Succulents and More™

“April weather, rain and sunshine, both together,” that's how an old English country saying goes. And that's what we had yesterday afternoon (March 10, 2021) even though April is still a few weeks ago.  Not only rain and sunshine, but hail as well. Pelting down on the roof, it sounded worse than it actually was, but Woodland, the closest town to the north of Davis, got so much of it, it looked like a blanket of fresh snow. I'm grateful we were spared because hail can disfigure soft-leaved succulents like nothing else. I'll know soon enough if our plants sustained any damage. After the rain had stopped, the clouds to the west parted enough for a brief but brilliant display of sunshine, made even more dramatic by the dark clouds to the east. I quickly snapped these photos of the streetside plantings because everything looked so clean and vibrant. Aloe marlothii  is still in full bloom The newly planted corner Aloe  'Tangerine' (with × Mangave  'Mayan Queen...

Occasionally you read about hailstones large enough to do serious damage . If they can break glass, I shudder to think what they would do to plants?! The hail we had the other day was nothing compared to the grapefruit-sized hailstones that fell on Nebraska in 2003 , but it came down fast and furious for a few minutes and made a surprisingly loud racket. Here are the three short videos I recorded from the front porch:

Last Sunday, we had a brief but intense hail storm unlike anything I had ever seen in the 14 years we’ve lived in Davis. Check out this post for details.   Initially it looked like the damage would be fairly minor, but as you can see in the photos below, quite a few of our soft-leafed succulents (especially agaves and aeoniums) are dinged up. Luckily, the weather is warm and dry now so I don’t expect any rot to result from this as might have been the case in the winter. In addition, I’m telling myself that these are garden plants, not exhibition specimens, but I can’t help being a bit frustrated by the blemishes. If only I’d been with it and thrown blankets over the more sensitive plants. On the other hand, the hail came and went so quickly—and I was so busy taking photos of it —that I probably wouldn’t have been able to get to all of them anyway. Succulent bed next to the front door. Everything looks fine from a distance… …but up close you can see the dings caused by ...

Today has been the weirdest day. I woke up to the sound of a gully washer, followed less than an hour later by sunshine and dramatic skies. Before I finished my 2nd cup of coffee, the sun was gone, obscured by clouds so dark that I considered turning on the light. Lightning and thunder were next, and then the clouds opened up again, but what poured forth wasn’t rain but hail. It only lasted for a couple of minutes, but it was the most intense hail storm I had ever seen. Knowing that the hail stones would melt very quickly, I grabbed my camera and headed outside to document this unusual event. Now, an hour and a half later, there’s no trace it ever happened (except for the pile near the key lime, see below), the sun is shining, and I just saw a hummingbird flutter by outside. Silly me, I thought today was May 15th, but apparently it’s still April. Hail on roof Violets ( Viola odorata ), Japanese forest grass ( Hakonechloa macra ), and potted squid agave ( Agave bracteosa ...