Garden designer Bonnie Barabas was the winner of the one-on-one succulent potting workshop in my giveaway here on GGW to celebrate the release of my latest book, Succulents Simplified. Bonnie drove to Escondido from Santa Barbara recently to meet me at Oasis Water Efficient Gardens nursery near my home, bringing with her several containers to [...]
If leaves pop off a succulent readily, that’s a clue that those leaves probably are capable of generating roots and new little plants. Like these of Sedum rubrotinctum ‘Aurora’. Notice how the original leaf has wrinkled as its life-giving fluids have gone into leaf and root production? I love the beadlike quality of the new [...]
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 [...]
What comes first for you, the plant or the pot? For me it’s usually the pot. When a friend presents me with a special pot, it’s a given that I’ll plant it with succulents. But I don’t always know what will look good in it. So I ask the pot what it wants. I take [...]
Shadows are as much a part of a Southern California summer as sunshine itself. These play with the imagination like a midsummer day’s dream. Above: Flowers of a columnar euphorbia. Above: Aloe flower and stair rail. Above: Gazania bloom. Above: Cyphostemma buds and leaf. Above: A garden chair seat. Above: Pilosocereus pachycladus. Above: Echeveria agavoides. [...]