Succulents and More™

Bay Area-based artist Mat McGrath ( Farallon Gardens ) and his wife Mali moved to the East Bay town of Rodeo in the fall of 2021. The 14,000 sq. ft. property they bought was a blank slate: a bit of lawn and lots of bark mulch and dry grass. Undaunted and with help from Mat’s crew, they immediately went to work and created a spectacular garden. I’ve been following and documenting their progress since June 2023 (see links at the end of this post) and recently had the opportunity to see what the garden looks like at age 4½. As before, I’ll break up my post into two parts: front yard and back yard. Let’s start on the sidewalk. The difference between Mat’s front yard and the neighbor’s couldn’t be more stark: Many words come to mind when you look at the plantings. Minimalist is not one of them. Neither is subdued: Vibrant, cheerful, full of life: that’s more like it. Slope on the right, driveway in the middle, front garden proper on the left: Notice the license plate on Mat’s van! More is ...

One of my favorite plants from our recent Santa Barbara trip to San Marcos Growers is Agave horrida . The clone most frequently seen in cultivation, tissue-cultured by Altman Plants, is very nice ( here is Kyle’s specimen ), but the San Marcos plants are even more beautiful: Agave horrida from San Marcos Growers Take a good look at the photo above, especially at the marginal teeth and the spines at the end of the leaf tips. They’re light gray, right? Imagine my surprise when I watered my plant: Same plant with wet teeth and spines Whaaaat? The teeth and spines are almost black now! Here’s a short video that shows the transformation even better: What kind of alchemy is that? I knew it had to be an optical phenomenon, and Google provided the answer: Agave teeth and spines change color when wet primarily because the water temporarily alters the way light reflects through their translucent outer layers. This highlights the underlying pigments and microscopic textures, creating a deeper, ...

Sometimes it seems not much is happening, but when I look at my photos, I realize there’s more going on than I give the garden, the plants, and myself credit for. On that note, another “This and that” post with random sightings that I hope you’ll find interesting. BROMELIAD FLOWERS I’ve lost most of the tags on my bromeliads so I can’t tell you what these are, other than Neoregelia and Billbergia , but the flowers are cool because they’re so different from the other kinds of flowers I usually see. Many neoregelias produce a flush of color in the center just before they start to bloom The flowers themselves are tiny and barely emerge from the cup. The leaves blush in vibrant colors to attract pollinators, which might otherwise have a hard time finding the inconspicuous flowers. In contrast to neoregelias, billbergia flowers are highly visible They emerge from the center on a long stem and feature colorful petals (red in this case) and bracts (greenish yellow, pink, and purple on this o...