Succulents and More™

The state of the backyard has been bothering me for a long time. Many of the plants are old and look tired. Some are in the wrong place. And others are permanently on the brink of death, either because of bad soil or a lack of water. Plus, four bay trees which are now over 30 ft. tall create deep shade while sucking up all the available moisture in the soil; finding plants that survive there, let alone thrive, is almost impossible. After years of lethargy and inertia, work on making much-needed improvements has begun. I’ll have a detailed update very soon. This post is about removing a fairly big agave that was in the way. It was nice enough, but simply too large for its spot: The agave in question is an Agave chiapensis which I bought at the UC Berkeley Botanical Garden circa 2010. To my amazement, I found the original tag tucked into the soil underneath the plant: I originally bought it because of the stated size: 18" tall by 30" wide. But as is so often the case, reality...

I can’t remember the last time I walked into a regular nursery and found an agave I’d never seen or even heard of. But that’s what happened the other day at Green Acres Nursery in Sacramento: Take a look at this variegated beauty! The tag said Agave ‘Ivory Star’ – a name I’d never come across. No other information about what it was. When I got home, I did a Google search, expecting to find what I wanted to know. Not so. Google didn’t yield much information either. I found a few other nurseries that also sell ‘Ivory Star’, but most of them are overseas. That was a big surprise. I mean, how often does it happen that you can’t find what you’re looking for? Based on the overall appearance, I’m fairly sure it’s an Agave desmetiana cultivar, but with noticeably wavier leaves than the species. As such, it’s not terribly cold hardy. My Agave desmetiana ‘Joe Hoak’ (similar to ‘Ivory Star’, but with straight leaves and the reverse pattern of variegation) routinely gets black spots in the wi...

Day of the Dead , or Día de los Muertos, is still six weeks away, but I suppose it’s never too early to start decorating. Look what I spotted at our local Trader Joe’s this morning: At $4.99, these Day of the Dead succulents are quite a steal. I didn’t get any when I was at Trader Joe’s this morning, but I’m tempted to go back and grab a few of these cats: Trader Joe’s is a nationwide chain of neighborhood grocery stores with an eclectic assortment of products at surprisingly low prices. Most products are unique to Trader Joe’s and not available elsewhere. Quite a few of them have a cult following . Trader Joe’s plant offerings vary from store to store, but you can often find cool things. If you spot something you like, grab it. Chances are it won’t be there the next time. Which is why I need to go back ASAP to get those cactus kitties. UPDATE: I have two cactus kitties now. Thank you, Michele, for picking them up! © Gerhard Bock, 2024. All rights reserved. To receive all new posts b...

Many plants are beautiful, some are plain, and others are plain weird. But weird can be oh so cool. I recently saw an example of that in my friend Marilynn’s garden. Check it out. When looking at the flower from the top, not so unusual: But from the side, it’s a different story: The flower is like a gazebo with a roof! The plant is a tangled mess of twining stems with fleshy leaves and those weird flowers: Marilynn still had the label from the UC Davis Botanical Conservatory where she bought it many years ago: Ceropegia sandersonii is a perennial succulent vine native to southeastern Africa. It belongs to the dogbane family (Apocynaceae), thus called because some taxa were used as dog poison. Other members of this large family include adeniums, milkweeds, oleanders, pachypodiums, periwinkles, plumerias, and stapeliads. The top petals of the funnel-shaped flowers form a roof, the bottom petals a tube, with windows in between. The flowers mimic the scent of a honeybee under attack (I’m...

Last summer, Kyle and I visited a new friend in Carmichael, a suburb of Sacramento, to give him and his wife input on their front yard. Tyler and Jessica Wichmann had already started on a dry garden, but they wanted more visual impact. Kyle and I suggested creating mounds and adding as many rocks as they could. That’s something I’ve been working on in my own garden – and something Kyle has perfected in his. It took almost a year, but Kyle and I finally had the opportunity to see the result. Take a look at the photos below; the changes are dramatic! Before: Tyler and Jessica already had a variety of plants that do well with little water – a good start. After: Some of the cacti are still in the same spot, others were moved as the mounds were created. Before: The planting areas were completely flat. After: Now there are several mounds that create a dynamic flow. The ‘Desert Museum’ palo verde you see below (one of two) had previously been in a large concrete planter, but it’s much happie...

Everybody is familiar with tequila , a distilled spirit made in the Mexican state of Jalisco from a specific agave species, Agave tequilana (often referred to as the blue Weber agave although it has nothing to do with Agave weberi ). You may also have heard of mezcal , a distilled spirit made from any number of agave species (primarily Agave angustifolia , known in Mexico as espadín ) in other places in Mexico (the epicenter of mezcal production is the state of Oaxaca). In contrast to tequila, mezcal often has a smoky flavor because the heart of the agave, the piña , is roasted in underground pits prior to distillation. In addition, there’s raicilla and bacanora , but they’re virtually unknown in the U.S. Raicilla is made only in the southwestern part of Jalisco, typically from Agave rhodacantha , Agave maximiliana , or Agave inaequidens . Bacanora is made in the mountains of Sonora exclusively from Agave angustifolia var. pacifica . Beyond that, there’s a spirit called sotol , but...