Never mind how practical they are for waterwise gardens, what we really love about succulents is how they LOOK. The eye simply revels in symmetry, and no category of plants do it better. So, of all the succulents that are symmetrical, which are over the top? These are from my latest YouTube release, “Favorite Scenes from the Succulent [...]
I’m going to miss my toothy Agave potatorum, shown here beginning to form a bloom spike. When an agave flowers, it is not a happy event, unless you’ve been waiting forever to collect its offspring. Agaves are monocarpic, meaning they die after flowering. Agave americana, the most common agave in the Southwest, has the common name “century plant” because it [...]
Succulent enthusiasts flock to the annual Cactus & Succulent Society Show at the Los Angeles Arboretum mid-August. It’s the largest of its kind in the US. Judges award ribbons and trophies based on how well a specimen is grown, its rarity, and how well it’s “staged” in its pot. Pots aren’t merely containers, they’re works [...]
I’ve gone from disliking thorny-edged agaves to loving them, because their leaves have embossed patterns that are fun to hunt for. I used to overlook such shadow lines. Now, the spikier the agave and the more wickedly fanged, the more I lean in for a closer look. Finding shadow lines is like getting a plant [...]