Succulents and More™

This has been a strange winter. We hit 33°F a few times in January but never dipped below freezing. I can’t remember the last time that happened, maybe never. On the other hand, we also had the longest streak of tule fog since 1970 — 22 consecutive days in December, and a few more in January. Nighttime lows and daytime highs were only a few degrees apart in the 42-45°F range. A persistent blanket of moisture clung to everything, with no wind to help dry things off. This unfortunate combination of factors was more than enough to do real damage. Here’s an echinopsis that sailed through last winter and yet rotted as a result of the lingering wetness and cold: Rotting from the ground up, even though the soil is loose and well-draining The rot has progressed too far to rescue this poor thing Typically, I don’t worry about tender agaves until temperatures get close to freezing. But below is proof that the dreaded black spots can appear even when nighttime lows are in the low 40s. The first ...

This is what the eastern terminus of the L-shaped sidewalk bed in the front looked like just a few days ago: Aloe ‘Moonglow’ at the far right was getting ready to burst into the biggest display of flowers it’s ever had. I did my best to count the individual racemes (flower heads) in the photo below and got to almost 50. The vigor of this hybrid is off the charts. It produces far more flowers than any other aloe I have. The flowers last a long time, too, making for a spectacular bloom season. Imagine my surprise when I found this: Aloe ‘Moonglow’ horizontal instead of vertical. The cause is immediately apparent: Between the leaves engorged from the December rains and the crazy number of flowers, the aloe was simply too heavy for its trunk. Something had to give. Fortunately, this isn’t the end, just a temporary setback. Here’s what I did. First I made a clean cut: Then I dug up the remaining trunk and at least some of the roots: Normally I would simply leave the plant exposed to the a...

One of my gardening goals for 2026 is to critically assess every plant in the garden, especially in the coveted sidewalk bed in the front, and be ruthless: Any plant that doesn’t do it for me anymore gets pulled and replaced with something more compelling. I know, that sounds a bit silly, but it’s what I need to do to keep things exciting. As with any new year’s resolution, there’s no guarantee that it will last, but I’m determined to at least give it a try. And I’m happy to report that I’ve completed the first removal of the year. My target was the blob in the middle: Nolina texana It’s Texas beargrass or sacahuiste ( Nolina texana ). As Wikipedia puts it so poetically, Nolina texana “is a plant in the asparagus family that resembles a large clump of grass.” That’s what it looks like although it isn’t a grass at all but rather a relative of agaves, yuccas, and dasylirions. My Nolina texana was just a little thing when I brought it home in my suitcase from the 2018 Garden Bloggers F...