Succulents and More™

Yes, that is its actual name. Whoever named it certainly had a sense of humor. It’s called roadkill cactus because the pads are so flat that it looks like they’ve been run over by a car. I had never seen a roadkill cactus before, but when I spotted this one at Lowe’s a couple of weeks ago, I had to have it. There are actually two plants in the pot, and they do look a bit like cardboard cutouts of a cactus drawn by a child. The current Latin name of this cactus is Consolea rubescens . From its former name, Opuntia rubescens , you can tell that it is related to the prickly pears of the American Southwest. Roadkill cactus is native to Florida and the Caribbean and can take more water than its desert-dwelling cousins. The downside is that it’s much less cold hardy (zone 9b) than the prickly pears but I think that mine will be fine in its spot on the front porch. I just love my roadkill cactus! Roadkill cactus ( Consolea rubescens ) after I repotted it. It’s currently 18 inches tal...

On Monday I had the opportunity to go flying with our friend B. who is visiting from Australia. I had flown with him several times before, and I was only too happy to do it again. The world is so different from the air—what looks familiar on the ground sometimes isn’t all that easy to identify from above. We flew from University Airport here in Davis up to Willows , about 60 miles north, had breakfast at the airport diner (yes, there is such a thing even in Willows, population 6,000), and then flew back. It wasn’t a long flight, but I was mentally exhausted—in a good way—when we landed because I had done so much looking and photographing. The Sacramento Valley is a major rice-growing region. The rice fields still have lots of water in them so the reflections of the sun were phenomenal. Just as impressive was seeing the geometry of fields and orchards, and the juxtaposition between irrigated areas—green and lush—and non-irrigated land—brown and parched. Just before landing in Davis...

For me, springtime is the most active time in the garden. There’s winter cleanup to do, removing plants that either died or don’t look good in a certain spot any more, buying new plants, and in general doing what I can to make the space as beautiful as possible. Summers in our climate are very hot and like many people, I don’t feel like doing too much work outside. A little nipping here and there is OK, but nothing major. Mostly, I just sit back and actually enjoy the garden. While our garden continues to be a work in progress and there’s lot that remains to be done, I’m quite happy with how things look in our 8000 sq.ft. suburban lot (less than half of which is in the backyard). Container garden under the bay trees Lion’s tail ( Leonotis leonurus ), purple coneflower ( Echinacea purpurea ‘Kim’s Knee High’), and Black and Blue sage ( Salvia guaranitica 'Black and Blue') in bloom Potted bamboo ( Phyllostachys aurea ‘ Koi’) and giant farfugium ( Farfugium jap...

The last few days have been exciting for plant lovers in our college town. On Thursday, a titan arum ( Amorphophallus titanum ) at UC Davis’ Botanical Conservatory started to bloom. This is only the 5th time a titan arum has bloomed at UC Davis, and I finally got a chance to see this extraordinary event in person. We arrived at 2pm, a few hours after the peak (around 9am this morning), but it was still an impressive sight. According to the docent at the Conservatory, they expect the flower to close by this evening, and that’s the end of it. Just four short days! The titan arum, native to the steaming jungles of Sumatra, is considered to have the largest inflorescence of any plant in the world. The one I saw today was relatively small (maybe 4 ft. from soil level to the top of the spadix ), but blooms inflorescences as tall as 9 ft. have been recorded. The “flower” itself would be spectacular enough, but the main attraction is the smell. There is a good reason why the titan arum is...