden:

Map of Patricia’s California native garden

A few snaps of the native garden:

Silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons)

Ceanothus ‘Concha’

Miner’s lettuce (Claytonia perfoliata) under a redwood tree

Dudleya brittonii, one of several dudleya species in the native garden

Lewisia longipetala ‘Little Peach’, a semi-succulent perennial native to the Sierra Nevada

Golden currant (Ribes aureum)

Patricia giving a talk to visitors. This space is on her neighbor’s property. It’s pretty fantastic to have plenty of room for events like this.

Bouquet of native flowers in a wooden vase made by Patricia’s husband, a passionate woodworker

You can find more information about Patricia’s native garden in her Garden Ambassador profile on the California Native Plant Society’s website as well as in this 5-part series for Pacific Horticulture.

The verge

The third “garden” Patricia takes care of is the verge across the road from her property—a drainage ditch between the road and a bike path, and another strip separating the bike path from the fields beyond. This is county-owned land, and Patricia’s initial planting in 2018 were done guerilla-style. Since then, she’s been given permission to beautify these strips. Patricia says cyclists and runners often tell her how much they enjoy the plantings. That’s not one bit surprising, considering these kinds of areas are typically left to the weeds.

One section of the verge is all California natives (started in 2018), the other contains drought-tolerant plants from around the world (started in 2020).

Silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons) native to California and pearl bluebush (Maireana sedifolia) native to Australia

Silver bush lupine (Lupinus albifrons) with unusually purple flowers

Barbary ragwort (Hertia cheirifolia), a perennial subshrub from South Africa

Patricia’s verge stops at the bridge, but her neighbor has been adding California natives as well

The verge is an experiment in pushing drought-tolerant landscaping as far as it can go. Since this area doesn’t have any irrigation, Patricia has to drag a hose, or buckets, across the road to do any kind of watering. The goal is water the plants somewhat regularly while they’re getting established (one year for perennials, three years for trees and shrubs) and then reduce watering to a minimum. In 2022, Patricia hand-watered the newer plants-from-around-world section twice and the older California native section not at all. Needless to say this only works with the right kinds of plants, and the success of this project is a testament to Patricia’s careful plant selections.

For more information about the verge, read Patricia’s article “Five Years of Monitoring Water Usage of Drought-Tolerant Plants” in the Winter 2023 issue of The Perennial Post, the newsletter of the Sacramento Perennial Plant Club.

If you live in Northern California and would like to visit Patricia’s garden on a future ramble, keep an eye on the CPNS Calendar of Events. The next one, the late-spring rarmble, is on May 21.

Note: A big thanks to Patricia for providing plant IDs.

Dudleya cymosa in habitat in the Gold Country

Sun, 26 Mar 2023 17:40:31 +0200

Last month my friend Kyle and I went on a field trip to the Gold Country to look at a population of Dudleya cymosa he had discovered earlier. The 50-mile drive from Sacramento takes you from the flats of the Sacramento Valley to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada, essentially from an elevation of 50 ft. to 1200 ft. The Gold Country is rich not only in history—the discovery of gold in 1848 triggered a major migration to California—but also in native flora. For me, as a succulent lover, the most exciting plant is Dudleya cymosa. It’s not exactly rare, not is it particularly beautiful, but it is the our closest native succulent.

Ten years ago, only hardcore plant people knew what dudleyas were. Things are quite different now. National and international media coverage of the large-scale dudleya poaching uncovered in 2018 has raised public awareness of these modest plants and led to groundbreaking legislation to protect them (more info at the bottom of this post). Now dudleyas are the darling of California native plant circles and even casual gardeners know what they are. Wholesale growers have stepped up production of dudleyas and I see them for sale quite regularly at big box garden centers like Lowe’s and Home Depot.

Dudleya cymosa, or canyon liveforever, has a large native range stretching from Southern California to Southern Oregon. It’s the only species found in the inland mountains of Central and Northern California. The rosettes—usually grayish green, often flushing purple in strong sunlight—are 4 to 6 inches wide; some of the plants Kyle and I found were even bigger.

As you can see in these photos, Dudleya cymosa is found on steep hillsides, often in river canyons. The rosettes do virtually all their growing from fall to spring when temperatures are cool and there’s a regular supply of water in the form of rain or even occasional snow. From spring to fall, the only moisture they receive is mist produced by the fast-flowing river if they’re lucky enough to be growing near one. Come spring, Dudleya cymosa produces a brilliant display of orange-red flowers on short stems. I hope to make it back soon to photograph this population in full flower.

Some of the dudleyas we saw were growing in a bed of moss. Others seemed to be coming straight out of the rock; there must have been just enough soil for the seed to germinate originally.

The plants in more shady situations were green (see above). The ones in full sun had a brownish hue (see below).

A few particularly happy specimens were huge—see Kyle’s hand for comparison (he’s a tall guy with large hands):

It was good to see a lot of new seedlings in some places; this population is self-sustaining, maybe even growing:

The river nearby churns up enough mist to keep the dudleyas hydrated.

As I was writing this blog post about Dudleya cymosa, I realized that I didn’t really know what “cymosa” means. Google to the rescue. The species name refers to the plant’s “cymose inflorescence.” The most straightforward definition I found is from Encyclopedia.com: “A type of flowering shoot [...] in which the first-formed flower develops from the growing region at the top of the flower stalk [...]. Thus no new flower buds can be produced at the tip and other flowers are produced from lateral buds beneath.” The picture below, borrowed from Vedantu.com, is a great illustration of the concept:

Racemose vs. cymose inflorescence (courtesy of Vedantu.com)

This is probably more than you ever wanted to know, but there you have it.

————————————

As I mentioned earlier, dudleyas (especially Dudleya farinosa) had been a favorite target of organized poachers, with the majority of them ending up in Korea or China. The situation came to a head in 2018 when a dudleya exportation ring was discovered in Northern California. If you want to find out more, I highly recommend a film called Plant Heist by Chelsi de Cuba & Gabriel de Cuba, released in 2021. It’s only 17 minutes, so not a major investment in time. You can watch Plant Heist for free on Vimeo.

In response to the events of 2018, the California Native Plant Society (CPNS) sponsored a bill in the California legislature (AB 223) that provides important new protections for California’s dudleyas, making it unlawful to steal them from state, local, or private lands and sell them. It was signed into law by Governor Newson on September 28, 2021. It’s the first piece of legislation in California to specifically address plant poaching. For more information, read this article on the CPNS website. The Dudleya Protection Act provides stiff fines: a minimum of $5,000 for first offenses, and between $10,000 and $500,000 plus up to 6 months in jail for subsequent offenses.

I don’t know if anybody has been prosecuted yet under this new law, but it’s reassuring to know it exists.