New plants for our garden—always room for more!

Fall is the ideal planting time in our neck of the woods, they say ("they" including nurseries eager to, well, sell plants). While an argument could be made that for some types of plants, including succulents, spring is actually better, I'm not in an arguing mood today. Instead I want to show you all the wonderful things you can find at this time of year when botanical gardens, native plant societies and other organizations debut their new offerings. More temptation comes courtesy of commercial nurseries who routinely offer nice discounts, either on select groups of plants or even on their entire stock.

This is not the time to be disciplined so don't even bother. After all, who refuses a piece of cake on their own birthday! Buy what catches you eye and don't be afraid to take a chance on something that may not be perfectly ideal for your climate—nice surprises happen more often than you think!

But there's another source for new plants: friends and fellow plant geeks! Of course their generosity isn't limited to autumn, but there seems to be a shared desire to rehome plants before winter comes.

In this post I want to show you some of my recent plant hauls. Lest you ask, no, I don't know where all of them will go, but I home some ideas. Read on to find out.

Aloes from John and Justin, including rarities like Aloe ikiorum, Aloe lukeana, and Aloe vanbalenii × mawii as well as Aloe africana from Annie's Annuals and Aloe claviflora from Trader Joe's. There's also a ×Mangave 'Bloodspot' pup from Justin (and a nice-sized Agave applanata not shown in the photo).

On Saturday, I visited two friends in the Bay Area, John in Richmond and Justin in Pinole. Like me, they love aloes, in addition to being the nicest people. Above are the goodies they sent home with me, ranging from seedling they grew themselves to unexpected finds at places like Trader Joe's and Annie's Annuals. The seedlings are still small and will live in pots for at least another year, but the Aloe africana is ready to go in the ground now.

Plants from John and Justin:

×Mangave ‘Bloodspot’	[Justin]
Agave applanata	[Justin]
Aloe africana	[John]
Aloe claviflora	[John]
Aloe ikiorum (open pollinated)	[John]
Aloe lukeana (open pollinated)	[John]
Aloe vanbalenii × mawii	[John]
Stapelia paniculata ssp. scitula	[Justin]

Speaking of aloes, here are a couple I recently got at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory sale, steals at $4 per pot:

LEFT: Aloe littoralis × Kumara plicatilis   RIGHT: Aloe comosa

Plant purchases from UC Davis Botanical Conservatory:

Aeschynanthus speciosus

Aloe comosa

Aloe littoralis × Kumara plicatilis

Begonia masoniana

Capparis spinosa f. inermis

Echeveria agavoides (crested form)

Annie's Annuals & Perennials in Richmond is having a 20% off sale, continuing until Sunday, October 13. I stopped there on Saturday before visiting John who lives not 10 minutes from Annie's. Here's my haul:

The plants in this tray want sun so most of them will go in the front yard

These are more shade-tolerant (except for the giant fennel in the top right, which ended up in this tray by mistake)

Some of these plants are bulletproof in our garden, others are more experimental (especially Roldana pestatis, Plectranthus ecklonii and Anthriscus sylvestris).

Plant purchases from Annie's Annuals and Perennials:

Achillea millefolium ‘Sonoma Coast’	‘Sonoma Coast’ white yarrow	Link
Anigozanthos ‘Harmony’	‘Harmony’ kangaroo paws	Link
Anthriscus sylvestris	Raven’s wings	Link
Arctostaphylos ‘Ron Clendenen’	‘Ron Clendenen’ manzanita	Link
Artemisia californica ‘Canyon Grey’	Prostrate California sagebrush	Link
Chrysocephalum apiculatum	Silver sunburst	Link
Dasylirion berlandieri		Link
Eriocephalus africanus	Cape snow bush	Link
Eriogonum latifolium	Seaside buckwheat	Link
Felicia aethiopica ‘Tight & Tidy’		Link
Ferula communis	Giant fennel	Link
Helichrysum argyrophyllum	Golden Guinea everlasting	Link
Hesperoyucca peninsularis		Link
Orostachys iwarenge	Chinese dunce cap	Link
Oscularia caulescens		Link
Plectranthus ecklonii		Link
Polystychum munitum	Western sword fern	Link
Roldana petasitis	Velvet groundsel	Link
Salvia hierosolymitana	Jerusalem sage	Link
Viola odorata ‘Comte de Brazza’	‘Comte de Brazza’ violet	Link
Viola odorata ‘Duchesse de Parme’	‘Duchesse de Parme’ violet	Link

Between visiting John and Justin, I swung by the big native plant sale at Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park high above Berkeley. A few of the plants I was interested in were already gone, but I still found some goodies:

Three new small manzanitas, another prostrate blue juniper, a dudleya I'd never even heard of, a new mahonia hybrid, and an exceedingly rare F2 seedling of the already rare flannelbush × monkey-hand tree hybrid

Plant purchases from Regional Parks Botanic Garden:

×Chiranthofremontia lenzii ‘F2 Brown Fuzz Selection’ (the above-mentioned flannelbush × monkey-hand tree hybrid)

Arctostaphylos glutinosa

Arctostaphylos hybrid

Arctostaphylos uva-ursi f. suborbiculata

Dudleya anthonyi

Juniperus communis var. saxatilis ‘Pt. St. George’

Mahonia ‘Bart's intersectional hybrid’

For some reason, I didn't take any photos of my purchases from the first UC Davis Arboretum plant sale in late September but here's my favorite from that sale:

Desert mahonia (Mahonia fremontii) with icy blue older leaves and bronze-colored new growth

Plant purchases from UC Davis Arboretum sale on September 28, 2019:

× Mangave 'Red Wing'

Agave 'Blue Ember'

Berberis fremontii

Helianthemum 'Henfield Brilliant'

Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. asplenifolius

Puya coerulea var. violacea

Tetraneuris acaulis

Santa Cruz Island ironwood (Lyonothamnus floribundus ssp. aspleniifolius), in my opinion one of the most beautiful trees native to California, will replace the Bradford pear the City of Davis has finally agreed to remove (although no concrete date given yet). Almost 6 ft. tall (shown next to our minivan for scale), this rare tree was a whopping $26 at the UC Davis Arboretum plant sale—vivid proof that botanical gardens, native plant societies, etc. are often the best and most affordable source for high-quality plant material.

I promised to show you a few spots where some of my new plant babies will go. Between me pruning back some established shrubs, Agave mitis flowering, and our big 'Sonoran Emerald' palo verde uprooting itself, we've had some vacancies open up this year.

Still room behind our big-boy Aloe ferox!

This is where the 'Sonoran Emerald' palo verde used to be

I've done a lot of planting already, but there's still room

Still room towards the back

Similar spots exist elsewhere in the front yard and all over the backyard. I'll have updates as soon as I get more things planted.

P.S. The plant lists above are mostly for my own benefit since I'm bound to forget what I bought where and when (I don't even bother with “why”).


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