Succulents and More™

Many of my posts this week were fairly depressing, dealing with hail damage , me inadvertently killing a potted bamboo , and such. Today I want to change the focus to something more uplifting to get you and myself in a positive frame of mind for the weekend. A couple of weeks ago I posted a few photos of my Red-Headed Irishman cactus ( Mammillaria spinosissima ) beginning to flower. In typically mammillaria fashion, the tiny flowers form a ring that goes all the way around the cactus. This ring is now complete and looks fantastic. Mammillaria spinosissima , about 6” tall Mammillaria spinosissima Mammillaria spinosissima   Two other small mammillarias are blooming. The first one goes by the impossibly complicated name Mammillaria camptotricha cv. Marnier-Lapostollei . It has very odd-looking spines which aren’t even that prickly—more like bristles on a brush. It’s only a couple of inches wide and tall but it already has a couple of offsets along the side. The f...

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 ...

In the spring of 2010, another bamboo aficionado sent me a length of rhizome (no culms) from Phyllostachys viridis , the all-green version of the popular Robert Young bamboo . The rhizome was a good foot long and looked fresh and viable, but I wasn’t sure whether it would survive. I buried it in a 22-inch galvanized steel tub and half forgot about it. Much to my surprise, new shoots came up within a month and turned into regular culms with an abundance of leaves, including a 7 ft. whip shoot that more or less grows horizontally (on the left in the first photo below). Since Phyllostachys viridis is hardy to -5°F, it comes as no surprise that it wasn’t fazed by our mild winter. What did surprise me is how drought-tolerant this running bamboo is. While I did water it when I thought of it, that certainly didn’t happen with any kind of regularity. Considering that the soil depth in the tub is around 9 inches, I’m amazed that the plant remained lush and green throughout the summer, fall an...

A Golden Goddess, to be precise. Bambusa multiplex ‘Golden Goddess’ is a clumping bamboo that has a reputation for being super easy to grow in moderate climates (it’s hardy to 15°F or so) and virtually indestructible. All true, unless you don’t water it. It does not like that at all! Bambusa multiplex ‘Golden Goddess’ (one in each of the green pots) in its heyday last October The Golden Goddess to the left of the front door in May, looking very brown Apparently the two drip emitters in the pot had been closed the all way so the plant didn’t get watered for an unknown period of time. Maybe a week, maybe two. Eventually the roots had extracted all the moisture they could from the soil and the leaves began to curl—a warning sign I missed. After that, it wouldn’t have taken long for the leaves to dry up and turn brown. Containerized plants are much more dependent on us humans for their survival needs, and I completely failed this Golden Goddess. I must add here that the plan...

After taking a look at what our front yard looks like in mid-May I want to do the same for the back yard. It’s very useful having these photos as a reference to look back on six months or a year down the line. As is the case in the front yard, we’ve made a lot of progress over the last 4+ years. However, since a significant portion of our backyard is in dry shade, it’s proven to be relatively difficult to find the right mix of plants that thrive in these conditions. Competition from trees make matters worse, necessitating frequent irrigation or container plantings. Still, every challenge is an opportunity—or a riddle, as the case may be. While I’m happy with the state of the front yard, the backyard continues to be a work in progress. I know that eventually we’ll have that lush oasis I’m dreaming about, and in the meantime I’ll learn a thing or two about gardening in the face of adversity. The first set of photos are of our Asian-inspired area in the side yard just outside our dinin...

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 ...