Succulents and More™

Last fall I began to redo the side yard on the north side of our house. For far too long, it had been an unloved and neglected part of the backyard. But since real estate available for gardening is at a premium on our 8,100 sq. ft. lot, I finally got off my butt and began to dig in. This post from early October shows you what the area looked like before, during, and immediately after I built the two new mounds. I’ve been making tweaks to both beds almost constantly, and it’s high time for an update. Let’s start with the smaller mound. It, too, has evolved, but the changes aren’t as noticeable as they are in the larger mound, which we’ll get to in a minute. October 8, 2024 In practically all of these photos, you’ll notice that both mounds, and the path between them, now have a layer of 5/16" red lava as a top dressing. Beyond that, there are more plants than back in October — not exactly a surprise considering a) how much I love plants, and b) how many plants I have waiting to go ...

As promised, here are some of the plants entered in the juried show at the 2025 San Francisco Succulent Expo . More than anything, they showcase the wide range of plants that fall under the umbrella of “succulents:” soft-leaved succulents like haworthias and echeverias, rigid-leaved succulents like agaves and aloes, cacti of all sizes and descriptions, and a large variety of caudiciforms. In fact, it seemed like cacti and caudiciforms made up a good ¾ of the entries. What you see below is only a fraction of the plants in the show. As is so often the case in venues like the San Francisco County Fair Building, the artificial lighting produces an unpleasant color cast. I tried to correct it as best as I could, but none of my photos would win any prizes. Speaking of prizes, the three judges selected their top picks in the three categories that made up the theme of this year’s event: “Leaf, Stem, Base” (i.e. the ways succulents store water). The judges’ overall favorite received the top awa...