Succulents and More™

A few days ago, my friend Justin, whose garden I wrote about recently , was in town. Knowing what a plant nerd he is, I took him to the UC Davis  Botanical Conservatory , and before we knew it, two and a half hours had gone by. That's what happens when you get sucked into a botanical vortex! I could have taken hundreds of photos of the plants in the greenhouses, but I was far too busy yakking. Still, I managed to take pictures of some weird and wonderful oddities. Huernia keniensis  var. globosa . In contrast to typical huernias where the flowers open up completely, the petals on this variety form a globe-shaped corolla . Maybe this is to enhance the carrion smell that attracts the flies which act as pollinators? The flowers you see in the photo above definitely exuded a heady perfume of meaty putrefaction. Alien-looking flowers on Dorstenia foetida , a caudiciform from Eastern Africa and Arabia Same Dorstenia foetida  flower from the front. Dorstenias have a distinctive...

This weekend is Memorial Day weekend in the U.S., one of only a few 3-day weekends we have. Badly in need of a nursery fix, I decided to head to Annie’s Annuals in Richmond, CA on Saturday. My mother-in-law was my shopping companion. Davis was bright and sunny when we left, but Richmond (some 50 miles away) was gray and overcast when we arrived. I was thrilled since overcast skies make for better photography. I was surprised by the number of cars in Annie’s lot—we had to park quite a ways away. It turned out a huge crowd had shown up for a talk on gardening during the drought at 11 a.m. Normally I would have loved to hear what the speaker, garden designer Kate Frey , had to say but my mother-in-law and I decided to get our shopping done while the nursery was virtually empty. A 15% off sale on all plants was an extra incentive to load up the cart. I brought my wife’s compact point-and-shoot camera and took a lot of snaps as I wandered through the nursery. I’ve been to Annie’s quite ...

Yesterday I met an old friend from San Francisco and took him to Annie’s Annuals in Richmond, CA. Annie’s is one of my favorite nurseries. Their selection is vast and quirky; check out their plant list to get a taste. The retail nursery also carries plants that either aren’t on the website or are listed as unavailable and the prices are lower than online, so a personal visit is the way to go. The weather was fine when we arrived—overcast but bright. However, half way through our visit the sky opened up and the rain ultimately cut our visit short. Still, here are some photos to give you idea of what wonders await at Annie’s. Also check out my previous posts: 1 | 2 | 3 .