Blooming poppies and other sights from this week

In my last two posts, I took you on a photo and video tour of the front yard. I showed you the highlights, but there were some things I had to leave out. So consider this post a continuation.

The Corten bowl with various echinocereus cacti used to be on the fence under the Santa Cruz Island ironwood. That spot was too shady, so the cacti never flowered well. This spot gets a lot more sun, so I expect a much better flower show.

Two fence-top planters with a variety of echinopsis hybrids on the new fence section. The one on the right used to be elsewhere on the fence...

...the one on the left is new (actually, I’ve had it for a couple of years, but I’d never installed it)

One of the most recent additions to the garden: Leucadendron ‘Hawaii Sunrise’, a dwarf variety (3 ft. in height by 2 ft. in width) with spectacular flowers (check this out)

Teeth on Aloe ‘Sawbones’, a Karen Zimmerman hybrid. The name was inspired “by the jagged teeth lining the leaf margins, reminiscent of a coarse-toothed saw or the rostrum of a sawfish.” To me, they look a bit like molars.

Echeveria ‘Madiba’ in front of Cleistocactus strausii

Echeveria ‘Madiba’ was supposedly found at a nursery in Spain, but nothing else is known about it. Virtually all other echeverias have soft, pliable leaves; the leaves on ‘Madiba’ are much stiffer. It’s become one of my favorite echeverias.

My ocotillo (Fouquieria splendens) looks like this in the winter. Every spring I wonder if it’s dead, but then it grows new leaves. Fingers crossed that will happen this year. It hasn’t yet.

Wider view, with the newly planted cardon on the right

Calliandra ‘Sierra Star’ has flowers almost year-round

Cephalophyllum alstonii ‘Red Spike’, one of several mesembs in flower now. The plant looks unremarkable, but when the flowers open up in the early afternoon, it’s an eye-catching sight.

Oscularia caulescens has tiny flowers, but they’re cheery en masse

No flowers needed for visual impact: Aechmea recurvata and Sedum adolphi

I know, I’ve shown this vignette before, but I like it so much, here’s another photo: Agave desmetiana ‘Galactic Traveller’ and a Tylecodon ‘Mystery’

These characters are in the Corten planter near the Meyer lemon. The small cactus with many arms is a spineless prostrate form of the diamond cholla (Cylindropuntia ramosissima) that Justin and I found on our Las Vegas trip three years ago.

Aloe vaotsanda is a species from Madagascar with totally unique flowers (check them out here). Mine is still too small to bloom, but I love the way it looks even now.

Hechtia argentea. OK, another regular, but I take a photo of it almost every time it’s lit up like this in the late afternoon.

Agave albopilosa looking much happier in the ground than it did in a pot. I planted it in a narrow crack between two rocks to simulate the growing conditions in its native habitat. (Technically, it's Echinoagave albopilosa now; see here.)

Leucadendron ‘Jester’ (right) and Yucca querataroensis × filifera (right)

Outside the fence, the ‘White Linen’ poppies have started to bloom, more of them every day.

The flowers of ‘White Linen’ are actually creamy yellow, not pure white

I used to have a good-sized colony of Lachenalia quadricolor in the larger succulent mound in the front yard, but they didn’t come back this year. Fortunately, I moved some to the sidewalk bed last year, and these are finally in flower.

Dogweed (Thymophylla pentachaeta) has reseeded in random spots. It’s a low-growing Southwestern native and it’s welcome to do its thing wherever it wants. Here it looks great in front of Agave parryi.

This little buckwheat (Eriogonum umbellatum ‘Kannah Creek’) has reseeded, too. It’s been one of the best-performing buckwheats in our garden.

Moroccan daisy (Rhodanthemum hosmariense) may have simple flowers, but I love this sight

Grevillea ‘Scarlet Sprite’ behind an Aloe marlothii ‘Utrecht’ that has stubbornly refused to bloom. I think it’s large enough...

Just one flower on Aloe capitata var. quartziticola, but it’s a pretty one

It’s hard not to take photos of this view. I’m exercising restraint, so just this one picture.

Eucalyptus macrocarpa is hard to photograph with its white leaves and freewheeling growth habit, but it’s ever so beautiful

Every now and then I get the urge to take out this Nolina texana because it’s just a bunch of grassy leaves. But then I see the frayed leaf tips backlit in the late-afternoon sun and I’m glad it’s still there.

There are more cool things to discover, but I’ll save them for another time.

© Gerhard Bock, 2025. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts by email, please subscribe here.