Succulents and More™

I’ve been a fan of IKEA for as long as I can remember. When my wife and I lived in Germany, a lot of our furniture and dishes were from IKEA. When an IKEA store opened in the Bay Area in 2000, we didn’t hesitate to drive the 1½ hours to browse. And when IKEA finally came to Sacramento in 2006, we were ecstatic because that store is only 20 minutes away. I’ve blogged about buying small succulents at IKEA and about our new backyard dining table . But IKEA also has great terracotta pots. The line I prefer is called MANDEL. I love the clean contemporary shape (no protruding rim like standard clay pots) and the contemporary brownish gray color. They come in six different sizes and cost anywhere from $1.99 to $5.99. Technically, they’re overpots so they don’t have a drain hole. No big deal. Using a masonry bit, I can drill a hole in a MANDEL pot in no time flat. I’d run out of MANDEL pots so I swung by IKEA on the weekend to restock. This is what I got: MANDEL pots in four sizes rangin...

This month’s meeting of the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society was as hands-on as it gets: We made our own clay pots! SCSS president Keith Taylor is an accomplished potter and brought not only the clay but also the inspiration. Here is one of his small pots: Here are some other pots, fired and unfired, that gave us ideas on what to do:

Part 1 of my post on my recent visit to B&B Cactus Farm in Tucson, Arizona contained photos of the outside sales areas and the greenhouses. In this part I’ll show you the demonstration gardens and some of the plant containers and yard art that caught my eye. B&B Cactus Farms has two demonstration gardens. The first one is tucked away behind the greenhouses. I almost missed it but, being the nosy dude that I am, I found it simply by poking around.

B&B Cactus Farm on the east side of Tucson, AZ is the most impressive succulent nursery I’ve ever visited. I don’t know if it’s the largest of its kind in the Tucson area but I can’t imagine any nursery offering more variety for a succulent lover than B&B. I took so many photos at B&B during our recent Southwest trip that I’ve decided to split this post into two parts. This part covers the outside sales areas and the greenhouses. Part 2 covers the demonstration garden and the fantastic pottery and garden décor they also sell. When I arrived at 2:30pm, the sky was already quite dark. It was only a matter of time until before it would rain—like it appears to do on a daily basis during the summer monsoon season. I decided to cover the outdoor areas first, starting with the stunning potted specimens outside of the greenhouses.

My May 2011 post on silver carpet ( Dymondia margaretae ) has been getting a lot of hits lately. I don’t know why this sudden spike of interest in this South African groundcover, but I thought this would be a good time for an update. This is what the planting strip between our front lawn and the flagstone walkway looked like in May 2011: May 28, 2011 before planting silver carpet May 28, 2011 just after planting silver carpet Fast forward 15 months to August 24, 2012. The difference is astounding.

Fellow Davis resident Sue whose garden I visited last month called me yesterday to let me know about a fresh delivery of succulents at our local Ace Hardware store . Needless to say I had to check it out myself and I agree—these are nice looking plants, and there is a lot of variety, too. Unlike the big box stores like The Home Depot or Lowe’s, our local Ace Hardware store gets their succulents from Lone Pine Gardens , a small specialty grower in Sebastopol over in Sonoma County. Their offerings go far beyond the usual and often include rare plants that are hard to find.

Echeverias are among the most popular succulents, not only because they’re beautiful and easy to care for but also because they grow very quickly given enough heat and water. This post shows a few examples from my own collection. These four echeverias have gotten large enough to fill this 10 inch bowl. Top left: Echeveria pulidonis Top right: Echeveria agavoides ‘Red Blush’ Bottom left: Echeveria agavoides ‘Lipstick’ Bottom right: Echeveria colorata Just five months ago (!) they were this small: Same plants, March 31, 2012

It’s been hard getting back into my routine after our recent Southwest road trip , not just at work but also in the garden. There are plenty of things to do—mostly trimming, weeding and general clean-up—but these are not my favorite chores so I’ve been trying hard to avoid them, especially since the thermometer has been in the upper 90s every day. My favorite activity this past week has been to simply look at the garden without actually getting involved. I felt guilty at first but then I realized that being a gardener sometimes means doing nothing but sit back and enjoy. Quite literally: most photos in this post were taken right from the front porch. LEFT: Silver torch ( Cleistocactus strausii ) RIGHT: Roadkill cactus ( Consolea rubescens )

One of the plants I bought at the Succulent Gardens Extravaganza last fall was this dinner plate aeonium ( Aeonium tabuliforme ). It was almost totally flat, rising less than an inch above the soil. My plant was about 6” in diameter but from what I read Aeonium tabuliforme has the potential to grow to a whopping 18” across while still not exceeding a height of 2”. October 3, 2011 Here is a close-up of the tightly overlapping leaves fringed with delicate eye lash-like hairs. Notice the almost metallic sheen. February 20, 2012 But this exquisite beauty was not going to last.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you probably know that agaves are among my favorite plants. During our recent trip through the Southwest , we spent a day at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outside of Tucson and I thought I’d died and gone to heaven. Not only did they have tons of cacti (separate post to follow) but there were agaves wherever I looked. It started right at the entrance with some spotted specimen: Agave parryi var. truncata. The cactus next to it is an organ pipe ( Stenocereus thurberi ). The biggest concentrations of agaves was in the appropriately named Agave Garden.

When I saw Aloe capitata var. quartziticola for the first time, I thought it was the most beautiful aloe I’d ever seen. Aloe capitata var. quartziticola in the ground at Ruth Bancroft Garden Both Ruth Bancroft Garden and the UC Botanical Garden at Berkeley have mature specimens in their collections, yet finding a plant to buy was challenging. Finally I lucked out: When talking to a docent at the Ruth Bancroft Garden’s spring sale , I bemoaned the fact that this aloe variety was impossible to find. He smiled and said that they had one plant for sale in the nursery. It originated from the UC Botanical Garden but he thought it was very similar to their plants. Needless to say I bought it.

As hard as it is to come back from vacation , one thing I always look forward to is seeing what has changed in the garden. Davis has been in the throes of a heat wave that started during our last week of vacation so many plants are stressed. Others love the heat, especially the bamboos. These two, Bambusa chungii ‘Barbellata’ and Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’, are happy as a clam, producing lots of new growth. Bambusa chungii ‘Barbellata’. The steely blue culms are new. Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’. Too many new culms to count. I will definitely have to do some thinning and pruning soon.

Many of my posts from our recent Southwest trip showed plants growing in their natural environments. Soon I will have more detailed posts about my visit to B&B Cactus Farm in Tucson, AZ and Santa Fe Greenhouses in Santa Fe, NM. Today I want to show you some of the most interesting plantings I encountered in public spaces, at motels and in front of restaurants. Predictably, most of them feature drought-tolerant succulents and perennials, but I also saw a surprising number of annuals in containers. The photos that follow were taken in many different places. I’ve arranged them by plant group, not geographical location. One plant followed us from the California desert south to Tucson, Arizona and then resurfaced in Moab, Utah: Caesalpinia pulcherrima , commonly called “pride of Barbados” or “Mexican bird of paradise.” This beautiful shrub with feathery leaves and complex flowers is extremely heat tolerant and was in full bloom everywhere we encountered it. I’ve seen specimens at t...