There has been one particular area in my garden that has bugged me for quite some time now. It is a highly visible spot that receives a lot of sun year round and is occupied by some of my favorite plants. Lately, in an effort to further meet the water restrictions the drought in California has imposed,…
It is not very often that we get cloudy days like most have been this week. In fact, statistically there are 258 sunny days per year in Vista, California, where I live. Thirty-five days per year are what they call precipitation days. These infrequent cloudy days can prove beneficial, as it is the best time to photograph boutique agaves…
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog post showing off a bunch of my larger aloes that were in bloom. I mostly included the stem-forming varieties along with a few larger, non-stem-forming types. This week I will show some of my small aloes that were in flower around the same time. When growing dwarf or…
One of the things that I really enjoying doing is helping people with their landscape planning or updating. While I have neither the time nor interest to manage full landscape projects past my own yard, I do offer help with landscape and plant consultation. The overwhelming majority of new landscapes that are put in on a new Southern Californian tract…
While aloes have been planted in Mediterranean climate gardens for centuries now, they have started to explode in both abundance and variety thanks in part to homeowners’ desire to plant more water-wise plants in their gardens. Here in Southern California we have seen water shortages lead to large water rate increases. With the current drought showing…
I have had another first in the garden. To my surprise, a few of my Lithrops have decided to flower. Now, to be fair, I did only just plant them last spring so I have a few more years to go to see if they will be happy in the long term. However, just seeing a flower coming…
Cotyledon orbiculata (Pig’s Ear) is a popular South African succulent that many people in Mediterranean climates grow. Its popularity continues to grow thanks to more water-conscious gardeners incorporating it into their landscapes. Even though these plants do great with minimal water, I have found that they can handle more water than the blogosphere would have you believe. One of my Cotyledon orbiculata is planted…
Walking around the garden on this beautiful Southern California day I noticed that it is cycad flushing season again. While cycads can flush anytime of the year, it is usually during the summer that the majority of my plants flush or cone. When you consider the only major changes you can see in a cycad…