Baja: Glad to hear you have gotten some of the rain of the last few days. I wondered if you did when I saw on the news where it was. Only about 10 minute shower here in my area, but I am happy for you!
Here's my beautiful Aloe cryptopoda with its fall coloring.
What a lovely color of purple. And how unlike my plant, which is currently brown. :( We'll have to see what it looks like in a few days.
Here are some aloes with fall stress highlights and a Euphorbia which tends to flower this time of year.
Ah the Euphobia! Gotta love this time of year.
That plant was not very happy when I got it, now it seems to have recovered.
Here are some "after" pictures of the same three aloes... lots of plants out there are looking different after less than half an inch of rain.
Here's what I meant when I predicted the Dudleya would branch... pretty awesome how the mealy bugs did this favor for me. :)
Love your colorful plants Baja! I have a Euphorbia like that but lost about half of it this summer. I still have one piece going strong so I hope it will flower soon again. We got almost an inch of rain here in Phoenix a few days ago. All my succulents got watered. I hope it doesn't get too cold. I know I will lose some if it does. Rain and cold--most hate it this time of year!
We're due for more rain on Friday... just about perfect timing, here anyway. Do you have an overhang you can move your plants under when you don't want them to get wet?
Pictured: two agaves in the ground before and a few days after the half inch of rain we got last week.
Mother Nature does have a glorious impact.
Baja: It is supposed to rain here Friday too. Yesterday I moved all my cactus under my porch because the rain from last time is enough at this time of year. I'm afraid they will rot, especially being in pots! I left all my aloes and agaves in pots out where they can get wet. Here are all the cactus on my porch!
Wow, and those are just the cacti. From a distance the tall plant in the third picture looks a little like our Bergerocactus (grows around here).
I just finished moving all the plants out into the rain, including the dormant ones. The timing is perfect, otherwise they would get some protection. The only things left under an overhang are a few cuttings that haven't started growing roots yet.
Here's the first flower I've seen on this Pachypodium (a little odd in December but I'll take it any time of year). In the background you can see an Alluaudia that I beheaded back in the spring, now has two heads.
The tall one is actually an Echinopsis cutting from original in the ground plant that blooms like this each spring:
Wow, those flowers are spectacular.
Another before and after, and a Dudleya in its natural element.
To NancySLAZ, re the pix you posted on this thread of the reddish Echinopsis..............
I recently purchased (I think) this plant, in flower, but NoID.
I had the misfortune that the plant in pot tumbled over as I transported it home, sadly knocking off the flower.
I attach pictures of the resulting damage, with the bloom in an eggcup where it subsequently fully opened.
Would you mind giving your thoughts on whether / what E. it might be. Many thanks.
Nancy! How gorgeous! What a happy, festive color!
Drawling, really cool that the bloom persevered despite the tumble! Lovely color.
Happy Mamms in the sun!
Drawling: I wish I could tell you more about your plant but, I really can't. Yes, I believe it is an Echinopsis for sure, but, which one? There are so many varieties available today that one needs to be an expert to tell which it is ... and expert I'm not! I don't even know which one my red one is!
Hi Nancy, thanks anyway, lol .
I will pore over LLIFLE files, ( there are thousands) in the hope I can narrow things down somewhat, (from the 700+ Echinopsis listed).
Hope mine flowers as brilliantly as your's, in due course.
Here is a recent pix of my Echinocereus pentalophus in flower.
I love the flowers on Echinocereus pentalophus! I have one too but it is in the ground under a citrus tree and has not bloomed. Maybe there is too much shade but it is a real trick here in Phoenix to get enough sun, but not burn the plants. I took a couple of cuttings from mine and I will grow in a pot and find the right place for flowering. I'm determined!
Yes, Nancy, we too have challenges with our summer sun, and the UV which often exceeds 14 on scale, under our 3 months of blue skies. This, plus the fact that in ground(?) plants need mulching as the soil on our coastal plain is just sand, built up as best we can, thus any watering can soak away in just a few hours, apart from evaporation.
Another problem with our "no options" garden location, is it's winter aspect has it behind a 6ft wall with only sky light, not direct sun. Plants have to be shuffled around for best growing, somewhat like in more extreme climates, where plants come indoors, which we do with the least hardy.
Good luck with getting your E. pentalophus to flower!
nb. The month of December here has produced zero rainfall.
Your garden is beautiful (options or not) and the plants look like they are really thriving. We have a few things in common (dry summers, walls generating shade, sandy soil).
Our soil is mostly rock, and the rest is mostly sand. Depending on the location it is almost all sand. The situation can be really rough for some plants, even with some organic material mixed in. On top of that they're on a south-facing slope so whatever water they do receive tends to go away pretty fast. I had to find out the hard way which ones were tough enough to handle it. The agaves have turned out to be real winners.
About half of my patio plants are shaded in the morning by a wall and in the afternoon by the house, leaving a window of maybe 2-6 hours of midday sun in the summer and 0-2 hours of sun in the winter, depending on the location. It is not ideal. There is quite a bit of juggling required to get plants out of too much summer sun (I move them down a floor so the wall becomes effectively twice as high) or out of the winter dark zone (I move them away from the wall). It took quite a bit of observation before I finally figured out what was happening and where the sweet spots were.
The aloe in the photo is growing on that slope and doing pretty well with minimal attention. This (winter photo) is about as green as it ever gets.
What I posted was approximately 50% of the "garden",the other 50% is largely under mid-sized shrubs, plus another 25 or so cactus and succulents on a first-floor veranda on the East side of our apartment.(we live on a retirement estate, near an estuary, only about 30ft above msl)
Yes, my garden is mostly happy, though I lost a few plants thru' a cold wet snap last winter, including a couple of Adenium obesum and a Haagerocereus which rotted at ground level, but which I hope I've saved by cutting above the rot, drying out to heal, and replanting carefully supported. I'm not game to move it, possibly displacing any new roots, but after 2 months it is looking quite healthy...........time will tell.
Have just been delighted to have my Selenicereus G. produce her first two flowers, almost 12ins across, lasting barely 12 hours before wilting in the hot morning sun. Other cacti and succulents provide a year-round display of flowers, large and small, one of the joys of collecting these plants.
I have assessed our geographical location as equivalent to USDA Zone 10a / b.
Baja: Your aloe looks like A. dorotheae. Love the red color.
Drawling: You have a wonderful garden. It is such a joy to see. We had frost here for about 5 days last week but I covered everything and most stuff was unaffected, except the Pachys which froze on top even covered.
Here in the suburbs of Phoenix we are in zone 9 a/b. It is very dry all year and the soil is okay because it was farmed before this housing development was put on it.
I have many plants in pots and I'm always moving them around trying to find the best spots depending on where the sun is. My back garden wall faces north and has no sun in the winter and full afternoon sun in summer. Ugh!
I doubt this counts as a "Fall" garden shot but here it is. I put these Christmas gifts, given to my mother, in the ground in early August. I moved a large potted Palm in front of them for shade. The soil on her patio is terrible. Clumpy clay... I live 2 zones North, so their fate was precarious at best.
Just got back from a short jaunt South. They took and did their thing despite complete neglect! It was such a delight to see this time of year when gardening in MY zone doesn't feel quite so rewarding!
Felt like success to me! Yay!
I don't recognize the plants in that picture. What are they? One has to celebrate all the successes, especially the ones against adversity. The red flowers are very pretty.
Poinsettias! I apologize! There were a few green bracts but not many.
Just hadn't posted for a while and thought my recent experience was cool.
