Born and raised in India and now living in San Diego, my friend Manju Raj combines a love of the ornate and colorful with an appreciation of the colors and symmetry of succulents. Recently Manju began making succulent-inspired jewelry. I knew GGW’s readers would enjoy seeing out-of-the-ordinary, garden-inspired earrings and pendants, so I posed a [...]
I had some fun recently selecting glazes for pots for succulents. The pots are by Mark Rafter (marktrafter@gmail.com); I chose the plants and potted them up. What do you think? For information on obtaining these and other pots by Mark Rafter, contact him at marktrafter@gmail.com.
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 [...]
At the Laguna Beach Garden Club recently, a young woman came to the book-signing table, introduced herself, and invited me to a nearby nursery where she works. I took her up on it mainly to see the succulents, and didn’t expect such an impressive array of pots. Big ones, little ones, vivid ones, pale ones, [...]
The Succulent Extravaganza at Succulent Gardens nursery near San Francisco was an opportunity to connect with old friends and make new ones. I gave two presentations and was busy signing books, but I didn’t forget my dear friends at GGW. Here are a few highlights I hope you’ll enjoy. Photo of me by Rebecca Sweet. [...]