Succulents and More™

At the beginning of the year I described 11 gardening projects I wanted to tackle in 2011 ( projects 1-5 , projects 7-11 ). How did I do? Let’s take a look.   1. Get more bamboo While 2011 didn’t see any major bamboo additions to our own garden due to a serious lack of space, I got a few small divisions in trades with other collectors: Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis', Fargesia nitida and Phyllostachys kwangsiensis . The Fargesia nitida died due to gardener error (mine), but the Phyllostachys kwangsiensis is growing nicely. The Phyllostachys aureosulcata 'Spectabilis' has tripled in size and is ready to go in the ground. I’m considering putting it in one of our two stock tanks in the back yard . Our existing bamboos put on a lot of height this year, especially the three in front of our house, Bambusa oldhamii , Bambusa chungii ‘Barbellata’ and Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’. These three clumping bamboos have grown tremendously, considering they ha...

In part 1 of this article we visited the Entrance Plaza, the Arid House and the Southern Africa section. In part 2 we will check out the New World Desert, the Tropical House and the Australasia section. Tour Deck overlooking the New World Desert New World desert New World desert The New World Desert is located right across from the Southern Africa section—very fitting considering that plants from both parts of the world have similar growing requirements. While not very large, the New World Desert still contains a wide range of cacti and succulents, including many rarely seen in cultivation. There are very large clumps of agave and towering columnar cacti, but they were impossible to photograph because of the noon sun that created harsh shadows. Instead, I’m going to show you smaller plants that I found particularly interesting. The first is a tree sedum ( Sedum torulosum ) from Mexico. “Tree” may be a bit of an exaggeration, but apparently it can grow to 3 ft. What...