Succulents and More™

In July 2016, Jo O'Connell, owner of Australian Native Plants Nursery , gave a workshop on hardy Australian plants at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden . Jo is a walking encyclopedia of plant knowledge, and her presentation was fantastic. She'd brought a selection of Australian plants to sell; I bought several, including a Grevillea  'Flora Mason'. It was just a wee thing in a #1 container, but after I put it in the ground in the backyard, it grew quite quickly. This is what our Grevillea  'Flora Mason' looked like in March 2021: Grevillea 'Flora Mason' inside the backyard fence (left) and outside (right) 'Flora Mason' usually starts blooming in January, continuing into April. This year it's flowered more profusely than ever before. The yellow and coral-red flowers are quite pretty up close, but from a distance they don't stand out that much against the foliage—not that the leaves aren't pretty enough on their own. Grevillea  'Flo...

“Once upon a time,” isn't that how all good stories begin? So let's start this one the same way. Once upon a time, my wife gave me a pair of agave ornaments as a gift. Made of rusting metal and spray-painted with color accents, they're a striking presence: A friend of ours was very taken with them and wanted his own. My wife referred him to the Etsy store of the artist where she'd bought mine, and that was the end of it. Actually, no. That was just the beginning, as we were to find out later on. One day, our friend—let's call him Gull for “gullible”—came across an online ad on Facebook for metal agaves that looked very similar to mine. Very similar. But the price was a fraction of what my wife had paid. In fact, you could buy three agave sculptures for the same price, with free shipping to boot! This felt like a cosmic gift to Gull so he went ahead and placed an order. Delivery took months, but the box finally arrived. But let's pause here for a moment because I...

Gabriel Frank is a landscape designer based in Morro Bay on the Central Coast of California. His company, Gardens by Gabriel, has created a number of spectacular gardens where succulents are front and center. I visited one of them on a 2016 trip to Morro Bay.  Gabriel's reputation as a succulent master extends well beyond the Morro Bay area; I've heard his name mentioned up and down California. I'd secretly been hoping to see a coffee-table book of Gabriel's gardens one day, and while I will have to wait a little longer for that , here is the next best thing: a how-to guide on creating your own succulent garden. Striking Succulent Gardens: Plants and Plans for Designing Your Low-Maintenance Landscape  is Gabriel Frank's first book. It was published in January 2021 by Ten Speed Press and sells for an affordable $19.99. When I receive a new book, I thumb through it quickly to get an overall impression. The first thing that jumped out at me here was the large number o...

Last year, the iconic shade structure smack dab in the middle of the Ruth Bancroft Garden was completely rebuilt. After 48 years, it had reached the end of its useful life, and the soil in the bed below it was compacted and had less than ideal drainage. Here is a look at the construction progress from May 2020. The structure does double duty: In the summer, it provides shade to plants that don't want full sun all day. In the winter, it gets wrapped in plastic and becomes a shelter against the rain and the cold. Here it is on February 13, 2021: Inside is a wonderland of succulents, nestled in among thousands of pounds of newly placed rocks: The larger signature plants are the same as before, but it looks like many new plants were added as well Kumara plicatilis  and a pretty gasteria in the lower right Bulbinella nutans, Aloe suzannae , and variegated  Agave attenuata Aloe suzannae , arguably one of the most challenging aloe species in cultivation. It wants what it wants and ...