Succulents and More™

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 ...

An unexpected, and most definitely unwanted, visitor followed me home from the 2024 Garden Fling in Tacoma, Washington: Covid. Even though my symptoms were on the mild side, I tested positive for almost two weeks. And I continue to tire surprisingly easily even now that I’m officially in the clear. Essentially, the last two weeks were a complete loss. Between naps, I did drag myself to my desk to work at my day job, but I had no energy to do any gardening. In fact, there were quite a few days where I barely spent any time outside. My heartfelt sympathy to people whose Covid symptoms are much worse than mine. I hadn’t fully grasped how debilitating this fatigue can be. I did get some gardening done in the past couple of days and was able to take a closer look at what’s up. The “standouts” continue to be the victims of the recent heat dome . While I’ve already removed a few of the dead carcasses, there are plenty of signs of stress and damage all over the garden. In addition, I found me...