More New Succulents

Alrighty! So last night I had this great post done with photos, information and pithy commentary and when I went to view it Blogger gave me a big error sign and to make matters worse it had not auto saved!!!! Arggggh! First time I've had a problem like this and it sure taught me a lesson. From now on I will save myself and preview before I publish. I usually do that but for some reason I didn't. Maybe it had to do with the fact that it was 1:30 a.m. LOL

So let's start again! Hello happy gardeners out there! And everyone else that might be reading this. I gotta tell ya that I hope that someone is having some good weather because we are not. It is very unusual here with lots of rain and cloudy days. You know that old saying, do you think the rain will hurt the rhubarb? Well, do you think the rain will hurt the succulents! I sure hope not!

I thought I would show you some great succulents up close and personal. Most of these succulents are already cozy in pots or planters with other succulents.

Aeonium Lily Pad

This is a new aeonium I found. It is very interesting and has really thick leaves. It is a hybrid. Like a lot of aeoniums it goes dormant in the summer. It will be under 6 inches in height. It likes light shade to partial shade. It also likes to have it's feet wet. Do not let it dry out between watering.

Haworthia Limifolia
This succulent likes sun to partial shade. It gets a flower stalk on it that looks kind of like an aloe until it blooms. The flowers are white.

Now this succulent I named Shark! Look at those teeth. It is a type of aloe but I do not know the name. I hope a succulent friend out there will be able to help. Anybody?

Crassula Tetragona 'Mini Pine Tree'
This plant hails from South Africa. It will form a branching shrub and likes bright light to sun.

Senecio Kleiniiformis
This one is also from South Africa. It is great ground cover or as a filler in your garden pot. It likes bright light.

Senecio Haworthii 'Cocoon Plant'
Another plant from South Africa. The long slender leaves are actually fuzzy. It likes bright light and gets yellowish orange flowers.

Aeonium Catlin hybrid
I just love aeoniums. This is one is a beauty and grows really well. It will be about 18 inches tall in bushy clumps. The rosettes can be 6 to 8 inches across. Believe it or not these guys are dormant in the summer and grows the best in the winter. Cover in the winter and keep from frost.

I think I've tickled your fancy enough for now. So if you don't grow succulents just try integrating them in with your regular plants in pots or in the ground. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Have a great week!

It's Another Beautiful Day!

Carmichael Cactus & Succulent Society

I finally did it! After growing succulents for over 10 years I joined a local Cactus and Succulent group. It's the Carmichael affiliate of the Cactus & Succulent Society of America. I can't believe I didn't join sooner. I picked a perfect opportunity also. I found out that the group was going to have their annual Show & Sale. When I first walked in the clubhouse I was welcomed with open arms. Very wonderful people were there to greet people as they came in. And there was quite a turn out. I immediately filled out my application form and then went in the show and sale.

There were tables and tables of wonderful succulent specimen's. I couldn't stop looking around everywhere. Members of the society could bring and display some of their most prized specimen's. Each one was labeled with the name, origin and owner.

They had almost every type of succulent displayed.

Check out the beautiful lithops in the front center and left! I wish I could have taken photos of each specimen but I would have had to spend the whole weekend there! LOL

A lot of the succulents were blooming and the colors were incredible!

Check out these succulent shoes! Now that is something I never thought of before!

And who would have thought, SUCCULENT ARMY BOOTS!
So start digging in those attics and old foot lockers!

And then there was the sale. This is just a small part of it.

More plants to buy! Now I will show you some individual pics I took of some great succulents!

Haworthia Maughanii from S. Africa

Euphorbia Ammak crest. One of my favorites!

Isn't this one interesting? It's called Schizohasis intricata from S. Africa.

Just had to show you this table of beautiful succulent specimens. It starts with different agave's in the foreground.

This is a shot of me and my friend Norm. He has a home here in town with the most incredible cactus specimens I have ever seen. Hopefully the club will be able to visit his home and I will take pictures. If not he said I could go visit. I went to his home about 4 years ago and he gave me a trunk load of cuttings. Every one of them has survived and become quite huge. I showed him some pictures I brought along in a photo album. The best part of my day was him saying he was proud of me. Wow! It felt really great. He is a wonderful man and I look forward to seeing him more often.

So my visit was awesome and I made some new friends. So the first Thursday of every month you know where I will be.....at a CC&SS meeting. And to top it off I hear they have a great spread. Hee hee!

To see more photos check out my flickr photostream.

It's Another Beautiful Day

Happy Cactus Monday...Succulent BBQ

My girlfriend called me last week and told me that her neighbor was moving. She was going to have a yard sale for her and saw that she had a bunch of potted succulents. Sooooo would I be interested in coming over and taking a look.
WHAT! ME! INTERESTED!
Of course I am. Remember, I am the succulent hoarder. So I jumped in the car and within 5 minutes I was at her house. The lady was very neglectful of her plants. They were all root bound in their pots and hadn't been watered in months. I think at one time she must have loved them very much but she is down on her luck and having to move. Her backyard had weeds up to your knees and beyond with trash everywhere. It was sad.
But one treasure I did find was a little BBQ that she had made into a succulent planter. The only thing left alive was an echeveria 'black prince' and a type of sedum I don't have the name of. So I took it home and added new soil, plants and rocks and Yay!

It even has a little rack on the bottom so I can put a potted plant.
I finally got a new camera. I decided on a Olympus E-Pl2. I am having a lot of fun with it and it takes awesome shots. It has a lot of fun features also like different filters. The shot above was taken with the Pop art filter.

I planted quite a few succulents together. So hopefully they will do well together! I kept the Echeveria black prince in the middle and the unidentified sedum to the upper right hand corner. But I added (starting in front middle and going clockwise) sempervivum, Adromischus cristatus 'Key Lime Pie', Graptoveria 'Opalina', Ripple Jade Crassula, Crassula platyphylla 'burgundy', Aloe variegata 'Partridge Breast', Kalanchoe millotii, Crassula Clavata and Haworthia Scabra.

We had a really freaky lightening and thunder storm yesterday. And then it hailed like crazy. I went outside and checked out my succulents today and a lot of them have damage. Not too bad but weird spots and dents all over them. They will come back.

Hope everyone has a great week! Happy Cactus Monday!

It's Another Beautiful Day!

I have been a busy girl!

First of all I sure hope that you all had a fabulous Mother's day. I sure did and was spoiled rotten. I love it and my family so much. I woke up and both my boys (22 and 24) ran upstairs and asked what I wanted for breakfast. Then I got breakfast in bed. Wow! When I came downstairs I found all kind of flowers, cards and a really awesome gardening seat. It called the The Garden Rocker Comfort Seat. It is so incredible. I have already used it outside and it is crazy convenient. I can swivel side to side, lean forward without hurting my back and spin in a circle if I need to. I ordered a padded seat to go with it.
Then Stan said there was a second surprise. WHAT? He took me out front and to the side of the house where the gate is. And he had gotten up early and dug up these two huge plants (I have no idea what they are called) that have been in the ground for 15 years. That is how long we have lived at our house. So now I have another area to make a succulent bed in the front. I also have the area where the giant optunia fell this spring. It is completely gone now and I am looking for succulents to plant. I don't have pics of the spots yet but will soon.
The rest of the day was BBQ with family and then in the evening the Sunday night kids came and brought me cards and a Baskin Robbins cake shaped like a cute pink purse! Yummo!

I have been crazy busy in the yard. Planting, trimming and re-potting plants. I have taken lots of cuttings and let the ends harden over and am using them to fill in spots in my front and side gate planters.

This Red Yucca is just waiting to be planted!

I bought this plant last year but I have no idea what the name is. I did find it on someone's photostream at one time but darn if I forgot where I put the name. Gotta keep looking but if anyone knows the name I sure would like to know!

I planted my ceramic turtle! I put Euphorbia 'red wing', in the center, on the right is Kalanchoe longiflora coccinia, left is Aeonium 'catlin hybrid' and in front is Senecio citriformis.

I have so many plants to show you but can't with each post. I'll show you more in a couple of days.

Remember:

It's Another Beautiful Day

I am a Succulent Hoarder!

So this is a true story. Sunday was a gorgeous day here in Roseville and I was outside in the backyard planting and rearranging succulents. Jordan came out with his friend and said hey why don't we sit for a while under the gazebo. His friend stood there for a minute looking around and said to me, "Mom, you are a succulent hoarder!" All three of us started laughing so hard. By the way all his friends call me Mom. I told him yes I admit it I am. But at least you can walk around and admire my hoarding! So funny!

I'm not sure if I made a mistake or not. I planted fire stick in the back and sedum donkey tail in the front. I am afraid that the sedum is going to get so long you won't be able to see the cool fish. I can always put in something else. What do you think?

Crassula arborescens 'Silver Dollar Jade'

I think this plant looks pretty cool in this pot. The red edges of the plant go with the pot and the gravel compliments the same color stripe also.

Believe it or not under this mass of echeveria's is a 1/2 of a wine barrel. A couple of year's ago Stan got me two of these and put sturdy wheels on the bottom. In this one I thought I would have an echeveria bed. But this one echeveria (don't know the name) was so big and aggressive that it overtook the other ones. I dug them up and planted them somewhere else. If you look closely everyone of these plants is blooming right now. I wish the color of the blooms stood out more but they are a pale yellow color.

All the kalanchoe plants are blooming right now. I put these two together in the same urn pot. I like these pots because it's like they are sitting up on a stand.

So I know that it doesn't show you much of my hoard. LOL! But I'll be posting more pics soon.

It's Another Beautiful Day!