Spring starts for me this year at the Fallbrook Garden Club in north San Diego County on Feb. 24. Guests are welcome, and all attendees will receive a gift plant courtesy of nearby Serra Gardens Nursery. I’ll show photos of beautifully designed gardens and do a show-and-tell of outstanding succulents from Serra. Among them are:
Echeveria agavoides ‘Lipstick’. Shown close-up in the first photo and also combined with other succulents in pots in Jeanne Meadow’s Fallbrook garden, this is an echeveria unfazed by hot sun. In fact, the more it gets, the redder the leaf edges become. I love it’s crisp symmetry, don’t you?
Echeveria ‘Cante’ — This chalky white succulent is a show-stopper and prized by collectors. It’s tempting to touch it, but try to resist. Once the powder has been rubbed off the leaves, there’s no putting it back.
Kalanchoe fedtschenkoi. Beautifully in bloom in February, this bryophyllum-type kalanchoe produces dainty parasols of lantern-like coral blooms above scalloped leaves.
Aeonium ‘Garnet’. A cultivar that glows, when backlit by the sun, like the jewel it was named after. A lovely succulent for pots or garden beds.
Bulbine frutescens. The yellow-flowered variety is in this photo, but the one that I’ll be showing at the meeting is even prettier: ‘Hallmark’, an orange variety with gray-green leaves. It blooms repeatedly throughout the year, adding lovely, lacy texture to the garden.
Crassula ovata ‘Gollum’. You can see how this type of jade got its name—the character in Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” has suction-cup toes.Serra Gardens will have these and more for sale at the meeting. The nursery is owned by premier succulent horticulturist Don Newcomer, about whom I made a YouTube video and wrote an earlier Gardening Gone Wild blog post. Don’s nursery also sells mail-order.
Award-winning garden photojournalist Debra Lee Baldwin authored Designing with Succulents, Succulent Container Gardens, and Succulents Simplified, all Timber Press bestsellers. Her goal is to enhance others' enjoyment and awareness of waterwise plants and gardens by showcasing the beauty and design potential of succulents via books, articles, newsletters, photos, videos, social media and more. Debra and husband Jeff live in the foothills north of San Diego. She grew up in Southern California on an avocado ranch, speaks conversational Spanish, and at age 18 graduated magna cum laude from USIU with a degree in English Literature. Her hobbies include thrifting, birding and watercolor painting. Debra's YouTube channel has had over 3,000,000 views.
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