A friend just sent me this article, which details the Bay Area trend of selling/having succulents in cafes, and of selling coffee in succulent shops.  My favorite example of this is Flora Grubb, where there's a Ritual Roasters coffee shop conveniently located inside.  (Because, seriously, why would you ever leave Flora Grubb?  Only to get coffee.  Now you never have to leave!) 

In my unsecret fantasy life, I own a succulent nursery that propagates its own stock and brews its own, high-quality pour-over coffee.  High-quality coffee free with any purchase.  Oh yeah--and it's also a used bookstore.  And a dog rescue sanctuary.  And there are chickens.  Now I just need an independently wealthy investor and about 50 more hours in every week...

Have you noticed the coffee + succulents trend, dear readers?  What's your favorite beverage--or other thing--to combine with succulents?

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?

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.

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:

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!

And sempervivums (doesn't it seem like it should be "semperviva?") abounded:

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.

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.

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:

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!

Yesterday, my girlfriend, a couple of friends, and I went to the San Francisco Flower and Garden Show in San Mateo.  And I have to be totally honest, succ-ers: I was a little underwhelmed.  Not because there weren't a lot of plants there (there were), and not because the display gardens weren't great (they were), but mainly because there was so dang much for sale that had only peripherally to do with gardening.  At times, it felt like more one of those outdoor "festivals" where people sell various wares at small booths.  Items for sale included BBQs, freestanding hot tubs, bar soap, and paintings (not of plants, nor gardens) on silk.

All of which is *not*, by any means, to disparage the show or the folks who were selling things there.  I was just expecting more plants--well, let's be honest--more succulents.  And to be fair, my visit did not coincide with the succulent-relevant seminars held by succulent luminaries such as Debra Lee Baldwin and Robin Stockwell, and I'm sure those were terrific.

A few highlights.  Agave attenuata "Kara's Stripe" was featured in the "hot plants" room.  Judging from the array there, I understood "hot" to mean "newly popular" rather than "best for hot climates."  And there were a lot of gorgeous bonsais there, too, several of which were many decades old, and truly amazing.

Succulent Gardens was one of only two succulent-specific vendors present, and they had a predictably terrific array of plants and books.  In addition to picking up a few plants such as the unnamed euphorbia pictured, right (which I would have sworn was a hoodia, but there were a bunch of them, all labeled "Euphorbia sp.," which just goes to show that I still have a lot left to learn).  I also had a chance to say hello to the lovely Tiffany Polli, the SG Retail Manager, knows a great deal about succulents and has a wonderful sense of humor to boot.  At last year's show, Succulent Gardens displayed the famous globe.

The other mostly-or-solely-cactus-and-succulent purveyor, Sticky Situation, was new to me, and had come all the way from Tucson, Arizona to show their wares.  I picked up two very cool gymnocalyciums from them a g. mesopotamicum (cresting!) and a g. friedriechii.  Check out that amazing purple color!

Sticky Situation also had the most drool-worthy plant I saw at the whole event: a huge crested myrtillocactus geometrizans (pictured below).  Hmm...  My birthday's coming up in a couple of months...  anyone wondering what to get me?  Look no further!

There was a smattering of other cool succulent-related stuff (check out the succulent display wall below, for example) but for the most part, I think I'm going to need to keep an eye out for cactus and succulent shows, since they're probably more likely to have the kinds of plants and pots in which I'm most interested.

My girlfriend and I took a trip to Sonora over Valentine's Day weekend.  In addition to binge-watching "House of Cards," hiking at Glory Hole, and drinking marvelous tea, we ventured to a place called K&L Cactus.  I had no idea what to expect, but my girlfriend gamely agreed to drive an hour out of our way to middle-of-nowhere Ione, CA.

Oh my gosh.  It was SO worth the trip.  K&L Cactus consists of two enormous greenhouses positively bursting with incredible plants.  K&L's proprietor, Lorraine (pictured below in one of her greenhouses; I'm the one on the right), is not only a very kind, interesting, and cool person, but is stunningly knowledgeable about succulents and cacti.  She talked patiently with me as I peppered her with questions and wandered slowly through her beautiful greenhouses.

I've been to a lot of succulent and cactus places, and K&L is easily in my top two or three.  If you prefer the meticulous labeling, easy-to-read pricing, and impeccable organization of a place like Flora Grubb, K&L might not be for you.  But if you're like me and love a sprawling jungle of a nursery every bit as much, you've got to make the pilgrimage to K&L.  It's easily worth the trip just to meet Lorraine! 

I spent so long in the greenhouses that my girlfriend eventually retreated to the car with the dog and played games on her iPhone (talk about a good sport...).  But before she did, she unleashed her formidable photography skills on K&L.  The pictures in this post were all taken by her.  Enjoy the eye candy!

My only regret is that, starving grad student that I am, I couldn't afford to spend more money there!  Still, I took home several goodies, and I'm hoping this post will throw some more business Lorraine's way.  I know I have a lot of readers in the Davis/Sacramento area, and Ione is only an hour away from you.  Call K&L and set up an appointment to visit--it's well worth it!

This weekend, we had the pleasure of joining my parents at the lovely Lone Pine Gardens in Sebastopol, CA.  Primarily a wholesale nursery, Lone Pine is open to the public Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays.  It's worth a pilgrimage.  The owners are terrifically knowledgeable, and the nursery always has a magnificent selection.  I also like wandering around the growing grounds--and my favorite part is probably the trays full of different kinds of semps.  Seeing one kind of sempervivum en masse is always a treat:

Lone Pine also has some lovely bonsai.  Many of these are traditional-looking bonsai, but the bonsai area also featured these gorgeous, tiny semps in a little dish:

Admittedly, I went seeking some unusual types of crassula, and found nothing on that score this visit.  However, I didn't leave empty-handed!  In an admirable exercise of self-restraint, I took home only three plants: