Found another one!

In a recent post, I mentioned that I found an Agave simplex hidden under a Euphorbia misera shrub – lost to both sunlight and memory (mine). In a garden as small as ours, something like that couldn’t possibly happen more than once. At least that’s what I thought. And I was wrong. A week after rediscovering Agave simplex, I uncovered yet another buried plant. Two, actually: one fully buried and one half buried.

Take a look at the flowering Salvia ‘Marine Blue’ below:

Focus on the areas indicated by the red squares:

After moving some of the salvia stems aside, this is what I found:

Juvenile Aloe ‘Erik the Red’ at top left

Aloe dhufarensis × secundiflora at center right (the plant at the bottom is Aloe karasbergensis)

Aloe dhufarensis × secundiflora is an oddball hybrid I picked up at Rancho Soledad Nursery on my February 2023 San Diego trip. It hasn’t flowered yet, and I have no clue whether it’s even a garden-worthy plant. The potential is there, but time will tell.

Even though Salvia ‘Marine Blue’ wasn’t done flowering yet, I decided to cut it back to give these two aloes room to breathe:

Aloe ‘Erik the Red’ (top left), Aloe dhufarensis × secundiflora (center right), with Aloe karasbergensis at the bottom

Aloe dhufarensis × secundiflora all cleaned up

Aloe ‘Erik the Red’ and Banksia blechnifolia

I also freed a juvenile Banksia blechnifolia from the salvia’s inquisitive tentacles. Banksia blechnifolia is a compact prostrate shrub from Western Australia with flower heads seemingly emerging straight from the ground. New flowers are produced in the spring; what you see below is an old inflorescence:

Banksia blechnifolia with an old flower head

Lesson I’ve learned (or hope I will learn): Keep your plants tight and tidy. In a garden as small as ours, there’s no excuse for letting anything run wild – or for ever “losing” a plant.

© Gerhard Bock, 2023. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.