Plant haul from my August 2021 trip to Southern California

If you read my previous post, “Trip to Inter-City 2021 and other Southern California destinations,” you probably expected a plant-haul post. Well, here it is. 

The plant selection at the 2021 Inter-City Show at the Los Angeles County Arboretum was overwhelming, and I could easily have come home with 100 plants of more. However, with the exception of a couple of $2 plants that were total impulse purchases, I tried to be sensible. That doesn't mean I came prepared with a shopping list (I didn't), but I carefully thought about where each plant would go—and why I wanted it in the first place. Was I entirely successful? Probably not, but I didn't end up with any why-the-heck-did-I-get-this plant either.

Without further ado, here are the plants that got to ride home with me:

↱ Who says hotel rooms are just for humans? I didn't want to leave these plants in the hot car during the day.

↱ Back of our minivan at the end of day 1

↱ Aloe arenicola, Sinningia tubiflora, Drimia media, Dudleya candida, Dudleya pachyphytum × caespitosa, Dudleya candida

↱ Dyckia 'Tarzana', Aloe suzannae, Cheiridopsis cigarettifera, Aloe 'TH012216', Ebracteola wilmaniae

↱ Day #2: some California natives from the Theodore Payne Foundation

↱ Final day, back seat: some of these are mine, the others belong to a Sacramento area friend who was also at the Inter-City Show but didn't have enough room in her car

↱ Final day, back of the van: all of these are mine

Here are some of my new plants in detail:

↱ LEFT: The mass of yellow on the left is Thymophylla pentachaeta, commonly known as dogweed or golden dyssodia. To see what it looks like en masse, check out this post about Hidden Agave Ranch. RIGHT: Mexican tulip poppy (Hunnemannia fumariifolia), a plant I forever associate with Piece of Eden.

↱ Three desert perennials with gray leaves to complement the succulents in our garden: white-flowering sage (Salvia cedrosensis 'Baja Blanca'; desert marigold (Baileya multiradiata); Baja bush snapdragon (Galvezia juncae 'Gran Cañon'), like Salvia cedrosensis from Cedros Island half-way down the western coast of the Baja California peninsula

↱ Galvezia juncae 'Gran Cañon'. I love sparsely-leaved plants like this one because they look good weaving in and out of other plants. Similar plants in our garden are Verbena bonariensis and Justicia californica.

↱ Three new California natives: a beach sagebrush cultivar called 'Dr. Seuss' (Artemisia pycnocephala 'Dr. Seuss'), and two new manzanitas: Arctostaphylos pacifica, a small prostrate manzanita known only from a single location on San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco; and Arctostaphylos peninsularis, a small shrub found in San Diego County and Baja California

↱ Three aloes from the Inter-City Show: Aloe suzannae from Madagascar (it has a reputation for being difficult, but this one was reasonable so I thought I'd give it a try); a Tim Harvey hybrid called Aloe 'TH012216'; and Aloe arenicola, a small creeping aloe

↱ Here are the only two agaves I bought. LEFT: Agave cerulata var. dentiens native to several small islands in the Gulf of California. Check out this adult specimen at the Desert Botanical Garden in Phoenix. RIGHT: Agave deserti, one of few agave species native to California.

↱ Yucca endlichiana, a dwarf yucca species from the Mexican state of Coahuila that forms sansevieria-like leaves up to 1 ft. in length.

↱ Three South Africans, two mesembs (“ice plants”) and a bulb: Cheiridopsis cigarettifera and Ebracteola wilmaniae are South African mesembs that should do OK in the ground. Drimia media is a bulb with grass-like evergreen leaves 12 to 18 inches in length; it makes a nice foreground accent.

↱ Two $2 finds: Sinningia tubiflora, a South American flowering perennial in the Gesneriad family with a potato-like tuber, and Echeveria minima, one of my favorite landscaping echeverias for the front of the border.

↱ Dyckia 'Tarzana', a hybrid by the late Bill Baker, named after the Los Angeles neighborhood of Tarzana where he lived. (Bill Baker is also credited with the creation of the iconic Aloe 'Hercules'.) I love how the well-developed white teeth contrast with the greenish brown leaves. I'll live in a pot in the backyard near most of my other dyckias. I should really do a dyckia post...

↱ Cardboard palm (Zamia furfuracea), not a palm at all, but a cycad from the state of Veracruz in eastern Mexico. It's often sold as a house plant, but with some careful siting, it can live outside all year in our climate.

Here's a handy list of all my plant purchases from this trip. This is primarily for my own reference when I need to refresh my memory about a particular plant down the line.

Genus	Species	Source
Agave	deserti	Theodore Payne Foundation
Agave	cerulata var. dentiens	Tim Harvey/Plantae Novae
Aloe	suzannae	John Matthews
Aloe	arenicola	Duke Benadom
Aloe	'TH012216'	Tim Harvey/Plantae Novae
Arctostaphylos	pacifica	Theodore Payne Foundation
Arctostaphylos	peninsularis	Theodore Payne Foundation
Artemisia	pycnocephala 'Dr. Seuss'	Roger's Gardens
Baileya	multiradiata	Theodore Payne Foundation
Cheiridopsis	cigarettifera	Skyview Succulents
Drimia	media	John Matthews
Dudleya	candida	Grow Nursery
Dudleya	candida	Grow Nursery
Dudleya	pachyphytum x caespitosa	Grow Nursery
Dudleya	pachyphytum	Tree of Life Nursery
Dudleya	saxosa ssp. aloides	Tree of Life Nursery
Dyckia	'Tarzana'	Rainbow Gardens
Ebracteola	wilmaniae	Kyle's Plants
Echeveria	minima	Jim Hanna
Encephalartos	munchii	Botanical Wonders
Encephalartos	lehmannii	Living Cycads
Galvezia	juncae 'Gran Cañon'	Tree of Life Nursery
Hunnemannia	fumariifolia	Tree of Life Nursery
Salvia	cedrosensis 'Baja Blanca'	Tree of Life Nursery
Sansevieria	'Bantel's Sensation'	Jim Hanna
Sinningia	tubiflora	Jim Hanna
Thymophylla	pentachaeta (3x)	Tree of Life Nursery
Yucca	endlichiana	Jim Hanna
Zamia	furfuracea	Armstrong Garden Center

Lots of new plants to play with come fall!

RELATED POST:

• Trip to Inter-City 2021 and other Southern California destinations

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