Succulents and More™

I had the opportunity to visit the Ruth Bancroft Garden  (RBG) twice in the last couple of weeks. I ran into curator Brian Kemble both times, and he shared a wealth of plant information with me, some of which I'm in turn sharing with you in the captions. The RBG is looking fantastic this spring thanks to the hard work of the Garden crew and assistant curator Walker Young, the " custodian of the Garden's aesthetic ." I took a few hundred photos. Even after whittling them down, I still had far too many for one post so I'm going to split them up into three. I hope you don't mind such a heavy dose of succulent beauty! Let's start at the entrance. In the first photo below, you can spot the new Visitor and Education Center behind the majestic Agave franzosinii , the Garden's sentinels: Agave franzosinii Agave franzosinii ; on the right, a closer view of the "lost wax" effect where the blue wax that covers the leaves is rubbed off as the plant grows

Time to take another look at the aloes blooming along the sidewalk. All too soon, this display—particularly generous this year—will be history.  The flower colors range from creamy yellows to rich reds. The yellows are courtesy of Aloe  'Moonglow' . There are three separate clumps now. All three came from my half of a 5-gallon can I originally split with a friend—pretty remarkable growth. I've started to give offsets to friends since for whatever reason 'Moonglow' is currently hard to find in retail nurseries. Aloe  'Moonglow' clump #1 I'm particularly excited about this aloe since it's the first time it has bloomed for me. It's a hybrid between  Aloe spectabilis  (related to  A. marlothii  but with vertical instead of horizontal inflorescences) and Aloe vaombe . The flowers give me vaombe  vibes while the leaves have the general shape of spectabilis . Aloe  'Erik the Red', one of the most spectacular larger hybrids on the market Aloe cap