Blog Archives

Highlights from "5-day Photo Challenge" (or whatever it was called)

8/27/2015

On Facebook, something called the "Gardeners' Photo Challenge" has been making the rounds. The idea was to post five plant photos per day from your garden, for five days in a row. I thought I'd share some of my own favorite contributions here.

Crassula tomentosa. Believe it or not, this is actually from a cutting I took just two months ago. It's very well-rooted already. Why aren't tomentosas more popular in the US?

Crassula pseudohemisphaerica. This is a rarity. I keep it under a shade structure during the summer. Extremely slow-growing and apparently not much of an offsetter.

I love the feathery texture of this haworthia.

Echinopsis cv. "Haku jo"

Uebelmannia pectinifera, native to Brazil (and endangered).

Variegated echeveria purpusorum. One of my very favorite plants; I almost never see these.

A haworthia, but I can't remember what kind.

Another haworthia, pupping out like a BOSS.

As regular readers of this blog know, I am obsessed with rare crassulas. This crassula alstonii is one of my very favorites. I am constantly unsure whether I'm taking proper care of it, but it seems pretty happy in this clay pebbles/soil/perlite cocktail.

Echeveria laui. Gorgeous, native to Oaxaca, Mexico, and virtually impossible (for me, anyway) to propagate from leaves.

A beautifully variegated agave parryi v. truncata that I got at the Ruth Bancroft Garden. It thrives in full sun.

Digitized succulents for your artificial enjoyment

8/26/2015

A few friends have posted on my Facebook page about a new video game, the purpose of which is to "take care of" fake electronic succulents. You can check it out here. (And lest you think you're off the hook, you can kill these digital plants by overwatering, too.)

Has anyone played this? It's kind of like that tamagotchi phenomenon, where people take care of electronic pets. I find this kind of thing half bizarre and half hilarious.

Banana slugs are less cute when they're on my crassulas.

8/18/2015

In general, I like banana slugs (or at least, I like them a lot better than other slugs). They remind me that I live in the redwoods, they provide UC Santa Cruz with a delightful mascot, and they add color to the backyard. I never find them on my succulents... until the other day, when I found not one, but two, of them conspiring to eat my crassula deceptor and my crassula columnella.

While it was admittedly a little gross to pick them off, at least they were unsubtle in their advances. I'll take these guys over mealy bugs any day of the week.