Seriously.  Like, what's the point of cacti?  They're spiny and poke you.

What's that?  They're not all spiny?  Some species of rebutia won't poke me at all?

Okay.  Well, cacti are boring, though.  They're all the same color--this super drab green that--

What?  They come in a ton of different colors?  Well, surely not pink or purple.

Both pink and purple??  Um.  Well, they'd hate my climate.  It's redwoody and kind of moist in the air, and most other succulents are fine, but cacti wouldn't like it.  I just--

What do you mean they're "versatile?"  And that they're even more frost-resistant than most other kinds of succulents?  Are you being serious?

You are.  Geez.  Okay, fine--twist my arm--I'll get a few cacti and plant them with some crassula and a baby agave.  If I have to.

For the record, I do not consider myself a "cactus person," but there are definitely a few I can't resist--sulcorebutia rauschii chief among them.  How did this happen?

I met a friend for lunch at the Stanford Arizona Garden today--a much-needed respite from a stressful past couple weeks!  I know I posted some pics back in February, but it's springtime now and looking amazing.  Here are a few shots I snapped.  Enjoy!

I was stressed out today, because I recently turned in an application for a job I'm really excited about.  At the same time, if I got it, it would entail some big changes for next year.  And in general--though the events of my life might suggest otherwise--I am not change's biggest fan.

So when I found myself just a mile and a half from the Gamble Garden in Palo Alto today, I had to pop in.  I looked at plants, took some pictures, and cleared away dead leaves.  It was nice there, peaceful and uncrowded, and I returned to my day with a slight reduction in stress.

Here are some pictures from my little afternoon visit.  Enjoy!

I was just looking at my last wish list post, and I realized that I'm 3 for 4!  Since posting that, I've added two small aeonium tabuliformes, two small blue flame agaves (one variegated, one not), and a haworthia truncata (pictured left), which has been thriving in my house for over two months now.  (Is that not one of THE most gorgeous truncatas you've ever seen?  Daaaayum.)

But--and I know I'm not alone here--the more I learn about succulents, the longer my wish list becomes!  Right now, there seem to be a lot of agaves on it, so I thought I'd just list all these drool-worthy agaves in a single post. 

Are any of these on your lists?  What's your favorite agave?

As I'm sure some of you have experienced, succulent-ing can be a rough addic--er--hobby when you're on a budget.  I've particularly been loving haworthia lately, and what's a succ-er to do when she's lusting after plants that cost half her monthly food budget?  (I'm looking at you, Haworthia maughanii!  And you, variegated truncata!)

She grows from seeds, of course!  Some of these seeds are rather expensive themselves, but still nothing compared to full-grown plants.  (I think the most I paid was $10 plus shipping for 10 seeds.  And I really hope my girlfriend isn't reading this.)

So the excitement began.  Here's a snapshot of the little table outside our house where I do my planting:

Round 1 was a bust.  A big, fat, hairy failure of a bust.  Why, you ask?  Well, I read that for haworthia seedlings, you should sprinkle sand over the top after planting them in a thin layer of dirt.  The sand shades the tiniest seedlings and ensures drainage.  Sounds reasonable.

But why pay $6/bag for sand?  Clever girl that I am, I simply drove to the nearest beach, scooped a cup of the dry stuff into a plastic bag, and drove home (no doubt smug with confidence that I'd fooled the "system").

Well, nothing grew.  So I waited.  Still nothing grew.  Two weeks passed.  Give it time, I thought.  Succulent seeds can take a month or more to sprout. 

Two more weeks passed.  Nothing.  It was a little odd that none of the eight kinds of succulent seeds had germinated, but meanwhile, I set about other gardening tasks, which included figuring out how to get rid of the weeds that sprouted after the winter rains.  One site I read suggested using salt.  Salt, apparently, is poison for plants. 

Waaaaait a minute, I thought.  Salt = plant poison.  Beaches = salt.  So does beach sand = plant poison?!  ACK!

Well, the one wise thing I did while inadvertently poisoning my little seeds was not to plant ALL of the haworthia at once (though I did lose all my echeveria cante seeds and kalanchoe thrysiflora seeds, but those are more easily replaced).

So I tried again in mid-March, eschewing sand altogether this time, and planting in a container with half-inch squares for the seeds (too small, maybe?). 

In just two weeks, the glories of germination began to rain upon me!  Haworthia truncata seedlings!  Lithops seedlings!  And even one Agave Victoria reginae seedling!  (The AVR one is not as exciting as it sounds, since I planted five and only one germinated, but given my track record, any success thrills me at this point.)

At left, you can see a close-up of my seedlings being awesome little babies.  I ordered a few more kinds of seeds from a different source (Haworthia bayeri and Haworthia maughanii--wheeeee!), and intend to plant those later this month.

Meanwhile, though, I have had ZERO luck getting echeveria seeds to germinate.  (One of the dudes I got seed from threw in a zillion and a half echeveria afterglow seeds.)  They're just lurking beneath the soil, mocking me and refusing to grow.  So: have any of you succ-ers had any luck growing echeveria from seed?  What technique(s) have you used? 

OMG, I love spring SO much!