Succulents and More™

In a small garden like ours, every square foot counts. I constantly look for ways to maximize the space available for planting, and I jump at every chance to squeeze out a few more square feet. Just such an opportunity presented itself when it came time to fix some broken fence sections in the front yard. Take a look: In the photo below, the 6 ft. section outlined in yellow was leaning precariously. This was the only remaining section from when the house was built; the rest of the fence had been replaced about 15 years ago. The 4 ft. section outlined in orange was still good, but it had come loose from the 6 ft. fence next to it. Inside the fence, an L-shaped raised bed occupied the corner where the 4 ft. fence meets the 6 ft. fence which encloses the backyard: Originally, we used this raised bed for tropicals like elephant ears, bananas, and gingers ( see this post ). However, when we switched to more water-wise plants, it became difficult to keep the tropicals happy. In 2013, I plant...

When I visited San Marcos Growers last year , manager Randy Baldwin told me about a mass planting of Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’ at an office park in nearby Goleta. Of course I had to see for myself. As it turned out, it was even more spectacular than I had expected (see post here ). Aloe ‘Birds and Bees’ was introduced by San Marcos Growers in 2013 from seed Brian Kemble collected at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek. According to the San Marcos Growers website , the seed parent was Aloe arborescens and the pollen parent is thought to be Aloe thraskii . SMG selected and evaluated five seedlings from the original seeds that germinated. This one was chosen for its bicolored flowers and named ‘Birds and Bees’ because it was the result of open pollination rather than intentional hybridization. If left to its own devices, ‘Birds and Bees’ forms a shrubby clump similar to its Aloe arborescens parent. That’s great for some situations, like creating a privacy screen, but many suburban gar...

As I first mentioned in this post from February 2024, San Marcos Growers (SMG) in Santa Barbara will close its doors for good on January 1, 2026. The 23-acre property leased by the nursery will be redeveloped by the owners to help meet Santa Barbara County’s urgent need for housing, including affordable housing. For more details, read this announcement on the SMG website. While I suppose this will ultimately be good for Santa Barbara, it’s bad news for gardeners and the horticulture community in California at large. As a wholesale nursery, SMG is not open to the public, but its plants are carried by independent retail nurseries across California and the Pacific Northwest. Over the past 40 years, SMG has been instrumental in introducing rare and unusual plants. Even now, SMG sells plants that literally no other nursery has. The loss of one of the most innovative – and, yes, beloved – plant growers in the state will hit many of us hard. Aloes and other plants ready to go to a customer ...