Succulents and More™

I haven’t been posting much in the last ten days. But it’s not because I’ve been lazy. Quite the opposite; I’ve been busy. Over Easter, I spent four jam-packed days in Portland, touring nurseries and gardens, shopping at Hortlandia , the giant spring plant sale organized by the Hardy Plant Society of Oregon , and hanging out with a great group of plant peeps. And a couple of days after I got back, I visited my friend Justin in Pinole, about an hour from here. I have plenty of blog material for weeks to come, but it’ll take a little time for me to edit my photos and find the right words. Here are a few teaser photos to tide you over. PORTLAND Driving all over the Portland area for four days My friend Loree Bohl, the author of the groundbreaking book Fearless Gardening (sadly out of print now) and the brain behind the popular blog danger garden , had organized a Spring Fling for a bunch of plant geeks from California and Oregon. The four days I spent in Portland went by in a blur, but ...

If you’re like me, you have a hard time believing it’s April already. April! I haven’t started any major projects this year, but it’s still worth taking a quick look at the garden before spring is over for good. The California poppies are already fading and going to seed, so summer isn’t that far off. View through the ponytail palms towards the house; the front door is to the right Bed next to the front door The front door is on the right. New solar spotlights from Costco, uplighting the ponytail palms and the Aloe vaombe at night. Most of the aloes are done blooming for the year, but there’s never a shortage of other flowers. Several of my hechtias have started to bloom — a bit early, it seems. Hechtia argentea produces almost comically tall inflorescences. The flowers themselves are white, tiny, and insignificant. Hechtia lanata , on the other hand, has a pretty showy inflorescence: short and fluffy This Hechtia lanata has been in the ground for 5+ years, but this is the first time ...