Succulents and More™

The plant I’m most excited about at the moment isn’t a succulent at all. It’s a giant fennel ( Ferula communis ), an herbaceous perennial from the Mediterranean with fine-cut arching foliage that dies back in the summer and reappears with the rains in the winter. I bought it from Annie’s Annuals in October 2019 in a 4-inch pot, and it’s finally flowering. As you’ll see below, this isn’t a dainty little thing; it’s a sturdy plant 4 ft. tall and wide, with a flower stalk that reaches a good 10 ft. into the sky. In fact, from a distance, the flower stalk looks a lot like that of an agave! Agave flower stalk? No, giant fennel! Based on what I’ve read, Ferula communis is most likely monocarpic, i.e. it will die after flowering and setting seed. Some sources, however, claim that the plant will live on if you remove the flower stalk before seeds are produced. I don’t know yet what I’ll do, but I’m tempted to let it complete its lifecycle to see what happens then. Below is a pictorial chronic...

April is getting away from me. Before we know it, summer will be here. I’m not kidding – we’ve already had a few days with daytime highs in the upper 80s. Before temperatures ramp up even more, which will speed the demise of the spring flowers, I want to show you some highlights from the front garden. This is a great time of year because everything still looks fresh and perky. Below is a favorite vignette of mine at the moment. The light is particularly good in the late afternoon. Geum ‘Scarlet Tempest’ on the left, living up to its promise of a long flowering season, and Persian stonecress ( Aethionema grandiflorum ) on the right These Mexican tulip poppies ( Hunnemannia fumariifolia ) are volunteer seedlings, and more than welcome Even when they’re not in flower, the bluish green leaves of Hunnemannia fumariifolia look great Backlit silver torch cactus ( Cleistocactus strausii ) and variegated Bromelia pinguin ‘Qué será’, beautiful but wickedly armed Myriopteris lanosa , one of se...

Visiting other people’s gardens is always fun, but it’s even better when it’s a fellow blogger whom you’ve followed for a while. Through their posts, you see their garden change and evolve, and you become familiar with it to the point where you think you know it well. But when you actually see it in person for the first time, there can be unexpected surprises. I remember the first time I visited Loree ( danger garden ) in Portland, I was stunned because I had expected her house to be on the other side of the street. I was going, “Nooooo, that isn’t right!” Weird how you create a certain picture in your mind, based on nothing at all. Tracy on her front porch, with a pretty darn impressive staghorn fern Fortunately, there was no such surprise when Loree and I visited our mutual friend Tracy in Livermore a few weeks ago. Tracy is relatively new to the blogosphere – she started her blog tz_garden in February 2023, so just two years ago. But she posts frequently, documenting the ongoing tw...