Succulents and More™

It’s mid-September and therefore time to plan for the upcoming fall plants sales. In the Sacramento area (and beyond), the plant sales at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery (ATN) are among the biggest events in the gardening calendar. There are four plants sales in the spring, and three in the fall. The dates for the 2025 fall sales are September 27, October 18, and November 15 (all are on a Saturday). With the help of student and community volunteers, the ATN grows plants specifically for the spring and fall sales — everything from perennials to succulents to grasses, vines, bulbs, herbs, and trees. All plants are appropriate for our climate so you can be sure that what you buy will live in your garden (as long as you treat it well, of course). As a volunteer, I’m at the nursery every week, and I can tell you that the sales floor is overflowing with cool plants. According to the online inventory for the September 27 sale , there are more than 28,000 plants from almost 800 diffe...

Over the years, I’ve posted many photos of the silver torch cacti ( Cleistocactus strausii ) in the front yard. In the late afternoon and early evening, when they’re backlit by the sun, they positively glow: July 2025 But any containerized plant eventually gets too big and will need to be put in the ground or moved to a larger pot. My Cleistocactus strausii is no exception. Since things were in disarray already because of our recent siding project, this was as good a time as any to get this done. No room left in the pot New stems squished against the side of the pot Brand new Corten planter for my Cleistocactus strausii To make sure there’s enough room for years to come, I bought a Corten planter 25" long x 11" wide x 13" high. To fit the clump (round) into the planter (rectangular), I had to divide it. Read on to see what I did and how I did it. But some background first: January 2011 I bought these Cleistocactus straussii in January 2011 at UC Berkeley Botanical Gar...

My previous post was about one kind of agave-related affliction: edema caused by sudden changes in temperature and/or light level. This post is about another — one that is far more serious because it’s almost always fatal. I’m talking about the dreaded agave snout weevil. I wrote about it before: in a neighbor’s garden , and in my own . After my last encounter, back in December , I treated the agaves near the infested plant in my garden with imidacloprid, an insecticide that kills on contact and also works systemically. It was effective because I haven’t had any other problems in that bed. However (isn’t there always a however?), I didn’t go far enough. I should have treated all the agaves inside the front yard fence. Then my beloved Agave ‘Sun Glow’ in the bed next to the front door might still be alive. I noticed a while ago that ‘Sun Glow’ was leaning forward more than before. I have seen ‘Blue Glow’ (the non-variegated parent of ‘Sun Glow’) do that as the rosette gets heavier and...