Succulents and More™

I love plants that are out of the ordinary. It comes as no surprise then that I fell for the creeping devil cactus the first time I saw one. The name alone is enough to get your attention. Creeping devil. Take a look at the photos below, and you’ll see why it’s called that. Creeping devil ( Stenocereus eruca ) in the Desert Garden at the Huntington Desert Garden at the Huntington Instead of growing upright, like a good cactus should, the creeping devil resembles a tangle of snakes frozen in mid-writhe. And if you think a pot can contain it for any length of time, take a look at this photo taken at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory : Creeping devil escaping its pot at the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory Found only on the central Pacific coast of Baja California Sur, Mexico, the creeping devil ( Stenocereus eruca ) grows on sandy soils and forms massive colonies. Befitting its common name, it’s the only “moving” cactus in the world. It grows horizontally from the base, with only the gr...

Last week I dropped by my friend Darell’s place down the street to photograph the Agave filifera flowering in his front yard before he removed it. It’s a pup off an A. filifera I got for him at UC Berkeley Botanical Garden in January 2011 . Darell started to document the progress of his Agave filifera beginning in late June when the flower stalk was just under 10 ft. in height: June 23, 2024: < 10 ft. June 28, 2024: 10 ft. July 10, 2024: bottom-most flower buds fully formed July 16, 2024: first flowers have started to open July 16, 2024: flower close-up July 16, 2024: flowers with pollen August 4, 2024: 16 ft. I took the photos below on August 13, 2024: August 13, 2024: inflorescence is 16.5 ft. tall. Most flowers except for the top 3 ft. are done blooming. Rosette after Darell cut off the flower stalk The rosette was easy to remove; all we had to do was lift it up. The roots were already dead so the plant wasn’t attached to the ground anymore. Darell cut off the top part of the f...

Once upon a time, my friend Darell, who lives a couple of blocks away, planted an Agave americana ‘Mediopicta alba’ much like the one below: Agave americana ‘Mediopicta alba’ in our garden (removed last year because it was encroaching into the sidewalk) A while ago, Darell had noticed that his Agave americana ‘Mediopicta alba’ didn’t look so hot: The lower leaves were turning black, and the upper leaves had begun to shrivel at the base. He doesn’t water very much, and initially he thought it was because of that. When I stopped by his place yesterday, I suggested he remove his  Agave americana  ‘Mediopicta alba’ and plant something nicer instead. For fun, I kicked the center of the agave with my foot. It wiggled so much, it was immediately clear that it wasn’t attached to the soil any longer. A stronger push with my foot knocked the entire plant over, exposing this gruesome sight: At the bottom, a hole in the ground. At the top, a spongy mess: When I lifted up the remaining bot...

Winter damage is almost unavoidable. No surprise there. Last winter, we had multiple consecutive days of rain with almost no break. Some aloes developed rot from water sitting in the crown and/or in the flowers, but most grew out of it. I expect stuff like that in the winter. What I don’t expect is agaves rotting in the middle of the summer. But that’s exactly what’s been happening this year. Here are a few good, but sad, examples: Agave chazaroi The first victim was the large Agave chazaroi you see above. I noticed rot developing in the center in early July. It progressed so rapidly, there was no stopping it. All I could do was dig it up and toss it in the yard waste bin. Now there’s a large hole where the agave had been. The second example is a large Mangave ‘Mission to Mars’. I originally bought it in September 2017 in a 4" pot and it has been in the same spot in the sidewalk bed since 2020. It always looks great during the cooler months, but in the summer, the outer leaves f...

An unexpected, and most definitely unwanted, visitor followed me home from the 2024 Garden Fling in Tacoma, Washington: Covid. Even though my symptoms were on the mild side, I tested positive for almost two weeks. And I continue to tire surprisingly easily even now that I’m officially in the clear. Essentially, the last two weeks were a complete loss. Between naps, I did drag myself to my desk to work at my day job, but I had no energy to do any gardening. In fact, there were quite a few days where I barely spent any time outside. My heartfelt sympathy to people whose Covid symptoms are much worse than mine. I hadn’t fully grasped how debilitating this fatigue can be. I did get some gardening done in the past couple of days and was able to take a closer look at what’s up. The “standouts” continue to be the victims of the recent heat dome . While I’ve already removed a few of the dead carcasses, there are plenty of signs of stress and damage all over the garden. In addition, I found me...