Succulents and More™

I just got back from another whirlwind road trip, this time to Southern California. The primary reason was to attend the Inter-City Cactus and Succulent Show and Sale at the Los Angeles County Arboretum last weekend. I had a fantastic time hunting for plants in the sale area, ogling at the hundreds of specimens entered in the show, and talking shop with fellow plant nerds. In spite of most people wearing masks, I almost forgot that we're in a pandemic. I also used the opportunity to go exploring in the L.A. County Arboretum and squeezed in visits to the Huntington , the Theodore Payne Foundation , the Cal State Fullerton Arboretum , and  Plant Depot and Tree of Life Nursery in San Juan Capistrano. And I had lunch with Kris Peterson of Late to the Garden Party  and spent quality time with my younger daughter. If you feel exhausted reading this, I sympathize! This is just a brief teaser. I'll have a number of individual posts in the weeks to come; the first of them is about ...

Completed in 2013, the Civic Center in the Southern California coastal city of Newport Beach  has become a word-of-mouth destination for succulent enthusiasts. It's easy to see why: Newport Beach Civic Center along Avocado Avenue The complex, which houses Newport Beach city hall and the central library, is architecturally stunning. It's adjoined by 14 acres of parks and gardens transected by 1.25 miles of walking trails. The $140 million price tag is hefty, but no corners were cut—and that applies to the outside areas as well. That in itself is very gratifying since landscaping, which is usually the last major element to be installed in a project, often gets the short end of the stick, especially when there are budget overruns. The landscape design was created by Berkeley-based  PWP Landscape Architecture whose projects are found all over the world, including Jewel Changi Airport in Shanghai, the National September 11 Memorial in New York, and the Marina Bay Sands R...

The first time I read about the Newport Beach Civic Center was in this October 2014 post on Piece of Eden . The $140 million complex took three years to complete and opened in April 2013. It houses Newport Beach City Hall and the Central Library and is surrounded by 16 acres of parks and gardens, including the Coastal Sage Scrub Garden, the Torrey Pine Grove and—of particular interest to me—the Desert Garden. On our recent trip to Southern California to tour university campuses with daughter #2, I had the opportunity to visit the Newport Beach Civic Center on an early morning outing. I found a parking space right at the entrance to the parking lot and only encountered a couple of other people as I was walking around. A mass planting of Agave attenuata  against the north wall of City Hall sets the stage:

Before my recent trip to Southern California , the only thing I associated with Sherman Gardens in Corona del Mar is the succulent mosaic created by Matt Maggio. I'm sure you've seen photos of it; there are quite a few on Pinterest and other social media sites. Here's a section of it: As it turns out, the succulent mosaic is just one part of the Succulent Garden, which was completely renovated in 2005-2006 with Matt Maggio's help. And the Succulent Garden is only one of a dozen different gardens; see this interactive map for an overview.

Day 2 of my late-December trip to Southern California  began with a visit to  Roger's Gardens in Corona del Mar (basically Newport Beach). Hoover Boo of Piece of Eden  and her husband go to Roger's regularly, and they had been very enthusiastic about the demonstration garden along the road. While annuals and perennials in the display beds are swapped out periodically throughout the year, the aloes and agaves seem to be a permanent fixture. My timing couldn't have been better because the aloes were in full bloom. The local police should put up signs instructing drivers to keep their eyes on the road instead of looking at the aloes! Roger's Gardens was started by Roger McKinnon in 1965 in Costa Mesa. Gavin Herbert bought the business in 1970 and moved it to its current location in 1975 where it's become a destination for Orange County gardeners. The company now has over 100 employees and offers landscape design and event services in addition to the nursery an...