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Exploring the Morrill Greenhouses at UMass Amherst

5/16/2017

 
True, I have moved to Zone 5.  True, Zone 5 is often freezing cold and holds a possibility of snowing seven months out of the year.  True, the first snow this fall was in October and the most recent was April 1.  But that doesn't mean I never get to see succulents outside of my abode, thank goodness.

It might not be Stanford's Arizona Garden, but the Morrill Greenhouses at UMass Amherst are just a short walk from my office and house some really cool plants.  Last month when I was lamenting the cold weather, I took a walk across campus to the Peet's (we have Peet's here!), got a cup of coffee, and spent some quality time in the greenhouses.  It's not an enormous collection, but it's a rather nice, well-labeled, and thoughtfully-curated one.  (I love saying that things are "thoughtfully curated," because it makes it seem as if I have a refined and generous aesthetic).  Anyhow, observe:
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...Pretty cool, right?  Especially those echeveria lutea (that's the oddly-shaped, thin-leaved echeveria that looks as if its leaves were outlined in white.

Stay tuned as I share more of my Zone 5 environs with you. It may take a little more work to find the plants I love, but I'm up for the challenge and I'll be sharing it with you every step of the way.  It's so good to be back on Gardening Succs, my dear succ-ers!

Post-Rain Photos

9/21/2014

 
Fall has descended on Northern California, and recently we had the rain to prove it.  Although this marks the inception of my annual worry that my succulents are going to get too much water outside (which precedes my annual worry that my succulents will freeze, or else get terribly leggy indoors), I have to admit that they look absolutely gorgeous after a rain.  Here are some of my favorites:
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Droplets on a web connecting a gasteria glomerata (upper left), an agave pumila (lower left), and a variegated astrophytum
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Echeveria Perle von Nurnberg
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Echeveria minima
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An absurdly gorgeous variegated echeveria purpusorum that I purchased from Renny Hosogai. It just looks marvelous with these droplets, don't you think?
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Haworthia truncata. Admittedly, you can't really tell that this one's even wet, but I wanted to show off my truncata.
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Agave potatorum "kissho kan" with really unusual variegation
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Echeveria gorgeousana (just kidding; I made that up because I don't know the name... but you've got to admit it's apt)
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Small, crested myrtillocactus geometrizans. A spider has taken up residence on it and spins all kinds of webs that I'm always brushing off. But this time I didn't, and the rain adhered to the web beautifully.
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Echeveria "blue heron"
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Agave "excelsior," which I found last year at Berkeley Dry Garden--I think it's one kind of variegated agave parryi (can anyone confirm?)
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Sempervivum "moss rose"
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This was sold to me as a mammillaria parkinsonii, but the spines seem awfully big. I love how the rain makes them glisten.
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Echeveria peacockii
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Unknown echeveria coming back after a beheading a few months ago; crassula deceptor at the lower right
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Agave potatorum "kissho kan" (bigger than the other one, and with regular variegation)

Addicted to Propagation!  And Growing from Seed!

8/6/2014

 
As regular readers of Gardening Succs are no doubt aware, I have developed quite an affinity for the stacked crassulas--the chunkier and rarer, the better.  I have also developed an addictio--er--an affinity for propagation.  The natural marriage of these two affinities has resulted, perhaps unsurprisingly, in the following:
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From left to right, the rows are: (1) c. deceptor; (2) c. deceptor; (3) c. columella; (4) c. marchandii; (5) half c. barklyi and half c. moonglow; (6) c. emerald; (7) a "catch-all" row that includes c. hirtipes, c. ivory pagoda, c. coralita, and a couple of others; (8) c. deltoides and c. namaquensis.  I used a mix of half organic potting soil and half dry stall (aka pumice), since this simple soil cocktail has done me well in the past.

I would love to propagate larger cuttings, but for many of these (especially c. barklyi, which I love but can't find in the US--can anyone help me?!?), I only have one or two tiny little plants from which to take tiny little cuttings.  In some cases (e.g., c. namaquensis), I've basically decimated my only plant in the hopes of propagating more.

Why, you might ask, am I propagating these stacked crassulas?  Am I hoping to start my own nursery?  Sell online?  Guerilla garden stacked crassulas up and down the California coast in the hopes that they'll overtake our ubiquitous ice plant?  The answer, of course, is that I have no idea.  I am propagating these plants because I really, really like them, and I want to get good at propagation for reasons that elude even me.  Such are the mysteries of the human mind. 
I've also been growing from seed again.  As you might recall, I had moderate success last year with growing haworthias from seed.  (I'll post pics of those sometime.)  I decided to try again with a variety of types, and using techniques I learned from this fabulous book.  I had no luck with crassulas and little with agaves and echeverias.  However, after a few months, some types were doing well enough to transplant, as you can see in the picture to the right.  Various mammillarias look good, as do haworthias.  I am also excited about the astrophytums, which are in the center row in this pic.  I've had two astrophytums in the past, 50% of which perished under my care, so I'm interested to see if I can keep these alive.
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Ruth Bancroft Visit: Photos, Round 2

5/14/2014

 
I'm not going to pretend that my photos are as cool as Liz's, but I thought I'd share them nonetheless.  (And, hey, not bad for iPhone photos, eh?)  The Ruth Bancroft Garden is also featured, I just discovered, in a book that came out less than a year ago: Succulent Paradise.

Let's start with a few agaves, shall we?
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I went wild for this variegated agave parryi, which I *think* is synonymous with agave "excelsior." Can anyone confirm this? It was sprouting about a dozen pups! I only hope my excelsior will eventually do the same...
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Can someone please ID this for me?
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A baby agave victoria-reginae, nestled among rocks
Next, a few aloes.  It's tough to capture the grandeur of the aloes here.  There were really some amazing specimens, including huge aloe nobilis and aloe striata, of which I have no decent pictures.  My favorite aloe, though, was the one immediately below this text, and to the right.
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As regular readers of this blog are already aware, I am a bit of a haworthia geek.  I may or may not have squealed aloud with glee when I saw a whole bunch of gorgeous haworthia truncata of various types, shades, and sizes growing among the rocks in a shaded area.  Observe:
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This was the largest cluster. Nice, thick windows and lime-green coloration.
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Haworthia are so cool in "wild" settings.
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Also a truncata, but so different!
Although I wasn't always the world's biggest gasteria fan, I have to admit that they've grown on me more and more...  particularly en masse and variegated!
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And sempervivums (doesn't it seem like it should be "semperviva?") abounded:
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A veritable carpet of cobwebbed semps!
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This was labeled as an echeveria, which it is not.
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Scout, my succulent mutt and constant companion, looks up at me, ready for a water break.
Can we talk about terrestrial bromeliads for a moment?  ...Actually, I don't have much to say about them; I just love the phrase "terrestrial bromeliad"--though these dyckia look extraterrestrial to me.  I love the combinations of purples and greens.
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Onto echeverias.  Like (nearly) everything else in the Ruth Bancroft Garden, most of the echeverias weren't labeled.  Ruth Bancroft (who is alive and kicking at over 100 years old!) doesn't like the way labels can detract from plants in a garden, which I can understand.
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This echeveria was arrested during our visit because its colors were disturbing the peace.
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Echeveria "Wham-Ka-Zaam." (I am sufficiently chagrined by my inability to name everything that I have started making names up.)
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Okay, okay, echeverias. We GET it--you're gorgeous. But why do you have to keep flaunting it with your parades and your rainbow of colors?
Last but not least...  cacti!  The RBG is home to dozens, maybe hundreds, of cacti varieties.  It's a great time to visit the garden, because many of them are in bloom right now.  A few favorites:
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I believe that this is a silver torch cactus (Cleistocactus strausii). My mom pointed out that it looks like a fuzzy little bird from this angle!
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Mammilaria matudae (I think), waiting to get big enough that it can flop over and prowl the ground.
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Ferocactus something, I bet. (Hey, I never promised you a cactus garden.)
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A spectacular bloom!
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More spectacular blooms!
Bottom line: if you're anywhere in Northern California, it's worth the drive to Walnut Creek to check out the Ruth Bancroft Garden!  (Especially if you're meeting your awesome parents for sushi.)  And be sure to check out their nursery, too--they had several hard-to-find plants at pretty reasonable prices.  Ta ta for now, succ-ers!

Ruth Bancroft Garden Visit...  Photos, Round 1

5/12/2014

 
My partner, Liz, and I spent Saturday celebrating Mothers' Day with my parents at the Ruth Bancroft Garden in Walnut Creek, CA.  The RBG was even better than I expected, in part because they allow dogs AND have tables that make picnicking easy.  My parents picked up sushi for the picnic 'cause that's how we roll.  (Get it?  Sushi?  Roll?  Hahaha.)  We had a great time, enjoying the gardens and the nursery, where my mom and I each picked up a mangave bloodspot for $8. 

I need to cull through my own photos and will post those in a few days, but meanwhile I wanted to share Liz's, which I thought were absolutely amazing.  Here's a tiny fraction of 'em:

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Echeveria agavoides
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The colors on this aloe were just breathtaking!
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Cactus buds (silver torch?)
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Mammilaria buds
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Echeveria flowers
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Euphorbia obesa. Possibly my favorite of Liz's photos from the day. I want to frame this and put it on our wall!
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Echeveria subrigada, which I always thought was pronounced "sub-ree-GAW-duh," but then someone at RBG pronounced it "sub-RIDGE-uh-duh," which sounded like it was probably correct. Anyone want to weigh in?
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Unknown cactus buds. I love the color and detail.
All in all, the RBG was more than worth the 90-minute drive from our house.  And thanks to my parents' b-day present to me, I can get in for free all year as a member!  Yay!  Can't wait to go back.  I'll share some of my own photography from the day (albeit inferior) soon. 
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