Succulents and More™

Merry Christmas, Happy Kwanzaa, or just plain old Happy Holidays to all of you! I’ll be taking a few days off, but there will be new posts early next week.

 

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I’ve heard people say that weeds are just unloved flowers; plants whose virtues have not yet been discovered; or perennials that haven’t been educated yet. Common yellow oxalis sprouting with abandon in our succulent bed I don’t agree. What I do agree with is the Danish proverb “Weeds never die”. When everything else is on the wane, weeds are busy laying the groundwork for next year’s invasion. Oxalis growing between the stems of a sea urchin sedum ( Sedum lineare ‘Variegatum’) My biggest enemy in the realm of weeds is oxalis, or wood sorrel. There are many oxalis species grown as ornamentals, and yes, they can be beautiful. The one I’m having a beef with is the common yellow wood sorrel ( Oxalis stricta ). It grows everywhere and at any time of year—the photos in this post were taken just now, a few days before Christmas—and it seems to prefer places where I would have to sacrifice skin and blood to get to it, like the base of prickly succulents. It prefers alkaline soil...

During a break in the rain I took a quick stroll through the garden and snapped a few photos of what’s still in bloom. It was good to see how much color there still is. Aside from the cold spell over Thanksgiving, our weather has been fairly mild, prolonging the flowering season of these late bloomers. Wouldn’t it be nice it we made it through the winter without any more frost? Or is the mere act of expressing that wish asking for trouble? Butterfly ginger ( Hedychium coronarium ) I bought 10 rhizomes from an eBay seller in Hawaii a few years ago and this is the first year they’ve bloomed. In fact, I didn’t see the first blossom until mid-November. I have high hopes for next year! Cape balsam ( Bulbine frutescens ) This succulent native to the grasslands of South Africa does very well in our climate—almost too well. I bought three plants in 4-inch containers a few years ago and I’ve divided and re-divided them many times since then. All you have to do is break off a piece ...

Northern California is being pummeled by a series of wet winter storms. The Sierra Nevada is expecting as much as 10 feet—yes, feet!—of snow by Wednesday, and the Sacramento Valley up to 5 inches of rain. 5 inches of rain may not sound all that impressive to some readers, but that’s almost one third of our annual precipitation, which averages between 17 and 18 inches (430-460 mm) a year. This is what you see when you stare too closely through a wet window screen. I had quite a few things I wanted to do this weekend but because of the weather I had to scale down my to-do list. I did take advantage of a break in the weather on Saturday and cleaned up the succulent bed next to our driveway. The cherry plum tree planted between our house and our neighbor’s has been dropping leaves for the past few weeks and this succulent area was covered in a sea of red. With perennials I wouldn’t worry too much about the leaves because they break down relatively quickly and act as insulation again...

Nature photography has been a passion since my teen years. One of my favorite subjects are trees, and 2010 was a very good year indeed as far as taking pictures of trees is concerned. We started out the year in Australia, and I’ve only just begun to mine the 2000 images I took during our 3-week trip. In May, we spent a weekend in Yosemite, which is paradise for nature photographers. This was followed by a trip to the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State in mid-summer as well as camping getaways to Samuel P Taylor State Park and Bodega Dunes, both north of San Francisco. Thanksgiving spent at my in-laws in Mount Shasta in far Northern California brought not only snow, but also some lovely photographs. As fellow gardeners, you love nature as much as I do, and I hope that you will enjoy this compilation of my favorite tree images of 2010. If only we had enough room in our yards for all of these beauties! Moreton bay fig ( Ficus macrophylla ), Sydney, Australia Western dogwo...

Looking out over the neighborhood from upstairs this morning, I saw white, lots of it. No, not snow, but frost. All the roofs were covered, as were fences, lawns and cars. Magic! The temperature was right around 32°F so I knew this wouldn’t last long. I grabbed my camera and tripod and took a quick series of photos. As I’m writing this, a couple of hours later, the frost is gone, the sun is out, and we’re having a picture postcard winter morning. Special moments are so ephemeral. Pear tree leaves and dandelion in our lawn Catmint ( Nepeta x faassenii ‘ Six Hills Giant’) Jerusalem sage ( Phlomis fruticosa ) Lavender ( Lavandula sp.) Miscanthus plume ( Miscanthus sinensis ‘Rigoletto’) Mexican bush sage ( Salvia leucantha ) Canna Tropicanna ( Canna x generalis 'Tropicanna') Echeveria with ice in the center ( Echeveria imbricata hybrid) Ice on car window Frost on fence top To see more photos of the gossamer beauty of fr...

  Fog at night transforms even the most familiar surroundings.               A quiet hush settles over the neighborhood.               Sounds, while muffled, seem paradoxically intensified.               What is mundane by day appears mysterious under the cloak of darkness.