Bamboo, Succulents and More

Succulent goodie boxes at Davis Food Coop

2013-05-22T16:24:00.001-07:00

While the Davis Food Coop has been our favorite grocery store since we moved here, it’s not exactly the go-to place to buy plants. They do sell small vegetable starts in the spring and the occasional potted plant, but nothing that would rival even the limited floral offerings of a regular supermarket.

That’s why I was very surprised to see these “succulent gardens.” Essentially, they’re wooden crates filled with all manner of succulent cuttings.

It was magnificent while it lasted

2013-05-21T13:19:00.001-07:00

This past weekend was filled with cactus excitement. Four of my cacti, fairly plain-looking most of the year, flowered. Actually, “flowered” is too lame a word to capture the magnificence of this event. “Exploded” is more like it. It was a floral firework display, and like any firework, it was short-lived. The flowers opened just twice, then it was all over. It must take a tremendous amount of energy to produce flowers almost as large as the stem itself!

Unidentified Echinopsis (scarlet-fading-to-coral flower)

All four cacti are Echinopsis hybrids. Echinopsis is a large genus of South American cacti noted for their large and colorful flowers. They range from small globular cacti to tree-sized species. There are many Echinopsis hybrids with flowers in myriad shades of red, purple, yellow, and cream. I think not even experts are able to tell them apart unless they are in bloom, maybe not even then. To me, it doesn’t really matter what variety they are. All I care about are the fantastic flowers.

Unidentified Echinopsis (scarlet-fading-to-coral flower)

Silky oak (Grevillea robusta) sighting in Davis

2013-05-20T13:36:00.001-07:00

As I was driving to the public library last week, I noticed a group of trees covered with orange blossoms. I couldn’t quite tell what they were from the car, but they looked unusual enough that I decided to go back for a closer look. These are tall specimens, towering above the two-story apartment buildings along F Street, but with my telephoto lens I was able to zoom in close enough for a positive identification.

The leaves and flowers were a dead giveaway: These trees are Grevillea robusta, commonly known as silky oak, southern silky oak or Australian silver oak although not related to the true oaks (genus Quercus).

Sometimes what you get is not what you thought

2013-05-17T15:24:00.000-07:00

About six weeks ago I bought a bunch of plants for a raised bed in a corner of the front yard. This included three Asiatic lilies: two cultivars called ‘White Pixels’ and one called ‘Lollipop’. This is what the label for ‘Lollipop’ looks like:

Compare that to the actual flowers, which just opened up:

Poppy love

2013-05-16T15:57:00.000-07:00

Last month I got all mushy over the California poppy (Eschscholzia californica). But it isn’t my only poppy love. I’m just as nuts over the Matilija poppy (Romneya coulteri), which is at its peak right now. There’s a large clump in the park near house, and no matter how often I walk by there, I go gaga each time.

The Matilija poppy (pronounced “ma-TILLY-huh”) is native to the dry washes and canyons of Southern California and northern Mexico. It is named after a Chumash Indian chief of the same name. This shrubby perennial can grow to 8-9 ft. high and wide and thrives in dry, sun-baked situations. It’s very drought-tolerant once established and survives temperatures as low as 0°F (zone 7).

What have we got here?

2013-05-15T16:42:00.000-07:00

About five years ago an online plant seller included a freebie in an order I’d placed. It was labeled Agave parryi and it was a bit of an ugly thing from the beginning—the runt of the litter, you might say. I stuck it in a pot and even though I gave it regular watering, it never transformed from a beast into a beauty. Every winter, it would develop unsightly brown spots—weird, since Agave parryi is very hardy—and dead leaves around the base didn’t make things better. Sure, I could have groomed it better but after a while I gave up on it and relegated it to the “ugly corner” near one of the vegetable beds.

May 3, 2013

A couple of weeks ago I noticed a strange sight. Something resembling a white asparagus spear was emerging from the center.

“No, it can’t be,” was my first thought.

May 3, 2013

Help a local high school raise money through plant sales

2013-05-14T16:55:00.000-07:00

I can’t speak for other states or countries, but schools in California are suffering from ever tighter budgets, forcing cuts to programs that are deemed expendable. Often these are disciplines like art and music which have a far lower priority than English, math or science. Some schools are lucky enough to have parent-teacher associations which provide funding for such programs, others don’t fare so well. You can imagine that if art and music classes are on the chopping block, anything related to plants—like horticulture or landscape design—must be even lower on the totem pole.

Greenhouse at Woodland High School

My friend Sue, whose garden I profiled in this piece, has been volunteering at Woodland High School (WHS) in the nearby town of Woodland for over a year. Woodland High has commercial greenhouse facilities that had fallen into disuse after its horticulture program was cut. Working with Eric Dyer, the chair of the WHS agriculture department, Sue has breathed new life into the greenhouse and, with the help of student volunteers, has started to propagate succulents and other plants. The goal is to raise money at plant sales and farmers markets to offer more plant-related extracurricular activities for students.

Blue jacaranda sighting in Davis

2013-05-13T17:46:00.000-07:00

Every year in mid-May there’s a spellbinding sight not far from our house. Yesterday I grabbed my camera to capture this fleeting beauty.

Planted in front of a nondescript apartment building is a blue jacaranda tree (Jacaranda mimosifolia) and it’s in full flower.

Weekend potpourri

2013-05-12T16:53:00.001-07:00

The weather this past weekend was a preview of what summer will be like: 70°F by 10am and low 90s mid-afternoon. Luckily our humidity is low, but I still don’t enjoy working in the heat so I got up early to get some work done around the yard.

A week and a half ago I’d bought a tray full of 4-inch plants at Morningsun Herb Farm in Vacaville, 20 minutes west of here.

Plants from Morningsun Herb Farm

I planted most of these last weekend and the remainder went in the ground on Saturday.

Plants from Morningsun Herb Farm

The front yard in May

2013-05-09T12:26:00.001-07:00

It’s been a while since I did an overview of the front yard. This is a good time because everything is actively growing.

The patio is home to many potted succulents. I’m trying to consolidate—and not replace the ones that died during the winter—but it’s getting crowded. Still, I like the multi-layered look you get from having plants here and there and everywhere.

Covered patio

Potted plants have also popped up along the walkway that leads to the front door. The gap you see is just wide enough for the lawnmower :-).

Succulent bed next to front door

The view you see as you enter the front yard from the driveway

Two first-time bloomers

2013-05-07T11:56:00.001-07:00

I’m excited because two plants that have never flowered in our garden are blooming now.

The first is an Australian cordyline (Cordyline australis), one of two in our backyard. Check this post for background info and photos.

Cordyline australis

Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society 2013 show entries

2013-05-07T07:43:00.000-07:00

Building on yesterday’s coverage of the 2013 Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society show and sale, this post will show you some of the many plants members entered in the juried show. While it is true that the winners of the top prizes are likely to be either rare species and/or mature specimens, other entries were fairly common and/or juvenile plants. This realization was somewhat comforting for me; it means that I will be able to enter next year without fretting too much about not having an array of rarities to choose from.

Above all, though, the entries must be perfectly clean and immaculate. No debris caught between the leaves, no brown parts, no cobwebs. Just like dogs get groomed before a show, so do succulents. I wonder if anybody makes a shampoo and rinse for succulents?

Here are some of the winners as well as other plants and arrangements I found particularly interesting.

Class winners

Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society 2013 show and sale recap

2013-05-05T16:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend (May 4 and 5, 2013) is the Sacramento Cactus & Succulent Society’s 53rd annual show and sale. It is being held at Shepard Garden and Arts Center adjacent to McKinley Park. For more information, go to the SCSS web site.

To whet your appetite—or to show you what you missed—here are some photos I took yesterday (Saturday). Be sure to click each photo to see a large version.

First wave of cactus flowers, 2013 edition

2013-05-03T17:58:00.001-07:00

A few days ago I showed you some cacti that are currently in bloom at the UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. While my cactus collection is nothing compared to theirs, this is the season for cactus flowers so if you have even just a dozen plants, chances are one or more blooming now. Here’s what’s flowering in my garden right now.

PARODIA UEBELMANNIA

The flowers of Parodia uebelmannia are so brilliant, it almost hurts your eyes. I actually reduced the saturation a little in these photos because they looked too unreal. My specimen is only about 4” across and its body is all but invisible when you look at it from above.

Echium × ‘Mr Happy’ spindly but a-blooming

2013-05-01T12:20:00.001-07:00

A few years ago we had a tower of jewels (Echium wildpretii) blooming in our front yard. It produced copious amounts of seeds, and two of those seedlings are growing outside our front yard fence. Since this is their 2nd year, I expected them to bloom this spring but it looks like they’ll wait another year. (Echium wildprettii is a biennial, i.e. it flowers in its second year, sets seeds and then dies.)

However, not all is quiet on the echium front. My Echium × ‘Mr Happy’, purchased in February 2012 at Annie’s Annuals, is a-blooming. According to Annie’s, this “incredibly rare hybrid of Echium wildprettii & E. pininana” has the potential to reach “an impressive 15’ tall & 20” across, with a 3’ bulbous base.”

As you will see below, my specimen is much less “studly” and lacks the “bulbous base” altogether. But at least it’s full of flowers that are irresistible to bees.

4” plants at Annie’s Annuals

March 30, 2013

What’s blooming at UC Botanical Garden?

2013-04-30T18:05:00.001-07:00

After I was done at the UC Botanical spring plant sale, I walked over to my favorite areas in the garden, the New World Desert and the Southern African Collection.

Somebody had told me that the puyas were in bloom. “In bloom” turned out to be a bit of an exaggeration but they are definitely starting. Unfortunately, the most impressive puya of them all, Puya berteroniana, wasn’t flowering yet, but the massive clump of Puya venusta on the edge of the New World Desert had quite a few flower spikes.

Puya venusta

UC Botanical Garden 2013 spring plant sale

2013-04-29T14:16:00.001-07:00

Last Saturday I did something I’d been wanting to do for a long time: I attended a plant sale at UC Botanical Garden in Berkeley. As an on-again, off-again member and somewhat regular visitor (if once or twice a year counts) I’m fairly familiar with their collections and I know that many of their plants are unusual and rare. Not surprisingly, quite a few plants propagated from UCBG stock make it into their plant sales—which, I might add, are legendary in Northern California gardening circles.

Succulents lined up along the walkway

Ruth Bancroft Garden 2013 spring plant sale

2013-04-26T12:59:00.000-07:00

A couple of weekends ago I attended the spring plant sale at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA. If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, you know that this is one of my favorite public gardens in Northern California and that I try to go to every one of their sales. Not only is it great fun to browse hundreds upon hundreds of fantastic plants, many of them rare or brand-new introductions, it’s also a great opportunity to spend some time checking out what’s new in the garden or visiting old “friends.”

I could spend all day walking through the Ruth Bancroft Garden

In fact, the sale tables are scattered throughout the garden, so by the time you’ve looked at all of them you’ve walked through a large part of the garden. I like to bring our old Red Flyer wagon so I don’t have to hand-carry my plant picks as I explore and photograph.

Aloes in bloom

Manzanitas in bloom

2013-04-24T17:47:00.001-07:00

The botanical highlight of our recent visit to my parents-in-law in Mount Shasta was seeing the manzanitas in bloom. In Mount Shasta manzanitas are everywhere. I don’t think many homeowners plant them; they’re just part of the natural landscape.

With their evergreen leaves and their contorted trunks and branches, which vary from a rich reddish brown to a purplish black, manzanitas are attractive year round. In the spring, however, their beauty peaks when bell-shaped flowers ranging from white to pink erupt in dense clusters.

Terra Sol Garden Center, Santa Barbara

2013-04-23T18:25:00.001-07:00

On our recent spring break trip to Santa Barbara I managed to squeeze in a visit to a nursery that came highly recommended: Terra Sol Garden Center. As it turned out, it was only a couple of miles from our hotel. It’s not a big nursery but the second I pulled into the parking lot, I realized that I wasn’t in Kansas anymore (or, in my case, Davis). Our nurseries just don’t have displays of bougainvillea out front!

The photos in this post show plants that are unusual or exotic in one form or another. Terra Sol also has most of the basic nursery staples—flowering annuals, plenty of veggies, bagged soil, fertilizer, etc.—but I decided to skip those.

View from the parking lot

Talavera pottery

Of avocados and agaves

2013-04-22T12:12:00.001-07:00

On our way home from our visit to Santa Barbara, we decided to do some exploring in the hinterland of northwestern Ventura County. According to Wikipedia:

North of Highway 126, the county is mountainous and mostly uninhabited, and contains some of the most unspoiled, rugged and inaccessible wilderness remaining in southern California.

I love backroads, and State Route (SR) 33 crosses an area neither I nor my wife had ever been to before.

Map of our route from Santa Barbara to I-5

The initial stretch of Highway 33 beginning in the town of Ventura is called the “Ojai Freeway.” This is a bit of an exaggeration since this is a fairly windy country road that isn’t particularly fast. It quickly begins to climb into the hills where we found our first surprise: avocado orchards!

Avocado orchard along the Ojai Freeway

Ganna Walska Lotusland 5

2013-04-19T08:42:00.000-07:00

← Ganna Walka Lotusland 4

CACTUS GARDEN

The last garden I visited at Lotusland is also the last one that was installed. Its beginnings, however, go back many decades. Cactus aficionado Merritt Sigsbee Dunlap started his collection in 1929 and in 1966 promised it to Madame Walska, whom he had known since the 1940s. It was finally donated to Lotusland in 1999, 15 years after Madame’s death, but due to a lack of funds and the sheer size of the collection – 530 specimens from over 300 species – it took another few years before the new Cactus Garden was finally unveiled. Merritt Dunlap attended the 2003 opening and in the same year celebrated his 97th birthday in the Cactus Garden. He is said to have been very proud of how it turned out.

Entrance to the Cactus Garden

Ganna Walska Lotusland 4

2013-04-18T16:47:00.000-07:00

← Ganna Walka Lotusland 3

WATER GARDEN

If I had to pick out my favorite spot in all of Lotusland, this might be it. There is something so peaceful and serene, and it’s achingly beautiful. If I were a plein air painter, this is where I would want to set up my easel and paint away until the light begins to fade.

What is now the Water Garden once was the swimming pool of the estate’s second owners, the Gavit family. It was built in 1925; the pool house was designed by George Washington Smith, a leading proponent of the Spanish Colonial Revival style that gives much of Santa Barbara its distinctive look. Ganna Walska transformed the swimming pool into a pond and stocked it with Asian lotus, the inspiration for the name “Lotusland.” According to our docent, the Water Garden is a riot of color in the summer when the lotus start to bloom.

Lotus pond and pool house

Closer view of pool house; notice the pride of Madeira (Echium candicans) in bloom

Ganna Walska Lotusland 3

2013-04-17T16:46:00.000-07:00

← Ganna Walka Lotusland 2

ALOE GARDEN

The Aloe Garden was started in the 1950s and today features almost 200 different aloe species, including many tree aloes which have reached impressive heights. However, the first thing I noticed when entering the Aloe Garden was a wall of black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra). You don’t often see bamboo planted right next to aloes, but at Lotusland anything goes.

Black bamboo (Phyllostachys nigra) forming the border between the Japanese Garden and the Aloe Garden

Some people might think that a garden dedicated to a single genus is boring. Not so here. The genus Aloe offers far more diversity than most plant aficionados realize, and the Aloe Garden at Lotusland presents a stunning cross-section. Just take a look at the photos in this post, and you will agree!

Aloe plicatilis

Majestic valley oaks

2013-04-16T10:05:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, California’s Central Valley was full of valley oaks (Quercus lobata). The largest of the deciduous oak trees endemic to the U.S., the valley oak can grow to 100 ft. and live to 500 years. Over the past century and a half, 90% of the marshy wetlands that were once a dominant feature of the Central Valley have been transformed into drier farmland and the natural habitat of these majestic trees has all but disappeared.

Driving home from my in-laws recently, I spotted a pocket of valley oaks on a ranch near Redding. While these aren’t the methuselahs found at Micke Grove Regional Park in Lodi, they are beautiful in their own right, especially at this time of year when they sport of new coat of vibrant green leaves.