Succulents and More™

Before I start going into detail about the places Kyle and I visited on our Santa Barbara trip last weekend, here’s a collection of pictures from around town. They’re a bit random, but there is a theme: aloes and agaves. They’re everywhere in Santa Barbara. We stayed in a small vacation rental in the Mesa neighborhood . The location was insane: just a block from a bluff that overlooks the ocean. The nearest beach access was an easy 10-minute walk — plus a steep climb down 1,000 steps to the eponymous One Thousand Steps Beach . Well, it did feel like 1,000 steps, but in reality it was only 157 steps (I looked it up). Steps down to One Thousand Steps Beach I’ll show you some sunset photos of One Thousand Steps Beach a little later, but let’s begin with one plant that is positively everywhere in Santa Barbara: the foxtail agave ( Agave attenuata ). Up here in the Sacramento Valley, we have to protect Agave attenuata against the sun in the summer and the cold in the winter. A dip into t...

I just got back from a long weekend in Santa Barbara, one of the top two aloe destinations in California (the other being San Diego). As you may remember, I did the same trip in 2024 and 2025 . This time, my frequent partner-in-crime Kyle was able to come along. Sharing an experience like this with a great friend and fellow plant nerd makes it all the more memorable. We even had some beach time... ...and a margarita, complete with a rubber duckie! This post is just a quick summary of the places we visited; there’ll be more detailed posts in the coming weeks. San Marcos Growers Over the past 46 years, San Marcos Growers (SMG) has given California gardeners more cool plants than any other grower. As a wholesale operation, it wasn’t open the public, but many retail nurseries up and down the state (and even beyond) carried their plants. As I mentioned before , SMG officially closed its gates on December 23, 2025, but there are still quite a few plants available for purchase. In the comi...

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 ...