Succulents and More™

Photo of the Day for Thursday, January 31, 2019 (yikes, the last day of January already!!!): Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea' Late winter is acacia time around here. Our Cootamundra wattle ( Acacia baileyana 'Purpurea') is now 20 ft. tall and covered with blossoms. This is one of the first branches with open flowers. I love the contrast between the bluish-silver leaves and the golden-yellow puffball flowers. This is the first time this acacia has flowered.

I recently reviewed Chasing Centuries: The Search for Ancient Agave Cultivars Across the Desert Southwest , Ron Parker's groundbreaking book about agave species cultivated and refined by the pre-Columbian cultures of Arizona. It's a book unlike any other, and I highly recommend it if you have even a passing interesting in the prehistoric peoples of Arizona and, of course, agaves. On my after-Christmas Arizona trip , I had the opportunity to visit Ron on his home turf in Fountain Hills, northeast of Phoenix. To say that where he lives is pretty is like saying the Grand Canyon is alright. This is the view west from his street: And this is his front yard:

Photo of the Day for Monday, January 28, 2019 Seen yesterday on the University of California Davis campus: This is the Environmental Horticulture building. You'd think that they'd use this planting bed as showcase for their department! Unless the weeds aren't weeds at all but a new kind of plant breeding breakthrough?

Once upon a time, in March 2014 to be precise, I planted a beautiful Agave macroacantha outside the front yard fence, next to the 'Black Lace' elderberry and one of three  Aloe 'Moonglow'. When I say beautiful, this is what I mean: Agave macroacantha with backlit marginal teeth and terminal spines It looked like this right after planting: Agave macroacantha perfection right after planting in March 2014; look how small the Aloe 'Moonglow' was (on the left)

Photo of the Day for Friday, January 25, 2019: Hechtia fosteriana  (AS439) Hechtia fosteriana  is a terrestrial bromeliad native to Oaxaca, Mexico. Like many hechtias, it changes color throughout the year in response to cold, heat, and availability of water. My specimen came from Andy Siekkinen . I'm nuts about this color! © Gerhard Bock, 2019. All rights reserved. No part of the materials available through www.succulentsandmore.com may be copied, photocopied, reproduced, translated or reduced to any electronic medium or machine-readable form, in whole or in part, without prior written consent of Gerhard Bock. Any other reproduction in any form without the permission of Gerhard Bock is prohibited. All materials contained on this site are protected by  United States and international copyright law and may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, displayed, published or broadcast without the prior written permission of Gerhard Bock. If you are reading this...

An ongoing project at work is taking up so much of my time that it's affecting the number of posts I'm able to write for Succulents and More. Right now, I seem to be managing no more than two a week.  That's not enough for me. To make up for it, I've decided to give myself a challenge that won't be a big time commitment: Starting right now, I'll post one new photo a day. It could be from our garden or from anywhere I happen to be that day. That'll allow me to share a small vignette of my life with you on a more regular basis. Here's the Photo of the Day for Thursday, January 24, 2019: Zig-zag wattle ( Acacia merinthophora ) With their lack of real leaves, acacias are an odd bunch to begin with. The zig-zag wattle ( Acacia merinthophora ) is even odder since it's taking the no-leaf business to an extreme. The long greenish things you might think are leaf stalks (petioles) with the actual leaves missing, are called phyllodes. That...

We had a couple of nights a degree or two below freezing in December, but it's been warmer than usual since then. Not that I'm complaining; I'd happily never experience frost again, at least not where I live. If this weather keeps up, it won't be long now before the aloes in the front yard will be in full bloom. This Aloe wickensii (lumped by some in with Aloe cryptopoda ) has a head start on the others. It has never looked this good before: Aloe wickensii

Over the years, I've become friends with Greg Starr , author of the Timber Press book  Agaves: Living Sculptures for Landscapes and Containers  and owner of Starr Nursery . I visit him and his wife Carol whenever I'm in Tucson, and this time was no exception. I always love hearing about his discoveries on agave expeditions to Mexico and seeing what he has growing in his greenhouses. And I never fail to find cool plants I simply must have. Greg lives on the west side of Tucson, pretty close to the edge of the city. The Tucson Mountains are just a few miles away; beyond them are the western unit of Saguaro National Park, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and the Old Tucson Studios theme park. The properties in this part of Tucson seamlessly merge into the desert. "Borrowed scenery"  is not just an abstract concept here, it's reality:

The Desert Botanical Garden (DBG) in Phoenix, AZ likes to light up the night. When I was there in December 2013, they had a large-scale exhibit of Dale Chihuly glass sculptures which attracted crowds both during the day and at night (a record-breaking 631,000 visitors). In December 2015 they hosted  Bruce Munro's Sonoran Light installatio n (318,000 visitors). This year, it was Electric Desert,  created by video artist Ricardo Rivero and Klip Collective. Electric Desert On each of these occasions I went in December, which allowed me to experience both the special exhibit and Las Noches de las Luminarias , a beloved holiday tradition at the DBG combining 8,000 luminaria bags (hand-lit every night by volunteers) and holiday entertainment in nine different spots throughout the garden.

A large parcel of land away from it all, surrounded by scenery so beautiful you want to cry, with no neighbors in sight and the freedom to do exactly what you want: Who hasn't dreamed of that at some point in their lives? I certainly have. But how many people actually turn this heady fantasy into reality? Precious few. However, there are some who do. Jan Emming is one of them. A Colorado native, he began in the late 1990s to scour the western U.S. for a site where he could create the desert garden he'd been envisioning since he was a teen. In 1998 he found what he was looking for: 40 acres in northwestern Arizona near the small town of Yucca. This is a very special spot where the Mojave meets the Sonoran Desert. I was astounded to find Joshua trees, the signature plant of the Mojave, growing side by side with saguaros, the signature plant of the Sonoran. Add ocotillos, chollas, hedgehog and barrel cactus, California junipers and scrub oak, and you have a great start for a d...

I just got back from my after-Christmas road trip Arizona . I drove 2,223 miles in seven days, visited six public and three private gardens, took 1,800 photos, and returned with a car full of goodies. My rental plantmobile was a Chevrolet Equinox , an small SUV with plenty of room, and yet I managed to fill it with my purchases and finds: a wild assortment of plants, rocks, and other stuff that somehow ended up in the car. In case you're wondering what my favorite trophy is: Two totem pole cactus sections ( Lophocereus schottii f. monstrosus ) I found on Phoenix Craigslist  for $10. Yes, ten bucks. Considering a rooted two-foot specimen can be $50 or more in a nursery, this is the steal of the year. These two will take up residence in the bed next to the front door when I redo it in the spring.

In keeping with tradition, I went on a road trip right after Christmas. This year I returned to Arizona. I drove 2,223 miles in seven days, visited six public and three private gardens, and took 1,800 photos. Here are all my posts about what I saw: My Arizona haul: spikes, rocks, and metal Mariachi muscians Off the grid in the Arizona desert: Jan Emming's Destination:Forever Ranch Electric Desert: after dark at the Desert Botanical Garden Catching up with agave wizard Greg Starr in Tucson Agave hunter Ron Starr's personal collection A crisp Arizona morning at the Boyce Thompson Arboretum Tohono Chul really is one of Tucson's best-kept secrets for desert plant lovers Bach's Cactus Nursery in Tucson on a chilly winter day Many more to come. Last updated: Jan 28, 2019

Happy New Year, everybody! May it be filled with lots of joy, laughter, and prickly plants. Speaking of prickly plants, I've been seeing my fair share of them in the last five days. I'm on my annual after-Christmas road trip, and this time I'm back in Arizona. I'll have detailed posts about plants and places in the weeks to come: Desert Botanical Garden, Boyce Thompson Arboretum, Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum, and Tohono Chul, just to name a few. In the meantime, here are a few random snaps to tide you over: