Succulents and More™

One highlight of our recent trip to Santa Cruz was a visit to the University of California Santa Cruz Arboretum . According to its website, the UCSC Arboretum has “the largest collection of Australian and South African plants outside of their native countries” as well as “the most diverse collection of eucalyptus and their relatives to be found in one easy-to-access area, an unmatched collection of conifers and other trees, and extensive representatives of New Zealand and native California flora.” I had never been there and hence didn’t really know what to expect. In a nutshell, the two hours we spent there merely scratched the surface. I focused on the South African and Australian Gardens and completely ignored the New Zealand Garden and the California Natives Collection. While the Arboretum isn’t extraordinarily large, it still takes time to examine the plants that catch your eye for one reason or another—and there were many of those in spite of the overall autumnal (i.e. drab) loo...

I couldn’t pass up the Memorial Day sale at Silverado Nursery in Rancho Cordova and added two new ornamental grasses to our collection. Quite a deal at 40% off! Melinus nerviglumis (left) and Briza media (right) The first is ruby grass grass ( Melinus nerviglumis , formerly Rhynchelytrum nerviglume ). Hardy in zones 8-10, this African native forms a mound about 12 inches tall; the stems are an additional 1-2 feet. Once established, this grass is reputed to be fairly drought tolerant, which makes sense given its origin. It’s a fairly recent introduction to the U.S. (it debuted commercially in 1998), and this is the first time I’ve seen it in a local nursery. Melinus nerviglumis The leaves are fairly ordinary but the flowers are a stunning color of ruby red, hence the plant’s common name. The full potential of this grass is hard to see in a small plant, but check out this site for photos of larger specimens. Melinus nerviglumis flower panicle Melinus nervig...

Last week I fessed up to killing a potted Golden Goddess bamboo due to neglect. Instead of replacing it with another bamboo that would just end up being pot-bound in a few years, I decided to go with a restio. To summarize an earlier post , restios are rush-like plants native to South Africa and Western Australia, areas sharing a similar Mediterranean climate. Superficially resembling reeds or even bamboos, they are related to neither. Instead form their own family, the Restionaceae, or “restios” for short. In our part of the world, restios are definitely a specialty plant. You can’t just walk into a nursery and expect to find a selection of them. If you’re lucky, you’ll find Cape rush ( Chondropetalum tectorum ), which seems to be the most common restio in California, but that’s about it. I wanted some very specific restios, so I had to go the mail-order route. Luckily, one of the very few nurseries in the U.S. that has a decent selections of restios is located in Fort Bragg on the...