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Saturday, June 5, 2010

I'M REALLY POTTY

As children we often referred to someone as being a "bit potty" if they did a silly thing. Who would have thought that I would be still be potty in my later years. My growing collection of potted plants is to what I am now referring .

Most of these potted plants are tender succulents and cactus and I am finding they cannot tolerate this brutal Texas heat without some protection. That protection turns out to be the hearth of the outside fireplace.

Here they receive just a few hours of sun in the morning. It seems to suit them quite nicely.

A large cactus and succulent bowl with urns of Agave desmettiana and Mangave 'macho mocha' a passalong from Pam, Digging. In fact many of my plants are passalongs; small offsets pups, root cuttings, leaves, even bare stems which, potted up in my favorite media, pumice, root in no time at all. The agaves have just started putting on new and healthy growth after suffering terribly this winter. They were in pots in the greenhouse where temperatures plummeted to the same as outdoors. I trimmed off the black ends of the leaves and new leaves and pups are on the way.

This large agave fared better because it was in the garage for the winter. Strangely, it has made no pups. Agave demettiana does better when it is located in filtered shade or afternoon shade.

Two of my favorites are these rectangular clay pots.

and this strawberry pot which was a gift from one of the boys many years ago. It sits on the center of the dinner table outside. These haworthia are planted in the holes and are currently in bloom. Not an exciting flower but you can't help but love the twisting nature of the stems, along which the flowers are arranged.

Remind me again Diana, Sharing Nature's Garden, the name of this passalong plant. It is on the front gate, receives no sun at all. I think you told me it was an epiphyte of some kind. It struggled for a few weeks because every night a bird came and rooted out the smaller plants so it could roost there for the night. It seems to have weathered that intrusion, although the one at the front is going to win the race.

Another collection of cacti and succulents has replaced the gorgeous agave which is no longer!

Huernia schneideriane, on the green wall. Maybe a little too much sun this year.

Already in flower. This flower does not have an unpleasant smell.

And not all pots have plants. This one holds my collection of beach finds among which are hundreds of fossilized sharks teeth I gleaned from the beaches of Siesta Key in Florida. As the collection followed us from town to town I finally found something to do with them. Put a piece of glass on the top and you have a table.

13 comments:

  1. Your succulents are gorgeous! I have a weak spot for the succulents that leans towards addiction! Mine tend to do well on my back patio that gets the afternoon sun...hoping that we don't have another record breaking summer in San Antonio again.

    Have a great day!
    Mandy

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  2. Hi there!!! I wanted to come by and tell you the name of my succulent plant in the strawberry pot. It is a Kalanchoe Diagremontiana (hopefully I spelled it correctly here), commonly called Mother of Millions. It is my fav plant of all times. Thanks for coming by today!

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  3. Potty people are my kind of people! I love all your pots but my favorite are the haworthia in the strawberry pot. My single plant bloomed for the first time this year with that same wavy stem. I like the idea of several in one pot with the stems going all which way like yours. Thanks for the inspiration!

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  4. Mandy- If I ever give up an out door garden I think I will turn my attention to succulents. As you talk about having yours in afternoon sun I wonder if mine could do with a little more exposure. My concern would be that they might get too much rain.
    Julie- Thanks for the name of the succulent. If you look in the second photo you will see I have this plant but the one I am wondering about is the one in front of that which is also a kalanchoe, but different. The leaf is fatter. Maybe the same plant but I'm not sure.
    Caroline- It is fun when it sends out so many blooms. There are some very strange looking succulents out there!

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  5. What a gorgeous collection of pots and succulents! One of the most stunningly designed home gardens I ever saw in California was a fairly steep front yard comprised mainly of succulents. I just loved looking at all the shapes and forms.

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  6. Ruth- Thanks Ruth. I once lived in Southern California and I did garden but in those days succulents just weren't in. Now they are everywhere. What I wouldn't give for a few years of gardening back there.
    Ruth- Oh well, at least your pot came in handy as a new home for a toad. What more could you ask. These pots aren't even frost proof here, nor are many of these plants. They mostly go inside for the winter and only get to peak at the morning sun in the summer. Too brutal- ah for the California climate. Cool nights make a big difference. LAst night the low was in the 70s. No more tomatoes setting fruit.

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  7. Oh, definitely keep being potty! They are gorgeous. And as I learned this week, the young divisions really do need that shelter from sun that you're providing. As always, you have a beautiful eye for arrangement, not "potty" at all!

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  8. They are all so lovely -- you are inspiring me to make better use of the pots I have in the shed. Time for some more succulents! I do have a few -- you know, I have not once taken a picture of them? What a terrible garden blogger I am, to have neglected them so, photo wise. Remedy soon!

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  9. I love them all, Jenny! Such a happy lot and I would never have guessed that there plants need shade, thinking they were all desert types. I love the wild reaching stems of the Haworthia, a plant we had when in The Woodlands. We brought it to TN with us, but the weather was just not to its liking, sadly. Your Mangave is a wonder of nature, how sweet of Pam, and Diana. :-)
    Frances

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  10. Linda-The older I get the pottier I get!
    Meredith- I picked up some clay pots at a garage sale last week. They tend to go better with the stucco than colorful pots.
    Faire garden- I'm sure they would do OK in morning sun but it has been so hot here recently I am giving them a break. The Haworthia flowers are not terribly inspiring, are the, but they make up for that by their twisting nature. What would we do without plant swap?

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  11. I think your passalong plant is a callisia fragens. I have one but the leaves are a little lighter. Got it for $1 a a Master Gardener sale.

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  12. What a great collection you have, Jenny- and they look perfect by the outdoor fireplace. I've gone a little potty too - the succulents seem to enjoy being on the table under a patio umbrella, which surprised me.

    Do you think the broader-leaved plant could be a Donkey Ear Kalanchoe? (Kalanchoe gastonis-bonnieri)

    If you find out what Diana's plant is called, please clue me in because she gave me one, too ;-]

    Annie at the Transplantable Rose

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  13. Siesta sister identified it as Calisia fragrens. Diana mentioned Dutchman's pipe but I read somewhere it is sometimes known as grandfather's pipe. I have mine in a place where it gets no sun so hope it takes on the purple color. Can be invasive.

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