Succulents and More™

I take photos in the garden virtually every day to document what’s going on. Many of these images don’t fit into specific categories, but they’re still worth showing. That’s why I have these occasional “This and that” posts. They’re the perfect vehicles for pictures that might otherwise remain unseen. Let’s get started with some cactus photos. Lophocereus schottii ‘Woolly Rhino’ seen from above Cardon ( Pachycereus pringlei ) seen from above My creeping devil ( Stenocereus eruca ) in the box Kyle made for me in August 2024. It’s doubled in size since then and has made a few offsets. I recently entered it in the Sacramento Cactus and Succulent Society Show. It won an Award of Excellence, which netted me $25 to spend at the event. The first wave of cactus flowers is always the best ( see this post ), but there’s been a nonstop succession since mid-April. I’ll have a separate post so these photos are just teasers: Parodia mammulosa var. roseolutea , probably my favorite cactus flower o...

If you’re like me, you have a hard time believing it’s April already. April! I haven’t started any major projects this year, but it’s still worth taking a quick look at the garden before spring is over for good. The California poppies are already fading and going to seed, so summer isn’t that far off. View through the ponytail palms towards the house; the front door is to the right Bed next to the front door The front door is on the right. New solar spotlights from Costco, uplighting the ponytail palms and the Aloe vaombe at night. Most of the aloes are done blooming for the year, but there’s never a shortage of other flowers. Several of my hechtias have started to bloom — a bit early, it seems. Hechtia argentea produces almost comically tall inflorescences. The flowers themselves are white, tiny, and insignificant. Hechtia lanata , on the other hand, has a pretty showy inflorescence: short and fluffy This Hechtia lanata has been in the ground for 5+ years, but this is the first time ...