Succulents and More™

A couple of weeks ago, I bought an Agave attenuata ‘Blue Fantastic’ at the UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery for the newly revamped front door bed: Agave attenuata ‘Blue Fantastic’ at UC Davis Arboretum Teaching Nursery Before heading home, I made a brief stop at Trader Joe’s, no more than 20 minutes. While I was in the store, the agave was sitting in the car, with the windows slightly cracked. Imagine my frustration and annoyance when, just a few hours later, I discovered that several leaves were starting to show large brown spots: The next day, after I planted it in the ground Here’s a closer look: And a week later: 20 minutes in a closed car on a reasonably warm morning, that’s all it took. Fortunately, the damage is cosmetic, but still, it’ll take my agave until next summer to shed the blistered leaves. If you’ve ever transported agaves in a closed car on a warm day, you might have experienced this yourself. Some species seem to be more prone to this, especially those with thin...

On my Santa Barbara trip last week , I bought some plants from Nick Deinhart , including this spectacular Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ × Agave ‘Blue Glow’ cross for my friend Kyle: Mangave ‘Bloodspot’ × Agave ‘Blue Glow’ when I picked it up from Nick Deinhart I loaded my new plants into the car on Friday afternoon when it was about 60°F and sunny. I spent the night in Pismo Beach , less than a mile from the ocean. Overnight, it cooled off to the mid-50s, and it was overcast and somewhat damp when I left on Saturday morning on my drive home. The weather remained cool and overcast for the next hour before the fog lifted and the sun came out. For the remainder of the trip, it was bright and sunny, the temperature climbing into the low 80s by mid-afternoon. I arrived home at around 3 p.m. I had the air conditioning in the car set to 68°F the entire time, except for two quick bathroom breaks when the engine was off, and the air in the car heated up into the 80s. I unloaded the plants right after I g...

One of the plants I bought at last week’s Succulent Extravaganza was a stunning Agave guadalajarana . It was the blue form, seen on the left in this photo taken at Succulent Gardens : I looked through quite a few plants at the nursery before I picked what I thought was the most perfect one. I stowed it very carefully in the car so its leaves wouldn’t get bent or bruised. I unloaded it carefully when I got home so as not to damage it. And then I put in on the front porch in a spot where I thought it would be fine. Except I forgot that this “protected” spot gets hit by the afternoon sun. Not for long, but long enough to do this: