Succulents and More™

As far as spectacular foliage goes, farfugiums are hard to beat. Most people have never heard of farfugiums before, but when they see one, they usually go “wow.”  Fellow bloggers Mark and Gaz at Alternative Eden recently featured an exhaustive survey of farfugiums in their collection , and I’ve blogged about our own farfugiums before ( 1 2 ). In recent years farfugiums have become more available in local nurseries, and the UC Davis Arboretum has several in their downtown Arboretum Terrace. On Sunday morning we were showing out-of-town friends around and got caught in the first rain of the season. As brief as it was, the rain really brought out the textures of the giant farfugiums ( Farfugium japonicum ‘Giganteum’) at the Demonstration Garden, especially in contrast to the delicate venus hair fern ( Adantium capillus-veneris ) growing underneath them. I was very glad I had a camera along to capture this small vignette of plant magic.       ...

Davis has had a long association with bicycling. Rumor has it there are more bicycles per capita than anywhere else in the country. The fact that the terrain is as flat as can be makes bicycling a popular mode of transportation, especially on the campus of the University of California Davis where parking is hard to find (and expensive). In 2005, Davis was the first city in the country to receive Platinum Level recognition from the League of American Bicyclists , and in 2010 Davis became home to the United States Bicycling Hall of Fame . Walking around town today with friends from San Francisco, we came across two very funky looking bamboo bicycles. One even was a tandem! The owner of Davis Barber Shop, a well-known local institution, has quite a collection of these bikes and they can be seen in various places around town. What I didn’t know that they apparently are still in use (see the last photo). I have no idea what species of bamboo they’re made from, but since the bamboo comes ...

Normally running bamboos—varieties with rhizomes that spread instead of forming a clump—produce new shoots in the spring as soon as the weather gets warm enough. In our area, this typically means March into early May. See these posts from earlier this year: 1 2   3 . Each new shoot quickly turns into a culm (technically not called a “cane” until it has been cut down) and forms new branches. The branches, in turn, grow the leaves that produce energy through photosynthesis. As spring turns to summer, running bamboos focus their energy on rhizome development, storing energy for next year’s crop of culms. That’s the normal development cycle of most running bamboos. However, four of our running bamboos—which had already gone through their regular shooting cycle in April—are now shooting again. I don’t know exactly why that is. Like all running bamboos in our garden, they are confined to containers. That, in itself, creates an artificial environment which affects plants in often unpr...

I’ve been in a “stock taking” mood lately, looking at various parts of the garden to see how they’ve come along. Comparing the current state to, say, last year is useful in assessing what has done well and what hasn’t—and whether you’re happy with the way things have progressed. I’ve already made some changes recently to one small part of the succulent bed next to our front door, replacing crassulas and echeverias with colony-forming cacti that should tolerate the daytime heat and the searing summer sun a little better. Now I’m looking at other areas of the succulent bed to see where tweaking might be necessary. This post describes the origins of this succulent bed. The larger plants have now been in place for 2½ years. Succulents don’t grow as explosively as bamboos do, for example, so progress has been more measured. However, you can see progress even compared to last year. Just take a look at the first two photos. Succulent bed in July 2010 Succulent bed in August 2...

Last Halloween I helped friends of ours plant three Alphonse Karr bamboos ( Bambusa multiplex ‘Alphonse Karr’) in their backyard. Click here to read that post. I recommended Alphonse Karr because it is a beautiful clumping bamboo that thrives in our Mediterranean climate and tolerates our winter lows (rarely below 25°F). Like all members of the genus Bambusa it is a fast grower—a definite plus when trying to create a privacy screen, like our friends are doing. I recently blogged about the tremendous growth of our own Alphonse Karr, and yesterday I took my camera over to our friends’ house to document the progress of their Alphonse Karr. Here is a photo from last Halloween right after planting: Newly planted specimens on 10/31/2010 And here is the same view 11 months later. The clumps look much fuller now and will eventually be tall enough to block the view of the 2nd story windows next door The clump on the left will also provide a partial visual screen of the c...

It’s hard to believe it’s the middle of September. Even though the thermometer still climbs into the high 80s in the afternoon, there’s a definite chill in the air in the morning, and on some trees the leaves are beginning to change color ever so slightly. One thing that remains elusive: rain. But that’s not unusual. I don’t really expect rain until mid- or late October. Yesterday I walked through the front and backyard with my camera, and there were quite a few things that caught my eye. The flowering superstars of the summer (the rudbeckias and echinaceas, for example) are on the wane, but other plants are going strong, including my beloved succulents and bamboos. They are interesting to me all year round, which is why I have so many of them. Flowering maple ( Abutilon x hybridum ‘Souvenir de Bonn’) reaching toward the sky. I wish it would grow bushy instead of tall and gangly, but I love the leaves and the flowers. Potted bamboos on the edge of our backyard patio. From ...